ISBN 0-275-98133-9
xxii + 196 pages

Preface; Acknowledgments; Introduction; photos; maps; Bibliography; Index; About the Author

   Randolph Bradham served as a young sergeant with the American 66th Infantry Division in Brittany. After the war he practiced medicine in South Carolina for forty years and upon retirement began the process of researching and writing this book. Despite having served with the infantry in the region he covers here, Bradham writes not a memoir but rather a much more ambitious history of the ports of Lorient and St. Nazaire—and, to a certain extent, all of Brittany—during the course of World War II. The topic is ripe for a serious account, with no books (at least in English) covering that portion of the war as a unified whole: the construction and operation of the U-boat bases, the Allied bombing campaign against the submarine pens, the commando raid, and the lengthy sieges lasting until the surrender of Germany in 1945.
   Unfortunately, the author doesn't seem to be entirely up to the task. While he has certainly lined up all the salient facts and teased out some obscure aspects of the war in Lorient and St. Nazaire, writing appears to be a skill as yet unhoned by Bradham. His heart is in the right place, but his pen (or word processor) can't quite take the writing beyond a clumsy, amateurish level. Hitler's U-Boat Fortresses contains more wince-inducing sentences than any book we've reviewed in years. Worse, partly because of atrocious copy editing, the author seems constantly on the edge of factual errors, such as defining the Organization Todt as merely "a large German construction company," writing "armed doors" for "armored doors," "Denang" for "Penang," "crypt analysis" for "cryptanalysis," and referring to an Ost unit as "Russian mercenaries."
   To his credit, Bradham presents numerous fresh reports from those who experienced the war in Brittany, many of them French civilians, maquisards, and soldiers. He also covers some ground seldom visited, such as operations of French units in Brittany in 1944 and 1945. (This account doesn't extend to French operations farther south at La Rochelle, where another German garrison also held out until the end of the war.) Unfortunately, the most interesting and unusual parts of the book tend to be tucked away between longer sections already covered in book after book. For example, in the first chapter Bradham devotes several uninvigorated pages to early U-boat operations. The same chapter includes a section headed "Aerial Bombardment" with four pages of text, none of which mention bombing except in passing.
   In the next chapter, the author writes about construction of the submarine pens in St. Nazaire and Lorient. This is the same sort of material readily available with better organization and greater detail in many other books devoted exclusively to that topic. Again, the RAF bombing campaign is barely mentioned, with the raids in 1941 reduced to two brief paragraphs, one of them noting how "English planes" hit the shipyards in St. Nazaire and damaged "the sheet and metal supply." The third chapter, "1942," is devoted almost wholly to Operation Chariot, the British commando raid on the Normandie dock. The chapter closes with the heading "Evacuation, Bombardments, and U-Boats" and two pages of text which seem a little confusing and a little inaccurate.

   Shortly after the violent raid by the commandos on April 12, 1942, permission was requested and granted to evacuate 1,500 civilians of Old St. Nazaire who were being held at a race course. They departed with few possessions. Schoolchildren were evacuated to Chenaire for the boys and Metaire for the girls; both being in the region of Nantes.
   Bombardments occurred on April 15 and 16 at St. Nazaire that killed 19 people and damaged 650 homes. On April 20, 1942, the headquarters for the Legion of French Volunteers Against the Bolsheviks (LVH), a collaborationist organization that recruited Russian soldiers from the Eastern front to fight for the Germans, was destroyed with explosives. The Germans attempted to take hostage 20 prominent Nazariens, but 9 of them escaped. The incarcerated 11 hostages were released two days later.
   Multiple bombardments occurred in May 1942. London broadcast to the French to evacuate, because more intense bombing was planned. Fifty children were sent to Switzerland and others to Algeria and Tunisia. The worst bombardments that St. Nazaire was to experience occurred on November 9, 10, 14, and 17, 1942. At this time, school officials decided to close the schools still attended by 1,200 students.
   On November 9, 1942, high-flying planes came over in daylight. It was the Americans bombing St. Nazaire for the first time. A second and third wave dropped bombs, and in final analysis, 186 people were killed, including 150 shipyard workers. The whole city, as well as some of the Germans, turned out for their funerals.
   The next day the bombers returned and hit the shipyard and railways, leaving 8 people dead and 15 wounded. On November 17, two waves of bombers severely punished the town, killing 78 people and wounding 200. The surgeons of the hospital worked 48 hours without stopping. Some of the casualties had to be transferred elsewhere for treatment.

   Although tangential to Bradham's topic, the so-called "Legion of French Volunteers Against the Bolsheviks (LVH)" was actually "Legion des Volontaires Francais contre le Bolchevisme (LVF)" and, rather than recruiting "Russian soldiers from the Eastern front to fight for the Germans," the LVF actually recruited Frenchmen to fight under German colors against the Soviets. See, for example, Gordon, Ousby, Paxton, and Rikmenspoel.
   Chapter Four advances the scene to 1943 and looks first at more bombing raids, including the raid of 28 February by three hundred B-17s which demolished much of St. Nazaire without doing much damage to the submarine pens. The chapter goes on to discuss the declining fortunes of the U-boat campaign and the growth of the French Forces of the Interior in Brittany.
   Having expended a third of his book on the first years of the war, Bradham devotes the remainder of his work to the final eighteen months of the war in Europe. Chapter Five opens with twelve pages about the Army Specialized Training Program—college education before service overseas for qualified candidates—because "...the 66th, 83rd, and 94th Infantry Divisions, major participants in the ground war at St. Nazaire and Lorient, were ASTP and air force cadet divisions." (The author also apparently participated in ASTP.) The same chapter closes with an account of a battle between FFI forces and German troops at La Nouette immediately after the D-Day landings.
   When Patton's Third Army began to charge out of Normandy in the summer of 1944, some units turned to the east while others moved into Brittany to secure the important ports there. Brest was soon captured, but not Lorient or St. Nazaire. Instead, due to heavy losses sustained in the attack on Brest and the apparent strength of German defenses at the U-boat bases, the cities would only be contained, it was decided, with a minimum of Allied troops. Bradham traces the movement of Patton's units into Brittany, the initial probes against Lorient, German reaction, and the relief of Patton's armor and the 83rd Infantry Division by the newly arrived 94th Infantry Division in September. FFI forces were also growing rapidly and adding their weight to the Allied presence on the ground.
   The book devotes several pages to FFI operations in Brittany, a topic not often covered in English, and Bradham utilizes a variety of firsthand French accounts to help describe how the locally raised forces played an important role in containing the German fortresses. Bradham devotes considerably more space to the sinking of the SS Leopoldville off Cherbourg by U-486 on Christmas Eve in 1944. The Leopoldville had on board over 2000 men of the 66th Infantry Division, of whom over 800 lost their lives. The division was consequently "...short approximately 3,000 men due to the deaths, wounds, and illness associated with the sinking." This account of the sinking sheds no light on the division's intended destination—many of the men originally assumed they were on the way to participate in the Battle of the Bulge, to which Bradham simply says "...to this day that remains questionable"—but in any event, with such heavy losses the 66th was soon earmarked to relieve the 94th Division in the static positions at Lorient and St. Nazaire. In fact, in the final pages of the book Bradham belatedly reports that prior to the Leopoldville's loss the CO of the 66th was already in Brittany conferring with the staff of the 94th about relief of the latter division, so the author's earlier remarks seem a bit disingenuous.
   The last chapter of the book follows the 66th Division and the twin sieges until the end of the war.

   During the last days of December 1944, the 66th Infantry Division, recently devastated by the loss of many comrades, was undaunted and focused on the job ahead. The 66th relieved the 94th Division at the Lorient and St. Nazaire pockets quickly and efficiently. The transition was completed by January 1, 1945. The 66th Division had been brought to England in November and trained there several weeks in and around Dorchester. On December 23, around midday, orders were given to pack up and get ready to move out of camp and on to Southampton for the trip across the Channel. Most thought the Division was headed for "The Bulge," but to this day that remains questionable. The immediate events thereafter have been recorded. The division quickly regrouped at St. Jacques Airport in Rennes, France, in extremely cold weather and began moving to the St. Nazaire and Lorient pockets by truck. Many of the men who were plucked from the frigid waters of the Channel found themselves entering combat several days later. Many others were still in hospitals in France and England, some of whom rejoined their companies following recovery. It was ironic that they were pitted against the Germans who were defending the submarine bases from which the U-boat that sank their ship was probably based. [Actually, U-486 was based in Norway with the 11th Flotilla. See Kenneth Wynn.]
   The situation that existed at St. Nazaire and Lorient when the 66th began to relieve the 94th during late December was a fairly static line, with both sides firmly entrenched in dugouts, foxholes, and bunkers—all of which were well fortified and protected by mines and booby traps. Both sides had formidable artillery units with many targets zeroed in, resulting in rapid delivery of fire when called for. The use of tanks was uncommon. Firefights and artillery duels were frequent. The St. Nazaire pocket spanned the mouth of the Loire River. When the 66th Division took over, there were some 28,000 Germans contained there who fought bitterly to protect the 14 submarine pens located there. They were commanded by General Werner Junck, who had supplied the port with large quantities of food, water, gasoline, and ammunition. Formidable reinforced concrete pillboxes had been built and extensive mine fields defended the pocket's perimeter. Hundreds of artillery pieces remained operational, although they had been used extensively against the prior divisions on that sector. The area defended was approximately 683 square miles and still contained 120,000 civilians.
   Lorient had been more or less reduced to rubble. Although most of the civilian population evacuated as the bombing began in 1940, there remained 9,000 civilians. Approximately 22,000 Germans defended the city, which contained three newly constructed submarine pens. The area defended was 101 square miles. Lt. General Wilhelm Fahrmbacher, a 57-year-old artillery officer, remained as the commander of the Lorient garrison.
   In addition, the Quiberon Peninsula, located between the two major pockets, was occupied with a battery of 340 mm cannon capable of firing a 700-pound shell 21 miles. These guns guarded the entrances to Lorient and St. Nazaire harbors, controlling the Gulf of Morbihan. Belle Isle and Ile de Groix were occupied islands off the coast with small civilian and German populations. Belle Isle had 3,000 civilians and Ile de Groix had 2,100. The German artillery units there helped guard the entrances to the ports. Toward the end of the war, a threatened breakout from Ile de Groix was silenced.
   All of these garrisons continued to be well supplied by ships, U-boats, and planes. The U-boats remained operational and secured supplies from Spanish vessels and ports. Some war manufacturing continued in the sub pens—ammunition, cannon, and electric motors.

   Bradham misses the mark about the basing of U-486 and, more generally, when he says "[t]he U-boats remained operational...." According to Gunter Hessler's thoroughly documented work, The U-Boat War in the Atlantic, all sea-worthy U-boats based in Brittany transferred to La Pallice and Bordeaux during August 1944, and the last operational U-boat based on the Bay of Biscay departed for Norway on 23 September.
   After those introductory paragraphs, the 66th Division's story mostly comes in the form of snippets from veterans who served there. Bradham includes much talk about the German "88 millimeter cannon." According to these tales, it was "reputed to be aimed much like a rifle" and 88s were known to pick off individual GIs, including one who was killed when the Germans "picked up the reflection of his mess gear in the sun." Another soldier reported coming under fire from an 88, and "it was his opinion that the Germans actually bore-sighted the gun and fired directly at him, as one would fire a rifle." The chapter goes on to describe a multitude of incidents, mostly involving patrols and ambushes by both sides. One GI escaped a German raid by climbing inside a chimney and bracing himself there until the enemy departed. One company clerk was washing his socks in his helmet until called to see the CO; when he stepped away, artillery fire exploded where he had been doing his laundry. A radioman was relieved of his duties when it was discovered he was only fifteen years old.
   In March 1945 the recently activated American Fifteenth Army assumed control of the 66th Division and all French troops along the Atlantic coast, far to the rear of the main front. Although not identified until the very end of the book, the French forces comprised the 19th Infantry Division (formed in September 1944) and 25th Infantry Division (formed seven months later). In April the US 106th Infantry Division, mauled in the Battle of the Bulge, joined the besieging forces. Later in the month the Allies stepped up attacks "...with the intent of intimidating the Germans in an effort to coerce surrender" but to no avail. It was not until 8 May, the day after Germany's unconditional surrender, that representatives of the German command in Brittany met with American officers to discuss terms. A cease-fire began that afternoon, with the official surrender on 10 May. Allied troops moved into the long-suffering cities the next day to conduct formal ceremonies.
   So ends Hitler's U-Boat Fortresses and almost five years of war in Brittany.
   Even with the best intentions and a worthwhile topic, Bradham has produced a disappointing book. He simply proves unable to write consistently readable paragraphs, avoid constant minor errors, and provide sufficient compelling material. As a consequence, despite our conviction that every WWII-related book will find some kind of audience, tackling this one won't be a worthwhile endeavor for many readers. We're eternally grateful to our dwindling ranks of WWII veterans, including Randolph Bradham, but we can't always recommend their books.
   Available from online booksellers, local bookshops, or directly from Greenwood-Praeger.
   Thanks to Greenwood Press and Praeger Publishers for providing this review copy.