Dora I & Dora II
Bomber command had campaigns to attack U-Boat pens on the Atlantic coast . The pens at Trondhiem escaped relatively unscathed .
Suspected Bomb damage on Dora II |
Like an Egyptian temple Dora II towers above its surroundings |
The fence around is to keep people away because its slowly falling apart . |
Dora I was small for a submarine pen hence the commencement of Dora II . The word small though is reletive.
Its HUGE .
Its 153m long 105m wide and there is more underground than above ground . Think of an oversized by a half football pitch with concrete poured upto the hight of the tallest of floodlights , thats how huge the building is !
view of the entrance to the pens |
Attacks on these two Pens were sporadic and ineffective . I have found only two reported major attacks .
The first major attack was on the 23rd July 1943 not long after DoraI came into service . Only very light damage was inflicted .
The second on either 12th or the 22nd November 1944 (there are two reports quoting different dates,which both suffered due to lack of visibility) .
One of these reports quotes bad weather for the aborted attack the other good use of smoke screen due to local experience with having to defend the Tirpitz which was moored near- by for a while .
Two Lancasters and a Mosquito were lost during these raids with little damage being caused .
It seems that many smaller attacks took place on Trondhiem , the port facilities and pens but only minor damage was ever inflicted to the pens.
Looking into a pen . the round columns are new and hold up the present day interior to Dora I |
A shot of Dora I just after the war |
Kapitans eye view . This is the view any Kapitan leaving the pens would have had from his conning tower |
The building behind is the Dahl brewery ...quite decent beer for Norway |
Its from HNoMS ULA S300 , a 207 Kobben class submarine that served the Norwegian navy from 1965 to 1990 . In 1987 this boats name was changed from ULA to KINN .
It was one of 15 207 Kobben class submarines commissioned by the Norwegian navy and built in Emden ,Germany .
Blast doors .
The Dora I pen had blast doors 30mm thick to protect it from bombing . In the shot above can be seen a gantry with Blast doors that perhaps covered doors and windows into the bunker .
To the left a shot of a part of one of the blast doors for the pen U-boat entrances themselves ....now used as a place to mount an info panel .
Leaning against the building can be seen other segments of the huge blast doors .
The roof itself was made from re-enforced concrete 3.8m thick , the walls of the same up to 2.5m thick .
The energy consumption for the Pens was immense ....just imagine how much power would be needed to shut the blast doors for instance . The ever pragmatic Germans built a power station between Dora I and Dora II which still stands today (see pic below) . No longer a power station it contains a Jujitsu club within its walls ...a different kind of power :-)
Paul these are fascinating photos. They do look immense, just like ancient Egyptian pylons!
ReplyDeleteAlthough you are probably not one to appreciate early 90s German techno (it is an acquired taste) the scenes at the start of this video from the movie Das Boot were shot at pens at La Rochelle - La Pallice in France.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nwc0shJ2aYc
Sorry, Clickable link for Das Boot.
ReplyDeleteThanks Ian , there is always the sound off button :-) Its good to see a snippet from Daz Boot though ....one of the more realistic war films i think .
ReplyDeleteThat's superb mate, a megalith indeed, I'm a bit more than envious of you getting to look around there.
ReplyDeleteDas Boot; belting film.
Thanks Al , apparently part of it is used as the national records office and if anyone turns up during office hours wanting a look around inside they fall over to let you look and give an escorted tour around the remaining bits .....it was shut when we had chance to look .
ReplyDelete