Le Croisic

Le Croisic
Ar Groazig
Commune
La côte sauvage

Coat of arms
Le Croisic
Location within Pays de la Loire region
Le Croisic
Coordinates: 47°17′38″N 2°30′33″W / 47.2939°N 2.5092°W / 47.2939; -2.5092Coordinates: 47°17′38″N 2°30′33″W / 47.2939°N 2.5092°W / 47.2939; -2.5092
Country France
Region Pays de la Loire
Department Loire-Atlantique
Arrondissement Saint-Nazaire
Canton La Baule-Escoublac
Intercommunality Cap Atlantique
Government
 • Mayor (2008–2014) Michèle Quellard
Area1 4.5 km2 (1.7 sq mi)
Population (2006[1])2 4,121
 • Density 920/km2 (2,400/sq mi)
 • Urban 70,248
Demonym(s) Croisicais, Croisicaise
Time zone UTC+1 (CET)
 • Summer (DST) UTC+2 (CEST)
INSEE/Postal code 44049 /44490
Elevation 0–20 m (0–66 ft)
(avg. 5 m or 16 ft)
Website http://www.lecroisic.fr/

1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km2 (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.

2 Population without double counting: residents of multiple communes (e.g., students and military personnel) only counted once.

Le Croisic (Breton: Ar Groazig), is a commune in the Loire-Atlantique department in western France. The United States Navy established a naval air station on 27 November 1917 to operate seaplanes during World War I. The base closed shortly after the First Armistice at Compiègne.[2] The writer and historian Auguste Lorieux (1796–1842) was born in Le Croisic.

During World War II, Le Croisic was home to a radar station for the Wehrmacht following the surrender of France and construction of the U-boat submarine pens at Saint-Nazaire, in order to protect the Loire estuary from enemy attack due to the Normandie dry dock at Saint-Nazaire that could be used to repair the large Kriegsmarine battleships such as the Bismarck and its sister ship, Tirpitz. However, in the March 1942 St Nazaire Raid, a British Commando team on the obsolete HMS Campbeltown and several motor launch boats were able to slip by the Le Croisic radar station and ram Campbeltown into the Normandie dry dock gate, before sabotaging other vital parts to the dry dock. Delayed action explosives on Campbeltown went off several hours after the night raid, destroying the dry dock gate and putting it out of commission until after WWII was over, with France liberated and Nazi Germany having surrendered to the Allied Powers.[3]

See also

References

  1. ↑ données officielles 2006 sur le site de l’INSEE
  2. ↑ Van Wyen, Adrian O. (1969). Naval Aviation in World War I. Washington, D.C.: Chief of Naval Operations. p. 45.
  3. ↑ WWII's Greatest Raids - Commando Do or Die, American Heroes Channel
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