Tréguennec

Tréguennec is a common bordering of the Baie of Audierne, department of the Finistere, in the area Brittany, in France.

Monuments

With the locality of rear Prat Hastel is an enormous wall of 2 meter thickness on 150 meters. They are the vestiges of " the factory with galets" , built in 1943, which manufactured the gravel for most of the Atlantic Wall. To these vestiges the ruins of the hoppers are added, of the buildings of the principal breaker and the bunkers. In the neighborhoods tobrouks are scattered, i.e. wells with mortars or machine-guns, and Blockhaus for Mg42.

This unit resembles a landing strip on a satellite photo

Inventory of fixtures

A dune, long cord 10 kilometers is located in the Baie of Audierne, between Penhors and the Pointe of the Torch. It was initially made of a cord of rollers, gravels and sand whose top bordered dimension +8,00 while dropping by place to dimension +7,00 compared to the zero of the sea charts of Penmarc' H. The width of the cord was of 50 meters. Well before the second world war, the brittleness of this sector had been recognized and an order of the prefect of March 1934 had prohibited any coastal extraction on the territory of the commune of Plovan.

In 1943, the Germans install a camp TODT in Tréguennec and carry out important extractions of rollers with an aim of providing construction materials for the Atlantic Wall. The bases underwater of Lorient was built with the rollers of Tréguennec.

The camp includes/understands a factory of storage and crushing of rollers defined as follows:

a building of crushing of 20m X 13m, on two floors, out of concrete and bricks. It comprises:

four silos of loading (always visible)
a gantry of overhead travelling crane
a vertical breaker with gyratory cylinder
three horizontal jaw breakers
various engines.

a silo with three compartments, 10m X 5,40m, 5 hoppers out of reinforced concrete (always visible) with:

an elevator with materials
a screening machine
an electrical motor.

a reinforced concrete solid mass for the loading, with 5 silos sifters (famous the always visible “wall”)

an isolated hopper, of wood (disappeared)

various huts and hangars out of bricks, wooden or sheet, which were used to shelter winches, transformers, tools various etc

Of the large stock:

a bulldozor Caterpillar, to reassemble the rollers towards the shovel
Two Weserhutte shovels, to charge the tip trucks
a loco Decauville
35 tip trucks with 0,75 m3 in good state
95 tip trucks of 0,75 m3 defective
a tractor BILLIARDS standard T 75D
a standard HENSCHEL Tractor 222

a series of metal trays intended for the screen of the rollers.

a way of railroad of 11,930 km, named “junction of Tréguennec”, connecting to the factory to a station, located on the plate of PEN-Enez close to Bridge the Abbot.

The extraction under the occupation

makes some, the extraction started in 1942 . On the dune cord, a shovel with cable WESERHUTTE, supplied with a bulldozor Caterpillar who reassembled the rollers towards it, filled up tip trucks. The latter, drawn by the loco DECAUVILLE, according to the railway of building site which went up beach until in top of the concrete wall. Top, they poured their contents in five filter hoppers. The smallest rollers, directly usable like construction materials, fell into coaches which waited in bottom. The others were stored for crushing. The extraction carried out under the occupation was about 50 m3 per current meter. The top of the dune cord appreciably did not drop but the influence of the dune was found reduced of 50 to less than 30 meters in certain points. A rapid calculation makes it possible to realize that 10 kilometers of dune cord on which 50 m3 per linear meter are taken, gives 500.000 m3 of rollers. An average mass of materials located at the neighborhoods of 1.5 poster a result which makes it possible to affirm that the total levy on the dune cord is around 750.000 tons

With the release

Quimper is released in August 44, Brest in September of the same year. the camp of Tréguennec is given up by the Germans. The installations are ransacked so much by the enemy than by the important flights at the time of the release. The camp is recovered by the government of the time. The stock of rollers left on the spot is considerable and the state of the installations is judged sufficient to allow few expenses to restart it in order to satisfy the needs considerable for the rebuilding. In Brest in particular, the repairing of the harbor works, completely demolished by the enemy, presents an emergency character for the vital needs of the country. It was impossible indeed to get the materials crushed necessary in the careers of the department, these last already not being able to provide for the needs for the building sites rails and roads. Other share, because of the presence of the stock left by the Germans on the site of Tréguennec, a considerable economy for the State can be realized, given that which this installation was to be used only until exhaustion of stock as rollers extracted by the occupant.

In January 45 , four companies are likely to be able to give the building site in activity:

Marc of Brest
Delhommeau de Candé in Maine and the Loire, installed on Quimper
Goarnisson of St Thégonnec
the French company of Vialit, of Paris

In October 45 , the project of market with the French company of Vialit is subjected to the ministry for the rebuilding. In same time Brest starts to miss materials. In Tréguennec, the repair work of the material, damaged by the Germans at the time of their departure, requires the use of a rather large quantity of ferrous metals, requiring to be covered by good-matter. Moreover, it is necessary to recover material coming from camp TODT, stored by the FFI at the private school of Plonéour-Lanvern and transported at the end of November 44 to the artillery park of Lanniron to Quimper. (winches, carpet, electrical motors, belts) In February 46 , the bill of quantities of the two reserves of rollers recovered on the dune cord during the occupation and left on the site of the camp of Tréguennec is established as follows:

rollers from 0,03 to 0,10: 90.700 m3
rollers from 0,01 to 0,06: 3.000m3

The survey of plan above shows the impressive reserves of rollers. The heaps are stretched towards the east to the departmental way. These reserves being laid out in such a way that the bunker located of high with dimensions of the camp can keep a maximum of visibility.

The period of rebuilding

In May 46 , the market is signed with the French company of Vialit. The exploitation of crushing of Tréguennec must produce an average day laborer of 150 tons fine gravels intended mainly the rebuilding of the port and town of Brest. Another part will be broken down on all the department in order to give the roadways in state. The exploitation is done only on the stock left on the spot by the Germans. The first official deliveries for Brest will take place during summer 46 at the station of Relecq - Kerhuon. During the same time, the company discovers shells of 77 and lower gauges not burst in the material heaps. The service of mine clearance dispatches two PGA provided with detectors, close to the mechanical shovel which carries out the loading. Some machines are located and removed before crushing. In October 46 , Tréguennec supplies in ballast the building site of setting with normal way of the Pont railway the Abbot St-Guénolé. In parallel, certain establishments plan to settle in the area to create a building site of manufacture of beams and prestressed hollow blocks in order to serve the disaster victims cities of St-Nazaire in Cherbourg. The problem is to know exhausted stock so once, the building site of crushing will be able to continue by exploiting… the dune cord.

December 46, Tréguennec turns to full output . It employs 26 workmen who work 10 hours per day, 6 days over Sept. But the railway, without maintenance, starts to give signs of weakness. Vis-a-vis the building site of Tréguennec is a not exploited career pertaining to the commune. it would be interesting to be able to draw from them materials necessary to the roads from the area because their repairing requires the implementation of an important quantity of broken stone and a contribution coming from this career located opposite the installations of Tréguennec would be welcome. The agreement with the town hall could not be done. In December 46, the SNCF returns his report/ratio: The state of junction PEN-Enez Tréguennec is catastrophic for lack of maintenance. Large many cross-pieces are to be changed quickly, the grass pushes between the rails and the pruning of the edges of ways becomes very urgent. February 28th, 47 a gravel train runs off the line 1 kilometer from PEN Enez, on March 6th machine 230,404 runs off the line of 3 axles in the building site. The summary repairing will be made in May by Company DUMEZ. In same time, Brest announces importance of its requirements in fine gravels, but the production of ballast, already insufficient to feed the building site of setting with normal way of the railway Pont the Abbot St Guénolé, could be suspended only once the company arrived at the station of Guilvinec.

Closing

Summer 47, the rebuilding beats full sound. two thirds of German stock are exhausted. The administration is vis-a-vis two choices: To stop the building site and to dismount the installation after exhaustion of stock, or on the contrary, to continue crushing thanks to new extractions about 80.000m3 on the offshore bar. The report/ratio stipulates that the requirements out of materials for the rebuilding are immense and that the careers are always in impossibility of facing the requests. It would be thus economically advantageous to continue the extraction, if the maritime service estimates that these taking away are not incompatible with the safety of the close areas, because the offshore bar is also a curb guard in many places. The answer of the maritime service is unambiguous: The massive extraction carried out by the Germans caused to weaken the dune dangerously and all new taking away would be likely to cause its rupture and to involve the immersion of the bordering grounds. The exploitation will thus stop with the exhaustion of stock i.e. towards end of the year 47. In September work of setting with normal way of the Pont line the Abbot St-Guénolé finishes. In October the breaker breaks down on ten days and the stock of rollers is exhausted at the beginning of December. It remains to exhaust materials crushed. The spring tides of February 48 will be right of the dune cord in particular the section of 2 km ranging between the building site and the pond of Trunvel. And on Saturday, February 21, 48, the administration closes officially the site.

The whole of the installations of the site will be dismounted and sold by the fields 20 months later, on October 5th, 49 with 14:30 during a “auction verbal and tenders sealed”.

History

This commune is known for facts related to the Révolte of the Red Bonnets in 1675.

See too

External bonds

an interview into Breton of one of the factory worker
Internet site of the Country Bigouden

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