The Valentin Bunker (
U-Boot-Bunker Valentin) is a protective concrete shelter located on the banks of the River Weser in Rekum, a suburb of Bremen, Germany.
It was intended for the assembly of German
U-Boots during the
World War II. The factory, under construction from 1943 to March 1945 thanks to
forced labor, was damaged by Allied
bombing and lay unfinished at the end of the war. The Valentin bunker was the largest fortified submarine-building factory in Germany, and second only to the facilities built in Brest, France.
The bunker measures around 426 m long and 97 m wide at its widest point, with walls 4.5 m thick. The structure is between 22.5 and 27 m high. The roof is made of dozens of large reinforced concrete arches, fabricated on site and lifted individually. The roof is approximately 4.5 m thick, but one section is 7.20 m thick. The overall total is in the region of 500,000 m3 of concrete1.
The design and supervision of the Valentin project was handled by the Organisation Todt.
By March 1945, installations were 90% complete and most of the machine tools had been installed. U-Boote production was due to start within two months.
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