in 1917 and 1918
In September 1916, when German submariners took action on the Breton coast, they knew that the ports, where troops and raw materials disembarked, were very poorly protected. The surprise was in fact total and nearly a hundred ships were sunk near Brittany in a few months.
Air assets seem to be the only ones capable of averting the danger. After the northwest coast, from January 1917, three sites were selected on the southern coast in the spring to accommodate them : Lorient for the seaplanes, Saint-Nazaire for the towed balloons and Saint-Viaud (near Paimboeuf) for the airships.
The French base
But the patrol areas are huge. The Camaret Maritime Aviation Center (CAM) must cover the coast from Bréhat to Penmarc’h, while that of Lorient takes over as far as the Yeu Island. This is why annex bases called Battle station were quickly envisaged at Croisic and Île-Tudy with the aim to avoid seaplanes from transiting from Lorient. At Île-Tudy, work on the slipway took longer than expected and the PC was not active until September 1917.
The American base
During the winter, improvements continued and bases were turned over to the US Navy. The Naval Air Station Île-Tudy, ceded on October 20th, will not be operational until February 1918. In the interim, the missions are carried out by French people, also responsible for training the Americans who arrived in December.
Then, Lieutenant Charles E. Sugden (Coast Guards pilot) commands 21 officers and 363 sailors from the NAS Île-Tudy, who thanks to around twenty seaplanes (French Donnet-Denhaut then American Curtiss HS) must protect two convoys per day as well than providing patrols and alerts. Their sector is included between CAM Camaret (mid-bay of Audierne) and CAM Lorient (pointe de Malachappe in Moëlan-sur-Mer).
In 1918, the U-boats, fewer in number, were also less aggressive. During the day, they are held underwater by various air resources, while the approach of the convoys is calculated to allow them to be sheltered in the harbor at nightfall.
From September 1916 to December 1917, the French air force bombed 106 submarines, including 28 in Brittany (26.4%). And in 1918, it carried out 105, including 44 in Brittany (42%). The successes of the American aviation are of the same order since out of 35 attacks, 16 were in Brittany (46%), including 14 by NAS Île-Tudy alone. However, no submersible was sunk by aviation in Brittany during this period.
Thierry Le Roy, historian
