The BDU West between WWII and Cold War

In this article the recent history of the Domaine de Pignerolle, near Saint-Barthelemy d’Anjou, the organization of the BDU West and its role during the WWII, the after war and the Cold War are described. The visits on the BDU site showed that all the BDU barracks disappeared and all the BDU bunkers were in good preservation state. In particular, the visit of the Admiral bunker showed that its transformation in anti-atomic bunker for the French president and government was in an advanced phase, but not termi-nated and consequently it never was operative. The reasons of this transformation, despite the existence of other similar anti-atomic bunkers, and of its interruption remain to be determined.


Introduction
The first visit of the Domaine de Pignerolle on 22 nd August 2011 allowed identifying various BDU West bunkers, verifying their preservation state and identifying the BDU West role during the WWII. At that time, the Admiral bunker was not accessible; therefore the inspection of its interior was not possible. Only recently the Angers public administration given to the Association "Les Oubliés de Pignerolle" the task of supervising the bunkers preservation together with all the necessary authorizations and means for accessing them. The second visit on castle was neoclassic in style, with a front and rear facades having seven bays and sides facades having five bays. The front facade comprised a front porch formed by four cylindrical, channelled columns, having ionic tops decorated with garlands and pendants, supporting a protruding balcony. Three bas-reliefs representing respectively: an angel presenting a rule and a compass to a lying vestal on the left, Apollo with the lyre at the centre, and angels crowning Aphrodite on the right, were on the front facade between the columns. The rear facade comprised four slightly protruding rectangular, channelled columns supporting a top fronton. Three bas-reliefs decorated by scrollwork and garlands were between the columns. Each window was surmounted by a fronton. The roof Italian in style was contoured by a balustrade. The apartments of Mr. Avril, were at first floor with a cabinet and a library. The park was a mix of French and English style garden (Coiffard, 2006).
The Academy admitted students from many European countries. On 16 th January 1786 Arthur Wesley, future Duke of Wellington, arrived in Angers. At the Academie he learned dance, mathematics, languages, the use of weapons, and in the woods of the Domaine to be chevalier. Other relevant students of the Academy were brothers De Witt, stadtholders in Holland, the naturalist Buffon and the future statesman William Pitt. The Academy closed on 1792 at the time of the Revolution. Mr. Avril was arrested on October 1793 and imprisoned in Angers. The castle was occupied by revolutionaries and signets were posed on its doors. The Avril family migrated to another residence (Coiffard, 2006 (Coiffard, 2006;Lemesle, 1981 (Coiffard, 2006).
The BDU assembled and coordinated all the available information coming from centres on the North Sea, Tyrrhenian Sea, Aegean Sea, Black Sea, Indian Ocean and from Kondor planes of the Luftwaffe Atlantic headquarter (Flieger Führer Atlantik) based at Merignac (Bordeaux). The actions of the U-Boote flotillas of Brest, Lorient, Saint-Nazaire, La Pallice and Bordeaux were commanded directly from the BDU, which was never bombarded notwithstanding the information sent to London by French resistance networks. The allied probably found more fruitful to intercept messages to and from the BDU rather than to destroy it. The BDU was also a rest place for U-Bootes crews, which on free time played sports and hockey on the Domaine meadows. Admiral Dönitz visited frequently the BDU, which received also visits of Italian BETASOM admiral and officers based in Bordeaux and of a Japanese officer delegation. A foreseen Hitler's BDU visit never took place (Coiffard, 2006;Suquet, 2009;Suquet, 2010). On 9 th August 1944, after the German defeat in the Angers battle, Rösing abandoned the BDU after having ordered to set the Admiral bunker on fire. After four days the French firemen were still unable to turn off the main fire source. On the fifth day the firemen chief ordered the closure of the bunker armored, gastight doors to stifle the fire. The fire persisted still some day before to turn definitively off. The BDU was looted by the French population (Gautier, 1973). American black troops sojourned in the BDU during the harsh winter 1944-45. After them, from April to November 1945 the BDU lodged a Jewish colony together with prisoners and deported people of different nationalities waiting repatriation. From 3 rd January 1946 following the decree of Angers major Allonneau and up to 1964, the BDU served as provisory accommodation for about thousand Angers war victims and deported peoples, and hosted a school, a police station and a church located in the orangery. Two barracks burned respectively on 1958 and 1961. After the WWII, during the Cold War, the Admiral bunker undergone works to transform it in anti-atomic bunker for the French president and government (Coiffard, 2006).

The BDU Organization
As in the case of Parc de La Haye (Map N˚200b, Point E (1)) (Vincent, 2013) (Tomezzoli, 2018), the BDU barracks, after the WWII, were not dismantled but lodged Angers peoples. This preserved the original BDU structure and allows today at more than seventy years from the end of the WWII, by analysing French air reconnaissance images of the immediate after war, to have a precise vision of the BDU organization. Figures 1-3 permit easily to recognize the castle, its dependencies and the BDU barracks and bunkers.   The visits of the BDU site took place on 22 nd August 2011 and 16 th September 2016. They showed that the pavilion tours and grids at the Domaine entrance, the entrance gate, the pigeon house (12), the pool (24), the castle (23)  in the terrain; so that its type and internal and external preservation states have not been ascertained. The bunker (17)   its heating and aeration system disappeared. Only aeration conduit portions were in place on the walls. Their external concrete structures were in good preservation state. The coverage of bunker (31) was further covered by a recent metal sheet. Bunker (50) was accessible during the first visit. Its interior was in good preservation state with armoured doors still in place. All the original furniture disappeared and only aeration conduit portions were in place on the walls. Its external concrete structure was in good preservation state and the coverage was further covered by a recent metal sheet.
Admiral bunker (37) (about 1265 m 2 ) had the external structure in good preservation state. It was not accessible at the time of the first visit; therefore its interior preservation state has not been ascertained . However, its interior (Figure 11(a)) rooms (27) were used for radio reception, code   (Coiffard, 2006).
Bunker (40) was partially buried in the terrain, which obstructed its entrance.
Therefore, its type and interior preservation state has not been ascertained. The emerging portion of its external structure was in good preservation state. The bottom was in good preservation state, but the side walls were marked by large and deep cracks and some wall portions were displaced. One of the bunkers was of a special type (Sonderkonstruktion) partially buried in the terrain, which obstructed its entrance. Therefore, its interior organization and preservation state has not been ascertained.
Its emerging structure was in good preservation state with an obstructed emergency exit and eighteen square, support bases on its coverage. The other was an R611 or R621 partially buried in the terrain, which obstructed its fire room openings. Therefore, its interior preservation state has not been ascer-

The Admiral Bunker
The second visit confirmed the good preservation state of the Admiral bunker external structure. On a wall the traces of the leaning barrack (36) were visible.
No camouflage was painted on its coverage, and thirteen original antenna bases on the coverage disappeared.

The bunker interior (Figures 8-10) was accessible through the stair (A) which
introduced to the underground tunnel towards the castle and the bunker entrance.
Both were in good preservation state with traces of construction formworks on the walls typical of the German masonry. The bunker anti-atomic transformation works were immediately evident.
A recent shower system was in place at the entrance, complete with its white rectangular base, hot and cold water mixing taps, but no splash guard. Recent toilets were in good preservation state. All the original armored doors were in The panels fallen on the floor in one room let visible the suspension frame and the original, rusted bunker metal ceiling. One room was provided with suspension frame and casings but the panel installation was not terminated.
A room hosted a complete kitchen comprising a four leg electrical vegetables washing device Bonnet, a two-bowl sink furniture, an electrical cooking furniture having two circular plates, a hoven, a hot water reservoir, and a dishes furniture. Canteen furniture was not remarked in the room and in the nearby rooms.
A corridor introduced to the emergency electrical generator room (79) ( Figure 11 & Figure 12) closed on one side toward the exterior by an original double armored door 722P3. Two identical, well preserved, black painted electrical pumps each complete with control cabinet and cylindrical white painted distributor connected to white insulated conduits were in place on one room side. The conduits ascended to the ceiling and many red painted taps of the kind used on water conduits were on them. Galvanized, rectangular conduits of the aeration system ascended too to the ceiling. Four well preserved, grey painted pumps were connected with a portion of the conduits by cylindrical and galvanized conduits. Each pump was powered by a blue painted electrical motor but (e) (f) Figure 11. Admiral bunker (37): (a) plan: 2 close combat defence room, 27 computing room, 32 commander (Admiral room), 57 operation room, 79 emergency current, 85 foreman, A access stair, O orangery, T tunnel to the castle (Coiffard, 2006)-numbering according to Rudi, 1998;(b) black painted, electrical pumps with white distributors; (c) black pump on the left, armored door 722P3 in middle, galvanized conduit on the right; (d) grey painted pumps; (e) white insulated conduits with red painted taps; (f) diesel motor.
also provided with a crank for manual operation. The emergency electrical generator was in good preservation state (Figure 11(a)). It comprised a diesel motor connected to an alternator. The diesel motor hosted an oval label having the the white painted floor. On the room ceiling, white metal joints for the generator lifting were in place. The alternator grey and blue painted control cabinets were in good preservation state. A white arrow near two metallic black data plates and a silver data plate on the alternator indicated the rotation direction. The data plates (Figure 11(b)) informed: Three well preserved cylindrical, metal bottles of pressurized air were suspended to a room wall. Green tubes departed from them to the diesel motor and to two blue painted air compressors on the room floor. Two metallic data plates on one of the bottles (Figure 11(

Discussion
The components of the BDU West were spread around the castle. The castle and concrete barracks (7) (8)  The bunker (31) was an infirmary bunker. Bunkers (47), (50), (56) were shelters for the BDU seamen in case of attack. The purpose of bunker (40) is unknown. The R611 was a bunker for a 150 mm gun; the R621 was a shelter for personnel. In case of R611, this bunker protected the east side of the BDU and it is surprising that no other such bunker was built for protecting the other sides of the BDU. The square support bases on the Sonderkonstruktion coverage probably supported a Flak guns platform. The thirteen concrete aligned supports probably supported another Flak guns platform. The cistern was probably the first constructed near the R611 or R621 and the Sonderkonstruktion. It stored water necessary on the construction yard of said bunkers, and not easily available on the yard. It provided water for knead the concrete, to quench thirst of working animals and against possible fires of the wood stocks for formworks.
All the U-Boote missions were coordinated at the Admiral bunker. All its original German furniture and sensitive devices disappeared looted by the population or confiscated by the American or French military authorities. The original heating system, ventilation system, electrical system, illumination system and antenna bases on the bunker coverage disappeared during the transformation works in anti-atomic bunker. The recent metal covers on bunkers (31), (50) were probably placed at the time of the transformation works. The shower system in place at the bunker entrance was a decontamination device. The incorrect location of the emergency generator in the bunker Admiral plan (Coiffard 2006) has been corrected in Figure 9. The presence of a complete kitchen, room electrical, heating elements, a complete lighting system and a complete emergency electrical generator suggest that the transformation of the Admiral bunker in anti-atomic bunker was in an advanced phase of completion, but the suspension frame with incomplete tile coverage in one room, the absence of canteen furniture and the total absence of furniture in rooms (27), (32), (57), (85) suggest that the adaptation of the bunker was not completed and consequently it never was operative.

Conclusion
The reason of the disappearance of the BDU barracks was clearly the Saint Barthelemy and Angers housing expansion after the WWII. On the other hand, the reasons of the transformation works of its Admiral bunker in anti-atomic bunker for the French president and government, despite the existence already from 1963 of an anti-atomic commandment place coded Gypse at the BA 921 base near Taverny and another one under a hill near Lyon, and the reasons of the interruption of said transformation works remain to be determined.