Saint-Nazaire in Brittany is a commune in the Loire-Atlantique department and Nantes is the capital of the Pays de la Loire region, in the same and is the largest city in Brittany. Operations at St Nazaire, at the mouth of the Loire, where there were strong tides and other hazards to navigation and Nantes upriver, took place concurrently. Vague and contradictory information led the navy to believe that men were en route to Nantes but not when they would arrive. To lift so many men, Dunbar-Nasmith assembled the destroyers , and and the liners , , , RMS , the Polish ships and and several commercial cargo ships but these had to anchor in Quiberon Bay, north-west of the Loire estuary, despite having no anti-submarine defences. The evacuation began on 16 June, with leaving for home on "Georgic", "Duchess of York" and the two Polish ships. German bombers attacked the bay but were only able to damage "Franconia". Loading of equipment continued overnight and more ships from England and Brest arrived, along with two more destroyers, and . The large troopships would have been exceedingly vulnerable, had German bombers been able to make daylight attacks but British fighter cover had restricted the "Luftwaffe" to mine-laying, which only delayed movement until channels were swept. The RAF fighters each flew up to six sorties per day and the final patrol over Nantes was flown by 73 Squadron, then the last airworthy Hawker Hurricane flew to RAF Tangmere.