 During the 20th century, Cherbourg, a strategic point during both world wars, adapted to new threats.It then hosted a large garrison of the Navy, an artillery regiment and a "Hôpital des Armées" known locally as "marine hospital".In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the presence of the army weakened by the transfer of the northern fleet to Brest and the closure of the maritime hospital renamed René-Le-Bas.