On This Day in History - 28th March 1942: The Greatest Raid of All
Operation Chariot, or the St Nazaire Raid, took place on 28th March 1942. Fearing the Germans would dispatch large warships to destroy the Atlantic convoys that were vital lines of food and vital goods to allow Britain to keep fighting the Germans, the British realised that only one Atlantic dock was a candidate for repairs of such ships - in the port of St Nazaire.
Bombing was considered but then discarded, as it was realised it would have a significant toll of civilian casualties. A plan was hatched to disguise a ship as German, but this ship was loaded with commandos and explosives - a 4 and a half ton bomb, to be exact. The mission was to get the ship to dock, and then the commandos would create mayhem to distract attention until the bomb detonated. There were 622 men, sailing into a port containing 5,000 Germans.
The disguised ship would sail up six miles up the Loire estuary, past 80 German emplacements, towards the dock.
They were discovered part way up the estuary, but managed to drive the ship through the gates of the port, and then disembark to fight and lay explosives.
One commando leading a small team was tasked with blowing up one of the winding houses in the port. The door was locked, and he pulled his .45 to shoot the lock, but the ricochet barely missed one of his corporals. The corporal said: "You know, sir, when I came on this raid, I was quite prepared to get murdered by Adolf Hitler, but not by you, sir", and then pulled out a mallet and smashed through the lock.
After laying their explosives and destroying many of the targets, the commandos began to move back to the small craft that had accompanied the disguised ship, which was the planned escape route. Unfortunately the early detection by the Germans had created a firefight and much tracer and incendiary fire, and the commandos saw the water filled with burning boats.
Once it was realised that escape by boats was not possible, three orders were issued:
To do our best to get back to England;
Not to surrender until all our ammunition is exhausted;
Not to surrender at all if we can help it.
The commandos started out towards the Spanish border - but and many were captured after their ammo was expended, or killed. The captured survivors were aware the ship had not detonated, and wondered whether the mission had failed.
Just before midday, once all the troops had either been killed in action, captured, or escaped, the ship exploded. The Germans hadn't realised it was rigged with a bomb. The prisoners of war let up a loud cheer.
The raid has since been called The Greatest Raid of All.
The dock was knocked out for the rest of the war, and the Tirpitz never got into the Atlantic. She was bombed and capsized by the RAF in a Norwegian fjord on 12 November 1944 during Operation Catechism.
Nearly 170 British servicemen were killed. 5 Victoria Crosses were awarded for the operation and a total of 89 honours were bestowed - more honours in a shorter time than for any other battle during the war. Many are buried in the 'English Cemetery' a few miles along the coast from the scene of the raid.
Bob Montgomery, who was in charge of the commando demolition teams, said this about it: "Because it was a crazy idea, it was likely to succeed. It's something we British do. It may not seem part of our character. But it is up our sleeve."
2 Replies
The link to the documentary above has become unavailable, so here's a working one. This is a wonderful documentary
In my day you could buy an Airfix 1:600 kit of HMS Campbeltown, the repurposed ex-USN four-funnel destroyer that was used as the floating bomb to destroy the dry-dock.
https://www.scalemates.com/kits/airfix-f...
It should be said that, after the destruction of the Bismarck by the RN on its maiden patrol, Hitler did not want to risk his capital ships in the Atlantic anyway, leaving that theatre to the U-boats, so the Tirpitz was reserved for attacking the Murmansk convoys in the Arctic (but never really did, for fear of the British response, so she was just kept idle as a potential threat, forcing the British to maintain a certain presence in case she sortied). But the British still wanted to make absolutely certain that Tirpitz couldn't venture into the Atlantic and, without that dry-dock available, she couldn't.
