80 Years Ago Today: The St. Nazaire Raid

[Absalom]

Today's history sidebar:

During the night of March 28, 1942, a force of Royal Navy motor launches carrying British Commandos and an obsolete destroyer headed for the German-occupied French port of St. Nazaire.

The primary goal was the destruction of the dry dock, the only facility the Germans had on the Atlantic coast which was large enough to service battleships like the Tirpitz.

For that purpose the destroyer HMS Campbeltown, formerly the USS Buchanan, had been converted into an IED and was to be rammed into the dock gates. Commandos on board were to put the bomb on a timer, disembark, destroy the dock controls, and evacuate with the other part of the force. And there laid the problem.

Unfortunately, the planners had succumbed to what I call "While we're there, we might as well … " syndrome. More than a dozen lightly armed motor launches filled with Commandos accompanied the Campbeltown with orders to land, spread out and destroy stuff.

The Campbeltown fulfilled its mission perfectly. But the landings of the motor launches turned into a shambles, many were shot to pieces by the Germans. Only 4 of 16 barely made it out of the estuary. When the British commander gathered his men to evacuate after several hours fighting all over the port, he discovered he had no boats. The surviving Commandos were captured. Numbers vary slightly by source; Wiki gives 169 killed and 215 captured.

And around noon, the Campbeltown blew up, while Germans and French civilians were swarming all over her. Several hundred more were killed. But the dry dock was thoroughly wrecked.

The Tirpitz never made an attempt to break out into the central Atlantic. It's not known whether the unavailability of the St. Nazaire dock (it remained unusable for the rest of the war) had anything to do with it, but without it any lengthy cruise would have been unsustainable.

Below: One of the ML's and the remnants of the dock and Campbeltown. (Picture credit: Bundesarchiv)

 

[bigwheelzip]

Perhaps the heavy Allied casualties sustained at St. Nazaire were impetus to avoid another frontal assault at the Lorient Sub base, and opt for carpet firebombing the surrounding city of Lorient.

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[Jessie]

That was one bodacious operation.
Ok boys, let's take this old decrepid tin can and fill her up with explosives then run the gauntlet of guns leading to the dry docks and run it up on top of it all and set the fuse.
And THEN we'll jump off and run through the whole facility destroying everything we come in contact with and try to fight our way out of this heavily guarded facility and jump on equally decrepid boats and cruise on back to bloody ol' England.
Pip pip cheerio!
And they did it all but get away. I think the Germans even had a certain level of respect for them.

 

[Rustyt1953]

Ballsy Brits, eh wot?

 

[rockquarry]

While I have little interest in battles and strategy, I've found reading about the engineering, construction, etc. of the various submarine pens and bases along the French coast quite interesting. These were concrete projects that are remarkable even now.

 

[bigwheelzip]

Ballsy Brits, eh wot?

Don't think I've met a people more game to fight.
Comes in handy I guess, when a country the size of Michigan is endeavoring to rule a world spanning empire.

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[fordson]

As usual, I've got some recommended reading material for those interested:
- The Osprey Campaign series- St. Nazareth 1942. An easy read with lots of photos and great maps that explain the various actions.
- Into The Jaws Of Death by Robert Lyman. A much more detailed account of the raid itself and the events and politics leading up to it.

If you're really into it, you can get a 1/35 scale model of MTB 74, the Motor Torpedo Boat that was modified to fire torpedos over the top of the torpedo/mine nets
One photo moored and one at speed.

 

[Absalom]

Operation Chariot, as the raid was code-named, was a learning experience in many ways. The British had little experience with such combined special operations. Reading about it reminds one a bit of Operation Eagle Claw, the aborted Iranian rescue mission of 1980.

The commandos as a new type of specially trained soldier had only come into being in 1940. An obsession with operational security prevented bringing the various land and naval elements together for any large-scale exercise.

For example, the disembarkation of the troops from the ML's onto the Old Mole at St. Nazaire was absolutely crucial, but had never been practiced under realistic conditions until they had to do it while being hammered by German flak and machine guns in the dark. The results were devastating.

And the RAF pilots who were tasked with flying a distraction raid against St. Nazaire had no idea why they were attacking this target that night, and broke off the bombing early when the weather deteriorated. As a result, timing was the worst possible: They just ensured all German gun positions were on alert when the ships moved in. Pilots were quite upset when they found out afterward, saying they would have stayed at all cost had they had an inkling what was going on below.

 

[bummer]

A good book about a similar type of waterborne operation is Cockleshell Heroes

 

[Rudi]

IIRC, six months later Hitler ordered that any commandos captured were to be executed. Must have made an impression on him.