![]() ![]() SS Normandie in its namesake dockĬombined Operations examined several options while planning the destruction of the dock. They came to the conclusion that if the dock at St Nazaire were unavailable, the Germans were unlikely to risk sending Tirpitz into the Atlantic. They decided the only port able to accommodate her was St Nazaire, especially if, like Bismarck, she was damaged en route and needed repairs. Planners from Combined Operations Headquarters were looking at potential scenarios if Tirpitz escaped the naval blockade and reached the Atlantic. When the German battleship Tirpitz was declared operational in January 1942, the Royal Navy (RN) and Royal Air Force (RAF) were already drawing up plans to attack her. īritain's Naval Intelligence Division first proposed a commando raid on the dock in late 1941. She was intercepted by the British and sunk en route. Bismarck, also damaged, ordered her consort to proceed independently while she headed for the French port of St Nazaire, which was the only port on the Atlantic coast with a dry dock able to accommodate a ship of her size. Hood exploded and sank the damaged Prince of Wales was forced to retire. ![]() On, the Battle of the Denmark Strait was fought between the German ships Bismarck and Prinz Eugen and the British ships HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Hood. The "Old Mole" jetty juts into the Loire halfway between the southern pier of the Avant Port and the old entrance into the basin. Built to house the ocean liner SS Normandie, this dock was the largest dry dock in the world when it was completed in 1932. Immediately upstream of this lies the Normandie dry dock, between the Bassin de St Nazaire and the Loire, with its southern end giving on to the Loire and the northern end facing into the Bassin de Penhoët. There is also an old entrance to the Bassin de St Nazaire midway along the Bassin de St Nazaire. īeyond the basin is the larger inner dock called the Bassin de Penhoët, which can accommodate ships up to 10,000 tons. These gates control the water level in the basin so that it is not affected by the tide. This leads to two lock gates before the Bassin de St Nazaire. The St Nazaire port has an outer harbour known as the Avant Port, formed by two piers jutting out into the Atlantic Ocean. St Nazaire is on the north bank of the Loire, 400 km (250 mi) from the nearest British port. The operation has been called "the greatest raid of all" in British military circles. After the war, St Nazaire was one of 38 battle honours awarded to the commandos. To recognise their bravery, 89 members of the raiding party were awarded decorations, including five Victoria Crosses. German casualties included over 360 dead, some of whom were killed after the raid when Campbeltown exploded. Of the 612 men who undertook the raid, 228 returned to Britain, 169 were killed and 215 became prisoners of war. The commandos fought their way through the town to escape overland but many surrendered when they ran out of ammunition or were surrounded by the Wehrmacht defending Saint-Nazaire. German gunfire sank, set ablaze, or immobilized virtually all the small craft intended to transport the commandos back to England. The ship had been packed with delayed-action explosives, well hidden within a steel and concrete case, that detonated later that day, putting the dock out of service until 1948.Ī force of commandos landed to destroy machinery and other structures. The obsolete destroyer HMS Campbeltown, accompanied by 18 smaller craft, crossed the English Channel to the Atlantic coast of France and was rammed into the Normandie dry dock south gate. St Nazaire was targeted because the loss of its dry dock would force any large German warship in need of repairs, such as Tirpitz, sister ship of Bismarck, to return to home waters by running the gauntlet of the Home Fleet of the Royal Navy and other British forces, via the English Channel or the North Sea. The operation was undertaken by the Royal Navy (RN) and British Commandos under the auspices of Combined Operations Headquarters on 28 March 1942. The St Nazaire Raid or Operation Chariot was a British amphibious attack on the heavily defended Normandie dry dock at St Nazaire in German-occupied France during the Second World War. ![]()
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