Greatest Raid

In March 1942, at a grim point for the Allies, Britain sent commandos and naval forces against St. Nazaire, a French Atlantic port under Nazi occupation. The Germans were using its facilities to repair warships, and the Tirpitz, sister ship of the Bismarck, was due for work there. Putting the port's dock out of action would weaken the U-boat campaign and force German warships to travel hundreds of miles back to their home ports for repairs.

The attack had two linked parts. Commandos would assault the port while the Campbeltown, an American-built ship from the First World War packed with explosives, was driven into the docks as a huge torpedo. The first part of the operation, known as Operation Chariot, went disastrously. The second part succeeded spectacularly, and the explosion kept the St. Nazaire dry dock out of service for the rest of the war. Most of the Royal Navy and British commando personnel involved were either killed or captured.

Giles Whittell's book, published to mark the eightieth anniversary of the raid, presents a detailed account of the mission, which was carried out by the Royal Navy and British commandos.