St Nazaire raid

St Nazaire raid, mounted on this French port by the British Combined Operations HQ, in March 1942. Its purpose was to destroy the only dry dock on the Atlantic coast big enough to accommodate the German battleship Tirpitz, which, it was feared, Hitler might use to attack Allied convoys.

On the night of 27/28 March 1942, Campbeltown, a US destroyer acquired under the destroyers-for-bases agreement, bluffed her way past the defences and rammed the dock's outer caisson, while 268 commandos landed to destroy essential machinery. Many of those who had landed had to be abandoned, but the next day five tons of explosives detonated in the destroyer's bows, blowing up the caisson, many Germans who had gone aboard to look around, and two Commando officers who knew the ship was about to blow up, but did not say so.

In all, 83 decorations were awarded to the participants, who lost 144 killed and more than 200 captured.