Storming St.Nazaire

Book Code:  SH3093

Storming St.Nazaire

The amphibious assault on St. Nazaire by the British Commandos and the Royal Navy on March 26, 1942 was a key battle in the development of combined operations. The "Normandie" dry dock at St. Nazaire was the only one on the Atlantic coast that could service the Tirpitz and other large German surface raiders.

The attempt to ram the dock with the old destroyer Campbeltown and then touch off explosives on board led to a fierce fire fight with the German defenders. The British accomplished many of their objectives despite heavy casualties.

The St. Nazaire raid has not been covered in the detail warranted by its role in the evolution of special warfare tactics. James Dorrian has drawn on interviews with over 100 survivors, both British and German, to present this remarkable account. All aspects of the engagement are covered, including the final ironic incident that resulted in more German casualties than the main battle itself.

The year 1942 opened on the note of virtually unrelieved gloom. Things were already bad enough in Europe; then in February, came the fall of Singapore and few had the foresight or optimism to share Prime Minister Churchill's view that ultimate victory was inevitable from the moment the Americans entered the war. Perhaps the greatest threat to British survival lay in the North Atlantic where shipping losses had reached crisis point, and the most formidable manifestation of that threat was the might German battleship Tirpitz, at the time sheltering in Norwegian waters. Her vast size ordained that nowhere on the Atlantic seaboard could she put in for refit or repair except the 'Normandie' dock at St Nazaire. Destory that and the Tirpitz would be neutralized. That was the thinking behind Operation Chariot, as the plan to blow up the dock was codenamed. James Dorrian has chosen to see this extraordinary exploit not through the eyes of the brasshats and the politicians but through those of the men who took part in it, particularly those whose fate it was to carry out the orders rather than give them. This lends his narrative an immediacy that bare recitation of the facts could not convey and it is no exaggeration to say that the action comes almost painfully to life in his hands. How it all turned out the reader must discover. Suffice it here to say that it resulted in the award of no less than five Victoria Crosses.

James Dorrian
Hardcover with d/w 304pp Leo Cooper 1998 1st Ed

 

Fine/Fine