The Greatest Raid Of All: Operation Chariot

In May 1941 the Royal Navy and Kriegsmarine clashed in a fierce battle, later to be known as ‘The Battle Of The Denmark Strait’. In this battle, the Royal Navy pitched HMS Hood and a large force of other surface combatants against the might of the German Navy, the feared battleship Bismarck and heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen. The battle was a decisive one, but both sides suffered heavy losses. The Royal Navy lost the battlecruiser Hood and the Kriegsmarine lost the Bismarck. The battle, although a success for Britain, worried the Admiralty. The Bismarck was not alone.

The Kriegsmarine had also authorised the construction of another mega-battleship, the Tirpitz. Authorised for combat in early 1942, Tirpitz was the sister ship to Bismarck, and the amount of effort undertaken to destroy Bismarck troubled the British Admiralty. They looked to seek ways in which the disable the Tirpitz. One way in which it could harm operations of the Tirpitz was to disable the only dry dock in occupied Europe. The Normandie Dock, St Nazaire, France. Another issue soon arose, of how to actually destroy the dock. A naval bombardment would likely have little success, a bombing mission would be difficult as allied air forces in the 1940s were renown for their little accuracy, so only a raid would be sufficient. One particular fighting force stood out as a key unit able to operate in these sorts of conditions, the Commandos.

The Kriegsmarine battleship Bismarck.

After the evacuation from Dunkirk in June 1940, Prime Minister Winston Churchill ordered the creation of new units that would be able to raid the occupied coastline. Within a few months, these units were created and began to conduct small and large scale size raids on the occupied coastline of Europe. Much credit must be given to individuals such as Ronnie Tod, Robert Laycock and John Durnford-Slater, who were all instrumental in the development of the Commandos and their development into a strong, highly motivated elite fighting force.

By March 1942, plans were in place for a major raid on the Port of St Nazaire. The plan was a daring and cunning one, and had many circumstances where events could go drastically wrong. A force of Commandos would be aboard the modified destroyer, HMS Campbelltown and a fleet of Motor Launches, and Campbeltown would be rammed into the Normandie dock. Campbeltown had been disguised as a German destroyer, and had received modifications to her deck and funnels to convert her to look somewhat similar to a Kriegsmarine destroyer. The commando forces would disembark, and destroy local critical infrastructure such as pumping stations and power houses. Campbeltown's bow was full of depth charges, which would detonate and destroy the dock gate. It was certainly a bold plan.

HMS Campbeltown before the raid.

On the 26th March 1942, the raiding force departed Falmouth, Cornwall and set sail for St Nazaire. In the early hours of 28th March 1942, the raid commenced. RAF Bombers sortied to provide a distraction force for the raiding party, however unfortunately they were ineffective due to the low cloud cover. As the raiding party entered the harbour, they were challenged by coastal defence forces. Campbeltown replied with a signal code that had been captured previously. It did not take long for the Germans to realise what was going on, however crucially, they were too late. Every German gun zeroed in on the harbour and began laying down a furious barrage of lead as Campbeltown raced towards the dock. At 01:34 in the morning, Lieutenant-Commander Sam Beattie (Later awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions) rammed Campbeltown into the dock, and the destroyers bow rose up out of the water, firmly wedged onto the dock. The commandos preceded to disembark and began disabling pumphouses and other key dock infrastructure.

The parties sent to destroy pumphouses were successful and the commandos returned to their disembarkation points only to find that disaster had struck. Whilst the commandos had been ravaging the German positions, their motor launches had been crippled. Lieutenant-Colonel Newman (later awarded the VC), who was the commander of the Commando forces, ordered that every man do his best to return to England and continue the fight. Casualties were high. On the British side, 169 Royal Navy/Commandos were killed in the raid, and 215 were taken prisoner. On the German side, there were over 360 killed in the raid. The story does not end there however. The depth charges, in the bow of Campbeltown had still not detonated. Around noon on the 28th March, Lieutenant-Commander Sam Beattie was being interrogated by the German Navy who was criticising and making jokes stating the dock would soon be repaired. Just as he finished talking, Campbeltown detonated. Lt-Cdr Beattie replied with "We're not quite as foolish as you think!".

Operation Chariot has gone down in Commando folklore as "The Greatest Raid Of All". That name clearly fits the style of this mission. The Normandie dock was completely destroyed as was not repaired until 1947, 2 years after the war had ended. It forced the Kriegsmarine to keep Tirpitz on a tight leash as they could not risk her becoming overly damaged. Tirpitz was later destroyed by 617 Squadron in November 1944, famously known for the 'Dambuster' raids in 1943. 89 honours and awards were given out to many of the service personnel who took part in the raid, with 5 Victoria Crosses. Operation Chariot's defining success infuriated Adolf Hitler and influenced him on his later decision to issue the "Kommando Order" in which all commandos captured would be executed as spies.

Operation Chariot lives on too, with the Royal Navy naming a Type 22 frigate in the 1980s, HMS Campbeltown. Even now, a new Royal Navy Type 31 Frigate is planned to be constructed with the name HMS Campbeltown. It truly was the greatest raid of all time.

The remains of HMS Campbeltown in the Normandie dock post-raid.

Ben Whitehead is an A-Level History, Politics and Geography Student who is hoping to pursue a career in the Royal Navy.