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00:01March 1942 Britain's elite commandos go into action assaulting one of Adolf Hitler's key
00:08installations their target is the dry dock at San Nazaire only this could hold Hitler's
00:16biggest battleship the mighty Tirpitz from this safe haven she could join other Nazi surface
00:25raiders and u-boats in their deadly attacks on Britain's Atlantic lifeline destroying the
00:32convoys that sailed from America bringing vital wartime supplies expert seamanship and navigation
00:41were needed to get the commandos to the heavily guarded target aboard an explosive packed warship
00:46with every enemy lighting gun on her and everyone on board bracing himself for the ram she tore through
00:52the torpedo nets and with our white ensign flying all our guns firing our bars smoking she hit the
00:58dock gates dead center with such force that our bars buckled 36 feet back her explosive charge lay
01:06right against the gates now it was up to the commanders to finish the job
01:37by the end of 1940 Nazi troops had occupied most of Western Europe Adolf Hitler controlled the
01:43Atlantic coast of France from its ports German u-boats sailed into the Atlantic to attack Britain's
01:52vital supply line from North America under this relentless assault it looked as though the British
02:02might lose the battle but then they had a major success their fleet intercepted the German battleship
02:13Bismarck which had broken out into the Atlantic damaged she headed for San Nazaire the only port on the
02:21Atlantic coast with a dry dock large enough to repair in an epic three-day battle the Bismarck was sunk
02:35the Allies celebrated a major victory but there was still another threat the Bismarck had a sister ship the
02:45mighty Tirpitz British and American naval planners drew up schemes to contain the Tirpitz they identified ports capable
02:55of supporting the huge battleship top of the list was San Nazaire its dry dock had been built to hold
03:06the French
03:06transatlantic luxury liner the Normandy launched in 1935 she was the largest ship in the world
03:19over a thousand feet long and 164 feet wide San Nazaire could accommodate ships up to 85,000 tons in
03:26weight it was the only dry dock
03:29outside Germany large enough to take Hitler's giant battleship in early 1941 allied naval planners decided that
03:41the Normandy dock had to be shut down at first a bombing raid was considered but the dock was a
03:49difficult target to
03:50cripple from the air the giant gates had to be destroyed with precision and that meant a ground attack
04:02naval intelligence suggested using the newly formed British raiding force the commanders but their
04:11involvement was rejected at first they couldn't carry enough explosives
04:18then captain John Hughes Hallett chief naval planner at combined operations HQ came up with an alternative
04:25using a ship packed with explosives to ram the dock gate the Admiralty offered an old destroyer the
04:33former USS Buchanan renamed HMS Campbelltown she was one of 50 escorts which had been transferred to the Royal Navy
04:45Vice Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten the newly appointed director of combined operations
04:50authorized further planning for the mission the crucial question was how to
04:55get this floating bomb into one of the most heavily defended ports in Nazi Europe
05:02Lieutenant Colonel Charles Newman was selected to command the ground force
05:08he was invited to combined operations HQ with naval commander Robert Ryder
05:13well Mountbatten was in the chair and he was describing some sort of naval operations
05:17to take place I looked down at the agenda and saw my name down there uh as uh they suggested
05:27uh naval force commander and at that moment Mountbatten uh looked at me and said uh is that all right
05:34Ryder I said yes sir I really didn't think as much else I could say in front of all that
05:39lot
05:39well when I got to gather with Charles Newman after the meeting my first question to him was
05:44so where the hell is this bloody place and he said good heavens heaven is the first you heard of
05:49it
05:49so I said yes it is indeed and he then said well it's uh Saint-Nazaire as a matter of
05:54fact
05:56Saint-Nazaire was located six miles from the sea in the estuary of the river Loire
06:01on each side of the river mouth the Germans had placed heavy guns and searchlights
06:07the Royal Navy proposed to sail under cover of night over the treacherous sandbanks to the south of the estuary
06:15but HMS Campbelltown could only get over these at the height of a spring tide
06:20that gave a mission date of late March 1942 and expert navigation would be required
06:30HMS Campbelltown was modified to resemble a German murder class torpedo boat a type that was stationed
06:36at Saint-Nazaire
06:39the captain lieutenant commander Sam Beatty remembers the process
06:44she had been lightened so much to get over the various sandbanks that she wouldn't handle like an
06:52ordinary destroyer at normal speeds I discovered however that at roughly 17 knots and above she would
07:02handle more or less like an ordinary destroyer and this set the speed at which I was I determined to
07:11ram
07:12because if I had to do any maneuvers just before hitting the dock I didn't want to have to think
07:19about the turning circle beneath her forehead gun the bows of the ship were packed with 24 depth charges
07:27almost six tons of amatol high explosive hidden in concrete the fuses could be set to explode up to
07:34eight hours later the systems designer lieutenant Nigel Tibbetts would be aboard Campbelltown to accompany
07:43the destroyer the Royal Navy provided a motor gunboat to act as HQ 12 motor launches and four motor torpedo
07:50boats each of these carried a crew of 10 and a team of around 12 commanders they would support the
07:58main
07:58demolition unit of 80 commandos on Campbelltown each of whom was loaded with up to 90 pounds of explosives
08:06in case HMS Campbelltown was disabled motor torpedo boat 74 was equipped with two special time delay
08:13torpedoes to fire at the dock gate the lieutenant colonel newman's commandos were put through a rigorous
08:20training program using live ammunition
08:30the demolition parties practiced at the king george the fifth dry dock at southampton
08:39but a final rehearsal at devonport dockyard proved disastrous
08:44a detachment of elderly home guard part-time soldiers proved surprisingly effective at defending
08:51their positions the commandos failed to achieve any of their objectives
08:58the german commanders at san nazar were confident that their defenses were sufficient
09:05after having welcomed the crews the admiral denis asked me
09:10solar what would you do if the english would enter san nazar
09:17admiral in my opinion and in the opinion of all the other german local authorities it is absolutely out of
09:29question to enter the harbor despite the shambles of the dress rehearsal the raid on san nazar was given
09:36the go ahead but privately the naval planners doubted that the commandos could achieve their objectives
09:47the ships for the raid on san nazar set sail on the afternoon of the 26th of march 1942
09:56they slipped out of the port of falmouth in southwest england under a veil of secrecy
10:07two hunt class destroyers acted as escorts on the 35-hour 450-mile voyage
10:16the force took a circuitous route to disguise its objective
10:26as it neared the french coast the mission leaders commander rider and lieutenant colonel newman
10:31transferred to the motor gunboat that would lead the force in
10:36at the same time wellington bombers took off from england to conduct a diversionary raid
10:46shortly before midnight the attacking force saw the explosions as they dropped their bombs
10:51but the raid didn't so much distract the german defenders as alert
11:01the german artillery commander began sweeping the river with his searchlights
11:06one of them caught hms campbelltown in its beam but she was flying the german naval ensign
11:15the gunners hesitated
11:20this gained precious minutes for hms campbelltown to push past the heaviest of the batteries
11:27but when she was just seven minutes away from her target tracer fire struck the speeding destroyer
11:35the german flag was hauled down and replaced by the battle ensign of the royal navy she was going in
11:41under her true colors
11:46at full steam hms campbelltown struck the dock gate at 20 knots
11:57the impact caused the bows of the ship to be crushed in by 36 feet
12:01it was 0134 hours just four minutes behind schedule
12:09under heavy german fire commandos scrambled from hms campbelltown onto the quayside
12:18among the first to land was major bill copeland
12:23they're right on target and it's our job and we've got to get out of this so-called ship as
12:30quickly as
12:30possible looking after it looked as though every gun in the world was firing shot of one sort or another
12:37into her poor battered sides in the glare of what seemed to be about six searchlights
12:46and it looked impossible which of course it wasn't and now the germans are going to get a taste
12:54of what they've been giving us
12:57the commandos found out to eliminate the german defenses
13:04captain bob montgomery was in charge of the demolition teams
13:08my demolition parties came off next smally went to the winding house for the locked gates
13:15chant went to the pumping house a few yards away brett purden and burton shaw
13:22to the winding machinery which was similar to this end at the other end of the lock
13:27despite being wounded lieutenant stewart chant led his demolition team to the dock pump house
13:39each of us went to a pump i took this pump here number three which was to have been chamberlain's
13:45and out of our rucksacks we took these specially prepared charges there were eight of them five
13:50pounds in weight specially prepared waterproofed duplicate leads and they were laid as planned
13:56into the sensitive parts of each pump eight charges per pump 40 pounds per pump if you like the shattering
14:02effect when it took place was enough we knew to put these pumps out of action for at least one
14:09year
14:11next the commandos had to destroy the winding mechanism a key part of the dockyard installation
14:17that opened the gates at each end of the dry dock
14:25as gunfire ripped through the night outside they secured the explosive charges and ignited the fuses
14:31and the commandos had paid a high price for their success german guns decimated them
14:56most of the motor launches had been hit during the approach and their crews wounded or killed
15:05all attention now focused on the dry dock gate
15:10hms campbelltown was so deeply embedded that there was no way the germans could free her
15:15below deck the time fuses on her concealed explosives were ticking away
15:23it was time for the commandos to withdraw from san nazaire
15:27but the destruction of most of their motor launches made this almost impossible
15:36mickey win commander of mtb 74 had managed to get her within range of the dock
15:47he fired his torpedoes into the old entrance and then turned and raced for the estuary as he did so
15:54the
15:55boat was hit by german gun batteries win was thrown into the sea but rescued by his chief motor mechanic
16:02bill
16:03lovegrove who was later awarded the conspicuous gallantry medal
16:12the remaining motor launches came under intense fire few escaping unscathed
16:20on shore the commandos fell back to the old mole where they hoped to board any surviving motor launches
16:30but this looked increasingly unlikely as major bill copeland recalls
16:35at the end of this
16:37old mole this jetty was a great pillbox that we were unable to quell
16:43all the fire from our weapons and from the germans weapons
16:48and from the oil that was ignited and the petrol that was ignited on the water
16:54created a most terrifying scene and to anybody however gallant or whatever you may call it
17:02it was clearly impossible that we could go home by boat
17:07for over two hours on board motor gunboat 314 able seaman bill savage had done his best to destroy the
17:14pillboxes on the old mole but he was killed at his gun position
17:21with all hope of rescue from the sea at an end the commanders were ordered to fight their way out
17:26of
17:27san nazaire they were to surrender only when they ran out of ammunition or were wounded
17:38butler still with me and one of my own soldiers brown picked me up carried me with them until we
17:45got alongside the u-boat basin behind me and i said look you better leave me i'm slowing you down
17:51and
17:52they dropped me about here and there i lay watching them run off into the darkness while i lay here
17:58i was
17:58a bit worried because i knew the campbell town wasn't far away in fact she was only just over there
18:03i didn't know when she was gonna go up but i thought if i stay here too long i'm gonna
18:08probably
18:09get in the way of the blast while i was thinking this suddenly a young soldier appeared i didn't know
18:15him he wasn't from my commando he obviously got lost he was a bit dazed and he lay down beside
18:20me
18:20i remember asking him to go and find a boat see if we could hide in it but he didn't
18:25have much success
18:27he then came back and whilst we were lying there two germans appeared they had machine pistols i
18:33remember and they shouted us get up he immediately stood up and they shot him point blank dead made a
18:39little squeak i remember rather sad and uh they then shouted me well of course i couldn't move and
18:46while they were sort of looking at me they suddenly started saying officier officier presumably thinking
18:51i might be useful for questioning at sea only three motor launches and the motor gunboat made it back to
19:01the waiting royal navy destroyers bringing their wounded with them four more motor launches made their own
19:12way home after beating off german air attacks on route a ninth vessel ml 306 became involved in a
19:25desperate battle when she was intercepted by a german torpedo her commander lieutenant ian henderson refused to
19:39surrender sergeant tom durrant of number one commander was badly injured but kept firing
19:46the commander of the more powerful german craft asked the british to surrender but again they refused
19:52and the germans used their main guns when at last the british guns had been silenced the german boat came
20:00alongside only one man remained alive and unwounded lieutenant swain of number one commander he stood among
20:09his dead and wounded comrades on the blood-drenched decks and called out i'm afraid we can't go on
20:19after this heroic last stand the wounded were brought ashore
20:28the
20:29hms campbelltown remained embedded in the dock gates
20:34german officers and souvenir hunters were swarming over the ship oblivious that they were on a time bomb
20:45the captain lieutenant commander sam beatty was among the survivors
20:49soon after that i was interrogated by a german who spoke very good english
20:55he discovered that i'd been in campbelltown and he was remarking that it was no good
21:04ramming a stout cassoon like that with a flimsy ship
21:10at that moment there was a bang a very large bang
21:15and a ring of cheers went through this restaurant when we heard this terrific explosion which could be
21:22none other than six tons of amatol in campbelltown going up the gate was demolished the remains of
21:31hms campbelltown was swept into the dry dock by the rush of seawater over a hundred germans died in the
21:37massive explosion
21:44aerial reconnaissance photographs later showed the germans desperately trying to repair the dry dock
21:49but it remained out of action for the rest of the war
21:59the turpitz was finally sunk in norway by royal air force lancaster bombers in november 1944
22:06after the raid on san lazare she never ventured into the atlantic
22:13but the cost of the operation was high 169 raiders and sailors were killed 215 became prisoners of war
22:22only six commandos evaded capture and got back to england via spain
22:31tom durant on ml 306 was posthumously awarded the victoria cross
22:36as was able seaman bill savage and britain's highest award for gallantry also went to the
22:41three senior commanders all of whom survived the battle captain beatty colonel newman
22:49and commander rider
22:5350 other medals were awarded for gallantry
22:57and in 1947 survivors of the san lazare raid returned to the tower
23:03there newman ryder and beatty received the croix de guerre from the french prime minister
23:12it was worthy remembrance of a most remarkable raid
23:19so
23:27so
23:29so
23:35¶¶
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