texas_ex2000
2,500+ Posts
So I was reading Admiral McRaven's book Spec Ops: Case Studies in Special Warfare - Theory and Practice (it was based on his graduate thesis at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey), and after finishing the chapter on the St. Nazaire Raid, aka "The Greatest Raid of All," I did some youtubing on the subject and went down this amazing rabbit hole.
For those who never heard of the St. Nazaire Raid, the quick summary is that 660 or so British sailors and commandos raided and destroyed the dry dock of St. Nazaire in March of 1942. After chasing and sinking the Bismarck (https://youtu.be/amq6BIMwxzk), the Admiralty knew they could not afford the other German super battleship the Tirpitz and her sisters to break loose into the Atlantic and wreak havoc on their supply convoys. They felt the best way to prevent this was to destroy the only dry dock in German occupied territory along the Atlantic big enough to repair their battleships - the Normandie Lock in St. Nazaire Brittany France.
The plan of the raid is like a crazy 80s action movie plot. They loaded an old rust bucket destroyer, HMS Campbeltown, with 4 tons of high-explosives on a delayed fuse, sneak her and 18 wood hulled motor launches into the Nazaire harbor which was defended by two dozen coastal defense artillery guns. They ram the Campbeltown into the dock under heavy fire, fight their way out of the ship and blow up the pump station and door house of the lock. Unfortunately, the motor launches that were supposed to exfiltrate the commandos were all blown to hell by the Germans so they had to fight their way out of the port and 300 miles into Spain. Only a handful made it to Spain, and the vast majority of the survivors were captured. The next morning, the fuse of the Campbeltown went off and blew the lock doors to the dock to kingdom come. The King awarded 5 Victoria Crosses to the raiders. Seriously, don't know why this hasn't been made into a movie.
So, I went on youtube to look up any documentaries and came across this great one by Jeremy Clarkson of Top Gear fame. Watch it.
Making of the documentary:
Now...here's the best part. The dry dock is called the Normandie Lock, because that's where shipbuilders Chantiers de Penhoët built the flagship, SS Normandie, for the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique ("CGT") - the French ocean and shipping line.
http://cruiselinehistory.com/cruise...united-states-and-qe-2-face-a-similar-demise/
Forget the Queen Mary, Normandie was the most beautiful, elegant, technologically advanced, and fastest transatlantic ocean liner of that great era. She might arguably be the most aesthetically beautiful machine ever made. She was launched in 1932 and still has the record as the fastest steam turbo-electric passenger ship ever built. After Germany invaded France, the US took possession of the Normandie, in port in New York City and turned her into a troop ship. Well...that didn't go so well because of a fire during the refit. She capsized in the Hudson and had to be salvaged. Unfortunately, she was scrapped in 1946 because it was too expensive to restore her. https://seanmunger.com/2015/02/09/a-testament-to-human-stupidity-the-sad-fate-of-the-s-s-normandie/
So besides being a naval and military history nerd, I'm a docent at an art museum here in DC. The Art Deco period of the 20s and 30s is one of my favorites. Well, when youtubing the St. Nazaire Raid, I stumbled into this high quality color documentary filmed in the 1930s on the Normandie. This ship is ridiculous, the clothes the people were wearing are amazing. A real piece of history.
For those who never heard of the St. Nazaire Raid, the quick summary is that 660 or so British sailors and commandos raided and destroyed the dry dock of St. Nazaire in March of 1942. After chasing and sinking the Bismarck (https://youtu.be/amq6BIMwxzk), the Admiralty knew they could not afford the other German super battleship the Tirpitz and her sisters to break loose into the Atlantic and wreak havoc on their supply convoys. They felt the best way to prevent this was to destroy the only dry dock in German occupied territory along the Atlantic big enough to repair their battleships - the Normandie Lock in St. Nazaire Brittany France.
The plan of the raid is like a crazy 80s action movie plot. They loaded an old rust bucket destroyer, HMS Campbeltown, with 4 tons of high-explosives on a delayed fuse, sneak her and 18 wood hulled motor launches into the Nazaire harbor which was defended by two dozen coastal defense artillery guns. They ram the Campbeltown into the dock under heavy fire, fight their way out of the ship and blow up the pump station and door house of the lock. Unfortunately, the motor launches that were supposed to exfiltrate the commandos were all blown to hell by the Germans so they had to fight their way out of the port and 300 miles into Spain. Only a handful made it to Spain, and the vast majority of the survivors were captured. The next morning, the fuse of the Campbeltown went off and blew the lock doors to the dock to kingdom come. The King awarded 5 Victoria Crosses to the raiders. Seriously, don't know why this hasn't been made into a movie.
So, I went on youtube to look up any documentaries and came across this great one by Jeremy Clarkson of Top Gear fame. Watch it.
Making of the documentary:
Now...here's the best part. The dry dock is called the Normandie Lock, because that's where shipbuilders Chantiers de Penhoët built the flagship, SS Normandie, for the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique ("CGT") - the French ocean and shipping line.
http://cruiselinehistory.com/cruise...united-states-and-qe-2-face-a-similar-demise/
Forget the Queen Mary, Normandie was the most beautiful, elegant, technologically advanced, and fastest transatlantic ocean liner of that great era. She might arguably be the most aesthetically beautiful machine ever made. She was launched in 1932 and still has the record as the fastest steam turbo-electric passenger ship ever built. After Germany invaded France, the US took possession of the Normandie, in port in New York City and turned her into a troop ship. Well...that didn't go so well because of a fire during the refit. She capsized in the Hudson and had to be salvaged. Unfortunately, she was scrapped in 1946 because it was too expensive to restore her. https://seanmunger.com/2015/02/09/a-testament-to-human-stupidity-the-sad-fate-of-the-s-s-normandie/
So besides being a naval and military history nerd, I'm a docent at an art museum here in DC. The Art Deco period of the 20s and 30s is one of my favorites. Well, when youtubing the St. Nazaire Raid, I stumbled into this high quality color documentary filmed in the 1930s on the Normandie. This ship is ridiculous, the clothes the people were wearing are amazing. A real piece of history.
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