(2/6) The Greatest Raid of All World War II

The St. Nazaire Raid (also called Operation Chariot) was a successful British seaborne attack on the heavily defended docks of St. Nazaire in occupied France on the night of March 28, 1942 during World War II. The operation was undertaken by Royal Navy and Army Commando units under the auspices of Louis Mountbatten's Combined Operations.

The obsolete destroyer HMS Campbeltown commanded by Stephen Halden Beattie and accompanied by 18 shallow draft boats, rammed the St. Nazaire lock gates and was blown up, ending use of the dock. Commandos landed on the docks and destroyed other dock structures before attempting to fight their way out. All but 27 of the commandos were either killed or captured: 22 escaped back to Britain in the motor torpedo boats and 5 to the Spanish border.

The loss of St. Nazaire as a dry dock would force any large German warship in need of repairs to have to return to home waters.

Five Victoria crosses were awarded to men involved in the raid, which has been called The Greatest Raid of All.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• World
• War
• II
• The
• Greatest
• Raid
• of
• All
• St.
• Nazaire
• HMS
• Campbelltown
• Opeartion
• Chariot
• Commandos
• France
• Britain

[sam86ni]

@kevbis if you had watched the first video you would know why they couldnt use a sub to do the job.

[sam86ni]

@kevbis if you had watched the first video you would know why they couldnt use a sub to do the job.

[Rhyas9]

The sarcasm is strong in Clarkson. :]

[autoloadable]

2:13 rofl XD

[Flickchaser]

Nuggets from the past!! Those "Blokes" across the "pond" deserve respect.

[FRANKHODGES39]

Most cool!

[l2a3sterling]

This is the "Top GEAR" host?

[sheemsheem]

``its possl3le, cuz its impossil3le.....the germs would never think we would doi it`` wow...crazy quotes...all service meml3ers are insane! (in a good way)

[aa7xcc]

damn against all odds they managed to pull it off!

[OneWorldHistory]

You know, a professor of history, familiar with much of this, but not a scholar of these specifics, listening to this off-hand while doing other things like washing the dishes, and typing with even less resolute attention; this is hilarious, fun and exciting.

Thanks for upload!

[muzlinkage]

@kevbis You asked a stupid question. Someone was charitable enough to answer it. Then you tell them to fuck off? A sub?- TROOPS? grow a brain dickhead.

[madhan1320566]

Next to impossible