St-Nazaire
St. Nazaire is a peculiar feature for two reasons. In one respect it is a tide-dependent naval base with several sluices, one of them concrete protected, and she was the scene of one of the most daring raid operations of the World War II.
St. Nazaire had a special significance for the British from the beginning of the war. The reason for it was the fact that the town, noted for its shipyards, housed one of the greatest dry docks of the western Hemisphere, the Ecluse Joubert. Better known as the Normandy lock. This was not a tribute to the landscape but reference to the luxury steamer "Normandy" which was built in St. Nazaire in the 1920s. The port of St. Nazaire only can be reached by sluices and to this end such a one had to be built for the "Normandy".
It was a stroke of luck for the German navy because its philosophy of the raider war of single capital ships presupposed a dry dock for the overhaul and repair of the damages to be expected. And there was such a giant dock after the won blitzkrieg at the Atlantic now. This one was big enough for super battleships like the "Bismarck", its sister ship "Tirpitz" (both 50 000 tons) or the aircraft carrier "Zeppelin", this one still in the making, a nightmare for England.
At first there was, however, no talk of this in 1940 yet. It was all about the erection of another submarine base which should become the home of two U-Flotillas here first. The first boat which pulled in the new base was U 46 under Lieutenant Engelbert Endrass on September 21, 1940. Similar to Brest and Lorient the work for a submarine bunker started February 1941. It was set up on the western side of the Bassin de St. Nazaire in immediate proximity to the town. Its extents are 295 m of width, 130 m of length and 18 m of height. 480,000 cubic metres of concrete were needed for this 39,000 square metre bunker. At the northern end of the building the so urgently required power supply and other logistical installations were put behind concrete. The roof was not covered with "Fangrost" as a whole as planned. Simply, the time was missing for this. A third of the total area carries this "Fangrost". Another third only featured the supporting-walls, the last third remained"naked". Already after a record time of only four months Karl Dönitz opened the first U-boat boxes in June 1941.
Two sluices connected the basin with the high seas. The old entrance also called east entrance was directly opposite to the bunker and the south entrance, which was located to the right of the building. When the threat by Anglo American bomber units increased extremely within the next years the navel office decided in 1943 to set up a bunker sluice parallel to the east entrance. It is 155 m long, 25 m wide with a maximum height of 14 m. Four 20 mm flak were placed at all corners.
In June 1941, the 7. U-Flotilla, the "Wegener-Flotilla", designated after Admiral Wolfgang Wegener, was transferred from Kiel to St. Nazaire. The 6. U-Flotilla the "Hundius-Flotilla" (famous submarine commanding officer of World War I) moves from Gdansk to St. Nazaire in February 1942. Especially the 7. Flotilla produced a number of successful commanding officers and boats. The most famous was surely U 48. Except for it was the most successful boat of the navy with 54 sunk ships, it materialized to its commanding officers and crew members five Knight's Crosses with Oak Leaves (Ritterkreuz mit Eichenlaub). Another U-boat legend was Lieutenant-Commander Erich Topp and U 552. He belonged to the few survivors whom it is granted to experience the entire war time from day one to the final one uninjured. On his account went 34 sinkings with altogether 191 411 tons. Particularly the first weeks after the beginning of the submarine war off the U.S. coast let soar the success statistics of the Flotillas St. Nazaire
The sinking of the "Bismarck" on May 27, 1941 and the permanent threat by the "Tirpitz" creates a nee within the English leadership to end the topic once and for all, but how? Air raids are not possible. If one already is in no position to eliminate the giant bunker, how is it possible to strike a small target like a lock? The answer is a raid of World War I.
Sir Roger Leyes was director of combined Operations in 1940/41. He was also the brain that planned and executed the raid on the lock at Zeebrugge in 1918. And now, there was to be a similar attack again, only better and bigger than in 1918. Lord Mountbatten took over from Sir Roger in October 1941. He picked up the idea again. He consulted specialists, among others Captain W. H. Pritchard of the Royal engineers. Pritchard identified the entrance to the Normandy lock, the sluice gate as the weak point of St. Nazaire.
The two gigantic gates weighed 1 500 tons each. They were hollow, carried water ballast and were pulled out on wheels in and from the lock. Two engine huts stood on the two sides of the lock. The pump room was next to that. A possible destruction of gate and adjacent installations would have eliminated the danger. While Pritchard was examining closely the sluice as a primary objective, others concerned themselves around further rewarding targets in an immediate proximity of the sluice. The south sluice and the bridges are considered as valuable targets. Finally, l24 targets stand on the list: eight sluice gates, six machine buildings, six gun emplacements and four bridges.
Lord Mountbatten gave green light for an operation with the code name “Chariot” on February 6, 1942. The plan provided the use of a bigger ship which should ram the Normandy sluice gate. The forecastle was loaded with 4.5 tons of depth charges which were put into six chambers with 24 cargo loads of Mk VII, each. The complete cargo load was protected by a "packing" made of steel and concrete against ramming damages. The complete explosive cargo load was provided with an eight hour delayed-action fuse.
A 50 year old destroyer whom the Americans gave to the English with 49 others in exchange of naval and air bases on the West Indian islands was selected for the operation. It was the "Buchanan" built in 1919 and was re-named in "HMS Campbeltown".
Three attack groups were formed for the operation. Chief of the Chariot group was Lieutenant Colonel Charles Newman. Captain William Pritchard was leader of the 90 men strong demolition team. The "Campbeltown" was accompanied by a whole armada of motor-torpedo-boats (MTBs) and motor launches (ML) as well as two Hunt class destroyers, the "HMS Tyndale" and "HMS Atherstone". On the one hand, they transported the commandos, on the other hand they had the task to destroy the sluice gates with torpedoes and, if the locks were open, to advance into the basin and shoot the torpedoes into the boxes of the U-boat bunker.
On March 26, 1942 at 14.00, the little armada left Falmouth. The journey at a south westerly course did not proceed undisturbed. A surfaced submarine was sighted by the "HMS Tyndale" and attacked. Although the U-boat did report the destroyers, but the small units before it submerges. By 20.00, 75 miles from St Nazaire the two destroyers said goodbye. Two hours later the British submarine "Sturgeon" signaled the correctness of the course by light. 40 sea miles still had to be covered. The fuses were activated on the “Campbeltown”.
As planned, St Nazaire was bombed again at 23:30 by the RAF. As still one wanted to spare the civilian population at this time, there was no bomb carpet. The aircraft of type Whitley dropped their bombs one by one. The crews of the 35 bombers were not aware about the real reason of their sortie. This strange action aroused the curiosity of the commanding flak officer Captain C.C Mecke who reported the following report to the Wehrmacht at midnight: "The behaviour of the RAF cannot be explained and parachute jumps are to be expected". At 01.20 observers notify the appearance of an almost mile long convoy on the river. Mecke reported: "Expect landing!"
Already five minutes earlier the commander of the coastal artillery Lieutenant Commander Dieckmann, had given battle readiness. A navy searchlight illuminated the scene by 01.22 on Saturday morning. The British Commander Ryder answered in German after that: "We are according to order on the way to the port". This communication went to and fro for a couple of minutes and permitted the English convoy to come closer to the target. It was only another mile or six minutes up to the target now.
The "Campbeltown" as well as the other British boats opened fire which was returned by the Germans right away. Commander Ryder formulated the moment later : This attack is difficult to describe, with which intensity the attack is carried forward and with which rage it was returned".
Colonel Newman standing on the leading boat watched the "Campeltown" in the centre of the German fire. Lit up by innumerable headlights the old destroyer held course on the Normandy sluice gate unflustered. Lieutenant Commander Stephen Beattie the captain of the "Campeltown" corrected his course at the old mole for the last time. Then at 01.34, he ploughed with 20 knots through the torpedo net and on to ram the lock gate with full force
By the force of the impact the old destroyer was almost thrown onto the gate, the bow robbed of its floor by twelve metres. While the surviving commandos were forcing their way from the wreck to the port, others opened the floor valves of the ship to let it drop irrevocably with the tail on the seabed. Through this a towing of the wreck by the Germans was prevented.
While the crew of the "Campeltown" was storming the port under heavy losses, the MTBs dropped or tried at least to drop their commandos ashore. Ml 192 was hit badly and rammed the old mole, only five of the commando survived. ML 262 was getting perforated, almost everybody got killed. Ml 268 got a direct hit on the river and exploded in the midst of burning petrol. Only two soldiers survived the inferno. Some MLs succeeded in dropping their commandos ashore, others got into fire and changed course. Very few for example ML 160, fired torpedoes against a ship they believed was Sperrbrecher (blockage breaker) 137.
The commandos that made it ashore did now for what they had exercised for weeks. Lieutenant Rodericks group knocked out four gun emplacements within 20 minutes. Captain Roy destroyed the gun on top of the pump house and took position at the bridge to the old lock as planned to keep it open for the retreat of the demolition teams.
Lieutenant Chant had the most difficult job. He had got the task to destroy the pump house. They had rehearsed this at the identical building at the big King George V dock in Southhampton countless times and therefore found the way 30 m deep in the dark into the heart of the pump room. After having activated the fuse they ha got 90 seconds to leave the buildings. The blowing-up of the other machines houses went similarly successful. Only the team that was supposed to take care of the other Normandy lock gate got problems since the circumstances in St. Nazaire differed from those in Southhampton.
After 30 minutes the Demolition teams had finished their job. Even if the “Campbeltown” would not have exploded, the big sluice would have been put out of action for months. Now it was time to withdrawal. The problem was that those who were ashore did not know that the retreat was cut off. None of the ML or MTBs had made it to the assembly point at the mole. All were either destroyed or pushed to the open sea by the German fire. Colonel Newman reconnoitred the mole however, saw only devastation, no boats. It was obvious that this route was not going to take them out of St. Nazaire.
Soldierly the situation was hopeless. The survivors were enclosed by the water. In front of them was only the bridge over the south sluice which was occupied by Germans, however. But the British had no intention in giving up. They wanted to break out! Like wildfire the order was spread to fight by the German lines, reach the flat country and begin the way home via Spain. This attack on the bridge, called bridge D or also bridge of Memories by the English should come in into the history books in a row with such heroic actions like “Rorkes Drift” or” The Charge of the Light Brigade”.
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Captain Roy and his men stormed the bridge and tried desperately to break out of the town. But breaking daylight and further German reinforcements made the plan impossible. One after the other became a victim of the Germans. Meanwhile, German soldiers searched the inside of the "Campeltown". A hidden cargo was suspected however, nothing was found.
By 10:00, the suspected explosion time, Colonel Newman and his small heap of survivors sat as prisoners in the German headquarters. But no explosion sounded at the expected time. A violent explosion shook the port only at 10:35. The "Campbeltown" had flown into the air. With it approximately 150 Germans who worked inside the sluice, on the destroyer or on two tankers were atomized. It rained debris in a radius of a mile the sluice was flooded by the sea.
The Sunday was used by the Germans to tidy up this and the dockers were permitted to go to work on Monday morning. Suddenly 50 hours after the explosion of the” Campbeltown” another big bang shook St. Nazaire. The Germans suspected an attack of the resistance and ordered house searches. The orders were hardly assigned one further explosion shook the port. This was too much for the nerves of the German soldiers. The whole day shots lashed through the streets, kiled and hurt civilians and soldiers alike. It was one single, gigantic chaos.
The casualty numbers were depressing. Of the 611 British who were aboard the ships 169 got killed. 200 went into captivity. The Germans lamented 42 killed and 127 injured men. The casualties from the massive explosion of the "Campeltown" were not mentioned. Hitler went wild when he heard about the raid. The destruction is so immense that it would last to 1948 until the Normandy lock was operational again.
Only five men succeeded in realizing Colonel Newman's order to win a way to the open country to reach England through Spain.