St Nazaire Commando

Author : Ken Ford
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1849087202
Total Pages : 160 pages
Book Rating : 4.09/5 ( download)

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Download or read book St Nazaire 1942 written by Ken Ford and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2011-01-01 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The raid on the port of St Nazaire in March 1942 by a sea-borne task force from British Combined Operations remains one of the most daring actions of World War II. The port lies at the mouth of the River Loire and in 1942, as well as a U-Boat base, contained the massive 'Normandie' dock, the only facility on the Atlantic coast large enough to accommodate the German pocket battleship Tirpitz. This book tells the story of the raid on St Nazaire that denied the use of the dock to the Tirpitz, the sister ship of the Bismarck, and constituted a crucial victory in the Battle of the Atlantic.

Author : Jon Cooksey
Publisher : Casemate Publishers
ISBN 13 : 1783409444
Total Pages : 291 pages
Book Rating : 4.40/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Operation Chariot written by Jon Cooksey and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2005-09-19 with total page 291 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By March 1942, mainland France had been under German occupation for almost two years. Every month that passed saw Germany bolster her defenses against an expected allied invasion. Every month that passed saw Germany tighten her grip on Britain's transatlantic lifeline; menacing allied shipping from the French west coast ports. At St Nazaire on the Loire estuary, the vast Normandie dry dock was the only one capable of holding the mighty battleship Tirpitz, still at large and free to hunt allied ships. Something had to be done. Operation Chariot was conceived; an audacious plan to mount a large-scale commando raid on the Normandie dock using a loaned US destroyer packed with high explosive as a battering ram. For the Germans at St Nazaire the invasion came earlier than expected. In the dead of night British commandos were landed and swarmed over the quaysides to destroy key installations. Grit, determination and training carried them forward to accomplish their mission at a heavy price in dead, wounded and captured. The award of more than eighty decorations for the raid - including five VCs - bore witness to the ferocity of the struggle to strike at the Germans in France.

Author : Ken Ford
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1846035473
Total Pages : 96 pages
Book Rating : 4.70/5 ( download)

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Download or read book St Nazaire 1942 written by Ken Ford and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2011-03-15 with total page 96 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The raid on the port of St Nazaire in March 1942 by a sea-borne task force from British Combined Operations remains one of the most daring actions of World War II. The port lies at the mouth of the River Loire and in 1942, as well as a U-Boat base, contained the massive 'Normandie' dock, the only facility on the Atlantic coast large enough to accommodate the German pocket battleship Tirpitz. This book tells the story of the raid on St Nazaire that denied the use of the dock to the Tirpitz, the sister ship of the Bismarck, and constituted a crucial victory in the Battle of the Atlantic.

Author : Jean-Charles Stasi
Publisher : Casemate
ISBN 13 : 1612007309
Total Pages : 130 pages
Book Rating : 4.04/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Operation Chariot written by Jean-Charles Stasi and published by Casemate. This book was released on 2019-11-19 with total page 130 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An illustrated history of the World War II British amphibious attack on a dry dock in the German-occupied French town. At the beginning of 1942, the prospect of Germany’s Tirpitz, the heaviest battleship ever built by a European navy, patrolling the Atlantic posed a huge threat to the convoys that were the lifeline for Britain. Bombing raids to destroy the ship failed. A more radical plan was conceived to destroy the dry-dock facility at St Nazaire on the French Atlantic coast. Without the use of the only suitable base for the ship, the threat would be neutralized. The plan was to ram the entrance gates with a ship packed with explosives on a delayed fuse. A motorboat armed with torpedoes would fire at the inner gate causing further damage to submarine pens. The troops and crew would then destroy as many dockyard targets as they could and withdraw in fast motor launches that had followed them in. All this was to be achieved under cover of an air raid. HMS Campbeltown, a U.S. lend-lease destroyer, was chosen for the task. On the night of March 27, the raid commenced. The Campbeltown succeeded in lodging its bows in the outer gates. The fuses detonated the explosives in its hold the following day. The dock gates were destroyed. The cost to the Allies was high, but the Tirpitz was never able to leave Norwegian waters. This volume in the Casemate Illustrated series gives a clear overview of the planning and execution of the raid and its aftermath, accompanied by 125 photographs and images, including color profiles and maps.

Author : Stuart Chant-Sempill
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780891413158
Total Pages : 236 pages
Book Rating : 4.54/5 ( download)

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Download or read book St. Nazaire Commando written by Stuart Chant-Sempill and published by . This book was released on 1987 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Author : James Dorrian
Publisher : Casemate Publishers
ISBN 13 : 178340972X
Total Pages : 405 pages
Book Rating : 4.23/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Saint-Nazaire written by James Dorrian and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2006-09-15 with total page 405 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In early 1942, shipping losses in the Atlantic threatened Britain's very survival. In addition to the U-Boat menace, there was real concern that the mighty German battleship Tirpitz be unleashed against the vital Allied convoys. Yet only the 'Normandie' Dock at St Nazaire could take her vast size in the event of repairs being required. Destroy that and the Tirpitz would be neutralized.Thus was born Operation CHARIOT, the daring Commando raid that, while ultimately successful, proved hugely costly. Using personal accounts, James Dorrian describes the background and thrilling action that resulted in the award of five Victoria Crosses.In a dramatic final twist of events, once the battle was over, the converted former US warship Campelton blew up wrecking the dock gates and killing many Germans who thought the battle was won.

Author : James Dorrian
Publisher : Casemate Publishers
ISBN 13 : 1844153347
Total Pages : 225 pages
Book Rating : 4.43/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Saint-Nazaire written by James Dorrian and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2006-01-01 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In early 1942, shipping losses in the Atlantic threatened Britain's very survival. In addition to the U-Boat menace, there was real concern that the mighty German battleship Tirpitz be unleashed against the vital Allied convoys. Yet only the 'Normandie' Dock at St Nazaire could take her vast size in the event of repairs being required. Destroy that and the Tirpitz would be neutralized.Thus was born Operation CHARIOT, the daring Commando raid that, while ultimately successful, proved hugely costly. Using personal accounts, James Dorrian describes the background and thrilling action that resulted in the award of five Victoria Crosses.In a dramatic final twist of events, once the battle was over, the converted former US warship Campelton blew up wrecking the dock gates and killing many Germans who thought the battle was won.

Author : Giles Whittell
Publisher : National Geographic Books
ISBN 13 : 0241992257
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.58/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Greatest Raid written by Giles Whittell and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 2023-02-28 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'I loved this book, as I love any good adventure story sublimely told . . . a gloriously exciting high, followed by a crushing realisation of war's enormous waste' Gerard deGroot, The Times 'Absorbing . . . The extraordinary bravery of the participants shines out from the narrative' Patrick Bishop, Sunday Telegraph _________________________________ FROM THE AUTHOR OF BRIDGE OF SPIES: A dramatic and colourful new account of the most daring British commando raid of World War Two In the darkest months of the Second World War, Churchill approved what seemed to many like a suicide mission. Under orders to attack the St Nazaire U-boat base on the Atlantic seaboard, British commandos undertook "the greatest raid of all", turning an old destroyer into a live bomb and using it to ram the gates of a Nazi stronghold. Five Victoria Crosses were awarded -- more than in any similar operation. Drawing on official documents, interviews, unknown accounts and the astonished reactions of French civilians and German forces, The Greatest Raid recreates in cinematic detail the hours in which the "Charioteers" fought and died, from Lt Gerard Brett, the curator at the V & A, to "Bertie" Burtinshaw, who went into battle humming There'll Always be an England, and from Lt Stuart Chant, who set the fuses with 90 seconds to escape, to the epic solo reconnaissance of the legendary Times journalist Capt Micky Burn. Unearthing the untold human stories of Operation Chariot, Bridge of Spies author Giles Whittell reveals it to be a fundamentally misconceived raid whose impact and legacy was secured by astonishing bravery. _________________________________ 'Enthralling . . . the heroism on display that night was unsurpassed, and Whittell is right to call his book The Greatest Raid' Simon Griffith, Mail on Sunday 'A compelling page-turner, the work of a master storyteller. The drama of the March 1942 operation is cinematic in its sweep and detail -- and Whittell's detective work on the real reasons for the raid is extraordinary. Beautifully written' Matthew d'Ancona

Author : Peter Stanley
Publisher : Allen & Unwin
ISBN 13 : 1742660738
Total Pages : 304 pages
Book Rating : 4.38/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Commando to Colditz written by Peter Stanley and published by Allen & Unwin. This book was released on 2009-10-01 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A compelling, riveting read, Commando to Colditz is an unusual — perhaps unique — war story. It is centred around a most unusual war hero: Michael 'Micky' Burn, soldier, poet and novelist, whose journey from fascist follower, to commander of Six Troop, to Commando, to prisoner (and communist lecturer) in the notorious prison of Colditz forms the focal point of this powerful narrative. In 1942 Micky led his commando troop of 28 men on one of the most daring raids of the Second World War, the assault on the French port of St Nazaire. As a result of this 'night of fire and death', fourteen of Micky's men were killed; seven, including Burn, were captured. Micky's bond with his soldiers is at the story's heart. Before the raid, he had asked his parents to write to his men's families if the worst should happen; the result was the creation of a rich and moving archive of letters between these grieving or anxious families, letters that illuminate the lives and deaths of a small but close-knit group of British soldiers and those who loved them.

Author : James Dorrian
Publisher : Pen and Sword
ISBN 13 : 1783461543
Total Pages : 409 pages
Book Rating : 4.47/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Storming St. Nazaire written by James Dorrian and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2009-04-21 with total page 409 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This WWII history examines an early British commando raid on Nazi occupied France through extensive interviews with survivors from both sides. On March 28th, 1942, a combined force of British Commandos and Royal Navy disembarked for the Atlantic coast of Nazi-occupied France. Their mission, Operation Chariot, was a daring amphibious attack on a fortified drydock in the port of Saint-Nazaire. The obsolete destroyer HMS Campbeltown was packed with delayed-action explosives and rammed into the gates of Normandie Dock. Though the dock was destroyed, the underequipped raiding party faced an overwhelming counter-attack. Though the St. Nazaire raid was a significant event in the evolution of special warfare tactics, it has not been studied in detail. Historian James Dorrian draws on interviews with more than a hundred survivors, both British and German, to present this remarkable account. Storming St. Nazaire covers all aspects of the engagement, including the final ironic incident that resulted in more German casualties than the main battle itself.