The Greatest Raid of All

St Nazaire, 1.34-a.m. 28 March 1942 - the destroyer HMS Campbeltown, with her Oerlikons blazing at the enemy guns only a few yards away, crashed with terrific force into one of the enormous lock gates of the Normandie Dock...Operation Chariot had reached its climax. Its object was to destroy the essential gear of the largest dock in the world, so that it could not be used by German battleships, and it was brilliantlysuccessful in its main purpose. The story of the assault, under a storm of enemy fire at point-blank range which set the sea itself on fire, and of the heroism of the men in the 'little ships' raid, carried out by Royal Navy forces no fewer than five VCs were awarded -is one of the most thrilling and vivid to come out of any war. 'A deed of glory intimately involved in high strategy-Winston Churchill.