A Royal Navy speedboat practices for the Saint Nazaire raid in coastal waters near the United Kingdom, circa early 1942. Similar boats were used during the raid to inflict severe damage on the Saint Nazaire docks, though the mission came at a heavy cost. (Royal Navy)

‘Operation Chariot’: How a British Commando Force Destroyed a French Port in World War II 

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Though successful, the operation came at a steep cost; of the roughly 600 commandos sent on the raid, nearly 400 were killed or captured.

In the early morning of March 28, 1942, the British destroyer HMS Campbeltown slammed into the gates of the Normandie dry dock at Saint-Nazaire in German-occupied France. The aging American-built vessel had a decidedly unusual cargo aboard: four and a half tons of explosives packed in the bow.

Timed with the explosive landing, British commandos simultaneously stormed ashore, in a mission codenamed Operation Chariot. The objective, in what would become one of the most daring British raids of World War II, wasn’t to capture the port, but simply to render the strategically vital dry dock unusable for the remainder of the war.

The British Plan to Attack Saint-Nazaire

Sitting near the mouth of the Loire........

© The National Interest