Operation Chariot was the name given to the daring raid on St Nazaire 28 March 1942. 144 men were killed, 215 were captured and 271 made it home.

Below, we will focus on the stories of three men who were onboard the Fairmile C Motor Gunboat MGB 314: Robert Ryder, William Savage and Dick Stephens.

First…

Why did the raid take place?

The German battleship Tirpitz presented a major threat to the Atlantic Convoys which were a vital lifeline to Britain throughout the war. As part of the wider damage limitation strategy, a plan was devised to destroy the only dock on the French Atlantic coast capable of taking her: St Nazaire. With that neutralised, Tirpitz would be limited to operations in the North Sea. The problem was that the Germans knew this and the port was very heavily defended as a result. The plans for Operation Chariot were generally regarded as suicidal and gained little support from the RAF or the Navy. Eventually, bowing to political pressure, the Navy allocated the obsolete destroyer HMS Campbeltown as the ‘bomb ship’, but instead of escorting her with destroyers and frigates, 18 Coastal Forces motor gunboats were allocated to the task.

What was the plan?

The flotilla was to sail from Falmouth, transit under cover of darkness some six miles up the Loire estuary into the harbour, where on a spring high tide, Campbeltown would ram the dock gates at full speed. A contingent of Commandos would land and cause havoc before delayed explosives in the ship detonated, flooding the dock. The Commandos would then board the gunboats and return home. The RAF eventually agreed to provide a token force of aircraft to cause a distraction, but they were worried about killing innocent French civilians.

What happened?

Amazingly, the force got almost to the dock gates undetected. Perhaps the Germans did not quite believe that something so foolhardy would be attempted? The RAF did turn up, but instead of creating a diversion, they attracted attention to the ships. A remarkable team onboard Campbeltown successfully impaled her on the dock gate and the Commandos streamed ashore under heavy German fire. The wooden gunboats, with no protection and limited firepower against the heavy shore guns and half full of petrol, took a beating. They had to get very close in to have any effect – massively increasing the risk to themselves. Of twelve allocated to landing Commandos, only three made it to the dockside. Nonetheless, enough men made it ashore to cause the intended havoc and destroy the pumping stations for the dock gate (they had practised at Southampton’s KG5 dock). By the time they came to withdraw, most of the gunboats had already been destroyed or were badly damaged. A small number managed to get onboard the ships, a tiny number managed to evade the Germans and got home one way or another, the remainder were killed or captured. Only three gunboats made it back to England. The explosives aboard Campbeltown detonated at 1130 local the following morning, completely destroying the dock gate and putting it out of action until 1947.

You can read more about Op Chariot in this excellent website run by the St Nazaire Society: Index

MGB 314

MGB 314, a Fairmile C 110ft MGB built in North Wales in 1941, was the Command platform for the operation. She was the most heavily armed gunboat in the raid and selected to host the Force Commanders. This was due in part to her seasoned crew, who had been involved in special operations work since coming out of build. Her commanding officer, Lieutenant Dunstan Curtis was an RNVR officer who was awarded the DSC and the Croix de Guerre for this operation. Amazingly, MGB 314, having been in the vanguard of the flotilla as they approached the dock and was the last to leave, made it almost out to sea when she came across an armed trawler which opened an uncomfortable heavy, but not very accurate fire. This slowed their progress and even as they got clear of the searchlights, splinters from one of the very last shells fired from ashore killed the forward gun crew.

There were 24 naval personnel onboard. Between them they were awarded two Victoria Crosses, three DSCs and four DSMs.

Three ordinary men doing extraordinary things