Most guys my age remember the 1960 Johnny Horten hit, 'Sink The Bismarck.' The German pocket battleship, circling north of Scotland and Iceland and into the Denmark Straight, had met and sunk the HMS Hood, badly damaging the HMS Prince of Wales, pride of the British navy, on 24-May-1940. Sustaining damage in the battle, Bismarck headed to the only dry dock on the Atlantic coast of Europe capable of handling a ship of her size: St. Nazarre, France. British carrier bi-planes caught up with her before reaching St. Nazarre, damaging her rudder, causing her to move in circles, virtually helpless in the water. British heavy forces came up and, on 27-May-1940, after a two hour battle she was sunk off the coast of France west of Brest.
I have always been amazed at the "connections" in history. The dry dock at St. Nazarre was constructed for the SS Normandie, flagship of the French steamship line, CGT. Entering service in 1935, the proud Normandie held the record for cross-Atlantic luxury travel several times in her short career, a career that ended ignominiously when she caught fire and sunk at Pier 88 in New York harbor in 1942. Word leaked out that her sinking was the result of orders from the Mafia chieftain, Lucky Lucianno, at the time a guest of the state of New York at its famous Dannemora prison. Such supposed power impressed federal officials who made a deal with Lucianno soliciting the assistance of the corrupt union officials and loan sharks on the docks to protect against Nazi sabotage. This led, later, to using the connection with Lucianno, a close associate of the Sicilian mafia, to aid Patton's 7th U.S. Army's rapid movement through the center of Sicily.
After experiencing the firepower of the Bismarck, British grand strategy in early 1942 was to deny her sister ship, Tirpitz, and other large German battleships, access to an Atlantic repair port. Forcing them back to Germany for repairs would put them, effectively, "back in the box," a very desired result. This meant St. Nazarre had to be put out of action.
On 28-Mar-1942 British combined forces attacked St. Nazarre in what has been called the most successful commando raid in history. A force consisting of 617 British Navy and Army commandos aboard the specially fitted-out destroyer HMS Campbeltown and eighteen (18) motor launches and MTBs (Motor Torpedo Boats) entered the Loire at 01:22am. Spotted almost immediately, and lit up by brilliant searchlight, the Campbeltown broke through anti-torpedo nets strung across the entrance and crashed into the dry dock gates, ramming herself over 30 feet into the dry dock, at 01:34 am, only three minutes behind schedule. The commandos on board then left the ship, successrully attacking various targets as the ships crew set off scuttling charges placing her aft section firmly on the bottom. Simultaneously, timing fuses were set on over 4,500 lbs. of high explosives hidden in the bow of the ship. As soon as the Campbeltown was scuttled, MTB 74 carrying special torpedoes fired them at the gates of the outer lock leading to the submarine pens. Hitting the gates they sank, as intended, their fuses also ticking off as planned.
The motor launches had entered with the Campbeltown in two lines, one line to the port, the other to the starboard side of the channel. The area slated as the disembarkation point for the commandos was the "Old Mole," on the port side of the channel as the force entered (See map). Only one of the five launches assigned to capture and hold this important position was able to get through the heavy fire. Several of the starboard side launches reached their objectives and were able to land troops, however most of the launches were destroyed on the way in. This left the operation with very few boats on which to return to sea. Determining to fight until their ammunition ran out, many of the commandos were eventually forced to surrender and became prisoners of war.
At noon that morning the Campbeltown's hidden surprise detonated killing forty high-ranking German commanders and civilians inspecting the ship, and over 300 workers on the quay adjacent. Two days later, the special torpedoes fired by MTP 74 exploded destroying the entrance to the old basin. Of the 617 men involved in the attack, 169 were killed in action, 215 became prisoners of war, and 233 returned to England, five (5) of them by escaping south through France, into Spain and Gilbraltar. I bet that's a hell of a story by itself.
The red arrow is the Normandie dry dock. The yellow is the submarine pens.
Sub-pens from the front.
(Source: Wikipedia Commons)
 |
| Map of Sub-Pens (Source: www.uboat-bases.com) |
I think this adequately explains why Allied bombing had a lot of difficulty taking these guys out.
Looking back toward the ship channel.
Submariner's view coming back from shore leave.
From the channel-side looking back into a pen. The light is a bar now. I expect one had to walk a little further for a drink in 1942.
About mid-way up a pen looking through to several adjacent pens.
A mooring pin embedded into the wall of the pen.
Pen 11 markings.
Most know I'm a history nut. I just can't believe I'm getting such an opportunity to see all these places about which I've read so much over the years. I do appreciate it.
No comments:
Post a Comment