The St Nazaire Raid
Did delayed explosives crush the Nazi navy?
4.4 (39)
43 mins
Explore the daring World War II commando raid known as Operation Chariot that targeted Nazi naval power in France. Discover how British forces packed the destroyer HMS Campbeltown with hidden explosives and rammed it straight into the dry dock gates. Learn about the delayed detonation that destroyed the facility and kept the feared battleship Tirpitz out of the Atlantic.
Ep 1:
Britain's Breaking Point
With Britain starving under U-boat blockade and the mighty Tirpitz looming, one dry dock becomes the key to the war—and Churchill's unconventional commandos the only hope of destroying it.
Ep 2:
A Bomb Named Campbeltown
A rickety WWI destroyer is turned into a four-ton floating bomb for a near-impossible mission: Operation Chariot sails for France, slipping past German guns under cover of stolen codes.
Ep 3:
Into the Firestorm
HMS Campbeltown rams the dock gate as commandos storm ashore into withering fire—then discover their escape route home has become a blazing inferno.
Ep 4:
The Greatest Raid of All
Dawn reveals staggering losses and a bomb that refuses to explode—until it does, sealing the Tirpitz's fate and cementing a legend of impossible courage.
Discussions (5)
Jack
Level 2 · 6 days agoThe part about Tirpitz never sinking a single vessel hit hard. All that fear and firepower, neutralized by destroying one dock. Strategic thinking at its finest.
Hank
Level 8 · 6 days agoThe Tirpitz spent the war in a fjord doing literally nothing, me on my days off
Horace
Level 4 · 6 days agoSix hundred men, a clapped-out destroyer, plywood boats with exposed fuel tanks, and an acid fuse nobody trusted. The Germans called it impossible. Churchill called it Tuesday.
