The Greatest Naval Sacrifice of WW2 (Five Victoria Crosses in One Night) скачать в хорошем качестве

The Greatest Naval Sacrifice of WW2 (Five Victoria Crosses in One Night)

On March 28th, 1942, HMS Campbeltown—a converted American destroyer packed with 4.5 tons of explosives—rammed into the Normandie dry dock at Saint-Nazaire, France, in one of the most audacious commando raids of World War II. The target was the only facility on the Atlantic coast capable of servicing the German battleship Tirpitz, whose mere existence tied down critical Royal Navy resources and threatened every convoy route to Britain. Lieutenant-Commander Stephen Beattie drove Campbeltown through a gauntlet of German fire up the Loire estuary, accompanied by sixteen wooden motor launches carrying 265 commandos from Number 2 Commando under Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Newman. After ramming the dock gates at 01:34, commandos destroyed the pumping stations and winding gear while Campbeltown sat embedded with her hidden time-delayed charges ticking toward detonation. Eight hours later, as 360 German officers inspected the "harmless" wreck, the ship exploded with catastrophic force, obliterating the dock and killing everyone aboard. Of the 612 men who sailed from Falmouth, only 228 returned home—169 were killed and 215 captured—but the operation earned five Victoria Crosses, more than any other single action of the war, and successfully neutralized the Tirpitz threat by denying her access to Atlantic waters for the remainder of her existence. The Normandie dock remained inoperable until 1948, three years after the war ended, making Operation Chariot one of the most strategically successful raids in military history.