St Nazaire Revisited: A Young Boy’s Introduction to the Wartime Commando Raid

by Richard L. Hayden

St. Nazaire became a vital link in Hitler’s Fortress Europe almost immediately after the fall of France. Dönitz chose St. Nazaire as the sight of one of his submarine bases. Submarine Flotilla 7 operated from here, while Flotilla 6 was being formed.

These bases—Brest, La Pallice, St. Nazaire, Bordeaux and Lorient—gave the U-boats a major strategic advantage. The bases placed them hundreds of miles closer to their operating areas, allowing longer patrols, and now they could reach out into the Atlantic beyond the range of the British convoy escorts.

The Todt organization built the large submarine pens at St. Nazaire using many of the local Frenchmen. The roof of the pen is 16 feet of reinforced concrete to withstand the most powerful bombs of the Allies. The walls were extremely thick, as were the large doors which allowed vehicular traffic into the pens.

Although German U-boats, captained by such great aces as Erich Topp (U-552) had been using the nine completed pens steadily, St. Nazaire’s real claim to glory was her repair facilities and the largest dry dock in the world. This dock had been especially built for the French transatlantic liner Normandie.

The Normandie dock took on importance in 1942, when it was realized by the Admiralty that it was the only dock outside of Germany where the German battleship the Tirpitz could be repaired properly.

The Admiralty formulated a plan to destroy the dock, thus deterring the Tirpitz from trying to break out into the Atlantic as her sister ship, the Bismarck, had done. On the morning of 27 March 1942, the British plan culminated when H.M.S. Campbeltown rammed the outer caisson of the Normandie dock.

When the Campbeltown blew up shortly after noon on the 27th, the outer caisson was damaged beyond repair. British commandos had already knocked out the pumping station, that drained the dock, and the motor house that moved the caisson.

Although St. Nazaire remained in German hands until the end of the war, she lost most of her importance when the dock was destroyed. In the spring of 1943 daily air strikes were conducted against the sub pens and finally in 1944, when Patton’s Third Army broke out of Normandy, Dönitz ordered all U-boats to withdraw to Norway.

Note: The photographs shown on the following pages were taken by the author’s parents during a family vacation to Europe in the 1950s. The author is the young boy seen in two of the photographs.

Two of the many 75 mm gun emplacements HMS Campbeltown and her motor launches full of commandos passed on their way to the Normandie dock.

 

Another of the gun emplacements that guarded the harbor.

A bunker that housed some of the gun crews for the gun emplacements.

The new caisson and pump house which replaced the ones destroyed in the raid. Bunker on the left of the photo is the submarine entrance to the sub pens and basin.

Side view of large bunker that housed the sub entrance to the basin. In front of the bunker is the lock house for the “old entrance” which was one of the gathering places for the commandos.

Inner lock of the “old entrance” with sub basin and pens in background. The roof of the pens was 16 feet thick.

Remains of the underground fuel storage area to the east of the outer caisson.

View of the northwest side of the sub pens.

View of the southwest door to the sub pens. Note the steel door about three feet thick. This door allowed vehicular traffic into the pen area to re-outfit the U-boats.