| Record Number |
869562 |
| ISBN |
9780241567678 (paperback) |
| Author |
Whittell, Giles author |
| Title |
The greatest raid : St Nazaire, 1942: the heroic story of Operation Chariot / Giles Whittell. |
| Publisher/Date |
London : Viking, 2022. |
| ©2022 |
| Pagination etc. |
xxix, 263 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, maps, portraits ; 24 cm. |
| Bibliography, etc. note |
Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| Summary Note |
A dramatic and colourful new account of the most daring British commando raid of World War Two In the darkest months of the WW2, Churchill approved what seemed to many like a suicide mission. Under orders to attack the St Nazaire U-boat base on the Atlantic seaboard, British commandos undertook "the greatest raid of all", turning an old destroyer into a live bomb and using it to ram the gates of a Nazi stronghold. Five Victoria Crosses were awarded -- more than in any similar operation. Drawing on official documents, interviews, unknown accounts and the astonished reactions of French civilians and German forces, The Greatest Raid recreates in cinematic detail the hours in which the "Charioteers" fought and died, from Lt Gerard Brett, the curator at the V & A, to "Bertie" Burtinshaw, who went into battle humming There'll Always be an England, and from Lt Stuart Chant, who set the fuses with 90 seconds to escape, to the epic solo reconnaissance of the legendary Times journalist Lt Micky Burn. Unearthing the untold human stories of Operation Chariot, Giles Whittell reveals it to be a fundamentally misconceived raid whose impact and legacy was secured by astonishing bravery. |
| Subject |
Saint Nazaire Raid, 1942 |
| World War, 1939-1945 -- Commando operations -- France -- Saint-Nazaire |
| World War, 1939-1945 -- Naval operations, British |
| Great Britain -- Armed Forces -- Commando troops |
| Shelf Location |
940.54214 WHIT |
