Mission to Britain

by J Eugene Porter

  Lord Mountbatten with a pointer in his hand began his review of the raid. “The goal of this raid was to destroy the dry dock of St. Nazaire, built for the great French liner Normandie. This is the only dry dock capable of handling the German battleship Tirpitz in all of western Europe. Only the yards in Germany can service this great dangerous ship, so it was determined by the general staff that this dock is rendered harmless for the rest of the war. There is no way we would want the Tirpitz using this harbor, and denying it a safe haven and a repair facility was deemed the most prudent course of action.”

  Mountbatten smiled just a bit at James and then in a flat voice stated, “Therefore, we in Combined Operations were tasked with destroy-ing the dock. A group of commandos was assembled to carry out this operation, and a naval force would take them there and back. The mission entailed getting some six miles up the Loire estuary through very difficult German defensive positions, destroying the dock and all associated equipment.”

  Brand looked at Flannigan and saw the concern on his face. He knew that his Marine protector had experienced the seriousness of the training at the Commando School and how some of their recent students probably went on this raid. James turned his attention back to Admiral Mountbatten.

  “Our planning group decided to use the men from No. 2 Commando numbering one hundred seventy-two men, plus another ninety-two men from other commando units to serve as the landing force. A group of eighteen Royal Navy armed motor launches and torpedo boats would escort one of your Lend-Lease destroyers; you called it the Buchanan, renamed the HMS Campbeltown. We packed the ship with some four tons of explosives cemented in the bow. It would ram the great dock then explode some time later. Two additional Royal Navy destroyers would escort the entire group to the Bay of Biscay and await their return.”

  The British admiral pointed at the chart showing the mouth of the river Loire and continued his briefing. “Also, a Royal Navy submarine would be situated off the coast to provide accurate guidance into the mouth of the estuary. This mission launched on March 26 and the results have been gratifying.”

  James raised his hand. “Sir, how did you run this fleet all the way up this estuary without the Germans blowing it out of the water?”

  “Good question, Lieutenant. We thought about that for quite some time when we determined a seaborne assault would be the only way to ensure the destruction of the dock. The RAF had not been able to bomb it because of the serious nature of the anti-aircraft and smoke machines which make the target impossible to find from the air. The use of paratroopers such as the Bruneval raid was deemed impractical because of the location in the middle of a city and the impossibility of airborne troops carrying enough ammunition and explosives to do the job properly. The losses would be unsustainable and the probability of success, poor. So, the last option was a seaborne assault. Regular naval forces were not considered because of the narrow approach and the likelihood of aerial opposition which would, as we now know, render battleships or cruisers susceptible to great damage or worse.”

  Mountbatten then pointed to the map of the Loire estuary and continued his explanation. “The idea then moved to a hybrid attack using small ships and a larger vessel which could be made to look like a large German torpedo boat of the Mowe class. The Campbeltown was remade to look like one of the German vessels by removing two of its four funnels, making the remaining two angled in the style of the German ship she was to impersonate. We then built up the forward part of the ship to withstand heavy punishment from shore-based weapons. Heavy shields were constructed for the bridge areas and those areas along the waterline which cover the engine rooms. Additional cannons and Oerlikon guns were installed, and an all-volunteer skeleton crew was selected to run the ship into the dock.”

  The admiral then pointed at the map of the voyage saying, “The mission left Falmouth on the evening of the March 27, proceeded south, and ran into a U-boat which it engaged, so the Germans didn’t wonder what we were doing. Late that night, the Campbeltown and motor launches parted company with the two destroyers and moved in toward the Loire.” Mountbatten looked over at the map, pointing toward the town and the dock. He also pointed out the huge submarine pens built in the town not far from where the men would attack.

  “So, from the reports we have received so far, the attack began around 0100 hours with the Campbeltown being escorted by the eighteen small craft ahead and to each side of the ship. Germans noticed and signaled her, which because of some recently captured information, we responded that we had been attacked by the British and were coming into port for help. The ruse held the Germans off for a while but not long enough. The German defense came to life, and many of the motor launches were hit and set on fire. The Campbeltown sped up, and finally, in the face of tremendous fire, it rammed the dock. Reports tell us it was thirty feet up on the dock and jammed tight in place. The commandos on board the ship and survivors of the launches attacked their assigned targets, and most were successfully destroyed.”

  He took a sip of water from a glass at the side table and pointed out the other targets of interest, including pump rooms, mechanical spaces, ammunition bunkers, anti-aircraft batteries and other support facilities. “The commander of the operation, Lieutenant Colonel Newman determined there was no possibility of escape with the few remaining boats, so he had his men work their way into town to continue fighting, and if possible, head south to Spain. As of a few hours ago, we had not heard anything from his command. Five boats were able to pull some of the men off the dock and mole then head to sea. Four of them made it to our destroyers, but one was either captured or destroyed by the Germans. We do not have an accurate count of our losses, but I had informed Lieutenant Colonel Newman that we were writing his command off and not to expect to come back. He and his men were all volunteers and knew the importance of this mission. Captain Flannigan, since you participated in some of the commando training, would you agree these men knew exactly the nature of this job?”

  Flannigan had been examining the map. He understood how serious the mission was and how impossible it looked that anyone would survive it. “Sir, I believe any man who has won the commando title comprehends the nature of his mission completely and will do his best to succeed or die trying. These men knew what they were up against, and I hope many are still alive, even if they are now prisoners of war.”

  “Thank you, Captain, for your assessment. I also hope that many of the commandos and the naval personnel on this mission survived the engagement but again, I must urge all of us to be strong of purpose and look to the result of the raid. Here, gentlemen are two photographs. The first one is the great dock shot some three weeks ago from ten thousand feet.” He passed the picture around, and the Americans were pointing to the quality of the photograph and the amount of detail it showed. They could easily see the lock and the nearby submarine pens plus all the heavy defensive guns surrounding them. James wondered how the pilot had been so lucky as to get the photograph and added that to his mental checklist of things he needed to know.

  “Now gentlemen, this photograph was taken yesterday morning. Our sources in France informed us the explosives in the Campbeltown went off around noon on March 28 and destroyed the dock and much of the surrounding area. We understand a group of German officers of all ranks was investigating the ship and the damage to the dock when it blew, which was an unexpected bonus for our side.”

  The Americans could see the remains of the old destroyer and the mangled dock which was now mostly underwater, the massive doors to the dock were nowhere to be seen. The area around the dock was devoid of any standing building or machinery. James figured that everything within a quarter of a mile was destroyed by the large blast wave crushing everything in sight. Jameson looked up at Lord Mountbatten and asked, “Sir, I realize it’s early, but do you have any estimates of your losses?”

  Mountbatten did not look away nor did he seem insulted by the question but quickly answered. “We are still in the counting phase, but we believe
at least two hundred men, probably more, were taken as prisoners, and we estimate another one hundred killed in action, and again these are guesses for now. The Germans are horrid creatures, but they do adhere to the Geneva convention and will soon inform us of those held and those they have buried. Once we have those numbers, along with the ones who came back from the raid, we should have an accurate count. We have the strongest belief, however, that some of the men will turn up with the French Resistance or perhaps make it to Spain. These men are clever and cunning. They hate to surrender. We hope for the best, but at the end of the day, this raid was an outstanding success and will nullify the Tirpitz and keep her penned up in Norway where we can destroy her.”

  Mountbatten then looked directly at James. “Lieutenant Brand, I know you have a question or two, and I realize you will speak your mind, so please, ask away.” Mountbatten pulled up a chair at the end of the table and waited for the clever young man to ask his often-difficult questions.

  “Sir, first, this was a brilliant plan, and after your review, I see no other way it could have been accomplished.”

  Mountbatten acknowledged the statement and nodded his head signifying for Brand to continue.

  “Sir, knowing now, and it is truly early, what would you have done differently to ensure this success or limit losses?” James kept his head up, and he looked right at the admiral and commander of Combined Operations.

  “You certainly do not beat about the bush, if I have that American saying correct. We are analyzing as we speak, and we know several things we would change. First and foremost, we needed better escort vessels. The motor launches were too fragile being all wooden craft and prone to catching fire quite easily. Yet, these were the only small craft available. So, if we had other steel vessels, we might have gotten more men to the raid site and back with far fewer casualties.”

  He looked at the map and sweeping his hand over the city of St. Nazaire he said, “Next, is the constant problem of communications. Radio sets are too large and unwieldy and often inoperable. We need something with a two- to five-mile range that is simple to use and man-portable. Next, we need better communication with air support and they with us. A mission to bomb the area while we were coming up the Loire was off its timing and off its target which nullified our cover capability and warned the Germans of our mission. The Germans did not respond as fast as we thought but when they did, it was devastating, especially for the small boats. Lastly, we needed better options for getting our men off besides the small boats. I am not too sure what that might have been, but we owe it to the men who volunteer for these hazardous missions.”

  James took his usual notes and after scanning them for a moment asked another question. “Sir, does the mission and its success, inspire you to plan more of them, or after the losses you incurred does it change your strategy?”

  General Morgan looked at the young man and wondered what it was about the American’s brashness that was so refreshing. No member of a senior officer’s staff in the British army would even think about making inquiries which called into question a senior officer’s decisions and strategic competence. But to the admiral’s credit, he took the questions to heart and gave a forthright assessment of his thinking without a hint of retribution. He would have to think about this openness in a staff meeting for any future posting he might get during the war. He was learning a lot about Combined Operations, not only the successes but also the failures and the pitfalls of command.

  Lord Mountbatten paused for a moment looking at the map of France then replied. “Lieutenant, based on what we know about the Germans and our current limits of projecting our power into the Continent, I would say we must keep doing these missions, within limits of course, so we can build the base of knowledge about how to do these things well. Landing people on an enemy’s beach is the hardest thing in warfare. We have had some small successes in this war, but it has always been with a few hundred men at most and only with a limited objective. To beat the Germans, we must invade Europe and hold onto our beachhead. Then we must expand upon that beachhead and turn our forces directly to Germany. The lessons we are learning from this operation and the ones in Norway will help us understand where we are strong and where we are weak, so we can improve and build a force that can take the war to Hitler and win.”

  James was not to be deterred by this “win the war” answer he was getting so he doubled down and asked his question another way. “Lord Mountbatten, if we must learn, what are some examples of future expeditions that we can participate in and learn as well?”

  Jameson saw the logic behind James’ last question and appreciated the direction he wanted to take the British commander. He just hoped it did not annoy the highly thought of admiral which could cause problems later.

  “Lieutenant, you are a dog with a bone are you not? Well, we need to do several other missions to compromise the Germans. Take down their infrastructure where it makes the most sense. Hurt their economy or their ability to transport things across Europe. We need to understand the issues surrounding a large-scale event. Another idea we have discussed is using a brigade or larger force to take a German-held port. This has tremendous interest with the War Council as it affords us a way to get a bridge into France or Belgium without having to establish a new front. It could be something where we go in for a few days or weeks and hold on until relieved or just a day raid to destroy a German port. Either way, we learn, which is what we need to do. We need to understand, for example, how to resupply from the sea. How do tanks work when launched onto the beach? What kind of air support could we expect and how do we communicate with the planes so that they can be properly directed? There are many areas of interest, and I dare say, we would love to have you along for the ride.”

  Jameson jumped into the discussion, “Sir, if we were to jump in for one of these raids, either small or large, what do we need to do to prepare?”

  Lord Mountbatten, as usual, was quick with an answer. “I would love to have some of your chaps train with our commandos to build new combat skills and tactics. I am quite certain your ways of doing things are very similar, but we have been doing this for some time and feel that perhaps we can share a thing or two about these sort of actions. We would also like to get more of your weaponry made available to our people. Your Thompson is highly prized by our men, and your new tanks are quite superb. Oh, yes, communications gear and having a joint operations process for tactical battlefield communications would be an area of definite interest. These are the sorts of activities that we have mentioned to your General Chaney, but so far, we have had no response to these queries. Perhaps you can work on this and get some of your people to our training programs. I believe you have a division training in Northern Ireland now, so perhaps some of these people would do well in our schools.”

  Jameson had taken more notes on this idea, and his comment about General Chaney hit like a brick. It appears that unlike Admiral Ghormley, the army general was not viewed favorably by the British leadership. “Sir, I’ll take these suggestions back to Washington and urge our military leadership to respond favorably to your invitation and suggestions. I think Lieutenant Brand and Captain Flannigan are all in agreement with you on the Commando School and the need to learn each other’s ways before any combined Allied operation. Thank you for your openness and kindness.”

  The meeting broke up soon after, and many of the participants started small conversations concerning different parts of the presentation. Jameson spent several minutes talking to Lord Mountbatten and some of his staff while Flannigan went into a corner with a few of the commando leaders studying the maps from the Bruneval raid and the most recent raid at St. Nazaire. He was incredibly impressed with the planning and execution of both raids and did not think any current U.S. military unit, including his beloved Marine Corps, could have carried out either mission.

  James spent most of his time studying the map of Europe. After a few minutes, he was joined by General Morgan. The general did not say anything
but simply watched the American scrutinize the map and how he made notes in some sort of shorthand, allowing the man to scribble at a lightning pace as he stepped off distances with his fingers and then stared again at different aspects of the Continent.

  Finally, Morgan asked what the man was thinking. “Lieutenant, you seem to be deeply engrossed in looking at the map. What is so intriguing about this?”

  James glanced at Morgan then it dawned on him the general had asked a question. He had to think for a moment to recall the question because when he became absorbed in a subject, he had the uncanny ability to exit the rest of the world and suspend all other thoughts. He often considered this capability a curse because it often made people uncomfortable. They assume he is standoffish or, perhaps worse, a mental case. “General, I’m sorry, sir. I was just thinking about the European continent as a large battleground and where and how I would want to enter it to win the war.”

  Morgan was intrigued, so he asked a follow-up question. “So, what do you see and how would you go about entering Europe to win the war?”

  “Sir, we have to be sure of a few things and make several assumptions. First, the Russians stay in the war on our side. Second, we eliminate the Germans and Italians from North Africa. Third, we begin a total bombing campaign targeting German industry, fuel production, and infrastructure. Fourth, we may want to attack Sicily or Sardinia which should take Italy out of the war. I would not want to go into Italy itself because it’s not good terrain for modern war. The defender will have all the advantages. Lastly, we must invade France. This is what I have been looking at based on what your brave men have accomplished so far.”

  James pointed to the map, drawing the general’s attention to the area near the French-Belgium border, which were battlefields in the last war. “The Germans know very well how to defend. They were excellent at it during the last war, and this time, they may even be better. But with the Russians holding most of the German army on the eastern front, Hitler must defend everywhere, which implies he will be weak in many places. So, the Allies need to convince him we are going someplace we are not, then attack where he believes is not a good place to attack. We need logistical superiority, so the acquisition of a port is needed quickly, or we build our own somehow and take it with us.”