A service of Remembrance to commemorate the anniversary of the ‘Greatest Raid of all’ during WWII is being held at 11am on Sunday 8th March at the Saint Nazaire Memorial on the Prince of Wales Pier. Everyone is welcome to attend the service and watch the parade.

Road closures will be in place from 10.00am until 12.30pm on High Street, Market Street and Killigrew Street during the event.

Operation Chariot, the name given to the raid by Allied forces on St Nazaire and specifically its huge dry dock, was one of the most daring, courageous episodes of World War II. The destroyer HMS Campbeltown, accompanied by 18 smaller craft, left Falmouth at 2pm on 26 March 1942, crossed the English Channel to the Atlantic coast of France and rammed into the Normandie dry dock south gate. The ship had been packed with delayed-action explosives, well hidden within a steel and concrete case, that detonated later that day, putting the dock out of service until 1948.

The operation achieved its objectives but at a high price. Out of 611 Commandos who entered the Saint-Nazaire harbour, around only 200 succeeded in landing at the docks. All but 27 were either killed or captured, 22 escaped back to Britain in motor Torpedo Boats and five escaped to the Spanish border. Five Victoria Crosses were awarded to men involved, in what has become known as the greatest raid of all.