Documentary on a "suicide mission" into a ship building yard in Holland, Belgium...

oldscoil

Hi Folks,

Just found this WWII thread. Excellent stuff.

Here’s my first post…..

There was a documentary on TV about a year or two ago about an Allied mission to blow up a ship yard.

I’m nearly sure it was along the Dutch / Belgium coast.

They somehow reached their objective under intense gunfire and were then captured…

….I won’t ruin the rest of it as it’s a fantastic story.

Just wondering does anyone perhaps know the name of the mission, or the name of the programme so I can search it out on line.

Thanks Folks,

B

citizen_p

List of commando Raids

did it involve a ship ramming a dock? then exploding later on?
if so its most likley the St. Nazaire Raid

Fratton Fred

You're not thinking of operation Checkmate are you?

It took place in Norway and involved commandos canoeing in and placing limpet mines on ships in harbour.

Or possibly operation Frankton, similar Mo, but immortalised in the film the Cockleshell Heroes. This raid was on Bordeaux.

Morlar

I believe it might have been the St.Nazaire one, they rode a frigate of some sort with a skeleton crew into the harbour to ram the dock, they then fled. The ship later exploded killing a large number of wehrmacht and kriegsmarine troops. I'd have to check but I think there was a suggestion that the german commander was a double agent of some sort, or had some knowledge about the explosives that he did not pass on to his men.

There was a bbc2 documentary about it approx 2 yrs ago, with a computer simulation of the ride into the harbour. The germans thought it was a friendly until it refused to respond then fired furiously at it for the final stretch.

The commandos were captured (some KIA) and brought back to the ship, despite knowing it was loaded with explosives and about to blow but did not say a word, they were eventually moved a short distance away before it went up.

mailforkev

Is it the Jeremy Clarkson one about St. Nazaire you're thinking of?

Saw it myself, was a good programme.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgF0R4dhUqk

Fratton Fred

Its kind of take your pick to an extent.

There were loads of raids into France, Belgium, Norway etc, most of which ended in the capture (and often execution) of the commandos.

oldscoil

mailforkev wrote: »

Is it the Jeremy Clarkson one about St. Nazaire you're thinking of?

Saw it myself, was a good programme.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgF0R4dhUqk

Thats the one Kev.

Brilliant, thanks mate.

I just watched the first half on my lunchbreak. Brilliant!!!!

TerrorFirmer

St Nazaire is certainly the most famous one.

I remember reading about it in Commando as a kid.