It was the middle of the night and an eerie tension hung at the German-occupied Normandie dry dock at St Nazaire. Over 5,000 German forces, alert and battle-ready, prowled the port’s precincts, their nerves frayed by the sporadic rain of Royal Air Force bombs and disturbing rumors of a strange fleet slithering westward through the fog.
Then, their fear took form. Silhouettes of warships materialized from the blanket of night, fronted by a terrifying destroyer. German gunners, their fingers twitching over the triggers, were ordered to hold fire; the phantom fleet flew a German naval ensign. The flag weaved a complex web of questions, stranding the German officers in a crucible of uncertainty.
Caught between fear and suspicion, at 1:22am, the Germans unleashed the full blaze of their searchlights upon the convoy, casting grotesque shadows on the estuary banks. Then a German naval signal light demanded their identification.
One of the approaching ships responded with an older yet valid code pushing the German commanders deeper into their conundrum. Warning shots were fired, whistling perilously close to the deck of the lead destroyer, causing another coded response, “Ship being fired upon by friendly forces.” Confusion took over the German port.
Then, in the heart of the mystery, all hell broke loose. The greatest commando raid in Naval history was now in motion.
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Seems like someone forgot about Japan…
its an older code sir, but it checks out
Dresden?
I love this historical story, what great respect we owe these men!
Jerky Clarkson has a one hour video that goes in to more detail and is absolutely worth the watch. The greatest raid of them all and there is a book of the same name again absolutely worth the read.
The Bismark was a pocket battleship. It was hardly the mighty colossus this video is trying to make it out to be. It was only 41,000 tons. An Iowa class battleship was 57,540 tons. So a tad larger. 40% larger in fact.
WHAT WE COULD DO WHITH THESE KIND OF MEN NOWADAYS SOME VERY WELL EARNED MEDALS FOR A JOB VERY WELL DONE 😮. 😊
Because of this brave raid , the Tirpitz would eventually be attacked by air …capsized and sank in only 11 minutes!
The narrator's voice is very easy to listen to. Who is it?
One little mistake thouh : Saint-Nazaire is located in Brittany, not in Normandy.
So when allies pretend to be germans its not a war crime but when germans pretend to be allies it is…
pity that scenes in the snows of norway or scotland were used in the movie clips; this detracts from the seriousness of the action.
He who dares takes all your base
I just understand that it was such a very important raid that all of the comandos did not have sub machine guns instead of those long 303 Lee Enfields ?
I just understand that it was such a very important raid that all of the comandos did not have sub machine guns instead of those long 303 Lee Enfields ?
this channel is headed for greatness; thank you!
"we'll have the damage repaired by weeks end!"
KERBOOOOOOOOMMM!!!
"…your repair crews are more impressive than I thought."
Thrilling!
This channel is amazing. The best WWII channel on YouTube.
The Hood was a heavy cruiser and was due to have more armour put on its deck as the RN knew it was vulnerable to plunging fire. Bismarck was fast powerfully armed with radar controlled gunnery the latest equipment. Prince of Wales was also new but not fully worked up and had snagging problems with its main guns. Bismarck and Prince Eugen came of far better with the Hood Exploding and the Prince of Wales damaged however Bismarck had damaged fuel tanks and had to return to French Port for repair and refuel. She had her rudder control damaged by a Torpedo dropped by a Swordfish a biplane. RN Battleships caught up with her and fished her. Her crew where in the water and where being picked up by destroyers when a report of Submarines came in and the area was abandoned leaving many of her crew to die in the water. Of the 2,231 crew 114 where picked up. Hood had 1,418 crew of which three survived from the upper parts of the ship.
My apologies but –
I was thrown off by the helter-skelter collection of visuals. And then only watched through to the end in order to see just how far off course the visuals would meander. I do appreciate the difficulties involved in assembling relevant visuals to illustrate such an event – but that's the constant challenge in every documentary. There is poetic license, and then there is simply bad composition.
Any military is susceptible to the ability of a small band of highly train deeply motivated and selfless attrition of a few daring commandos.
The birth of British SF. Best in the world to this day. The SBS.
I think you’ll find they also loaded the ship with Argentinian canned corned beef. Then once the German soldiers found it they swarmed in greedily.