The Greatest Raid of All

Operation Chariot and the Mission to Destroy the Normandie Dock at St Nazaire

De: C.E. Lucas Phillips

Narrado por: Stewart Crank

A vivid account of the famous St Nazaire Raid that demonstrates the sheer bravery of the British Commandos and the Royal Navy. A must-listen for fans of James Holland, Ant Middleton, and Cornelius Ryan.

St Nazaire, 1.22 a.m. 28th March 1942.

HMS Cambeltown, supported by seventeen wooden motor launches, approached the German-held port intending to smash into the lock gates of the largest dock in the world; the Normandie Dock-Operation Chariot was in full swing.

Against vicious Nazi gunfire, the commandos stormed the docks, and within half an hour, succeeded in their chief demolition objectives, but in the heat of battle, the Royal Navy had lost nearly all of its small vessels intended to carry them back to England. With their route home closed off, the men were forced to fight through the town in a bid to escape German forces.

C. E. Lucas Phillips' The Greatest Raid of All draws upon numerous British, French, and German eyewitness reports to uncover the astounding true story of one of the most daring attacks of World War Two in which no fewer than five Victoria Crosses were awarded.

©1958 The Estate of C.E. Lucas Phillips (P)2022 Tantor

Extremely detailed account of this daring raid

I had just read the extraordinary tale of the Tobruk raid (SAS Ghost Patrol) and had been astonished at their daring and how gripping the story was. So, when I saw this similar tale of the St. Nazaire raid, I knew that I had to listen to it.

Overall, the details are excellent and you get to really "feel you are there". I appreciate that the author wanted to make the soldiers and sailors into "real people" and make them more than just two-dimensional actors, but there were almost too many details and it slowed down the story somewhat. The author was clearly a rugby jock and I found the continual references to "good looking, athletic, rugger player" to get really tedious.

It would have been nice to have received more details of the Germans and how they felt about the whole adventure, but this book was written in 1958 so that probably wasn't how people felt back then.

I found the "All the Frenchmen loved how the British blew up their premiere facilities" to be a tad... hopeful? I suspect that they were often more than a little peeved about their beloved docks being trashed for a long time. Otherwise, why wouldn't they have blown them up, when they first capitulated to the Germans (as one person notes).

Also, the jolly ruse played on the Germans and the Germans feeling that it has been "well played" is a tad hopeful, I think it's the title "D Day Through German Eyes" where the St. Nazaire Raid is often mentioned as an underhanded trick. I was quite surprised at the time and it reminded me that perspective is everything.


The audiobook starts with "The text refers to many diagrams but we didn't include them". Huh? Would a PDF have been that difficult? So locations are often a bit vague or confusing. But check out the Wikipedia page and the picture of the tiny HMS Cambeltown in the huge dock.

The narrator was 98% excellent; very clear and gave appropriate emphasis throughout. But painfully unfamiliar with military terms. I get that boatswain and coxswain are not obvious, but they only occurred a few times, so that wasn't an issue. And when he said "N.A.A.F.I." I thought "what is the N.A.... oh! the Naafi!" I've never heard anyone spell it out before. But again, it only came up once. But the Oerlikon gun must have been said at least one hundred times and that became really annoying. To me, with a clearly non-English word, the obvious professional choice would have been for the narrator to ask someone "This is an odd word, how should I say it?" Instead, we had to suffer oh-er-lie-kon over and over... frustrating.

So, overall, I would say it's an excellent telling of a dramatic and daring raid. I found a number of times that I was shocked at how selfless and brave the soldiers and sailors were.

Interesting but labored

Narration is acceptably clear.

Story is interesting and would be more exciting if less weighted by excessive minutiae about combatants’names and personal details.

Top Notch WWII Commando Story

I already knew quite a lot about this story, having years ago played the old Avalon Hill Solitaire Wargame "Raid on St. Nazaire". Like this book, that wargame was also at the squad level, and individually represented most of the actual men that took part in it, their assigned targets such as the Pump House, the Old Mole and the Winding Houses, as well as the approach of the Campbeltown and motor boats under enemy fire.
So it was a pleasure for me to listen to this, as I eagerly heard this detailed retelling of the individual heroics of these very real and heroic men. I thought the narrator's performance was just perfect, with his Patrician British accent and his lively, interested reading. He reads it almost as from memory, as though he had been a member of the team. Stiff upper lip, chaps!