On a recent trip to France Poynton Branch Chairman with his Wife visited La Baule military cemetery to place a wreath on the war memorial in commemoration of Operation Chariot, when on 28th March 1942 HMS Campbeltown  successfully rammed the lock gates of the Normandie drydock in St. Nazaire; putting the facility out of use and denying a repair facility for the recently launched German battleship Tirpitz.

The cemetery in  Escoublac-La-Baule is 13 kilometres west of St Nazaire situated at the mouth of the La Loire river on France's western coast.

The cemetery began with the burial of 17 British soldiers killed in the area during 1940, 21 others who died in local hospitals, and
a number of British servicemen whose

Throughout the occupation Louise Jaouen, a resident of La Baule, dedicated all her time and energy to maintaining the graves.  With money collected
secretly from the generous local people she provided a
cross for every grave and a small monument, had hedges planted and employed a permanent gardener to tend the grounds.  Her devotion to this work was honoured by the award of the King's Medal for service in the cause of freedom. bodies were washed ashore after the sinking of the troop ship "Lancastria" in the Bay of Biscay
on 17th June 1940.  Subsequent burials include men killed in the St. Nazaire raid in 1942, and airmen shot down in the area.  It now contains 325 commonwealth burials from the Second World War 74 of which are unidentified.  Three Polish servicemen are also buried here and one man of the merchant Navy whose death was not due to war service.

The tragic loss of the Lancastria

On the 17th of June 1940, just two weeks after the Dunkirk evacuations.  the 16,000 ton Cunard liner Lancastria lay 5 miles off St Nazaire on France's western coast and embarked troops, RAF personnel, and civilian refugees, including women and children, who were being evacuated from France, which was then on the point of collapse.  The number on board may never be known, but almost certainly exceeded 6,000; some estimates put it as high as 9,000.  The Lancastria was attacked and hit by bombs from German aircraft.  The ship sank rapidly and, according to the estimate of the Captain, only around 2,500 of those on board were saved.

Owing to the scale of the tragedy, Winston Churchill forbade publication of the news in the interests of public morale.  Since that time the disaster has never been fully recognised for what it was - the greatest maritime disaster in Britain's history.  More people were killed on the Lancastria than on the Titanic and Lusitania put together.

Success of Operation Chariot - HMS Campbeltown

It was on 28th March 1942 the successful British amphibious attack took place on the heavily defended Normandie drydock at St Nazaire in what then was German-occupied France

Britain's Naval Intelligence Division first proposed a commando raid on the dock in late 1941.  When the German battleship Tirpitz was declared operational in January 1942, the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force were already drawing up plans to attack her.  Planners from Combined Operations Headquarters were looking at potential scenarios if the Tirpitz escaped the naval blockade and reached the Atlantic.  They decided the only port able to accommodate her was St Nazaire, especially if, like the Bismarck, she was damaged en route and needed to pull in for repairs.  They concluded that if the dock at St Nazaire was unavailable the Germans were unlikely to risk sending Tirpitz into the Atlantic.

So at 01:34 on 28 March, four minutes later than planned, HMS Campbeltown rammed the dock gate.  The Commandos and ship's crew came ashore under heavy German fire, and set about demolishing the dock machinery.  One hundred and sixty two of the raiders were killed (64 commandos and 105 sailors) out of the 611 men in the attacking force.  Of the survivors, 215 were captured and 222 were evacuated by the surviving small craft.  A further five evaded capture and travelled overland through France to Spain and then to Gibraltar.

The charges in HMS Campbeltown exploded at noon, an hour and a half after the British had expected.  Although the ship had been searched by the Germans, the explosives had not been detected.  The explosion killed around 250 German soldiers and French civilians, and demolished both the front half of the destroyer and the 150 ton caisson of the drydock; with the rush of water into the drydock washing the remains of the ship into it.  The St. Nazaire drydock was rendered unusable for the rest of the war, and was not repaired until 1947.

German Military Cemetery, Pornichet

By comparison situated in nearby Pornichet is a German Military Cemetery.  It is very plain in appearance and not tended to the level of Escoublac-La-Baule.  Graves are marked by rough pebble dashed plaques most representing four soldiers.

It was originally constructed by the Wehrmacht and was
placed directly beside the civil cemetery of St. Sebastien.  To begin with 1,753 soldiers were laid to rest but directly after the war, the French extended this total to 2,672.

After a treaty between the Germans and the French in 1955, it was decided to extend the St. Sebastien cemetery in Pornichet with the graves from nearby departments together with several fieldgraves in the area.  This increased the total number of graves to the present total of 4,944.