EC0149

Typed manuscript two large stanzas long on one page. Watermark of U.S. eagle emblem.
Wikipedia:
Saint-Nazaire (French pronunciation: ​[sɛ̃.na.zɛʁ]; Breton: Sant-Nazer/Señ Neñseir; Gallo: Saint-Nazère/Saint-Nazaer), is a commune in the Loire-Atlantique department in western France.
The town has a major harbour, on the right bank of the Loire River estuary, near the Atlantic Ocean. The town is at the south of the second-largest swamp in France, called "la Brière". Given its location, Saint-Nazaire has a long tradition of fishing and shipbuilding.
After the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany's Wehrmacht army at the start of World War II, the combined forces of the French Army and the British Expeditionary Force failed to hold the oncoming onslaught. As part of Operation Ariel, Saint-Nazaire like Dunkirk became an evacuation point for the British back to England, with those successfully embarking including the writer John Renshaw Starr.

On 17 June 1940 an estimated 9,000 British Army soldiers were embarked aboard the Clyde-built troopship RMS Lancastria, which was then attacked and sunk by German Junkers Ju 88 bombers, mainly from Kampfgeschwader 30, taking with her around 4,000 victims.[3] It is the worst disaster in British maritime history, and the worst loss of life for British forces in the whole of World War II. Winston Churchill banned all news coverage of the disaster on learning of it and it remained largely forgotten by history.

The huge Joubert drydock built for SS Normandie was the only port on the Atlantic capable of servicing the German battleships Bismarck and Tirpitz. This gave the port a strong strategic importance to both the Axis Powers and the Allies during the Second World War.

After Operation Rheinübung on 18–27 May 1941, in which the Bismarck and heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen were to have ended the operational raid at Saint-Nazaire, but which resulted in the sinking of HMS Hood and the sinking of the Bismarck; the need for the Allies to take the Joubert dry dock out of operation was increased.

On 28 March 1942, a force of 611 British Commandos and the Royal Navy launched the St. Nazaire Raid against the shipyards of Saint-Nazaire, codenamed Operation Chariot. An obsolete American-built destroyer HMS Campbeltown was used as a ram-ship loaded with explosives, and it and the commandos succeeded in destroying the gates and machinery of the Joubert drydock, preventing its further use by Nazi Germany during the war. The Joubert dry dock was not brought back into operation until 1948.