The St Nazaire Raid or Operation Chariot was a British amphibious
attack on the heavily defended Normandie dry dock at St Nazaire in
German-occupied France during the Second World War.
The destroyer HMS Campbeltown (USS Buchanan (DD-131), accompanied by 18 smaller craft, crossed the English Channel to the Atlantic coast of France and was rammed into the Normandie dock gates. The ship had been packed with delayed-action explosives, well-hidden within a steel and concrete case, that detonated later that day, putting the dock out of service until 1948.