The Greatest Raid of All: Operation Chariot and the Mission to Destroy the Normandie Dock at St Nazaire (Daring Military Operations of World War Two) by C. E. Lucas Phillips

Author:C. E. Lucas Phillips [Lucas Phillips, C. E.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sapere Books
Published: 2021-06-19T23:00:00+00:00

Fig. 14. The four main pumps in the pumping chambers forty feet below ground. The figure of the man is included to indicate size (By courtesy of Lt.-Col. Chant)

Not much need for torches now. They knew every step and every movement by heart. They wriggled out of their harnesses, laying them on the concrete floor, and took out the specially prepared plastic charges in their mackintosh covers. These, reaching up and over the big circular tubes, they slapped and moulded firmly on to the casting joints of the impeller pumps, which they knew from the Southampton dock engineers could not be replaced in less than a year. Disturbed by two deep muffled thuds overhead which shook them deep below, they were told by Chamberlain far above that it was ‘only Captain Donald blowing up the guns’. They worked quickly and confidently. Dockerill was quietly singing ‘Blue Birds Over the White Cliffs of Dover’ and the other two sergeants chatted casually in broad Norfolk. Their homely, easy voices gave Chant a glow of warmth and affection for these staunch companions, overcoming the pain of his wound and the handicap of his lacerated fingers. He heard one of them say:

‘Nearly finished, sir; can I help you?’

‘No, thanks, I’m all right.’

The charges laid, out came the ring main. Together they unrolled and laid it out, hands feeling forward to other hands dimly seen in the chequered light. Out next came the cordtex leads to connect each charge to the ring main by a clove hitch. Chant, on No 3 pump, heard successively the reports of his companions:

‘No 2 done, sir.’

‘No 4 done, sir.’

And finally, with a note of triumphant finality:

‘No 1 done, SIR!’

The subsidiary pumps were quickly connected likewise. Finally, out came the two lengths of safety wire, with igniters and detonators already connected, to be crimped on to the ring main.

A hundred and fifty pounds of high explosive was now ready to be detonated at the touch of the duplicated percussion igniters. Three feet of safety fuse gave a delay of ninety seconds, which would give a fit man ample time to run up the stairs and out of the building. It was Chant’s duty to fire the charges himself, sending his sergeants up first and being himself last man out. But he was wondering how on earth he was going to get up those forty feet of steep stairs. His knee was now slowing down all his movements. He therefore decided to keep Dockerill with him, sending King and Butler upstairs with instructions to remove Chamberlain to safety and to shout down when the way was clear.

He took one of the igniters and gave the other to Dockerill. Two long minutes passed in the underground darkness. Dockerill continued humming his song. No other sounds were audible and the battle above seemed far away. At last came the expected shout from above and Chant, by pre-arrangement, gave a simple ‘one-two-three’ to Dockerill. Simultaneously they pulled their igniter pins and the slow fuse began to burn along its three feet passage to the detonator and the cordtex.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.