Does anyone have a Satnav address for Saint Nazaire, specifically in the area of the dry dock, where Operation Chastise took place?
I entered the “postcode” I found on the internet 44380, but when I tried to enter the street name, Route de la ville haigand, the Satnav didn’t recognise it.
Might this be it? If you zoom in, it looks like the dock.
I can’t find that street name either, there is a street with a slightly different name ‘Halgand’, but that was not near the docks N 47.28070, W 2.34937. 
I remember getting the Victor annual for Christmas ‘64.
I think someone’s got Operation Chastise (aka The Dambusters Raid) confused with the Commando attack on the St. Nazaire docks, Operation Chariot.
Worth visiting the submarine pens too, if in the area. I think we have. We’ve certainly visited a few, Bordeaux, La Rochelle (used for Das Boot), etc.
Yes I did confuse the two operations. 
Mind you, I have been to one of the dams, from Operation Chastise.
My Dad was evacuated from Saint Nazaire after walking across half of France, together with two of his
Lancaster Royal Grammar School pals.
They went out in little boats and saw the Lancastria and said that she had come to save them, but, fortunately they were directed to another ship as Lancastria was already overfull.
Then witnessed the appalling disaster when she received a direct hit and blew up.
At school my classmates had father’s who had been at Dunkirk, but no one knew of the appalling disaster at Saint Nazaire as Churchill put a blackout on any news as it would affect morale at home.
If anyone goes to Saint Nazaire there is a memorial to those who died on Lancastria and, perhaps you can put flowers on.
The submarine museum and the ocean liner museums are worth visiting.
Yes indeed. There is a cold store warehouse just outside them and, when I was working I was directed there to load. On being told that the wait to do so would be several hours I decided on a sightseeing tour of the massively protected U-Boat pens. I walked into the first one I came to and stood there a while looking at the heavy duty concrete of the roof but also at the water gently lapping in the now empty pens.
A strange thought came over me. My Mum’s beloved older brother followed the family tradition into the Merchant Navy and in early 1941 he set out from Liverpool to cross the Atlantic. Off Newfoundland his ship was torpedoed and went down with all hands. I looked down at where I was standing and I was just about where the crews would have disembarked after a murderous voyage. It is known which U-Boat sank Reg’s ship and, some years ago I was able to follow that captain’s subsequent career right up to his own death when sunk by the Royal Navy in the Med, some years later. Had I once trod on his footprints? 
Make sure you don’t end up here (though it’s also very nice) 
44.569 5.27618
Oh, right war, wrong country…
I came to say that too.
Operation Chariot was well covered in the nonfiction book ‘Churchill’s Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare’ by Giles Milton. Nothing like the travesty of a film that came out recently. It’s as if Quentin Tarantino and Sylvester Stallone wrote a blow-em-up, just stealing the name.
I’ve read thet the dambusters raid was a bit of a mess, with some of the planes getting lost and the results not being as destructive as hoped for. Not that this has anything to do with the ingenuity and courage of all involved. Far better than carpet-bombing areas of factories or rail junctions, with lots of civilian casualties.
There were 1600 civilian deaths caused by the Dambuster raid.
Yes, and 1000 of those were Russian slave labourers. I just meant targetting a dam in the hills is a bit different than widespread bombing, night over night of cities filled with civilians. I’m not in favour of any war deaths.
Unfortunately that’s the nature of war.
