Saturday 4 May 2013

"The Greatest Raid of All"

We came across a monument today and smiled but then felt incredibly moved by the stories. This one quote pictured here is so terribly British. The memorial stone was one of many placed In honour of British commandos and sailors who fell on 'The Raid of St Nazaire', France 1942. The training for this raid took place in Falmouth, Cornwall and when you read the information about  this heroic event your reminded how very very brave our armed forces really are. 
Five Victoria Crosses were awarded to members of this combined operation force who destroyed the only port capable of sheltering the German battleship Tirpitz and the U-Boats that were used to such deadly affect in the North Atlantic. The sacrifice of this raid was the loss of 1 in 4 of the 622 men who set sail and a total of 200 were captured and some sent to the famous Colditz.  This earned the title "The Greatest Raid of All".

The following is a short piece about Sergeant TF Durrant VC Royal Navy.
'He remained at his gun until his body was riddled with bullets when his Motor Launch (ML) was attacked by a German destroyer 'Jaguar' which they encountered on the way back to Falmouth. Despite the Captain of the 'Jaguar' repeatedly calling for the ML to surrender they did not give in until 20 out of 28 of the crew aboard were either dead or wounded. The German Captain recommended Sergeant Durrant for the award.

The Victoria Cross is the highest award given to service men and women of the British Armed Forces.

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