(Forme-Ecluse Louis Joubert)
Launched in 1932, the liner 'Normandie',
at 80,000 gross tons, was so large that a special entrance had to be
constructed to allow her to pass between the River Loire and her
fitting-out berth in the Bassin de Penhoët. Capable of
acting both as dry dock and passage lock, this structure's sheer size
has ensured that it remains in use today,
its vast dimensions still capable of housing some of the world's
largest ships - as demonstrated below by the liner 'Millenium',
photographed from the roof of the fortified lock that
was constructed in the wake of the raid to guarantee access to the
submarine basin. (Note the armoured machine-gun cupola centre left, and
its dominating position above the dry dock approaches, bottom right.)
At
350 metres in length, by 50 metres wide, and encompassing a volume of
more than 260,000 cubic metres, the dock is capped at either end by
giant hollow steel gates, or caissons (shown below) each weighing in at
almost 1,500 tonnes. Capable of being filled selectively with seawater
to cope with external pressures, these 9 metre deep monsters can be
wound in and out of sockets set in the western quayside and controlled
by dedicated Winding Houses. Essentially immune from destruction by
ramming alone, it is small wonder that the initial impression of the
port's defenders was that 'Campbeltown's' attack had been little more
than a futile and costly gesture.
Aside
from the sheer scale of the caissons was the degree to which the
southern structure - 'Campbletown's' target - was dominated by nearby
German guns. Photographed from a position between cannon positions
66 and M70, on the eastern quayside, the image immediately below shows
all too clearly the height advantage enjoyed by the crews of the guns
on top of the Pumping Station roof (nos 64 and 65), who were able to
fire down on the destroyer's crowded decks at point-blank range. The
other images in the sequence demonstrate both the scale of the climb
awaiting Captain Donald Roy's assault troops - whose task it was
to access and destroy the rooftop positions - and the confusion of
galleries below the Pumping Station floor, which greeted the wounded
Lieutenant Stuart Chant and his men as they descended through the darkness to their
target impeller pumps far below.
Looking
southwards from the North caisson towards the structure rammed by
'Campbeltown', the size of the distant Pumping Station only
serves to reinforce the scale of the task facing 'Colonel
Charles', Bob
Ryder and the soldiers and sailors of the CHARIOT force. The fact that
so much destruction was wrought by so few, so far from home, will
forever remain a tribute to the sheer guts and determination of those young men who
sailed from British shores having accepted that they would probably
never live to see home again.
