In the darkest months of the Second World War, Churchill approved what seemed to many like a suicide mission. Under orders to attack the St Nazaire U-boat base on the Atlantic seaboard, British commandos undertook ‘the greatest raid of all’, turning an old destroyer into a live bomb and using it to ram the gates of a Nazi stronghold. Five Victoria Crosses were awarded – more than in any similar operation. Drawing on official documents, interviews, unknown accounts and the astonished reactions of French civilians and German forces, ‘The Greatest Raid’ recreates in cinematic detail the hours in which the ‘Charioteers’ fought and died, from Lt Gerard Brett, the curator at the V & A, to ‘Bertie’ Burtinshaw, who went into battle humming ‘There’ll Always be an England’, to Lt Stuart Chant, who set the fuses with 90 seconds to escape.

Author Giles Whittell Published by Penguin Books ISBN 9780241992258 EAN 9780241992258 Bic Code JWF Cover Paperback