Target Tirpitz: X-Craft, Agents and Dambusters - The Epic Quest to Destroy Hitler’s Mightiest Warship. Patrick Bishop

towards the mouth of the Loire. The destroyer escorts slid away and the raiders were on their own. They were led by the MGB with Colonel Newman and Commander Ryder on board. Immediately behind came Campbeltown with the other motor launches arrayed in two columns on either side with a tail of three bringing up the rear. Most were wooden-built Fairmile ‘Bs’. They were 112 feet long and nearly twenty feet wide and their two 600-horsepower engines could push them through the water at twenty knots. Extra guns had been fitted for the operation. They had two 20mm Oerlikon cannons mounted fore and aft with two .303 machine guns on the bridge.

      As the little fleet progressed, those on board could hear the rumble of explosions. A bombing raid was included in the plan, timed for just before midnight. It was a diversionary effort with thirty-five Whitleys and twenty-seven Wellingtons taking part. According to Ryder, ‘it was hoped that under the general confusion caused by this air raid, directed right on the waterfront, our landing would be comparatively unopposed’. However, in keeping with Churchill’s concerns about French civilian casualties, the crews were under instruction to bomb only if they could see their targets. The blanket of cloud made identification impossible. Only four aircraft dropped their bombs and the main result of the raid was to sharpen the Germans reflexes and arouse their suspicions.

      ‘In effect, the raid raised the alarm,’ wrote Ryder later. ‘Every gun was manned; patrols, fire parties and others had fallen in, and the gun control and look out system [was] thoroughly on the alert … thus the surface attackers reaped every disadvantage in having their attack heavily opposed by an enemy fully prepared.’⁷