Winston Churchill faced a bleak winter of that promised continued air raids, setbacks on land, and struggles on the home front exacerbated by German U-Boat and surface fleets strangling supply routes to his beloved island. Although Churchill believed that the involvement of the United States in the war had tilted the odds of victory toward the Allies, he knew that Britain needed positive engagements to maintain morale and buy time for the United States to spool up to a war footing.
By January , the German U-Boat fleet had grown to nearly two hundred vessels with roughly half operational at any moment. Tirpitz was slightly larger than its recently sunk sister ship Bismarck and had a top speed of 30 knots, a range of 8, nautical miles, and four dual sets of 38cm guns. She bristled with dozens of 15 cm and At over 50, tons, Tirpitz was heavily armored and could outgun or outrun any other warship.
The hunt for Bismarck occupied most of the fleet, leaving Atlantic supply convoys to the mercy of German U-Boats. Churchill was a master tactician and involved himself in all manner of wartime decisions. In October , he appointed trusted friend Lord Louis Mountbatten, nephew of the King and a war hero, to lead the Combined Services Command which was responsible for attacks designed to harass and cripple Axis targets.
The operation would achieve its objective in stunning fashion but at a high cost. Of the Royal Navy and Commandos taking part in the raid, a staggering raiders perished and were captured. Operation Chariot was perhaps the most heroic action in the storied history of the Combined Services Command. The operation was approved on March 3, , with an execution date just three weeks later. Located in the southern French port of St. Nazaire and built in to service the SS Normandie , the largest cruise ship of its era, the St.
Nazaire dry dock was state of the art. It measured over meters by 50 meters with a meter depth, and featured a pair of massive gates at each end. Water levels were controlled by large pump houses. Without access to the St. Nazaire dry dock, the Germans were unlikely to risk their last Bismarck -class battleship in combat since she would be vulnerable in open waters for far longer if damaged and forced to limp back to Norway or Germany for repair.
