Jeremy Clarkson: The Greatest Raid of All Time

Jeremy Clarkson tells the story of what has been called 'the original Mission Impossible' – the audacious commando raid on the German occupied dry dock at St Nazaire in France on 28th March 1942. Operation Chariot, as the raid was codenamed, had a simple aim: to destroy the dry dock and thus deny the German battleship Tirpitz a safe haven on the Atlantic coast of France. There were many who thought the mission too risky, but the Chief of Combined Operations, Louis Mountbatten, pushed forward. This programme explores the story when British Commandos in Cornwall boarded their floating bomb and set off to see if the element of surprise really could overcome all the odds. Clarkson gives the details of the obsolete destroyer HMS Campbeltown...