Reply To: MTB 74 and the St. Nazaire Raid MTB built

I should apologize. Because it was a bait. I wanted to see the reaction.

To tell that a national memory treasure like St. Nazaire was a failure because it had no strategical effect is a ……. The commando men had order to destroy both gates. And died yards from southern gate. The bravest of Britain against German sailors from converted trawlers. Just bad luck. Even the best can die.

It was a test. I expected the fox and sour grape reaction. It was not destroyed because we did not wanted to….. .
Scharnhorst / Gneisenau / Prinz Eugen march through channel was no German victory. It was hardly a retreat, it was a flight. Since May 41 the ships lay there idle as RAF bomb targets. Light hits from time to time. Just a question of time until some RAF plane would hit better.

They sank around 22 merchantmen in the Atlantic. Running away from every big ship engagement. On order! More than 3.000 German sailors, enough for more than 30 U-Boote. What could 30 submarines do in comparison?

The OKM not even dared to send them via Atlantic raiding round UK to Norway. But even today some authors see it as German victory because they sailed in “English” channel.
It was that “humiliation” that should never happen again. But in fact a British victory.

Or the Bismarck mission. A big failure. Well, sinking a national treasure, the Hood. A lovely looking battlecruiser. The symbol of RN in the 20’s. But there was something wrong with the bloody battlecruiser design. A bad deal to sacrifice the modern Bismarck in a futile mission.

Would somebody expect Hitler to send Tirpitz on same mission? With the other big ships gone home? Offering the RN another German symbol to sink? Or to get damaged so much to need that dock in RAF range?

Could the admiralty really thought that as possibility in 1942? 1941 yes, before the Luftwaffe went away to Russia. But not post loss of Bismarck and flight of the others. Stupidity or recklessness? Well, I prefer a reckless staff to a stupid one. But both deserve blame.

The Commando men fought bravely at South gate. And deserve respect for that. But had bad luck. To state that is not putting dirt on them. It’s just making mortal men out of a myth.

Is a futile victory a victory? Like that of the Rangers at Pointe du Hoc. That won the objective. Taking a gun emplacement without guns. Not one of the French 155 mm guns was operational. 2/HKAA.1260 was no longer part of coastal defense. Not the fault of the brave men that died.

Today’s elite forces have a habit to make myths from hard fights. From Legion in Mexico Cameron to modern times. But bravery should never become an end in itself.