User reviews

Jeremy Clarkson, the unprepossessing host, at times almost turns this story of an impossible and probably lethal war-time task into something comic. A ship, the aging destroyer HMS Campbelltown, is modified to resemble a German destroyer -- slightly. The job of the sailors is to, fill the ship with explosives, slip the ship up the estuary and ram it into the gates protecting the large drydock. The goal is to prevent the use of the port by the German battleship Tirpitz.

And so we see Clarkson standing before a map of the estuary, using a pointer to indicate the features, and counting out the obstacles the Campbelltown must get past. One after another, the gun emplacements, the floodlights, the submarine nets -- all distributed neatly up and down the estuary through which the destroyer must travel.

And only after Clarkson gets to the "eighteen guns -- here, here, here, here, here, and here, and here," does it become clear that it's virtually impossible and that all the ships and men will be lost. (Another destroyer, traveling the same path, will be standing by to pick up survivors, assuming that it, itself, hasn't been sunk.) And Clarkson keeps a straight face throughout this hair-raising presentation.

A feature film was made of this venture, with the title "Glory at Sea" and the alternate title, "Gift Horse," to add still more irony. A book about the raid by David Mason is much better than the feature film that seems to have been strapped by a low budget. I reviewed the film on IMDb.com, if anyone is interested.

It's a story of incredible bravery and no film could do it justice. The minute details of the problems the planners faced are gone into. Eg., where on the ship do you place the four tons of explosive that are supposed to destroy the locks. The detonation device was so crude that its designer could only predict the explosion within limits defined by hours -- assuming that a sudden jolt didn't set it off prematurely and kill everyone on board.

The destroyer smashed into the dock, as planned, but the Germans were alert and all hell was breaking loose. Commandos jumped onto the dock and destroyed some additional facilities, but almost all of the frail wooden boats that were to deliver them from the scene had been shot up and were burning in the river. The men, now isolated, were told to make for Spain, 320 daunting miles away, but few escaped from St. Nazaire, reduced to running through the streets and shouting at civilians, "Dedans vite!" Of all the men on the mission, 214 wound up as POWs and 168 were killed. Forty VCs were awarded, deservedly.

HMS Campbelltown blew up the next day and destroyed the docks, which weren't made operational again until 1947. The explosion took numerous German and French curiosity seekers and military celebrants with it. The mission was a success, an important one but a costly one.

I just wanted to write a mini-review. It's a doc that starts out fast with good tension, dramatic music and a big plan. Jeremy Clarkson draws you in right away. It's for sure a fun watch for the first 30 minutes. It does calm down at the end and slows to a less dramatic and more weird style where talking heads take over. The ships sailing to the dock yard is so dramatic. They use very rudimentary CGI to show what happened and you can feel the tension as you see bullets fly at the screen. Unfortunately the CGI scenes very soon fade away and we get person after person just stating something about the event which unfortunately doesn't work. I think what they should have done is go full CGI from start till finish and then have used photos to tell us a bit more. A raid is only as interesting as you tell it. So A to B, clean and effective. No extra steps or hurdles please.

It's a very cool raid though and Youtubers like TIK could make an extraordinary video on this for sure. There is a big story here. With big show presenters you do get a very personal style though and it takes you out of the raid. It fun to watch Jeremy Clarkson, but a less known presenter could have been a narrator only for example.

The most awe inspiring documentary covering the formation of the Commandos, the thought process behind this hardly known but incredible naval attack on St Nazaire to disable the largest Atlantic based dry dock during the Second World War and one which should be shown again on prime time BBC1.

The interviews with the ex-servicemen who carried out the attack and were subsequently held as prisoners of war stirred such incredible emotions. Churchill really should have been proud.

Congratulations to the the entire production team, director and presenter ... you truly re- created a fantastic overview of an amazing attack and created one of the best programmes I've ever seen.

Jeremy Clarkson's account of this raid had me gripped in total awe that these softly spoken, old gentleman had been Commandos prepared to sacrifice their lives for Great Britain. Knowing that they were very unlikely to survive they kept on with the task set, despite overwhelming odds. I was in tears for most of the programme. When the programme ended we turned over and there was Jordan (the model) and her boyfriend being filmed because they are "celebrities" (has the World/UK lost its mind?).

Turning over again the Euro 2008 football final was on, a Spanish player brushed his head against the chin of a German player, who immediately acted as though he was injured. A few minutes before I had heard of a British Navy Captain who had been shot 16 times and was still attacking a much more powerful German vessel. Why do we venerate celebrities and football players? They are nothing compared to the Commandos that carried out this attack. out this attack.

There is little that can entertain as much as an excited Jeremy Clarkson talking about something for which he has such passion. His narrative paints a stirring picture of the events in this documentary. Excellent story telling on a topic I'm glad to now know about. Loved the interviews with the survivors as well. That's really all I had to say about this documentary, but IMDb is insisting that I write more lines of my review. The website may have a little crush on me? The rest of what I am typing is just filler to satisfy the requirements of the international movie data base and serve no further purpose in reviewing The Greatest Raid of All, which despite this "minimum 10 lines" requirement is still so good that I'm insisting to place my review here anyway.