HMS Campbeltown (I42)

USS Buchanan (DD-131), named for Franklin Buchanan, was a Wickes-class destroyer in the United States Navy. Buchanan was transferred to the United Kingdom under the Destroyers for Bases Agreement in 1940 and served as HMS Campbeltown (I42). She was destroyed during the St. Nazaire Raid: at 1:34 on 28 March 1942, loaded with four tons of amatol explosive, the ship rammed the gates of the Forme Ecluse Louis Joubert dry dock. The ship exploded the following morning, ending the use of the dock for the rest of the war.

The St Nazaire Raid or Operation Chariot was a British amphibious attack on the heavily defended Normandie dry dock at St Nazaire in German-occupied France during the Second World War. The operation was undertaken by the Royal Navy (RN) and British Commandos under the auspices of Combined Operations Headquarters on 28 March 1942. St Nazaire was targeted because the loss of its dry dock would force any large German warship in need of repairs, such as Tirpitz, sister ship of Bismarck, to return to home waters by running the gauntlet of the Home Fleet of the Royal Navy and other British forces, via the English Channel or the North Sea. The obsolete destroyer HMS Campbeltown, accompanied by 18 smaller craft, crossed the English Channel to the Atlantic coast of France and rammed into the Normandie dry dock south gate. The ship had been packed with delayed-action explosives, well hidden within a steel and concrete case, that detonated later that day, putting the dock out of service until 1948. A force of commandos landed to destroy machinery and other structures. German gunfire sank, set ablaze, or immobilized virtually all the small craft intended to transport the commandos back to England. The commandos fought their way through the town to escape overland but many surrendered when they ran out of ammunition or were surrounded by the Wehrmacht defending Saint-Nazaire. Of the 612 men who undertook the raid, 228 returned to Britain, 169 were killed and 215 became prisoners of war. German casualties included over 360 dead, some of whom were killed after the raid when Campbeltown exploded. To recognise their bravery, 89 members of the raiding party were awarded decorations, including five Victoria Crosses. After the war, St Nazaire was one of 38 battle honours awarded to the commandos. The operation has been called "the greatest raid of all" in British military circles.

The Louis Joubert Lock (French: Forme Ecluse Louis Joubert), also known as the Normandie Dock, is a lock and major dry dock located in the port of Saint-Nazaire in Loire-Atlantique, northwestern France. Owned by the Port authority of Nantes-Saint-Nazaire, its strategic importance as a major naval construction and maintenance asset since its completion in 1934 resulted in it becoming the main target of the British Army Commando raid of 1942, the St. Nazaire Raid, to stop German battleships such as Tirpitz from accessing maintenance facilities while operating in the Atlantic Ocean.

Espadon was a Narval-class submarine of the French Navy. Along with sister boat Marsouin, the boat was the first French submarine to steam under sea ice. The boat is currently a museum ship.

Escal'Atlantic, is a museum that explores the historic ocean liner experience in Saint-Nazaire, France. The museum is found inside the former German World War II submarine pen in the harbour of the city port. It tells the history of the ocean liner, allowing the visitor to wander the insides of an "ocean liner" from the past by visiting areas of a vessel and by means of artefacts.

The arrondissement of Saint-Nazaire is an arrondissement of France in the Loire-Atlantique department in the Pays de la Loire region. It has 55 communes. Its population is 327,907 (2016), and its area is 1,758.1 km2 (678.8 sq mi).

The submarine base of Saint-Nazaire is one of five large fortified U-boat pens built by Germany during the Second World War in occupied Saint-Nazaire, France.

Communauté d'agglomération de la Région Nazairienne et de l'Estuaire (CARENE) is an intercommunal structure, centred on the city of Saint-Nazaire. It is located in the Loire-Atlantique department, in the Pays de la Loire region, western France. It was created in December 2000. Its seat is in Saint-Nazaire. Its area is 320.3 km2. Its population was 124,487 in 2017, of which 69,993 in Saint-Nazaire proper.

Chantiers de l'Atlantique is a shipyard in Saint-Nazaire, France. It is one of the world's largest shipyards, constructing a wide range of commercial, naval, and passenger ships. It is located near Nantes, at the mouth of the Loire river and the deep waters of the Atlantic, which make the sailing of large ships in and out of the shipyards easy. The shipyard was owned by Alstom from 1976 onwards, became Alstom-Atlantique, and was later part of Aker Yards when Aker Group acquired the Alstom Marine business in 2006. In 2008, the South Korean company STX Corporation acquired Aker Yards, and the shipyard became part of STX Europe (formed by the renaming of Aker Yards).After the bankruptcy of STX Corporation, the shipyard was acquired by the French government and reverted to its original name of Chantiers de l'Atlantique.

The Saint-Nazaire Pocket (German: Festung St. Nazaire, French: Poche de Saint-Nazaire) was an Atlantic pocket that existed from August 1944 until 11 May 1945 and was formed by the withdrawal of German troops from Loire-Inférieure (now Loire-Atlantique) during the liberation of the department by the allied forces. It was centred around the port and the submarine base of Saint-Nazaire and extended to the east as far as Saint-Omer-de-Blain and from La Roche-Bernard in the north to Pornic in the south.

The Loire ( LWAR, US also loo-AR, French: [lwaʁ] ; Occitan: Léger [ˈledʒe]; Arpitan: Lêre; Breton: Liger; Latin: Liger) is the longest river in France and the 171st longest in the world. With a length of 1,006 kilometres (625 mi), it drains 117,054 km2 (45,195 sq mi), more than a fifth of France's land, while its average discharge is only half that of the Rhône. It rises in the southeastern quarter of the French Massif Central in the Cévennes range (in the department of Ardèche) at 1,350 m (4,430 ft) near Mont Gerbier de Jonc; it flows north through Nevers to Orléans, then west through Tours and Nantes until it reaches the Bay of Biscay (Atlantic Ocean) at Saint-Nazaire. Its main tributaries include the rivers Nièvre, Maine and the Erdre on its right bank, and the rivers Allier, Cher, Indre, Vienne, and the Sèvre Nantaise on the left bank. The Loire gives its name to six departments: Loire, Haute-Loire, Loire-Atlantique, Indre-et-Loire, Maine-et-Loire, and Saône-et-Loire. The lower-central swathe of its valley straddling the Pays de la Loire and Centre-Val de Loire regions was added to the World Heritage Sites list of UNESCO on December 2, 2000. Vineyards and châteaux are found along the banks of the river throughout this section and are a major tourist attraction. The human history of the Loire river valley is thought by some to begin with the Middle Palaeolithic period of 90–40 kya (thousand years ago), followed by modern humans (about 30 kya), succeeded by the Neolithic period (6,000 to 4,500 BC), all of the recent Stone Age in Europe. Then came the Gauls, the local tribes during the Iron Age period of 1500 to 500 BC. They used the Loire as a key trading route by 600 BC, using pack horses to link its trade, such as the metals of the Armorican Massif, with Phoenicia and Ancient Greece via Lyon on the Rhône. Gallic rule ended in the valley in 56 BC when Julius Caesar conquered the adjacent provinces for Rome. Christianity was introduced into this valley from the 3rd century AD, as missionaries (many later recognized as saints), converted the pagans. In this period, settlers established vineyards and began producing wines.The Loire Valley has been called the "Garden of France" and is studded with over a thousand châteaux, each with distinct architectural embellishments covering a wide range of variations, from the early medieval to the late Renaissance periods. They were originally created as feudal strongholds, over centuries past, in the strategic divide between southern and northern France; now many are privately owned.

The canton of Saint-Nazaire-2 is an administrative division of the Loire-Atlantique department, western France. It was created at the French canton reorganisation which came into effect in March 2015. Its seat is in Saint-Nazaire.It consists of the following communes: Besné Donges Montoir-de-Bretagne Saint-Malo-de-Guersac Saint-Nazaire (partly) Trignac