HMS Campbeltown was a destroyer of the Royal Navy (RN) during the Second World War. She was originally US destroyer , and was one of 50 obsolescent US Navy destroyers transferred to the RN in 1940 as part of the Destroyers for Bases Agreement. Between 17 January 1941 and 15 October 1941 she also briefly served in the Royal Netherlands Navy as HNLMS Campbeltown before being returned to the RN. Campbeltown became one of the most famous of these ships when she was used in the St Nazaire Raid in 1942.
Service history
As USS Buchanan
thumb|left|upright|Starboard side view of Campbeltown as USS Buchanan in 1936
USS Buchanan was a destroyer, ordered from the Bath Iron Works, Bath, Maine, and laid down on 29 June 1918. She was launched on 2 January 1919 and commissioned into the Navy on 20 January. She had a typical inter-war career, and was placed into the reserve in 1939. She then became one of 50 destroyers transferred to the Royal Navy in 1940 after the finalisation of the Destroyers for Bases Agreement.
As HMS Campbeltown
Having been formally commissioned, she took passage from Halifax to Plymouth, travelling via St John's, Newfoundland. She arrived at Devonport Dockyard on 29 September and was taken in hand for modifications to fit her for service with the Royal Navy. The refits lasted throughout October, and on completion of the final harbour trials on 1 November 1940 she was nominated to join the 17th Flotilla operating in the Western Approaches. but continued and arrived safely at Liverpool, where she underwent repairs from 7 to 24 November. She then joined the flotilla. She began deploying with the flotilla in early December, but on 3 December she collided with SS Comus and had to put into port for repairs again. Lieutenant Isaac William Trant Beloe was replaced by Lieutenant William Harmsen. The Dutch proposed to rename her Middelburg, but this was not agreed as it would have been contrary to the naming agreed with the US Navy. On completion of her repairs Campbeltown joined on 6 April 1941 the 7th Escort Group and had during this time Liverpool as her homeport. She carried out escort duties in November–December, before taking passage to Devonport to undergo repairs.
The St Nazaire Raid
thumb|upright|left|HMS Campbeltown being converted
Campbeltown began the Devonport repairs in January. During this time, she was selected for a special operation and was withdrawn from regular service for modifications. She was to be used in Operation Chariot, a planned assault operation on the docks at Saint-Nazaire. In 1942 the German battleship —anchored at Trondheim in Norway—was considered to present a grave threat to Atlantic convoys. Should Tirpitz enter the Atlantic, the Louis Joubert drydock at Saint-Nazaire—which had originally been built for the liner —was a vital target; it was the only German-held drydock on the European coast of the Atlantic that was large enough to service the battleship. If this drydock could be put out of action, any offensive sortie by Tirpitz into the Atlantic would be much more dangerous for the Kriegsmarine to carry out, making it less likely that they would risk deploying her.
Operation Chariot was a plan to ram an explosive-laden warship into the dock gates. Accompanying her would be 18 small boats carrying British Commandos, who would destroy the dock's pumping and winding machinery and other infrastructure. The troops would then be evacuated by the small boats before the explosives in the ship detonated. A particular difficulty was that the dock was located several miles up the estuary of the Loire River. As an obsolescent destroyer, Campbeltown was considered to be expendable and was selected to be the ram-ship. She spent February undergoing modifications. These included removing her third and fourth funnels and having the remaining two funnels raked to simulate the structure and appearance of a German Raubvogel-class torpedo boat. A 12-pounder gun was installed forward and eight Oerlikon anti-aircraft cannon were mounted on the upper deck. Some extra armour was provided to protect the bridge structure, and unnecessary stores and equipment were removed to lighten the destroyer.
An explosive charge consisting of 24 Mark VII depth charges—containing a total of of amatol high explosive—was fitted into steel tanks installed just behind the steel pillar that supported her most forward gun mount. The charges were to be detonated by multiple eight-hour time pencils connected together by cordtex, set before steaming out and cemented in to prevent any interference with the detonation.
A flotilla of 21 vessels—Campbeltown, 16 Fairmile B motor launches, one motor torpedo boat and a Fairmile C motor gun boat acting as the troops' headquarters—left Falmouth at 14:00 on 26 March 1942, escorted for most of the crossing to France by two Hunt-class escort destroyers.
thumb|[[Louis Joubert Lock|Normandie Dock months after the raid. The wreck of Campbeltown is visible inside the dry dock]]
The charges in Campbeltown exploded at noon, an hour and a half later than the British had expected. Although the ship had been searched by the Germans, the explosives had not been detected. The explosion killed around 250 German soldiers and French civilians and demolished both the front half of the destroyer and the caisson of the drydock, with the rush of water into the drydock washing the remains of the ship into it. The Saint-Nazaire drydock was rendered unusable for the rest of the war and was not repaired until 1947,
The delayed-action torpedoes fired by the motor torpedo boat into the outer lock gate to the submarine basin detonated, as planned, on the night of 30 March. This later explosion led to panic, with German forces firing on French civilians and on each other. Sixteen French civilians were killed and around thirty wounded. Later, 1,500 civilians were arrested and interned in a camp at Savenay and most of their houses were demolished, even though they had had nothing to do with the raid. Beattie—who was taken prisoner—received the Victoria Cross for his valour and in 1947 received the French Légion d'honneur. His Victoria Cross was one of five awarded to participants in the raid, along with 80 other military decorations.
The 1952 film The Gift Horse was loosely based on the story of HMS Campbeltown.