L'INCROYABLE RAID ALLEMAND SUR GRANVILLE

Two months exactly before the capitulation of the Third Reich, the Germans on Jersey launched a night raid on Granville, an ancient corsair city chosen by the Allies for cargo ships bringing in coal for the French population. One hundred and fifty men in twelve boats took part in this operation which had three objectives: make the port unusable, capture one or several boats of supplies, and destroy all the ships in the harbour which could not be brought back. Those taking part were trained in great secret on Guernsey. All the exercises were done on dry land, the men learning how to direct themselves using a map of Granville.
The Germans remained for an hour and a half, as planned. The time it took to carry out a lot of destruction, capture a cargo ship with 112 tons of coal, to make fifteen or so prisoners, including several American offi- cers caught in gallant company in bed. Although this raid, qualified by one historian as “a naval hold-up” was not very much use from a military point of view, it has entered History because of its boldness of conception and the efficiency of those taking part. It deserved therefore to be told, sixty years later, in a life-like manner, camera in hand, in a book illustrated with a lot pf period photographs, maps, plans and illustrations.

A journalist and writer, Jean-Charlezs Stasi is the author of fifteen or so books, among which Commando Kieffer, les Français débarquent en Normandie (Heimdal, 2014) and Ennemis et Frères (Heimdal, 2014).