Diego Bay in 1922
My grandfather on Mom's side took this photo of six 4-stack destroyers that had just been decommissioned in San Diego Bay in 1922.
From left to right: DD-144 USS Upshur, DD-145 USS Greer, DD-146, USS Elliot, all being built in 1918 and 1919. DD-132 USS Arron Ward, DD-131 USS Buchanan, (which we will return to in a moment) and DD-76 USS Philip.
Most of these ships were re-commissioned and given to the Royal Navy in 1940. The Buchanan had quite a career and brilliant ending. In 1942.
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 and British Commandos on 28 March 1942.
St Nazaire was targeted because the loss of its dry dock would force any large German battleships in need of repairs, such as Tirpitz, sister ship of the 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 old American 4-stack destroyer USS Buchanan, DD-131 given to the British on Lend Lease in 1940 and re-named HMS Campbeltown, accompanied by 18 smaller craft, crossed the English Channel to the Atlantic coast of France and was rammed into the Normandie drydock gates.
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. The second photo was taken by the Germans of the Buchanan after the dock ramming, but before the giant explosion when it detonated. Another great contribution to the war effort by California!