ATTACK ON THE IRON COAST

Several years ago, I read an article in WWII HISTORY magazine about the St. Nazaire Raid. The action occurred in the Normandie port in March of 1942. It was a joint effort of the Royal Navy and British Commandos and it was no ordinary raid. The port of St. Nazaire was one of the largest Nazi held ports on the British Channel. It was capable of docking the largest ships in the German navy, including massive battleships. The plan was to load the hold of the decommissioned British destroyer, the HMS Campbelltown with timed explosives. Then the Campbelltown, along with 18 smaller ships carrying commandos, was literally rammed into the port under cover of night with the clock ticking on it's explosive payload. 

Needless to say, the plan worked. Although British lives were lost in the effort, the operation struck a Major blow to the German navy, effectively shutting down one of their major sea ports for the duration of the war. As I read the article, I kept thinking, "boy, this story would make one helluva movie."

Little did I know at the time that such a film was made in 1968 but given it's meager budget, ATTACK ON THE IRON COAST really doesn't do the subject matter justice. I don't recall ever seeing this film playing in any Austin area theaters at the time of release so I've remained unaware of it for 50 years. The St. Nazaire Raid is deserving of a much larger canvas, more star power and much better lensed special effects and action sequences. 

Instead we get a low budget British produced film with the only star in the cast being American actor Lloyd Bridges. Although Bridges enjoyed a long career in films and on television, he was seldom cast in the lead. The running time, also mandated by the studio, is a meager ninety-minutes. This was deliberately done in order to be able to release the film as the bottom half of a double bill in the UK where it was paired with, believe it or not, The Beatles animated feature film YELLOW SUBMARINE. 

The special effects feature entirely unconvincing and poorly lighted miniature ship models and the climactic raid (also poorly lighted) takes place at night where it is often times hard to figure out who is a German soldier and who is a Brit commando. 

In fact, the entire film has a cheap, murky look. And oddly enough, nowhere in the film is it ever acknowledged that the screenplay is based on a true story. Either the producers figured that 1968 audiences (both British and American) would be aware of the St. Nazaire Raid or thought it just didn't matter. 

And of course, it goes without saying, that the movie poster pictured above is far and away better than anything that appears on screen. 

I maintain that there is still a first rate film to be made about this legendary, daring raid. Until then, go read about it in the history books. It's a far more exciting and compelling true story than what you'll find in ATTACK ON THE IRON COAST.