Joanne Risley Sculptor

St Nazaire Raid Memorial Sculpture

Bronze commandos, representing a protection party leaving the Campbeltown on their way to protect their comrades who were carrying out various acts of sabatage around the Normandie dock at St Nazaire during The St Nazaire Raid. Operation Chariot.

Operation Chariot was a highly challenging and audacious raid on the Normandie dry dock at St Nazaire on the 28th March 1942.  The focus of the raid was to destroy the Normandie Dock in order to put the Tirpitz out of action for the duration of the war and help secure the Atlantic convoys.  It was a joint operation, involving Army Commandos, The Royal Navy and the RAF. Of the 625 men involved only 239 returned to Falmouth, 169 were killed and over 200 became prisoners of war.  A total of 5 VCs were awarded for this single event, as well as a host of other gallantry awards, so it is surprising that many have never heard of it. In 2022, myself and several other artists were approached by the St Nazaire Society to develop ideas for a memorial designed to immortalise the raid and commemorate those that took part in it. I was very honoured to have been selected to take my design forward. Subsequently, the St Nazaire Raid Memorial Trust was established to oversee and raise funds for the project. This memorial is part of a wider project, designed to safeguard the accurate story of the raid for future generations and to increase awareness.

The scale and complexity of the raid made this a challenging commission in terms of deciding on a focus for the design.  In the end I based it on the iconic image of the Campbeltown ship on top of the dock caisson as this was central to the main aim of the raid and instantly recognisable.  The sculpture illustrates the Campbeltown resting on top of the dock caisson after the ramming took place and before the explosives in its bow detonated at 1-10 scale.  Two short sections of the inner wall of the dry dock have been recreated to form a viewing area (as well as somewhere to place a wreath) and a section of the outer dock walls on the Atlantic side.  To allow the viewer to look up at the ship, the viewing area is accessed by a grass slope (1/12 gradient to allow unaided wheelchair access) taking you below ground level.  This creates the illusion that ground level represents sea level, with the rear of the ship below the “water line”.  Planting creates the illusion of waves as well as protecting the sculpture from would be climbers. I modelled 5 bronze commandos which are running from the ship along the wall. This group represents a protection party.

The ship and caisson have been fabricated from Cor-ten steel, with laser cut images and text providing an overview of the operation. The text was kindly written by Peter Lush, historian and author. I have used board marked cast-in-situ concrete for the side walls to authentically recreate the dry dock walls at St Nazaire.

For more information you can reach the trust’s website here; https://stnazaireraid.org/