Operation Chariot
During World War II, Le Croisic was home to a radar station for the Wehrmacht following the surrender of France and construction of the U-boat submarine pens at Saint-Nazaire, in order to protect the Loire estuary from enemy attack due to the Normandie dry dock at Saint-Nazaire that could be used to repair the large Kriegsmarine battleships such as the and its sister ship, . However, in the March 1942 St Nazaire Raid, a British Commando team on the obsolete and several motor launch boats were able to slip by the Le Croisic radar station and ram "Campbeltown" into the Normandie dry dock gate, before sabotaging other vital parts to the dry dock. Delayed action explosives on "Campbeltown" went off several hours after the night raid, destroying the dry dock gate and putting it out of commission until after WWII was over, with France liberated and Nazi Germany having surrendered to the Allied Powers.