Facebook X YouTube Instagram Pinterest NetGalley
Google Books previews are unavailable because you have chosen to turn off third party cookies for enhanced content. Visit our cookies page to review your cookie settings.

In Command at St Nazaire (A Reluctant Hero) (Paperback)

The Life of Captain Robert Ryder VC

Military > Biographies > Military Biographies Military > Victoria Crosses WWII

By Richard Hopton
Imprint: Pen & Sword Military
Pages: 240
Illustrations: 16pp B & W plates
ISBN: 9781399083287
Published: 9th February 2022

in_stock

£10.49 was £14.99

You save £4.50 (30%)


You'll be £10.49 closer to your next £10.00 credit when you purchase In Command at St Nazaire (A Reluctant Hero). What's this?
+£4.50 UK Delivery or free UK delivery if order is over £40
(click here for international delivery rates)

Order within the next 2 hours, 40 minutes to get your order processed the next working day!

Need a currency converter? Check XE.com for live rates

Other formats available Price
In Command at St Nazaire (A Reluctant… ePub (6.4 MB) Add to Basket £4.99


This is the first biography of Captain Robert Ryder V.C., Royal Navy (1908-1986), one of the greatest naval heroes of the Second World War. Ryder led the audacious raid on St Nazaire in March 1942 which completely destroyed the ports dry dock, depriving the Germans mighty pocket battleships of its use for the remainder of the war. The raid was one of the most brilliantly-executed combined operations of the war, much of the credit for which must go to Ryders outstanding planning and courageous leadership. He received one of five Victoria Crosses awarded for the operation.

Although Ryders name will be forever linked with the raid on St Nazaire, the rest of his war service was no less distinguished. Torpedoed in a Q ship in 1940 he was rescued after clinging to a piece of wreckage for four days. After St Nazaire, he was heavily involved in the planning of combined operations and took part in the ill-fated raid on Dieppe. On D Day he lead a naval assault party in the first wave of the invasion. For the rest of the war Ryder commanded a destroyer on the Arctic convoys.

Ryders naval career before the war was, as The Times put it on his death, unorthodox. In 1933-34 he, as captain, and four other young naval officers sailed the Tal-Mo-Shan, a 54 food ketch, from Hong Kong to England via the Panama Canal in a voyage lasting exactly a year, an outstanding achievement. Recently there has been press speculation that the voyage was a cover for naval espionage in Japanese waters. The Tal-Mo-Shan herself has now acquired international celebrity as a result of her sail-on part in the Abba film Mamma Mia. Between 1934 and 1937 Ryder served in the Antarctic as captain of the Penola, the base ship of the British Graham Lane Expedition. His formidable navigation and seamanship was largely responsible for the Penola, which was ill-adapted to polar conditions, surviving her ordeal intact. Ryder also took part in some of the earliest ocean yacht races, including the second Fastnet race in 1926.

As featured in

The Bookseller

As seen in...

International Fleet Review

Biography of one of the greatest naval heroes of WWII. Ryder led the audacious raid on St Nazaire in March 1942 which completely destroyed the port's dry dock, depriving the German's mighty pocket battleships of its use for the remainder of the war.

Warships

A workman-like biography, describing the life and unusual naval career of a very professional and unquestionably brave naval officer.

Navy Today (New Zealand)

About Richard Hopton

Richard Hopton is a British author, historian and journalist. He has published three works of non-fiction, the present book, Maida, 1806 (2002) also published by Pen & Sword, and Pistols at Dawn (2007). His first novel, The Straits of Treachery, was published in 2020. It won the Society of Army Historical Research’s Fiction Prize. He is books' editor of Country & Town House magazine and his reviews have also appeared in The Economist, Country Life, FT, and other publications. He lives in Dorset with his wife, daughter, son, cat and cockapoo.

Customers who bought this title also bought...

Other titles in Pen & Sword Military...