Operation Chariot 1942-2013

On Thursday March 28th 2013 the C.R.E.D.I.B. ( Center of the Research & Diffusion of Breton Identity ) together with the « Section Relations Internationales et Interceltiques » of the « Institut Culturel de Bretagne / Skol Uhel ar Vro » (ICB) will hold a ceremony paying homage to the brave men of « Opération Chariot ».

Those valourous men sailed from Great Britain and offered their lives for our liberty.

At 10 a.m. we'll remember them during a silent pause in front of the «Vieux Môle» - the symbolic place of the sacrifice of the British and their allies. It's exactly there , at the moment of their landing on Breton land in the port of Saint Nazaire, that Commandos and British sailors suffered most human losses. A bunch of gorse, a symbol of Breton land, will be laid whereas one piper will play Breton music.

We'll also remember the Bretons who contributed to the success of this daring raid, thanks to the information they transmitted to the British. Among them, the founder of «Seiz Breur» (7 Brothers), the artist and ethnologist René-Yves Creston, with other Breton militants from Sant Nazer, who started a network of informers as soon as 1940.

After the silent pause, we'll have commentaries by André Daniel, a historian, Hubert Chemereau, author of an article on the raid in the magazine «ArMen», Jean Cevaër (ICB) and James Dorian, the great Irish specialist on the raid. Then we'll proceed on to the ceremony for this seventieth anniversary , in front of the «Monument au Commando» at 11.30 a.m.

The British and Irish attendants to that seventy-first anniversary were all genuinely moved by this ceremony originated from their Breton friends.

2012: (voir le site)