The evacuation via Nantes and St Nazaire area, from which I believe almost as many men were recovered as from Dunkirk, is less well known. A few years back I was laying a wreath on the Op CHARIOT memorial at St Nazaire on behalf of the family of Lt Cdr "Sam" Beatty VC, Captain of HMS Campbeltown, when I was stopped by a very elderly but elegant French woman , who asked what I was doing. She then told me that not only had she as a 14 year old watched the CHARIOT raid, she had also seen Lancastria bombed and sunk. Drove home very quietly