Richard Hopton

A biography of one of the greatest naval heroes of World War II.

This is the first biography of Cpt. Robert Ryder VC, Royal Navy, 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 port’s 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, and much of the credit must go to Ryder’s outstanding planning and courageous leadership.

Ryder’s name will be forever linked with the raid on St Nazaire, for which he received a Victoria Cross— but 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 led 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.

This lively biography tells the story not only of his wartime heroics, but of the unusual and adventurous life that preceded the war—including serving in the Antarctic and taking part in some of the earliest ocean yacht races.

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