Raid on St Malo

The Raid on St Malo took place in June 1758 when an amphibious British naval expedition landed close to the French port of St Malo in Brittany. While the town itself was not attacked, as had been initially planned, the British destroyed large amounts of shipping before re-embarking a week later. The naval forces were under the command of Richard Howe while the army was led by the Duke of Marlborough and Lord Sackville. As part of an effort to pro... More

The Raid on St Malo took place in June 1758 when an amphibious British naval expedition landed close to the French port of St Malo in Brittany. While the town itself was not attacked, as had been initially planned, the British destroyed large amounts of shipping before re-embarking a week later. The naval forces were under the command of Richard Howe while the army was led by the Duke of Marlborough and Lord Sackville. As part of an effort to provide a diversion in support of Britain's German Allies, William Pitt had conceived the idea of a series of Naval Descents. In 1757 a large expedition was sent to Rochefort where it captured an offshore island, but failed to make an attack on the town itself before returning home. Pitt believed that the failure was due to insufficient vigour by the expedition's commanders, and planned to launch further expeditions against the French coast in the coming year. By early 1758 the British cabinet planned the next raid and began to assemble a force...

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