Hamilton hero who took part in famous WW2 raid dies

Aug 7 2008 by John Rowbotham, Hamilton Advertiser

A FORMER pupil of Hamilton Academy who took part in one of the most daring actions of World War Two has died aged 95.

David Paton was medical officer on the St Nazaire raid in 1942.

The aim of the operation was to neutralise the German battleship Tirpitz by destroying the only dry dock big enough to take her should she be damaged. That dock was at St Nazaire, a French port on the Loire estuary.

The audacious plan was to ram an explosives-packed American destroyer, the Campbeltown, into the dock gate.

David Paton, whose job was to set up a first aid post in a blockhouse on a breakwater in the dock, accompanied the Campbeltown aboard one of the ‘little ships’ that followed.

He had strong doubts about whether he would return from the mission.

The Campbeltown, disguised to make it look like a German vessel, got within a mile of the dock before the attack was discovered.

Mr Paton later wrote: “All hell broke loose; searchlights by the dozen illuminated us from both sides and we became targets for a huge variety of guns.

“The air was thick with tracer shells coming from all directions.”

The gun on the blockhouse that was to be Mr Paton’s medical post started firing at them. He felt the draught of one shell as it whizzed passed him.

Mr Paton treated eight casualties on his boat and jumped on to other vessels to tend the wounded.

Hours after the Campbeltown was detected, it exploded, putting the dry dock out of action for the remainder of the war.

The Tirpitz, which had preyed on Allied shipping in the Atlantic, was sunk by the RAF seven months later.

David Paton survived and returned to Falmouth but of the 622 men who took part in the raid, 168 were killed and 214 taken prisoner.

David Paton was born in Hamilton on July 30, 1912, the son of a watchmaker and schoolmistress.

After attending Hamilton Academy and studying medicine at Glasgow University, he worked at the city’s Western Infirmary until his call-up to the Royal Army Medical Corps in 1939.

Mr Paton, who rose to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, landed with the commandos on Sword Beach on D-Day.

Following the war, he worked as a GP in Surrey. He retired from general practice in 1972 but continued to work as a police surgeon for the Thames Valley force.

Mr Paton’s wife, Phyllis, whom he married in 1941, died in 1995, and he is survived by two sons and two daughters.

He passed away on July 10.