80 years ago in 1942, The Royal Navy pulled off perhaps the greatest raid of WWII with Operation Chariot, a daring foray into Nazi-held territory in Northern France to destroy the heart of their ship repair operations. Gift Horse is a dramatisation of these events and the journey leading up to it of a recommissioned US naval destroyer and her heroic crew.

In 1940, the Royal Navy is frantically recruiting for WWII so pulls Lieutenant Commander Fraser (Trevor Howard, The Third Man, Brief Encounter), out of retirement to captain the HMS Ballantrae, herself recently re-commissioned and lent by the Americans to a seriously under-resourced British Navy. Despite an inauspicious start and multiple repairs, Fraser crafts the ship and its crew into an efficient fighting force, culminating in a daring mission to destroy a French dockyard which is crucial to the Nazis in maintaining their formidable battleships. The climax of the film is a fictional account of the real-life St Nazaire Raid of 1942 AKA Operation Chariot – led by a ship very similar to the Gift Horse itself, and celebrated as The Greatest Raid of All. Also starring Richard Attenborough (Brighton Rock, The Angry Silence) and Sid James (The Carry On series).