HMS Campbeltown was a Town-class destroyer of the Royal Navy during the Second World War. She was originally US destroyer USS Buchanan, transferred to the Royal Navy in 1940 as part of the Destroyers for Bases Agreement. Campbeltown became one of the most famous of these ships when she was used in the St. Nazaire Raid in 1942, also known as Operation Chariot.
Most of her original armaments and unneccesary compartments were removed for weight reduction. smokestacks were cut in slanted angle to simulate the silhouette of German torpedo boats, and the bow was filled with 24 Mk VII depth charges for detonating the dock. Only her bridge received additional armor.

At 01:34 on 28 March, Campbeltown rammed the dock gate. The British Commandos accompanying her in their boats came ashore and destroyed most of the dock's machineries.
Campbeltown exploded at high noon that day.
The explosion demolished both the front half of herself and the drydock gates, with the rush of water into the drydock washing the remains of her into it. The St. Nazaire drydock was rendered unusable for the rest of the war and was not repaired until 1947. This made the German battleship Tirpitz to have no drydocks that can service her around the North Sea, which assured safer voyages for lend-lease convoys heading to Soviet Russia.

Campbeltown's bell is currently in the town of Campbelltown, Pennsylvania, USA. It has become a great symbol of the alliance formed between two distinct communities - Campbelltown, Pennsylvania and Campbeltown, Scotland.