A Brilliant Little Operation: The Cockleshell Heroes and the Most Courageous Raid of WW2
Paddy Ashdown
Language: English
Pages: 425
ISBN: 2:00312107
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
The complete story of the remarkable canoe raid on German ships in Bordeaux Harbour – by the man who himself served in the Special Boat Squadron.
In 1942, before El Alamein turned the tide of war, the German merchant fleet was re-supplying its war machine with impunity. So Operation Frankton, a daring and secret raid, was launched by Mountbatten’s Combined Operations and led by the enigmatic ‘Blondie’ Hasler – to paddle ‘Cockleshell’ canoes right into Bordeaux harbour and sink the ships at anchor.
It was a desperately hazardous mission from the start – dropped by submarine to canoe some hundred miles up the Gironde into the heart of Vichy France, surviving terrifying tidal races, only to face the biggest challenge of all: escaping across the Pyrenees. Fewer than half the men made it to Bordeaux; only four laid their mines; just two got back alive. But the most damage was done to the Germans’ sense of impregnability.
Paddy Ashdown, himself a member of the Royal Marines’ elite Special Boat Squadron formed as a consequence of Frankton, has always been fascinated by this classic story of bravery and ingenuity - as a young man even meeting his hero Hasler once. Now, after researching previously unseen archives and tracing surviving witnesses, he has written the definitive account of the raid. The real truth, he discovers – a deplorable tale of Whitehall rivalry and breakdowns in communication – serves only to make the achievements of the ‘Cockleshell’ heroes all the more heroic.
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reveal. Catherine Bret-Lépine and Henri Bret, Années sombres à Blanquefort et dans ses environs, 1939–1945 (Blanquefort: Publications du GAHBLE, Groupe d’archéologie et d’histoire de Blanquefort, 2009), pp. 131–3. Courtesy of Michel St Marc, Cauderan, Bordeaux. 19 No trace of this report has been found in the archives of either the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva or in those of the French Red Cross. Correspondence with the author, December 2011. 20 Arne Schräder of the
hideout within striking distance of Bordeaux and kept there long enough to enable the canoes to deliver a series of attacks with limpets timed to explode after the last attack had been delivered and the expedition had withdrawn. A month later, on 7 September, Selborne sent yet another letter to add to his growing list of acerbic admonitions. This one was to the Admiralty and ended with the tart comment: ‘I am … anxious to know whether … the Admiralty regard as satisfactory, arrangements for
down the Irish Sea. By dawn the following morning she was passing Chicken Rock Light at the southern tip of the Isle of Man and by dusk, Bardsey Light at the north end of Cardigan Bay. By now the wind had freshened to a southwesterly Force 5. This was not by any means rough, but with the sea now on Tuna’s starboard bow, she rolled, wallowed and yawed like some great beast in travail. Hasler noted in his diary for that day: ‘2115–0045. Turned hands to. Re-stowing bags, paddles etc and boats.
worthwhile contribution to the war effort. The new Chief of Combined Operations (CCO), appointed in March 1942 with a coveted place on the all-powerful Chiefs of Staff Committee,11 was the thrusting, young, good-looking, royally connected ex-destroyer commander Louis Mountbatten. In the early months of Mountbatten’s tenure he met SOE chief Hugh Dalton to discuss cooperation between their two organisations. But this achieved little beyond establishing a relationship of guarded congeniality
the word ‘English’ before his formidable interlocutor interrupted. ‘Impossible! You can’t be English. I can’t possibly help you!’ This was followed by a swift, prolonged torrent of French, of which Hasler understood not a word. His only response was to do his best to look hurt and desperate, which in the circumstances required little acting ability. She regarded him closely for a few moments and then wordlessly turned her back and went inside, leaving behind only the tempting aroma as proof
