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 & secret raid was launched by Mountbatten's Combined Operations & led by the enigmatic ' Blondie' Hasler
- to paddle ' Cockleshell' canoes right into Bordeaux harbour & 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 & ingenuity
- as a young man even meeting his hero Hasler once. Now after researching previously unseen archives & tracing surviving witnesses he has written the definitive account of the raid. The real truth he discovers
- a deplorable tale of Whitehall rivalry & breakdowns in communication
- serves only to make the achievements of the ' Cockleshell' heroes all the more heroic.