… for a while by a surprise visit from a retired Royal Marines Major bringing me a print of a painting depicting the launch of Operation Frankton in 1942. Better known by the film name of 'Cockleshell Heroes' this was an attack on shipping in Bordeaux harbour by ten Royal Marines in kayaks.
In March there was a ceremony to unveil an overdue memorial at the Pointe de la Grave; where the operation began; off the tip of the Medoc where the Gironde Estuary flows into the Bay of Biscay. We gave them some wine from Le Chai to help the ceremonials.
This visit was to thank me. For nothing at all by comparison with those young men who must've known they would not come back.
The painting shows them paddling their tiny craft away from their launch submarine, the Tuna, under the stars, December 8, 1942 a real low point in the war. Impossible to paddle against the tide or in daylight they had a gruelling journey up the estuary.
The four men who reached the target successfully crippled five merchant ships, running the allied blockade, transporting vital war supplies between Germany and Japan. Of the ten men only two survived, Hasler and Sparks. Two died at sea after a capsize in a treacherous and wholly unpredicted tide-race just hours after the launch, and the other six were later captured, as they moved overland, and faced, without any trials, German firing squads.
'Blondie' Hasler their leader and his crewman sparks only got home thanks to the French Resistance. Next year is the 70th Anniversary and I hope to be there. With some wine. As much as they want.
These men are held in some esteem in Bordeaux. The alternative to their raid was bombing and then Bordeaux would not be what it is today; beautiful, and the most Anglophile city in France.
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