The daring story of the Cockleshell Heroes
In December 1942, the brave heroes of Operation Frankton took to kayaks to attack one of the world’s most heavily guarded ports.
Image: Statue in Stockport honouring the sacrifice of Cockleshell Hero James Conway | John B Hewitt / Shutterstock.com
The Second World War is full of tales of heroism, courage and prevailing against the odds. We’re all familiar with stories of the Dambusters and the Great Escape, which have long since been immortalised in film, but have you heard of the Cockleshell Heroes?
This small unit of elite commandos set out to attack German vessels using only kayaks and limpet mines. Even more astonishingly, their mission targets were safely moored in the heavily guarded port of Bordeaux, which would require rowing almost 70 miles to reach.
This unbelievable story is being retold as part of Sky HISTORY’s brand new series, Commando Missions. Read on to learn more about the Cockleshell Heroes’ astonishing feat of courage and bravery.
A daring idea
The idea was originally the brainchild of Major Herbert 'Blondie' Hasler, who had a lifelong love of canoes and conceived of attacking the enemy in small two-man kayaks. It was initially dismissed as too risky, but a similarly small-scale assault had recently borne the Italian navy fruits at Alexandria. With the Battle of the Atlantic going against Great Britain in late 1941, it was decided to pursue Hasler’s plan.
Hasler was given almost a year to train his unit, though none of them were told what would be involved in the mission until it was actually underway. The target was the port of Bordeaux, and specifically the cargo ships coming from the Far East with supplies vital to the German war effort. The port’s defences made a conventional attack from the sea impossible, while an aerial raid would have involved too many civilian casualties.
As such, Hasler and his team of 12 marines were tasked with rowing six two-man canoes nearly 70 miles up the Gironde estuary to Bordeaux. Once there, they were to attach limpet mines to any vessels in port and make good their escape – unaided. The men implicitly understood that it was all but a suicide mission.
Treacherous tides
On 7th December 1942, Operation Frankton finally got underway. The submarine HMS Tuna dropped the unit at the mouth of the Gironde estuary, though one kayak was damaged in the attempt to unload it and never disembarked. Consequently, its two occupants, plus the single reserve marine, were sent back home.
Strong ebb tides and unpredictable tidal overfalls meant that the conditions were extremely challenging. One of the kayaks capsized and its two men lost at sea, while two more kayaks were forced to seek refuge on the shores of the estuary. The four men manning them were captured by the Nazis.
That meant that the task force of 13 had been quickly whittled down to just four. Nevertheless, Major Hasler and the three others paddled fearlessly on, eventually reaching their target shortly before dawn on 11th December. They spent that day resting and preparing their charges, before launching one of WWII’s most unbelievable commando missions that very night.
The attack itself
Shortly after 9pm, the two kayaks paddled silently into Bordeaux harbour and began attaching their limpet mines to the vessels moored therein. Hasler and his companion Corporal Bill Sparks succeeded in placing eight mines on four different boats, while Corporal Albert Laver and Marine Wiliams Mills dropped a further four mines on two more vessels.
At one point, their presence appeared to have been discovered when a sentry aboard the Sperrbrecher shone his light fully on Hasler and Sparks. The men waited silently and held their breath, praying that the camouflage gear they wore would do its job. Mercifully, it did.
After placing the charges, the two teams had six hours to escape before they detonated. They rowed downstream and scuttled their kayaks at a safe distance from the port, before splitting up and attempting to make their way on foot to neutral Spain. Hasler and Sparks managed the feat; Laver and Mills were captured. All those apprehended by the Nazis were executed without trial.
Significant consequences
From a military and strategic perspective, Operation Frankton was far from being one of Great Britain’s biggest contributions to the war effort. All of the boats targeted were empty and only sank a few feet before coming to rest on the shallow seabed of the harbour. All were quickly repaired and brought back into action.
However, the psychological effects of the mission were much greater. From a British standpoint, news of the escapade provided a timely morale boost at a time when the war seemed to be getting away from the Allies. From a German one, it caused great consternation and panic in the Nazi ranks, since it was not known how the attack had been engineered.
Indeed, Winston Churchill would later claim he thought the mission could have brought D-Day forward by as much as six months, so great was its impact on the mindset of both armies. Meanwhile, the valiant men involved in the raid were recognised in the 1955 film, The Cockleshell Heroes. Their legend lives on today.
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