Those who are movie buffs may recall the 1955 British film 'Cockleshell Heroes'. It was the usual fare one expects from a movie and was loosely based on a daring and successful commando raid of 1942.

Early in the war there was a real problem of blockade-running ships trafficking in materials between Occupied Europe and Japan. These ships would transport technology to Japan in return for raw materials needed for German factories. While some of these ships were intercepted, it was thought that hitting them at their starting point would be the best way to tackle the situation. After the occupation of France, the port of Bordeaux was chosen as the best place to harbor these blockade runners thanks to its position nearly 60 miles inland on the river Garonne.

Once the idea was given a go to try to sink some of these ships by commandos, a plan was developed to use two man cockles or canoes to carry limpet mines up river after being launched from a submarine. Several months of intense training with the best the Royal Marines had to offer was undertaken before five crews were selected for the attack.

The way up river was treacherous and one of the cockles was damaged removing it from the submarine leaving only four teams to make the attack. In the main, only two were successful in planting charges and only one team was able to successfully escape through France and into Spain. The rest were caught and executed by the Germans. However, even those two teams were able to sink or damage several ships and slowed the transfer of materials as a result.

In his book on this raid, author Ken Ford looks at the development of the team and their equipment, the planning that went into the raid as well as the full story of the harrowing trip up river from the surviving crew and from German records of the interrogation of the captured crews.

Superbly illustrated with period photos and 3D Maps we are drawn into the story of these men and what they had to endure on this most hazardous mission. It is very much a gripping tale that I know you will thoroughly enjoy and as such I highly recommend this one to you.

April 2010

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