The Cockleshell Raid--Bordeaux 1942

by Ken Ford

  It was not until the end of the war that a proper assessment could be made from captured documents of the damage inflicted on the ships in Bordeaux. The work of the blockade busters was certainly interfered with because of the raid, but it was the changing fortunes of the Allies in naval warfare and their growing strength in the oceans of the world that finally eliminated the seaborne trade between the Axis nations. From the end of 1942 a greater number of British, French and American warships patrolled the seaways off Africa looking for the blockade runners. The Portland, which had been damaged in the raid and later repaired and put to sea again in April 1943, was eventually intercepted off the coast of Dakar by the Free French cruiser George Leygues and scuttled by her crew before capture. During 1943 only one blockade runner actually made it from Japan back to France and that voyage ended in disaster. The Osorno sailing from Kobe was damaged at the mouth of the River Gironde on 2 October but beached in such a position that her cargo was saved. All other passages by surface ships between Japan and France were intercepted and sunk. By 1944 all the blockade busters had been dealt with, but some small trade with the Far East was still being carried out using large German and Japanese submarines.

  Two days after the mines had exploded in Bordeaux, Laver and Mills were captured by French police and brought to the police prison in the city. Here they were handed over to the German SD. By now the Germans had a very good idea of what the marines had been up to and were determined to find out more about the raid and its organization. Hitler’s ‘immediately kill commandos’ directive seems to have been ignored in the case of Laver and Mills, for they remained in custody and under interrogation in Bordeaux for some time, as did Mackinnon and Conway following their capture. Certainly the interrogation was severe, perhaps even made under torture, for it is clear from post-war documents that the Germans discovered almost all they wanted to know about the raid, including the training they received, how they got to France and the composition of their group.

  On 26 November 1976, Cpl Bill Sparks re-enacts the first part of his voyage during Operation Frankton in a modern canoe launched from the submarine HMS Narwhal. (Royal Marines Museum Collection)

  The four Royal Marines were first questioned at Bordeaux until, in early January 1943, they were removed to Dulag Nord at Wilhelmshaven in Germany. Here they were interrogated at length by the German Naval Intelligence Section. Some time later they appear to have been taken to Paris and handed over to the Gestapo. After more questioning and most likely more torture it eventually became clear to their captors that there was little more to be learned from the prisoners. The German SD were now done with them and they were summarily executed some time around 23 March 1943. German accounts indicate that they were all buried in Bagneux Cemetery, Paris, although no local records confirm this, nor is there any positive evidence of the location of their burials.

  After the war the Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Office investigated all the shootings as war crimes. The executions were carried out under Hitler’s ‘shoot commandos’ order and it was therefore difficult to place ultimate responsibility with any individual officer. However, JAG investigators felt they had a prima facie case against Admiral Bachmann, for he had personally ordered the execution of Wallace and Ewart. The Führer’s order had directed that any saboteurs were to be handed over to the SD for immediate execution. In ordering the initial interrogation to be carried out by German naval staff, personally instructing that the two marines be shot immediately afterwards and having naval personnel carry out the shooting, Bachmann had instigated the actions under his authority and had therefore been guilty of a war crime. An ‘all stations’ search was made for Admiral Bachmann at the end of the war, which even included visiting his wife at her home. No sign of the admiral was ever found and it was later established that he had been killed towards the end of the conflict on 2 April 1945 while serving in the Willebadessen district of Warburg in Germany.

  When Hasler arrived back in England he was able to give a full account of the raid and helped to interpret the lessons that could be learned from the operation. Both he and Cpl Sparks resumed their service career almost immediately. Maj Hasler returned to Southsea to continue his command of the RMBPD and to use his inventive mind to design canoes for further covert operations. He developed the motorized submersible canoe and did pioneering work on underwater swimming. His efforts helped the development of two other organizations, the Combined Operations Pilotage Parties (COPPs), which landed men on occupied enemy beaches to carry out undercover reconnaissance, and the Sea Reconnaissance Unit (SRU), which used underwater swimmers to enter enemy-controlled harbours. The exploding motor boat that gave rise to the formation of the RMBPD never saw action during the conflict. After the war LtCol Hasler became a noted yachtsman and journalist involved in all aspects of recreational sailing. He died in 1987. Cpl Sparks later served with the Royal Marines in Burma, Africa and Italy and left the army in 1946 to become a trolley-bus driver. He remained with London Transport until his retirement, although he did spend a year in Malaya as a policeman during the Emergency in 1952. Bill Sparks died in 2002.

  Maj ‘Blondie’ Hasler and Cpl Bill Sparks were both given awards for their part in the successful outcome of Operation Frankton. Hasler received the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) and Sparks the Distinguished Service Medal (DSM). Cpl Laver and Marine Mills were Mentioned in Dispatches, for there is no posthumous award of the DSM.

  CONCLUSION

  The raid on Bordeaux harbour by Maj Hasler’s Royal Marine Boom Patrol Detachment was one of the most remarkable of the war. While the raid only disrupted the blockade busters, rather than stopping them altogether, it struck at the heart of Germany’s war effort and its security. It showed, as did many other raids on German-occupied territory, that no German, nor any German property or installation, was safe from attack. A party of just 12 men had set out to wreak havoc on German blockade busters, and wreak havoc they did, succeeding where the RAF could not, and providing a huge morale boost for the beleaguered British population.

  The raid had repercussions far beyond the environs of Bordeaux, and the despicable acts meted out to those of the group who were captured ensured that the event will never be forgotten. The operation was unusual as an act of war, for none of the raiders ever came face to face with the enemy until they were caught. Nor was there any shot fired, grenade thrown or individual German killed during the whole operation. And yet the Cockleshell Raid is the stuff of legend, seen, quite rightly, as a magnificent military success. Six of the original 12 were killed by the Germans, two did not take part, two were drowned and the remaining two returned as heroes. When compared to the great loss of life endured during even relatively small operations elsewhere in the war, the death toll was light. Nonetheless, the manner of the deaths – execution even though they were legitimate soldiers in uniform – marks the operation out to be a human tragedy that has captured the public’s imagination.

  In 1955 a full-length feature film was made by Warwick Films called The Cockleshell Heroes. Hasler and Sparks were employed as advisers and the film purported to be an account of the raid. Certainly some elements of the film were true, but, as with all war films, those few elements of truth were surrounded with much fiction to form an ‘entertainment’. The Cockleshell Heroes as an entertainment was first class; a British war film with a host of excellent actors. As history, it leaves much to be explained and much to be put right.

  This plaque reminds visitors that the area around Lumps Fort at Southsea was used as a training ground by the Royal Marine Boom Patrol Detachment during the war and it was from this site that the party of Royal Marines set out on Operation Frankton. (Ken Ford)

  The two survivors of the raid on Bordeaux, Operation Frankton. Maj H. G. ‘Blondie’ Hasler (left) and Cpl Bill Sparks, shown together in at the unveiling of the memorial in Bordeaux that marks the site of the attack on the German ships in December 1942. (Royal Marines Museum Collection)

  Following on f
rom the film in 1956, the military historian C.E. Lucas Phillips produced a book also called Cockleshell Heroes. The author had access to many unreleased official documents to help put together his story. The book was written with the cooperation of the then LtCol ‘Blondie’ Hasler and the result was a comprehensive account of the RMBPD and of Operation Frankton. This was history put right.

  In more recent times several documentaries have been made on Operation Frankton for television and the raid is once again back in the public eye. In France it has not been forgotten, for several monuments to the raid and to those who lost their lives or were executed have been dedicated. In England too there are monuments and memorials. One of the most interesting of remembrances is the formation of the ‘Frankton Walk’ in France, a tourist route that follows the journey taken by Hasler and Sparks between the River Gironde and Ruffec. It seems that the Cockleshell Raid will not be forgotten for many more years to come.

  BIBLIOGRAPHY

  There has, to my knowledge, been only one full account of Operation Frankton published, Cockleshell Heroes by C.E. Lucas Phillips. The two survivors of the raid, Hasler and Sparks, have both had biographies produced that covered the parts they played in the raid. When Lucas Phillips was writing his book back in the 1950s, the author was given exclusive access to the secret official files associated with the operation. In 1972 these documents were released to the public under the 30-year rule. They are now accessible to all in the National Archives at Kew in London. I have used these files extensively in this present account of Operation Frankton and have listed them and their contents below.

  ADM 173 Log of HMS Tuna

  ADM 202/310 War Diary of RMBPD

  ADM 1/18344 Shooting of the captured marines and war crimes investigations

  ADM 202/399 Maj Hasler’s after-action report

  DEF 2/216 Intelligence Reports prior to raid

  DEF 2/217 Awards for those participating in the planning and execution of the raid

  Further Reading

  Lucas Phillips, C. E., Cockleshell Heroes, Heinemann, London, 1956

  Southby-Tailyour, Ewen, Blondie, Leo Cooper, Barnsley, 1998

  Sparks, William & Munn, Michael, The Last of the Cockleshell Heroes, Leo Cooper, London, 1992

  Sparks, Bill, Cockleshell Commando, Leo Cooper, Barnsley, 2002

  And, forthcoming as of the writing of this work:

  Rees, Quentin, Cockleshell Canoes, Amberley Publishing, Stroud, 2009

  First published in 2010 by Osprey Publishing

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  AUTHOR’S NOTE

  Boom Patrol Boat (BPB)

  Chief of Combined Operations (CCO)

  Combined Operations (CO)

  Combined Operations Development Centre (CODC)

  Combined Operations Pilotage Parties (COPPs)

  Distinguished Service Medal (DSM)

  Distinguished Service Order (DSO)

  Judge Advocate General (JAG)

  Non-Commissioned Officer (NCO)

  Royal Air Force (RAF)

  Royal Marine Boom Patrol Detachment (RMBPD)

  Saunders Rowe (SARO)

  Sea Reconnaissance Unit (SRU)

  Second Major Naval Base Defence Organisation (MNBDO II)

  Sicherheitsdienst (SD)

  EDITOR’S NOTE

  For ease of comparison between types, Imperial/American measurements are used almost exclusively throughout this book. The following data will help in converting the Imperial/American measurements to metric:

  1 mile = 1.6km

  1lb = 0.45kg

  1yd = 0.9m

  1ft = 0.3m

  1in. = 2.54cm/25.4mm

  1gal = 4.5 liters

  1 ton (US) = 0.9 tonnes

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  I should like to express my gratitude to the Trustees of the Imperial War Museum, the Royal Marines Museum and the Combined Services Museum of Maldon, Essex for permission to use the photographs for which they hold the copyright. Personal thanks also go to John Ambler and Matthew Little of the Royal Marines Museum, Marilyn Bullivant and Richard Wooldridge of the Combined Services Museum and to Carol Blasco in Bordeaux for their help during the preparation of this book.

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