This is not just the story of what was perhaps the most daring raid undertaken by the commandos during the war, but it is also the true and remarkable account of a desperate escape by Marine Sparks and Major 'Blondie' Hasler across German-occupied France. For nearly three months, while they desperately sought assistance from the suspicious French Resistance and dodged German soldiers at every turn, Sparks and Hasler found themselves avoiding capture and certain death.
In December 1942, 10 Royal Marines lauched a daring canoe attack on German ships lying in Bordeaux harbour - a harzardous and successful offensive, in which only two survived. This book tells the story of those cockleshell heroes.
In December, 1942, one of the most daring and innovative attacks on enemy shipping was launched by twelve commandos in canoes who became legendary as the Cockleshell Heroes. Of the twelve, two were unable to pursue their mission when their canoe was damaged on the submarine transporting them to France, and two came back alive. Now, for the first time, one of the two survivors, and now the only one living, William Sparks, DSM, tells his own incredible story of the Cockleshell Heroes, a personal account of courage, danger and survival.
This ebook edition contains the full text version as per the book. Doesn't include original photographic and illustrated material. This book tells the stories of forty heroes, all awarded bravery medals for their conduct during Special Forces missions over the last 150 years. Often covert hit-and-run operations involving very small numbers of highly skilled men, those who partake in these missions know that their goals involve a high level of risk. They are men who would die for their country, no questions asked. With many incredible stories, particularly from the Second World War, including the Cockleshell Heroes, and other conflicts from the twentieth century, such as the Iranian Embassy siege, this collection of real-life action adventure brings the bravery of Britain's heroes to life. Every medal in Lord Ashcroft's extensive collection tells a story and these are some of the most thrilling.
The Falklands War, which may prove to be the last 'colonial' war that Britain ever fights, took place in 1982. Fought 8,000 miles from home soil, it cost the lives of 255 British military personnel, with many more wounded, some seriously. The war also witnessed many acts of outstanding courage by the UK Armed Forces after a strong Task Force was sent to regain the islands from the Argentine invaders. Soldiers, sailors and airmen risked, and in some cases gave, their lives for the freedom of 1,820 islanders. Lord Ashcroft, who has been fascinated by bravery since he was a young boy, has amassed several medal collections over the past four decades, including the world's largest collection of Victoria Crosses, Britain and the Commonwealth's most prestigious gallantry award. Falklands War Heroes tells the stories behind his collection of valour and service medals awarded for the Falklands War. The collection, almost certainly the largest of its kind in the world, spans all the major events of the war. This book, which contains nearly forty individual write-ups, has been written to mark the fortieth anniversary of the war. It is Lord Ashcroft's attempt to champion the outstanding bravery of our Armed Forces during an undeclared war that was fought and won over ten weeks in the most challenging conditions.
By the end of 1941 Germany was desperately in need of essential raw materials. Vital supplies from Japan were shipped to Germany by 'blockade runners' using the port of Bordeaux as their main base. Allied forces needed an undertaking to interfere with the work of these lone merchant ships at the port, leading to the formation of plans that ultimately became known as the Cockleshell Heroes Raid, in which a unit of Royal Marine Commandos mounted a raid via canoes launched from a submarine. In this new addition to Osprey's RAID series, author Ken Ford explores the history of what is perhaps the bravest and imaginative raids of the entire war. The book details the original plans of the raid, along with the various complications and challenges faced by the Commandos, and explores the outcome of the raid.
During the Second World War, it is hard to imagine a situation where the British High Command could think that one of the only ways they could attack Hitler was to send ten canoeists with limpet mines to paddle one hundred miles up the Gironde estuary, in the middle of winter, in an attempt to sink German blockade ships in Bordeaux harbor. Yet this is precisely what happened in 1942. The man who gave the go-ahead for the audacious commando raid--Lord Louis Mountbatten, head of Combined Operations--fully anticipated that all ten men would die in the attempt. Mountbatten wasn't far wrong--two ripped their collapsible canoes as they were manhandling them out of the submarine; two drowned when their canoes capsized entering the Gironde estuary; and a further six were captured by the Germans and later executed. By complete chance, the two canoeists who managed to escape--Major "Blondie" Hasler and Marine Bill Sparks--stumbled into the arms of the French resistance. Once in their care, Hasler and Sparks made their way across France and into Spain, crossing the Pyrenees in the company (though they did not know it) of a Gestapo agent intent on bringing down the resistance network. Operation Suicide is the first account of this enthralling raid for over fifty years. In utilizing primary source material, including detailed German records captured by the British in 1944 (which remained censored until 1976), Robert Lyman brings to life one of the most courageous and dramatic events to take place in the darkest days of the Second World War.
