The annual memorial service of Operation Frankton took place at Birkenhead on Sunday, held by the Special Boat Service Association.
Known as the “Cockleshell Heroes”, Operation Frankton was a raid by Royal Marines who paddled 70 miles up the River Gironde during the hours of darkness in December 1942, targeting merchant ships which had broken through the Allied blockade of shipping and were in Bordeaux Harbour.
Only two of the ten men who launched their small collapsible boats, the “cockles”, from a submarine survived the operation, of the other eight, six were executed by the Germans and two died from hypothermia. Two German vessels were sunk with another four suffering damage.
We owe our freedom to such brave men.
