Ever heard of the cockleshell heroes?
In 1955, there was a British film called “The Cockleshell Heroes” which told the story of a daring British commando raid of 1942 when 10 men attempted to sink ships in the port of Bordeaux in German-occupied France. Six ships were damaged as a result of the mission, but only two of the 10 commandos survived.
I was seven at the time of the film’s release but I remember seeing it. In the intervening 60 or so years, I’ve had no occasion to think much about Operation Frankton – as it was called – but amazingly it came up in conversation today when I had lunch at a restaurant called “Tiles” in central London (sadly it is due to close down in a few days time).
It turned out that the middle-aged French waitress Nicole was from near Bordeaux and has an elderly father back in France who is an active member of a British/French society which commemorates the commando raid.
You can read a fascinating article about the cockleshell heroes here and you can find more detail on the operation here.