How the SBS Does Things
A Fascinating insight of the mission by 12 men who would later become known as the “Cockleshell Heroes ” Presented by Paddy Ashdown former SBS man himself . Also highlights how SOE also conducted an operation against the same target but never telling once of there objective to Combined Operations .
n 1942, Britain was struggling to fight back against Nazi Germany. Lacking the resources for a second front, Churchill encouraged innovative and daring new methods of combat. Enter stage left, Blondie Hasler. With a unit of twelve Royal Marine commandos, Major Blondie Hasler believed his ‘cockleshell’ canoe could be effectively used in clandestine attacks on the enemy. Their brief was to navigate the most heavily defended estuary in Europe, to dodge searchlights, machine-gun posts and armed river-patrol craft 70 miles downriver, and then to blow up enemy shipping in Bordeaux harbour. Lord Ashdown recreates parts of the raid and explains how this experience was used in preparing for one of the greatest land invasions in history, D-day.
“…..It is a tale of massive Whitehall cock-up”