The title of a film first shown in 1955 the subject of which was the very real and daring raid by men of the Royal Marine Boom Patrol Detachment on German shipping in the Gironde Estuary at Bordeaux. The code name for the raid was OPERATION FRANKTON.

Under the command of Major H. G. Hasler, Royal Marines, six canoes and a party of 13 Royal Marines set out from the Clyde in HM Submarine Tuna for the French coast on 30th November 1942. The canoes were named Coalfish, Crayfish, Conger, Cachalot, Catfish and Cuttlefish. The fragile boats were launched from the submarine off the Gironde Estuary. In this process Cachelot was damaged and did not set off with the rest.

Amongst those who did paddle up the river on this daring expedition were two Scots, Lieutenant John Withers Mackinnon aged 22 from Glasgow and Marine Robert Ewart also from Glasgow.

The five remaining canoes, with two men in each, set out up the river. Their aim was to paddle some sixty sea miles up the Gironde, the entrance of which was fraught with danger from tide races, enemy searchlights and patrols, and, using limpet mines, attack enemy shipping in Bordeaux harbour.

Robert Ewart and his companion Sergeant Wallace in Coalfish were lost in the first tide race. A short time after, Conger overturned and had to be scuttled; her two-man crew clung on to the remaining canoes for over an hour in the freezing water before they were able to try to swim ashore and escape. The main party then lost contact with Cuttlefish carrying Lieutenant Mackinnon and Marine Conway, but the two remaining cockles carried on to their objective and at least four ships were severely damaged as they lay at the dockside in the heart of a heavily defended German occupied port. The surviving Marines then attempted to make good their escape through France to Spain. Those who were captured were shot by the Germans.

Coalfish – Sergeant Samuel Wallace and Marine Robert Ewart; captured and shot by the Germans.

Crayfish – Corporal Albert F Laver and Marine William H Mills; captured and shot by the Germans.

Conger – Corporal G J Sheard, never found, and Marine David Moffat, drowned.

Cachalot – Marine Ellery and Marine Eric Fisher; returned on HM Submarine Tuna.

Catfish – Major Hasler and Marine Bill Sparks; escaped through Spain.

Cuttlefish – Marine Conway and Lieutenant Mackinnon; captured and shot by the Germans.

Marine Norman Colley; returned on HM Submarine Tuna.



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