Major Herbert 'Blondie' Hasler, right, in training for Operation Frankton and, inset, the Royal Marines officer after his escape through Spain disguised as a vagrant Photo: MOD/PA
New Monument For Cockleshell Heroes -- The Telegraph
A memorial to Second World War heroes who canoed almost 100 miles into occupied France to blow up enemy ships was unveiled yesterday after a Telegraph-backed fund-raising campaign.
The raid by the "Cockleshell Heroes" in December 1942 was so important that Winston Churchill reportedly claimed it could have shortened the war by six months.
But despite their actions being immortalised in film just over a decade later, there has until now been no public monument to recognise the bravery of the ten men.
In October we reported how Maj Malcolm Cavan, former head of the Special Boat Service, had begun raising money for a memorial at La Pointe de Grave, at the mouth of the Gironde river where the mission code-named "Operation Frankton" took place.
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My Comment: A remarkable war story of courage and determination.