A Brilliant Little Operation - Couverture rigide

Ashdown, Paddy

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 1845137019 ISBN 13 : 9781845137014

Editeur : Aurum Press, 2012

Synopsis

A Brilliant Little Operation The complete story of the remarkable canoe raid on German ships in Bordeaux Harbour - by the man who himself served in the Special Boat Squadron. Full description

A propos du livre

Présentation de l'éditeur :

The complete story of the remarkable canoe raid on German ships in Bordeaux Harbour by the man who himself served in the Special Boat Squadron. In 1942, before El Alamein turned the tide of war, the German merchant fleet was re-supplying its war machine with impunity. So Operation Frankton, a daring and secret raid, was launched by Mountbatten s Combined Operations and led by the enigmatic Blondie Hasler to paddle Cockleshell canoes right into Bordeaux harbour and sink the ships at anchor. It was a desperately hazardous mission from the start dropped by submarine to canoe some hundred miles up the Gironde into the heart of Vichy France, surviving terrifying tidal races, only to face the biggest challenge of all: escaping across the Pyrenees. Fewer than half the men made it to Bordeaux; only four laid their mines; just two got back alive. But the most damage was done to the Germans sense of impregnability. Paddy Ashdown, himself a member of the Royal Marines elite Special Boat Squadron formed as a consequence of Frankton, has always been fascinated by this classic story of bravery and ingenuity - as a young man even meeting his hero Hasler once. Now, after researching previously unseen archives and tracing surviving witnesses, he has written the definitive account of the raid. The real truth, he discovers a deplorable tale of Whitehall rivalry and breakdowns in communication serves only to make the achievements of the Cockleshell heroes all the more heroic.

Revue de presse :

'A meticulously researched and truly shocking account of an operation that should never have been authorised. In his account of this hair-raising, if not hare-brained enterprise, Ashdown sustains an incisive narrative of great suspense, laced with a moral outrage that is all the more powerful for being both understated and underpinned by telling detail.' --Jonathan Dimbleby, Mail on Sunday

'In a balanced but controversial book, Lord Ashdown gives an extensive and definitive account of the mission' --Saga Magazine

'The story of Operation Frankton is an extreme example of a plan brilliantly conceived and badly botched. The ten commandos who made a secret canoe raid in 1942 on German merchant ships have become icons of British wartime derring-do.' --The Times

À propos de cette édition

• Éditeur: Aurum Press
• Date d'édition: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1845137019
• ISBN 13: 9781845137014
• Reliure: Relié
• Numéro d'édition: 1
• Nombre de pages: 416