page_title: Operation Frankton
section_title: Memorials
hierarchical_section_title: Operation Frankton / Aftermath / Memorials
caption_attribution_description: English: Op FRANKTON - Post-op report's covering letter
context_page_description: Operation Frankton was a commando raid on ships in the Nazi German occupied French port of Bordeaux in southwest France during the Second World War. The raid was carried out by a small unit of Royal Marines known as the Royal Marines Boom Patrol Detachment, part of Combined Operations inserted by HMS Tuna captained by Lieutenant-Commander Dick Raikes who, earlier, had been awarded the DSO for operations while in command of the submarine HMS Seawolf.
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  The plan was for six kayaks to be taken to the area of the Gironde estuary by submarine. Twelve men would then paddle by night to Bordeaux. On arrival they would attack the docked cargo ships with limpet mines and then escape overland to Spain. Men from no.1 section were selected for the raid; including the commanding officer, Herbert 'Blondie' Hasler, and with the reserve Marine Colley the team was thirteen in total. One canoe was damaged while being deployed from the submarine and it and its crew therefore could not take part in the mission. Only two of the 10 men who launched from the submarine survived the raid: Hasler, and his no.2 in the canoe, Bill Sparks.
context_section_description: The words of Lord Mountbatten, the commander of Combined Operations, are carved into a Purbeck stone at Royal Marines Poole (current headquarters of the SBS): "Of the many brave and dashing raids carried out by the men of Combined Operations Command none was more courageous or imaginative than Operation Frankton".
  Mackinnon is commemorated on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial.
  The bravery of the ‘Cockleshell Hero’ Royal Marine James Conway was honoured with a permanent memorial unveiled on Sunday 10 December 2017 in his home town of Stockport.
  Laver, Sheard, Mills, Conway, Wallace, Moffatt, and Ewart are commemorated on the Plymouth Naval Memorial.
  In June 2002, the Frankton Trail was opened, a walking path which traces the 100 miles (160 km) route taken through occupied France, on foot, by Hasler and Sparks. The Frankton Souvenir is an Anglo-French organisation, set up to keep alive the story of the raid. It plans to develop the trail, and install explanatory plaques at key points.
  On 31 March 2011 a memorial to the Cockleshell Heroes and three French individuals was dedicated. Made from Portland Stone it was transported across care of Brittany Ferries. The memorial cost about £80,000.
  The only known surviving Mk II  from Operation Frankton, canoe Cachalot, together with other original equipment, can be seen at the Combined Military Services Museum, located in Maldon, Essex.
caption: Operation FRANKTON was described as 'This brilliant little operation carried through with great determinism and courage..." by Louis Mountbatten[45]
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