Operation Frankton - The Attack
Major Hasler had divided his unit into two teams - No 1 Section commanded
by himself, and No 2 Section commanded by his second-in-command. Within
No 1 Section there were six two-man Cockle Mark 2 canoes, each with a
crew of two men, a No 1 who commanded the canoe and a No 2; the canoes
were named, for ease of identification, after fish: Coalfish, Crayfish,
Conger, Cachalot, Catfish, and Cuttlefish.
The operation was on.
It was to be an attack by all six canoes of No 1 Section against merchant ships at the quays in Bordeaux. They were to be carried to the estuary of the Gironde by the submarine HMS TUNA to an area about ten nautical miles south of Pointe de la Négade, and the plan was for them to launch from the submarine on the night of 5 December 1942.
No 1 Section complete with all its equipment and stores moved to the Clyde in late November, to link up with HMS TUNA, and on 30 November they embarked. The Cockle Mark 2 had been designed with loading into a submarine in mind, and it was possible to stow them on board via the forward torpedo hatch. For launching from the submarine the ship's Captain and Hasler had devised a sling attached to the underside of the submarine's main gun barrel, allowing the canoes, with men and equipment on board, to be suspended in the sling from the main armament and swung out by traversing the gun; they could then be lowered by hand into the sea. With practise all six canoes could be launched in just over half an hour. Once all the men, canoes and stores were on board they sailed, the TUNA slipping down the Clyde and out into the Irish Sea. When they were on their way Major Hasler was able to brief his men on the forthcoming operation; he told them its name - "FRANKTON" - and about the blockade runners in Bordeaux and the fact that any other form of attack had been ruled out as it would endanger the French civilian population. He also told them that they would travel by submarine for five days and that having disembarked they would paddle north, between the headland and Cordouan Island into the Gironde. Keeping to the starboard side of the Gironde they would have about 60 nautical miles to paddle to reach Bordeaux, moving only at night and only with the flood tide, and hiding and resting by day and during the ebb. He briefed them on the defences both afloat and on land and in the air.
The aim of the operation was to sink up to twelve merchant ships in the Bassens-Bordeaux area.
During the days in the submarine Hasler and his men went over the operation again and again until every detail was firmly fixed in their minds. All the equipment was unpacked, checked and repacked, air photos were studied and some effort was made to learn a little elementary French. At one point Major Hasler asked "any questions?" "Yes Sir" was the reply "how do we get back home?" "You walk!" said Hasler. He briefed them that each two man crew was to travel independently of the others and that initially they were to head for Ruffec, some 160 kms north of Bordeaux. The escape plan anticipated that the local Resistance would be on the lookout for the escapers on the outskirts of Ruffec, feed them into their escape line, get them over the border into Spain, and thence back to England. Ruffec was chosen partly because the Resistance in that area was known to be well organised and part of MI9's Marie-Claire escape network, and partly because it was in exactly the opposite direction that the Germans would expect escaping enemy to travel.
HMS TUNA continued to travel south through quite rough weather and one encounter with an enemy submarine, until she was in the area of the drop off point on 6 December. It was known that the RAF had laid a minefield off the coast but its location was not known with any precision; the approach was, therefore, very cautious. When they surfaced it was too misty to get an accurate fix and the operation had to be postponed for twenty-four hours. At last the weather cleared and at periscope depth the Captain was able to get accurate fixes of their location, absolutely essential as Hasler's section had to set an accurate bearing on their compasses to pass through the gap between Courduan and the mainland. At least now they would have an accurate start point. At 1917 hours on 7 December the submarine surfaced to a clear calm night. Major Hasler gave the order to bring up the canoes. One canoe, the Cachalot, snagged on a hatch clamp, tore a long rent in her canvas side, and had to be left behind with her heartbroken crew Marine Ellery and Marine Fisher. The remaining five canoes launched safely, lowered into the sea each with its crew on board, using Hasler's sling on the gun:
Conger with Corporal Sheard and Marine Moffat, Coalfish with Sergeant Wallace and Marine Ewart, Crayfish with Corporal Laver and Marine Mills, Cuttlefish with Lieutenant MacKinnon and Marine Conway, and Catfish with Major Hasler and his splendid No 2 Marine Sparks (pictured bottom left).
The operation was completed in just over 30 minutes and at 2030 hours the submarine dived. The Cockleshell Heroes were on their way.
Their journey started well, paddling through a smooth swell until they reached the first of several tide races where the water was rough and breaking. Hasler got his men together and briefed them on how to tackle the obstacle and they headed through. When they emerged at the far side there was no sign of Sergeant Wallace and Marine Ewart in Coalfish. Each man carried a whistle which produced a sound like a seagull's cry; Sparks sounded his seagull call, but there was no reply; they waited and searched, but found nothing. They had to get on. By the time they reached Pointe de Grave they met their second tide race, worse than before with 5 foot high waves and at an angle to their course. Conger capsized and threw Sheard and Moffat into the water where they clung on to their canoe. Hasler stopped his men and they tried to refloat Conger but to no avail, so Sparks had to scuttle her. The two crew hung on to the backs of two canoes and were towed until they could swim ashore; Hasler and the others had to keep moving, and the three remaining canoes headed on through the next and final tide race without further mishap towing the two marines until they were nearly at LE VERDON. By then the current was so powerful that they could no longer tow the two men and they dropped them near the LE VERDON pier. Just past the jetty were three small enemy frigates in line astern and Hasler and his men had to pass between the ships and the jetty through a narrow gap. They were skilled at silent paddling and with the Cockle's low silhouette and with the crew lying almost flat, and using single rather than the usual double paddles, they crept through. At least two of them crept through. Cuttlefish with MacKinnon and Conway simply disappeared. The others waited, they gave their seagull calls - nothing.
The remaining two crews continued until nearly dawn on 8 December when at last, after nine hours hard paddling through some very rough sea, they came ashore at POINTE DES OISEAUX, camouflaged the two canoes and themselves and started to relax a little and rest. During the day they were spotted by a group of fishermen and their wives who chose to breakfast exactly where they were hidden. Hasler spoke to them in his broken French and they replied that they would make no promises. Hasler felt, however, that they would not betray his men.
The next night, having manhandled the two canoes over the mud and sandbanks, at about 2330 hours, they paddled on up the Gironde when the tide was on the flood. For six hours of flood tide they paddled hard, nearly being run down at one point by six or seven large ships making their way to BORDEAUX. Potential targets. They found a good hiding place between hedges north of PORTE DES CALLOGNES and settled down for the day. On their third night they set off as early as they could and headed for the islands near PAUILLAC, finally hiding up for the day on the southern tip of the ILE DE CAZEAU, within sight of a German gun position. The next night of 10 to 11 December was the one on which Hasler had planned to carry out his attack against the shipping; but they still had too far to go so he decided to make one more forward base, hide there the next day and attack the following night. They spent the next day in the rushes on the banks of BASSENS from where they could see their first two targets - two fat merchant ships. Hasler made his plan for the next night's attack. He and Marine Sparks would head for the main docks at Bordeaux, on the western bank, and Corporal Laver with Crayfish would go to the Bordeaux East Docks and if they found nothing suitable there would return to the two ships at Bassens South. Between them they had sixteen limpet mines. They armed their mines with nine hour fuses and set off at 2130 hours on the 11th December 1942, heading for their targets. They had very little time as the tide was starting to turn. Hasler and Sparks reached their target area after about an hour and a half's hard paddling and found a total of seven ships awaiting their attention. Further upstream they could see more but the tide would prevent them going further. They initially ignored the two tankers, as tankers have so many watertight compartments that mines the size of limpet would have little effect; first they placed three limpets on a large cargo ship, following this with two on a German Sperrbrecher, two on a cargo ship and the last on a tanker moored alongside the last cargo ship at Quai Carnot. Then they headed at all speed back downstream to the calm water inshore of Ile de Cazeau. There they rested and drifted gently downstream. Suddenly they heard the noise of paddles; it was Corporal Laver and Marine Mills in Crayfish who had completed their task of mining the two large cargoes in Bassens South having found nothing further on.
Early the next morning the limpets started to explode. At 07H00 the mines exploded on the Alabama. Mines continued to explode until 13H00. The Dresden sank, the Portland was badly holed and damaged by fire, the Tannenfels also was badly holed; the damage inflicted on the two other ships attacked, Usaramo and Cap Hadid has not been recorded.
Their task completed, it was time to head for home