The Cockleshell Raid: Bordeaux 1942

Description

On the night of December 7, 1942, five canoes were launched off the mouth of the Gironde river, each containing a pair of British commandoes tasked with slipping into the port of Bordeaux and destroying as many of the merchant ships as possible. Only two of the canoes made it to the target, but it was enough. Five enemy ships were badly damaged in the attack. It then became a game of cat and mouse for the surviving commandoes in their attempt to get back to Britain. Some of the men made it to Gibraltar; others were caught and executed. Author Ken Ford gives a blow-by-blow account of one of the most daring raids of World War II, which badly upset the flow of material into Germany, and which gave the British public a much needed victory.

Ken Ford was born in Hampshire in 1943. He trained as an engineer and spent almost thirty years in the telecommunications industry before a change in career led him to become a full-time military historian. He is the author of over twenty books on various aspects of World War II. Ken now lives in Southampton.

"Remember that sophisticated British officer in the film Inglorius Basterds who joins Brad Pitt on the commando raid in France? Osprey Publishing's new addition to their 'Raid' series highlights the efforts of fourteen intrepid men just like that character (but they're real)." --Ferrous Lands "In his book on this raid, author Ken Ford looks at the development of the team and their equipment, the planning that went into the raid as well as the full story of the harrowing trip up river from the surviving crew and from German records of the interrogation of the captured crews. Superbly illustrated with period photos and 3D Maps we are drawn into the story of these men and what they had to endure on this most hazardous mission. It is very much a gripping tale that I know you will thoroughly enjoy and as such I highly recommend this one to you." --Scott Van Aken, Modeling Madness, www.modelingmadness.com (April 2010)