'The most courageous and imaginative' British mission of WWII is remembered 75 years on: Photographs recall Cockleshell Heroes' bid to sink Nazi supply boats off France

The 75th anniversary of one of the most daring raids of the Second World War carried out by the legendary Cockleshell Heroes is remembered today.

On December 12, 1942, 10 Royal Marines from the Royal Marines Boom Detachment in Portsmouth set out in five canoes from the submarine HMS Tuna, which surfaced at the mouth of the Gironde in south west France.

Their mission was to blow up German supply ships 60 miles away in Bordeaux harbour with limpet mines and then escape with the help of the French Resistance.

Two men drowned, six were caught or betrayed and executed by Germans, leaving just two survivors of what was effectively a suicide mission. The pair arrived home four months later.

However, Operation Frankton succeeded in destroying five ships, which were vital in supplying raw materials such as rubber, oil and tungsten to Hitler's war effort.

The operation, aimed at minimising civilian deaths as an alternative to bombing, was hailed a success by Lord Mountbatten, the Chief of Combined Operations, who sanctioned the raid.

And it proved to be a much-needed boost to British morale.

Major 'Blondie' Hasler, originally from Dublin, masterminded the operation and was one of the survivors. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order and died in 1987.

The other survivor, Bill Sparks, was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal for his outstanding effort.

Mr Sparks, who was born in east London and was a bus conductor and inspector, was the last surviving Cockleshell Hero and died on November 30 this year at Alfriston, East Sussex.

HMS Southampton and Royal Fleet Auxiliary landing ship, Sir Percivale, brought about 50 Royal Marines from 45 Commando, based at Arbroath, and a Royal Marine band from Portsmouth to honour their lost comrades.

The Duke of Kent and Bordeaux mayor Alain Juppe unveiled a memorial plaque to the Cockleshell Heroes on one of the city's quays, renamed Frankton after the operation's codename, in front of both French and British veterans and some relatives of the Cockleshell Heroes.

Commander of 3 Commando Brigade Royal Marines, Brigadier Jim Dutton, and Lord Mountbatten's daughter, Lady Pamela Hicks, were also among the dignitaries. Earlier in the day, there was a commemorative ceremony at Chateau Magnol near Blanquefort in front of a bullet-scarred wall where two of the marines who were caught were executed by a German firing squad.

The Cockleshell Heroes were so-called after the 17ft-long Cockle Mark II canoes they used in the raid. 

The Cockleshell Heroes are enduring role models for the 45 Commando Zulu rifle company, which recently returned from operations in Afghanistan.

Of the Marines on the mission, Sergeant Sam Wallace, from Dublin, managed to get ashore but was picked up by Germans and shot at Chateau Magnol along with Marine Robert Ewart, from Glasgow, who was also in the first canoe to founder. Corporal George Sheard, from Plymouth, drowned and his body was never found. Marine David Moffat, who was born in Belfast and lived in Halifax, West Yorkshire, also drowned, but his body was recovered.

Second-in-command Lieutenant John Mackinnon and Marine James Conway, from Stockport, got into trouble when their canoe hit an obstacle and was wrecked. They were later picked up by Germans.

Canoeing by night and resting by day, two pairs finally reached their target several days later and laid the mines which damaged five supply ships. They made their way down river, destroyed their canoes and split up into pairs, heading off on foot towards Ruffec to meet the Resistance 100 miles away.

Corporal Albert Laver, from Barnet, Hertfordshire, and Marine William Mills, from Kettering, were caught and executed.

Marine Sparks and Major Hasler reached the town and finally arrived home, after crossing the Pyrenees into Spain four months later.

Royal Marines historian Major Mark Bentinck, who is based at Portsmouth, explained why the success of the raid was such a huge boost to British morale. He said: 'At the beginning of 1942, the battleships Prince of Wales and Repulse were sunk in Malaya followed rapidly by the fall of Singapore to the Japanese. Churchill called it one of the greatest disasters of British history. The German battleships Prince Eugen and Bismarck sailed through the Straits of Dover and we could not stop them.

'In August, we mounted a major raid on Dieppe, which was a catastrophe and German submarines were sinking our ships in the Atlantic, Malta was being battered by Germans and Italians and there was a danger it would fall. The war was not going well in North Africa and then, in December, we actually managed to get something right, but at great cost in lives.'

The outstanding bravery of the 10 men was immortalised in a film in 1955 and a book a year later.

Lord Mountbatten wrote in the foreword of the CF Lucas Phillips book Cockleshell Heroes: 'Of the many and dashing raids carried out by the men of Combined Operations command, none was more courageous or imaginative than Operation Frankton.

'The account of this operation brings out the spirit of adventure always present in peace and war among Royal Marines.'