Battleground Europe
2 total works
Operation 'Frankton' is a story of how a handful of determined and resourceful men, using flimsy canoes, achieved what thousands could not by conventional means. The volunteers had enlisted for 'Hostilities Only' and, except for their leader, none had been in a canoe before. However, with a few months training they carried out what one German officer described as, "the outstanding commando raid of the war". They became known as the 'Cockleshell Heroes', having been immortalised in a film and a book of that name in the 1950s. This book covers the whole of the 'Frankton' story including the development of the Royal Marines Boom Patrol Detachment, the planning and preparation for the raid, its aftermath and an account of the horrific war crimes inflicted on those who were captured. It also includes the epic escape by Haslar and Corporal Bill Sparks across occupied France into Spain.
The Bruneval Raid, launched against a German radar installation on the French coast in February 1942, was unique: it was one of the first fully combined operations put together by HQ Combined Operations under Mountbatten; for the first time a unit of the newly formed British Parachute Regiment went into action; it was the only raid carried out purely to satisfy the needs of scientific intelligence. It was highly successful and the results achieved were out of all proportion to the resources committed. This book covers the development of radar, the search for German radar in the Second World War, the discovery of Wurzburg radar at Bruneval, the planning and preparations for the audacious raid, its highly successful execution and the aftermath. There is a wealth of colourful characters involved, from world-class scientists, outstanding reconnaissance pilots, Resistance agents, famous sailors, soldiers and airmen, an escaped German Jew and, most importantly, a vast number of ordinary people involved doing extraordinary things to win the war against Hitler's Germany.