Commando Canoe Leads to History Book
13 Jan
Be careful of what you purchase at a garage sale, via eBay, or from an ad in the newspaper.
Quentin Rees, who’s book The Cockleshell Canoes is due to be released in North America in March, wasn’t fascinated by the small boats that British commandos used to fight the Germans in World War II until he answered a magazine ad for a £150 “Commando Canoe” nearly a decade ago.
Eight years later, as THIS story in Britain’s Herald Express reports, Rees has written the definitive account of the Britain’s little-but-oh-my fighting fleet. Although a feature film about British canoe commandos was produced in 1955 — The Cockleshell Heroes — the full extent of the role of the “cockleshells,” was not yet understood.
“It dawned on me as I made my researches that there was a terrific tale to tell,” Rees told the Herald Express. “I couldn’t let it go. And much of the available information about the canoes was simply wrong. It had to be corrected.”
Last December, we reported, HERE, on an exhibit of military canoes at the British National Maritime Museum and briefly recounted the story of the best-known Cockleshell Canoe story, that of Operation Frankton.
