The Special Boat Service (SBS) is the special forces unit of the United Kingdom's Royal Navy. The SBS can trace its origins back to the Second World War when the Army Special Boat Section was formed in 1940. After the Second World War, the Royal Navy formed special forces with several name changes—Special Boat Company was adopted in 1951 and re-designated as the Special Boat Squadron in 1974—until on 28 July 1987 when the unit was renamed as the Special Boat Service after assuming responsibility for maritime counter-terrorism. Most of the operations conducted by the SBS are highly classified, and are rarely commented on by the British government or the Ministry of Defence, owing to their sensitive nature.
Jeremy John Durham Ashdown, Baron Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon, better known as Paddy Ashdown, was a British politician and diplomat who served as Leader of the Liberal Democrats from 1988 to 1999. Internationally, he is recognised for his role as High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina from 2002 to 2006, following his vigorous lobbying for military action against Yugoslavia in the 1990s.
A folding kayak is a direct descendant of the original Inuit kayak made of animal skins stretched over frames made from wood and bones. A modern folder has a collapsible frame made of some combination of wood, aluminium and plastic, and a skin made of a tough fabric with a waterproof coating. Many have integral air chambers inside the hull, making them virtually unsinkable.
Operation Frankton was a commando raid on ships in the German occupied French port of Bordeaux in southwest France during World War II. The raid was carried out by a small unit of Royal Marines known as the Royal Marines Boom Patrol Detachment (RMBPD), part of Combined Operations, inserted by HMS Tuna captained by Lieutenant-Commander Dick Raikes who, earlier, had been awarded the DSO for operations while in command of the submarine HMS Seawolf (47S). (The RMBPD would later form the Special Boat Service.)
Saunders-Roe Limited, also known as Saro, was a British aerospace and marine-engineering company based at Columbine Works, East Cowes, Isle of Wight.
William Edward Sparks was a British Royal Marine Commando in World War II. He was the last survivor of the "Cockleshell Heroes" of Operation Frankton in 1942; a team of commandos who paddled 85 miles from the Bay of Biscay up the Gironde estuary to Bordeaux in German occupied France, to plant limpet mines on merchant ships supplying the Nazi war machine.
Combined Operations Headquarters was a department of the British War Office set up during Second World War to harass the Germans on the European continent by means of raids carried out by use of combined naval and army forces.
The Cockleshell Heroes is a 1955 British Technicolor war film with Trevor Howard, Anthony Newley, Christopher Lee, David Lodge and José Ferrer, who also directed. The film depicts a heavily fictionalised version of Operation Frankton, the December 1942 raid on German cargo shipping by British Royal Marines Commandos, who infiltrated Bordeaux Harbour using folding kayaks.
Herbert George "Blondie" Hasler, was a lieutenant colonel in the Royal Marines. Soon after joining the Marines, he grew a splendid blonde moustache, from which he acquired his nickname ‘Blondie'. In December 1942, during the Second World War, Hasler led a small commando raid against Axis shipping in Bordeaux. He was responsible for many of the concepts which ultimately led to the formation of the Special Boat Service. After the war he became a notable yachtsman, contributing especially to developments in single-handed sailing.
Praa Sands, is a white-sand beach and coastal village in civil parish of Breage, in Cornwall, England. It lies off the A394 road between Helston and Penzance. Formerly serving the local mining industry, it is now mostly a tourist-orientated area. The beach is popular with surfers and walkers. Towards the south eastern end of the beach is a WW2 Type 24 pillbox. Originally this was constructed on top of the cliffs but it has been subjected to coastal erosion and has settled down onto the beach.
HMS Tuna (N94) was a T-class submarine of the Royal Navy. She was laid down by Scotts, Greenock and launched on 10 May 1940. She was equipped with German-built MAN Diesel engines and spent her career in World War II in western European waters, in the North Sea and off the west coast of France, and most famously taking part in Operation Frankton.
Claude Marie Marc Boucherville de Baissac, DSO and bar, CdeG, known as Claude de Baissac or by his codename David was a Mauritian of French descent who was an agent of the United Kingdom's clandestine Special Operations Executive (SOE) organization in France during World War II. The purpose of SOE was to conduct espionage, sabotage, and reconnaissance in countries occupied by the Axis powers, especially Nazi Germany. SOE agents allied themselves with resistance groups and supplied them with weapons and equipment parachuted in from England.
The Motorised Submersible Canoe (MSC), nicknamed Sleeping Beauty, was an underwater vehicle built by the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) during the Second World War. It was designed to enable a single frogman to sabotage enemy ships, though it would also be used for short-range reconnaissance. They were replaced by the diver propulsion vehicle after the end of the war.
The Hasler Series is the British national club championship in the sport of marathon canoeing, a long distance form of canoe racing, governed by the Marathon Racing Committee and supported by British Canoeing (BC).
Lumps Fort is a disused fortification built on Portsea Island as part of the defences for the naval base at Portsmouth.
Admiral Sir Robert Henry Taunton Raikes KCB CVO DSO was a Royal Navy officer who went on to be Commander-in-Chief, South Atlantic Station.
The Cockle Mark II was a type of Canoe used by the Royal Navy during World War 2.
HMS Tormentor was a shore establishment of the British Royal Navy during World War II, based near Warsash, on the River Hamble.
Lieutenant Commander Richard Prendergast Raikes was an officer in the Royal Navy notable for being the commanding officer of the submarine HMS Tuna that launched the canoes during Operation Frankton in 1942. His part in the operation was portrayed in the 1955 war film The Cockleshell Heroes where he was fictionalised as "Alan Greaves", played by Christopher Lee.
