All language subtitles for Combat.Ships.S01E08.The.Smallest.Ships.Of.War.1080p.WEB.h264-CAFFEiNE_track3_[eng]

[missile roars]

Narrator: For centuries,
an extraordinary war has raged

Across the world's oceans,
above and below the waves.

Man: You could kill hundreds
of people with one broadside.

These were extremely powerful
war machines.

Narrator: Shipbuilders designed
bigger and faster vessels

To outwit and crush
their opponents.

Man: That nation that has the
most powerful battleship fleet

Can destroy the enemy's
battleship fleet

And therefore control the seas,

And if you control the seas,
you control the world.

Narrator: They carried
terrifying weapons.

Man: This was gonna be
the first time

That somebody had fired
a torpedo in anger

Since world war ii.

They needed to get it right.

Narrator: But ships
have also liberated

And rescued thousands.

Man: You could think
of gerda iii

As basically a lifeboat for
persons hunted by the nazis.

Narrator:
And inspired men and women

To acts of incredible bravery.

Man: I will take you there now,
to your cannons,

To your death,
we will sink before surrender.

Narrator: These vessels
and their crews

Have shaped world history.

Man: As the commanding officer
of a missile-carrying submarine,

I was directly responsible

For helping to prevent
world war iii.

[missile roars]

Narrator: This time,
battles at sea,

But not with warships.

Instead, with something
far smaller.

Man: I don't know anything

In the history
of midget submarines

That could function
as well as this did.

Narrator:
From far-out experiments

To daredevil dinghies...

These are the stories
of our smallest ships of war.

Man: This is not
a suicide weapon.

You want them to get home
so they can do their job again.

Narrator: For centuries,

Small vessels have made
immense contributions

And triumphed against the odds.

Man: The german
was a damn good soldier.

It was men against boys, really.

♪

[explosion]

♪

♪

Narrator: In 1935, an old
wooden boat was recovered

From a lake in upstate new york.

Her cannons were still intact.

It was soon confirmed that

This was the oldest american
combat ship ever found--

The gunboat philadelphia.

♪

The philadelphia fought and sank
during the war of independence.

Over 200 years
of u.S. Naval history

Can be traced right back
to this small gunboat.

By 1776, the revolutionary war
was into its second year.

The philadelphia's mission was
to defend the champlain valley,

The american colonies'
northern frontier.

The continental army
feared the british

Would try to launch
an attack from canada.

For both sides in the war,

Rivers and waterways were
key transportation arteries.

Craig symonds: There were
very few frontier roads

In those days,

So using the water
was the main way

Not only to move troops,

But to move in particular
their supplies,

So whoever had command
of the lake in that campaign

Was gonna be dominant,
and both sides knew this.

Narrator: The job of defending
lake champlain

Fell to american general
benedict arnold.

But he had little time
and few resources.

Symonds: The americans had
to build their ships

From the standing timber
of the forests,

And that was the creation
that benedict arnold

Was mostly responsible
for putting together.

Narrator: The philadelphia
was one of those gunboats.

She boasted just one sail.

But she was armed
with three cannons--

One facing forward, and one each
to port and starboard.

Bundles of wood were strapped
to the sides of the oak hull

To protect the crew
from enemy fire.

They would need all the help
they could get.

Symonds: The men who made up
the crews for these

Were not sailors.

These were volunteers,
these were soldiers, militiamen,

Maybe a few of them had sailed
a boat before, most had not.

This was very much an amateur
hour for the american fleet.

Narrator: Even benedict arnold
admitted

His men were
"a wretched motley crew."

On the morning
of October 11, 1776,

30 british vessels
swept down from the north.

Waiting for them
by valcour island

Was arnold's fleet
of just 15 vessels.

Symonds: The british
had every advantage.

They had several heavy guns,

And they absolutely dominated
the confrontation.

Narrator: The pride
of the american fleet,

The royal savage,
was run aground

And then set on fire
by the british.

Arnold's small fleet
fought bravely all day,

But they were outgunned.

As dusk approached, the
philadelphia was hit squarely

By a 24-pound shot.

She sank so quickly

That when she was recovered
160 years later,

One cannon still had iron shot
in its muzzle, ready to fire.

Soundly defeated, the five
remaining american boats fled.

Symonds: The british chased them
up the lake, sinking several,

And those that were not sunk
were run aground and set afire.

Narrator: Benedict arnold
and his fellow survivors

Eventually fled to rebel lines
further south.

But the americans had bought
themselves valuable time.

The british returned north, to
wait out the winter in canada.

The philadelphia's career
had lasted all of two months.

But her legacy endured
much longer.

On display at the smithsonian's
museum of american history,

She's a tribute to those
first makeshift gunboats

And their scrappy crews.

In 1862, during
the american civil war,

The philadelphia's successor
was introduced--

The uss monitor.

Nick hewitt:
She is flat-bottomed,

To allow her to operate
close inshore.

She is steam-powered,

And she is the first ship fitted
with a revolving gun turret.

And her turret gives her
this enormous advantage

Of being able to fire her guns
in any direction that she wants.

Narrator: The monitor was
unlike anything ever seen

In maritime history.

Just 180 feet long,

And with a deck only 18 inches
above the waterline,

The monitor was designed
to dodge enemy gunners.

At the battle of hampton roads,

The monitor engaged
in a four-hour gun battle

With the confederate warship
the virginia.

Both sides claimed victory,

But the monitor's
revolutionary design

Established an entirely new
class of ship.

3,000 miles away, the british
embraced the prototype.

Portsmouth dockyard is home
to a first world war gunboat.

It's a classic example
of the monitor's influence--

The m-33.

♪

The outbreak of war in 1914
called for new warships.

At the time, winston churchill
was first lord of the admiralty.

He viewed monitors as a vital
part of the british fleet.

It's said that churchill
helped design m-33,

Scribbling the plans on the back
of a cigarette packet.

Hewitt: She's a tiny ship,

But what she's carrying
is a pair of six-inch guns.

Now, these are guns normally
found on cruisers,

So, tiny hull,
very big armament,

Almost no armor at all,
and very slow speed.

These are not ships
that are designed

To fight other warships.

They only have a single use,
which is to get inshore,

Maneuver slowly around,
respond to requests from ashore

To put down this very heavy
gunfire on enemy soldiers.

Narrator: Both guns could fire

Eight 100-pound shells
per minute.

The muzzle velocity was nearly
2,000 miles an hour.

And within weeks
of being completed,

M-33 had a chance to demonstrate
her capabilities.

By April 1915, the war
had spread to a new front--

The narrow strait
in the eastern mediterranean

Known as the dardanelles.

Britain and France hoped
to undermine germany

By overwhelming its ally,
turkey.

Though the ultimate goal was
to capture constantinople,

The invasion would launch
on the gallipoli peninsula.

Hewitt: So, because this is
an amphibious landing--

There's british and anzac,
australia and new zealand,

Troops are put ashore--

There was a need for ships
to provide support

To the soldiers ashore.

Actor as frank brent:
The older battleships in the bay

Were letting go
as hard as they could,

And the harder they fired,
the more confident you felt.

[guns firing]

So although it was
a precarious position

For a bloke to find himself in,

You sort of made up your mind
that, well, we're here,

And the only way the enemy
can get us off

Is by carrying us off,
feet first.

Narrator: But the allies'
battleships

Were vulnerable
to german u-boats.

Hewitt: Secondly, the battleship
guns are not ideal

For providing support
for soldiers ashore.

They are intended
to sling shells

Over quite a flat trajectory.

What you need to support
soldiers is plunging fire,

Shells that go up
and then drop down again.

Narrator: Conflict in the
dardanelles was ideal for m-33.

She needed just
six feet of water,

Compared to
a battleship's 30 feet.

She could operate
close to beaches.

Her guns could be elevated
16 degrees higher

Than those on a battleship.

The longer range of fire
helped protect

The soldiers on the beaches.

Brent: Despite the fact
you couldn't see the turk,

He was pelting us
with everything he'd got

From all sides.

Narrator: The turks at gallipoli
were unyielding.

The allied troops
that made it ashore

Were forced to retreat
after eight months of fighting.

The gallipoli campaign is now
regarded as a military fiasco.

But the role played by m-33

Established the importance
of artillery support

For troop landings.

Hewitt: M-33 is the spark
that ignites

A whole new piece of technology.

In the first world war,

Coastal bombardment
and amphibious warfare

Become steadily
more and more important.

At gallipoli, they're really
learning how to do it,

They're learning the importance
of ships like m-33.

After the gallipoli campaign,

They keep monitors
for the next 30 years.

Narrator: In late summer,
the river thames provides

The setting for
a remarkable reunion.

A group of second world war
veterans

From all over britain
gathers here.

While fleeing the german army,

They were rescued by a motley
collection of small ships.

Together, they turned
one of the greatest disasters

In british history
into an unexpected triumph.

Man: It's because
of you gentlemen

That have made
the effort to come

And given us our freedom today
that we are here.

So it's your day.

[explosions]

Narrator: On may 10, 1940,
germany invaded France.

Hitler's army pummeled
the french,

Along with the nearly
400,000-strong

British expeditionary force.

Andrew gordon: The british
and the french had been

Completely outmaneuvered
by the germans.

The best thing to do was
to withdraw to the coast

And try and get home.

So the british army
started withdrawing

Into this pocket at dunkirk.

Tony farncombe: We were bombed
by the dive bombers all the way.

At times it got so bad we had
to stop the vehicle, get out,

And lay in the ditches
till it was all over.

Garth wright: The german
was a damn good soldier,

There's no doubt about it,

And that was quite
a war machine they...

It was men against boys, really.

Narrator:
By the last week in may,

338,000 british
and french troops

Were trapped on France's
north coast.

Rescue by the royal navy
seemed to be their only hope.

But in dunkirk, the small harbor
was already damaged and disabled

After german air attacks.

[air raid siren]

Nearby, sandbars
and shallow beaches

Prevented naval vessels
from getting close to shore.

In london, it was feared
that most of the british troops

Would not be coming home.

One man was given
the seemingly impossible task

Of bringing the troops back--

Admiral sir bertram ramsay.

Gordon: He understood
the sandbanks,

He understood the coastline,
he understood the minefields.

There's nothing basically
he didn't know

About that stretch
of the narrow seas.

Narrator: Ramsay's task,
ordered by the admiralty,

Was to rescue 45,000 men.

He would have two days to do it.

The remaining 293,000 were to be
left to fend for themselves.

Ramsay ignored the order.

He put into action a plan
he called operation dynamo.

At the heart of the plan
would be small ships...

Lots of them.

In 1939, the navy
had made an inventory

Of all the small vessels
in the country.

Ramsay knew he had
a civilian fleet of thousands

At his disposal.

An appeal went out on the bbc

For small ships to assemble
on the south coast.

Gordon:
They could be cockle boats,

12-foot cockle boats.

They could be dutch skoots,
as they were called,

Ships' lifeboats
from merchant ships

In the pool of london,

Fire tenders, pleasure boats,

These things that go
up and down the thames

With "kiss me quick" hats,
that kind of thing,

And of course private boats.

Narrator: Included in
the flotilla of little ships

Were 19 lifeboats from the royal
national lifeboat institution.

One was the thomas kirkright
from poole in dorset.

In order to avoid enemy fire,

The channel crossing was
scheduled to be at night,

And without lights.

The royal navy crewed
most of the lifeboats.

But the boats from
ramsgate and margate

Were left in the hands
of volunteers.

Hayley whiting: It was about
30 miles from dover to dunkirk,

And the navy had given
ramsgate and margate

The instructions
that they needed

For the safest possible crossing
that they could have.

So they were aware of where
enemy fire was concentrated.

They were also aware of the
areas where there were mines.

And so it was risky,
it was dangerous,

And it was quite
a choppy crossing as well,

And again without
navigation lights,

So it was quite
a dangerous journey across.

Narrator: More than 600 little
ships crossed the channel.

They were accompanied
by 39 royal navy destroyers.

On the beach, officers organized
the thousands of troops

Into long, orderly lines.

By this time, the germans were
well aware of what was going on.

Farncombe:
When the dive bombers came down,

The queue just spread out
between the beach,

The shops and the water's edge,

So you're a smaller target.

And when the bombing had gone,

The bodies were floating
in the water.

We were so lucky that our part
of the queue weren't hit.

James baynes:
I was on this queue

Waiting to get onto
one of the little boats,

And I don't know how long
I was on it for,

But it must have been
two or three hours.

And eventually I got to
the front of the queue,

And when I got to the front
of the queue,

There were two officers,

One each side of the queue
with revolvers in their hands.

They said to me,
"what division are you?"

And I said, "I'm the 44th
home counties division, sir."

He said, "well, bugger off
out of here,

Because you're
in the wrong queue!"

Narrator: James baynes
eventually made it

Back to britain,
along with 338,000 others.

Admiral ramsay's operation
had surpassed all expectations.

His little ships were the key,

Either by ferrying men
to waiting destroyers

Or by taking them directly
across the channel.

It's believed the 19 lifeboats

Accounted for 3,500 men
between them.

But success came at a cost.

Six destroyers were sunk,

And over 100 little ships
never came back.

Whiting: Of the 19 lifeboats
that went out to dunkirk,

Many of them were
severely damaged,

And quite a few of them came
back riddled with bullet holes.

There was only one lifeboat
that was lost,

Which was
the viscountess wakefield

From hythe lifeboat station,

Which was completely wrecked
during the dunkirk evacuations.

They've never, never returned.

Man: These few,
these precious few,

Let us now remember in silence.

Gordon: It was the best
possible outcome

To get home, british and french,
a third of a million men,

Was the best possible outcome.

So in that sense,
dunkirk was a victory,

And also it was in a sense
a war-changing victory,

Because the british
had pulled it off,

And it's a sort
of strange lightheadedness

Took hold in britain

Where people were saying,
you know,

"come on, adolf, have a go if
you think you're hard enough."

♪

Man: Each veteran today went out
to defend hard-won freedoms

Into a world that,
one way or another,

Wanted to remove those freedoms.

Gordon: Historians
have sort of competed

To try and revise downwards
dunkirk,

But the fact is that
what could have happened

Would have been
infinitely worse.

It would have been
a quarter of a million brits

In prisoner-of-war camp,
and that didn't happen.

Narrator: Dunkirk proved
what volunteers

And vast numbers of small ships
could do.

But elsewhere in the war,

Highly specialized
tiny combat vessels

Would play their part.

They demanded secrecy,
expertise,

And some remarkable technology.

The second world war
was a coming of age

For the submarine.

Large vessels like
the german u-boats

And the allies' diesel-electric
subs were impressive.

But they had their limitations.

Sometimes missions were
so specific and so secretive,

They demanded something
much smaller.

The japanese attack on
pearl harbor in December 1941

Shocked the world and thrust
the united states into the war.

But there's a part
of the pearl harbor story

That is very rarely told.

It involved a fleet
of mini-submarines.

One of the vessels
that took part was ha-19.

♪

Mini-submarines like ha-19 were
built with one specific aim--

To attack well-defended
enemy harbors.

They could do what
full-sized subs couldn't.

Joe cavanaugh:
All of our harbors,

Including pearl harbor,

Were protected from submarine
attack by submarine nets.

Narrator: The challenge
for japan was to find a way

To outwit these
highly effective defenses.

In the late 1930s, they came up
with an ingenious solution.

Cavanaugh: The goal was
to have a submarine

That would have
such a shallow draft

That when an american naval ship
came in or out of that harbor,

They could simply slide through
the nets while they were down

For the american battleship
or cruiser

Or whatever to go through.

Narrator:
By early December 1941,

The japanese had five mini-subs
ready to deploy.

They were nicknamed "targets"
to disguise their real purpose.

Each mini-sub would be
hauled into combat

By a full-sized parent sub.

It would then be released
near its objective.

Its two menacing torpedoes

Could terrorize any harbor
in the world.

Cavanaugh: I don't know in
the history of midget submarines

Anybody who put that particular
combination together before

To have such
a powerful submarine

Operated by such a massive
bank of batteries

That could function
as well as this did.

Narrator: Japan planned to
attack the u.S. Pacific fleet

From both the air
and underwater.

On November 26th,
a fleet of aircraft carriers

With over 300 planes
sailed from japan.

Three submarine groups
also headed for hawaii.

The central group contained
five full-sized subs,

Each with its own mini-sub.

Their mission--
to attack the ships at anchor

Inside pearl harbor.

On the night of December 6th,

The mother subs took
their final position.

One was mini-sub ha-19, crewed
by 22-year-old kazuo sakamaki

And 23-year-old kiyoshi inagaki.

They were about to carry out the
mini-subs' very first mission.

Just after midnight,
the mini-subs were released.

But on board ha-19,
something was wrong.

The gyrocompass was broken.

Steering was impossible.

Cavanaugh:
Without a key component

In the navigation system,

Sakamaki had to depend entirely
on sightings from the periscope

To see the direction

Towards the lights
of pearl harbor as he went.

They drifted in circles a bit,

And finally, as they got
to the entrance to the harbor,

Ran aground on a coral reef.

Narrator: With the batteries
now damaged,

Sakamaki and inagaki
were in grave danger.

Cavanaugh:
At 135 degrees fahrenheit,

It would have been
a sauna underwater,

And when the air was fouled

By the leakage coming
from the batteries,

It became an extraordinarily
noxious environment as well.

Both of the two men on board
passed out from the fumes.

Narrator:
But two of their comrades

Were having greater success.

Their mini-sub had evaded
the anti-submarine nets

By following a cargo ship
into pearl harbor.

But just after 6:30 a.M., their
tiny periscope was spotted.

Cavanaugh: And it was making
12 knots behind an american ship

Actually heading
for the base at the time.

The uss ward, a destroyer, went
to attack,

And when they saw it,
its number three gun

Did actually put a hole through
the submarine and sank it.

Narrator: It was
the first american shot

Of the second world war.

Despite the sighting
of the mini-sub,

No one at pearl harbor realized

That a full-scale japanese
attack was under way.

When the bombers appeared in
the skies just before 8:00 a.M.,

It was a complete surprise.

♪

As the u.S. Pacific fleet
burned,

The crippled mini-sub ha-19 was
swept onto rocks close to shore.

Sakamaki and inagaki
were in bad shape.

Cavanaugh: Inagaki, as he came
out of the submarine,

According to
sakamaki's testimony,

He drowned as soon
as he hit the water,

He was too weak to even
make it to shore

Having been basically in a sauna
for 24 hours.

Sakamaki crawled to the shore
and collapsed and passed out

And awoke in the morning with
an american standing over him.

Narrator: Sakamaki was america's
first prisoner of world war ii.

He was distraught,
writing later:

Cavanaugh: Sakamaki
did try several times

To commit hara-kiri

And actually requested
that his life be terminated

Because of the shame.

Narrator:
But the japanese achieved

A major military success
at pearl harbor.

19 ships were sunk
or seriously damaged

And nearly
2,500 americans killed.

The japanese lost
just 64 servicemen,

Nine of those coming
from mini-subs.

It's believed just one
of the five subs

Actually got to fire its
torpedoes inside pearl harbor.

What's certain is that all five
ended up sunk or scuttled.

Kazuo sakamaki was
the only survivor.

But ha-19's journey
was far from over.

It was used
as a propaganda tool

To raise money for
the war against japan.

Cavanaugh: The united states
actually put this

On the back of a truck and
shipped it all over the country.

And it visited 42 states
and was seen

By hundreds of thousands
of people during the war.

But you had to make
a donation to war bonds

To climb up on the platform
and look in.

And many, many thousands
of people did so.

The submarine ended up being
a much more effective tool

For the united states
than it was for the japanese.

Narrator: Although the japanese
mini-subs failed,

Just a few days later,
on the other side of the world,

An even smaller craft
was having better luck.

A rare example of
a most unusual combat ship

Can be found
in a museum storeroom

In portsmouth, England.

Hewitt: So this is an italian
san bartolomeo torpedo.

But it's not just any torpedo;
this is a human torpedo.

This is designed to be
driven into action

By a pair of frogmen.

It was very difficult to drive.

Its operators nicknamed it
the maiale, or the pig,

Basically because
it's a pig to steer.

Narrator: By the start
of the second world war,

The italian navy had
become highly skilled

At underwater warfare.

Like the japanese mini-subs,

The maiale was clamped to
the deck of a parent submarine

And delivered to its target.

♪

Hewitt: This is developed
to be operated

By two highly skilled operators.

You want them to get home
so they can do their job again.

So this is not a torpedo in the
conventional sense of the word.

It doesn't have
a warhead on the end

That goes off when you jam it
into the side of a ship.

What it has is
two explosive charges.

They would get as close
to the target as possible,

Ideally underneath it.

They would then drop
both of those charges

Underneath the target,
they would then turn around,

With the remainder of the
submarine from here backwards,

And they would go home.

Narrator: The maiale was powered
by electric batteries.

Its two-man crew
wore rubber suits

And breathed bottled oxygen.

Hewitt: So you've got
two frogmen in here,

One of them is actually
the pilot of the craft,

So he sits in the front seat.

He's got depth control,

He's got a little fairly
primitive instrument panel,

And it's his job
to take it into action.

His number two,
the guy in the back seat,

His job really is to help with
the deployment of the mines.

Drive it into action,
drop the mines, get out again.

So the job is very simple
in concept,

But actually extremely
hard to do.

Narrator: But that's exactly
what six italian frogmen

Achieved in the weeks
after pearl harbor.

Italy, as an ally of germany,
was fighting the british

For naval supremacy
in the mediterranean.

A successful attack on
the british fleet in alexandria

Would be a significant victory.

On December 3rd,
the submarine scire

Left the italian port of
la spezia carrying three maiale.

A week later,
it picked up six frogmen

From the island of leros.

On December 18th, scire arrived
outside alexandria harbor...

Undetected.

Just after midnight, the maiale
evaded anti-submarine nets

By slipping in
behind three destroyers.

They didn't even have to dive
beneath the surface

To access the harbor.

Two headed for the battleships
valiant and queen elizabeth,

The third, for a tanker
named the sagona.

All successfully placed
their charges.

But then, their luck ran out.

Hewitt: The operators try and
get ashore, they're caught.

The british are
interrogating them

While the clock is ticking
on the warheads.

Two of them are actually
being interrogated on board

One of the ships that they've
planted charges underneath.

Narrator: The british
deliberately detained

The italians on hms valiant,

Hoping they'd confess if
their own lives were at risk.

But the frogmen refused to talk.

Then, just after 6:00 a.M.,

The charge under valiant
detonated,

Closely followed
by queen elizabeth

And the tanker sagona.

All three ships sank to
the bottom of alexandria harbor.

Miraculously, all six
of the italian frogmen

Survived the attack.

Hewitt: Now the british are able
to recover the ships,

Because they've sunk in
a harbor, but it takes months.

They are out of service
for nearly a year.

So, very, very cheap,
very simple technology

Has put down a battleship.

And that's what this technology
is all about.

This allows a smaller power
to punch above its weight.

Narrator:
For a few vital months,

The italians became
the dominant force

In the eastern mediterranean.

Hewitt: Human torpedoes
don't change the direction

Of naval warfare.

But they are a significant
moment in history,

And there is that little window
in the mediterranean in 1941

When these things have had
an absolutely dramatic effect

On major world events.

Narrator: 1942.

The second world war
is in its third year,

And the allies
have a major problem.

Speedy german cargo ships

Continue to break through
allied blockades

To reach the ports of germany
and occupied europe.

Each and every ship is aiding
the german war effort.

Gordon: There were
a couple of ways

That german ships could get in.

One was to go right up
to northern norway

And then creep down through
territorial waters.

And the other way was simply
to dart eastwards

Across the bay of biscay

From the mid-atlantic
into french ports.

Narrator: The cargo ships
had to be stopped.

Bordeaux, the major french port
in the west,

Was the obvious target.

But bombing the port
wasn't an option.

The civilian casualties
would be too high.

Another method had to be found.

The task was given
to lord louis mountbatten

And the team at combined
operations headquarters.

Mountbatten knew just the man
to lead a stealth attack

On the enemy harbor--

28-year-old major
herbert "blondie" hasler.

Hasler's mission was code-named
operation frankton.

It would make use of his
incredible skill with canoes.

In early July,
hasler selected 30 marines

And brought them for training
at lumps fort in southsea.

The huts they used stood
in what is now a rose garden.

None of the men had
any experience with canoes.

Hasler described them as...

The marines' training
was grueling.

Quentin rees: The first thing
that hasler needed to do

Was ensure that they had
the required fitness level.

This he did by basically
making them run down the beach,

He used to make them
jump in bare feet

Onto the shingle stones
eight foot below,

And then they would
run up and down.

And once he'd attained
the fitness level

That he required of them,

He then put them in canoes

And he showed them
how to paddle,

Absolutely everything to do
with the use of canoes.

Narrator: At first they
practiced on the thames,

Learning how to paddle
without making a sound.

Then they rehearsed slipping
into portsmouth harbor

Undetected.

Rees: These were
basic royal marines

Who had no specialized skills,

I.E., navigation
or seamanship skills at all.

At all times
he made sure they had

One really important
piece of equipment,

And that was a reliant
life jacket,

Because most of them
couldn't swim.

Narrator: The canoes themselves
were very simple--

Flat-bottomed, canvas sides,
easily collapsible.

Officially they were
cockle mark iis.

But they were nicknamed
cockleshells.

♪

With winter approaching,
plans were finalized.

The marines would be taken

Close to the gironde estuary
by submarine.

They would then paddle
themselves 60 miles upstream,

Before planting limpet mines
on the cargo ships

Docked in bordeaux.

Gordon: It was exceptionally
dangerous.

The chances of success
weren't that high;

The chances of getting home
alive were practically zero.

Rees: Bearing in mind that
they only started their training

At the end of July,

And they were going out
on a submarine

At the end of November,

It didn't give them
an awful lot of time.

In fact, in truth,
they were not trained enough.

Narrator: Despite
lord mountbatten's reservations,

Major hasler insisted that he
should take part in the mission.

On December 1, 1942,

The marines boarded
the submarine hms tuna,

And set off from holy loch
in scotland.

They traveled south,

Across the bay of biscay,

And on December 7th,

Successfully surfaced

12 miles south of the gironde.

Rees: The method of delivering

The canoes on the water

Was by a cradle which was
attached to the gun turret.

So the men and the canoe were
swung out and placed on the sea.

They had a machine gun,
knife, grenades,

And a whole host of, well,
all their food and their water

For the trip itself.

Gordon: Their real weapon
was magnetic mines,

That is magnetic mines
that they would place

Onto the hull of a ship
just below the waterline.

Narrator:
But the marines were 60 miles

And at least four days' paddling

From the port where they hoped
to use the mines.

Rees: The five canoes proceeded
as one unit towards the coast,

And it was very, very cold,
icy conditions,

And they hit a tidal race.

They hadn't been trained for
a tidal race, only rough water.

And unfortunately
during the first tidal race

A canoe was capsized,

And that put paid
to not only the canoe,

But the two individuals inside.

Whilst they were wearing
life jackets,

Unfortunately
hypothermia caught them.

Narrator: The remaining canoes
continued on their mission.

Rees: They had to avoid people
at all costs.

Particularly they had
to avoid the germans.

That was probably
the biggest problem.

They had to lie up in the cold,
in the damp with their rations,

Without warmth, try and keep
themselves together,

Very little sleep,
lots of paddling,

Sometimes against the tide.

The odds were always
against them.

Narrator: After five days
of paddling

And six months of planning,

The port of bordeaux
was in sight.

But by now, two more canoes
had been lost,

Either captured or sunk.

The surviving marines were
albert laver and william mills

In one canoe,

William sparks
and the operation leader,

"blondie" hasler, in the other.

Finally, they reached
their target.

Hasler and sparks took
the west side of the harbor,

Laver and mills, the east.

Both boats successfully attached
their limpet mines

And paddled silently away.

[explosions]

Five ships were damaged
by the explosions.

But operation frankton
was a limited success.

Bordeaux harbor was disrupted
for a while,

But the five damaged ships
were soon repaired

And back in action.

Hasler and his crewmate sparks
were the only survivors

Of operation frankton.

They made it home, having been
on the run for five months.

Rees: I think it's
all about bravery.

Hasler was brave,
but I think the men more so.

They didn't have his experience,

And they followed him,

And unfortunately they were
cut down in their prime of life.

Narrator: The marines are now
known as the cockleshell heroes.

Lord mountbatten declared
the mission to be...

Gordon: We should certainly
remember them

As extraordinarily brave,
dedicated,

Testing new techniques
and making history

In that sense,
setting a standard.

Narrator:
The smallest ships of war

Have changed and developed
with each passing era.

They've been propelled
by expertise, bravery,

And sheer willpower.

And they have proved an ability

To defy the elements
and the odds.

In failure and success,

The stories
of the smallest ships

Will long be remembered.