It's 1942, a bad year for the Allies, and these German cargo ships keep running the blockade and bringing valuable materials like rubber and tungsten to the German war machine. The ships are holed up in Bordeaux, far up a dangerous estuary guarded by torpedo nets, machine guns, spotlights, and armed patrol craft. What to do.
Major Blondie Hasler of the Marines decides that he and twelve men could row up the estuary in kayaks and plants limpet mines against the hulls of some of the ships. They'd hide by day and row by night, hoping for the best. If they succeeded in reaching the freighters, it would be impossible to row back out to sea. They would walk over the Pyrenees into neutral Spain.
Twelve men and six kayaks were unloaded at sea, just off the mouth of the Gironde estuary, where they encountered unexpected turbulence. By the time they reached the placid waters of the estuary, there were six men in three kayaks. Another crew, lost, was captured, interrogated by the Gestapo, to whom they revealed the plan, and then executed, leaving four men in two kayaks. Hasler was still leading the tiny force but it must have occurred to him that it was nearly pointless. His unit had been reduced by two thirds and could make no significant dent in the moored freighters. And Hitler had issued and illegal order that all capture commandos be shot.
The men planted eleven limpet mines, which blew up according to plan, and sank some ships in the shallow estuary. They were repaired and refloated. The four men set off in pairs to walk across southern France in mid-winter, across Spain, and to Gibralter. One pair made it; the other was captured and executed. The casualty rate was eight percent. And, ironically, another plan to sink the blockade runners were underway at the same moment, neither unit knowing about the other. Of course, the kayak attack canceled the other. With any coordination the attacks could have had far more impact. And at the very least, the surviving crew wouldn't have had to cross half of Europe. They could have walked a mile and been whisked away by the French resistance.
Still, in the end, the mission was completed, German blockade runners were sunk. Hasler and his surviving companion were decorated and invited to tea with Lord Mountbatten.
