A Brilliant Little Operation by Paddy Ashdown

Author:Paddy Ashdown [Ashdown, Paddy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781781310830
Publisher: MBI
Published: 2015-10-31T16:00:00+00:00

Also among the milling crowd that early morning were members of de Baissac’s Scientist network who had ‘reconnoitring parties actually on the quayside making their last recce before they attacked the following night, when they heard some quiet pops below the water and watched as their targets started to settle into the water under their noses’.15 In a later report to the Cabinet Office, probably based on a message sent by de Baissac over Roger Landes’ radio, Combined Operations said ‘the operation was successful as far as can be deduced from reports. Explosions [from Hasler’s limpets] were heard.’16

At 1245, an aerial reconnaissance Spitfire made another high-level pass over the Bordeaux docks and the Gironde. Although the photo interpretation experts at RAF Medmenham identified little that was unusual, they did note that two floating cranes and a dredger had been moved from other parts of the port and were now anchored alongside ships on the Quai des Chartrons.17

At about the same time, the German Grenzenschützdienst (border guard service) made a discovery confirming what the German authorities now strongly suspected – that the explosions were connected with the capture of Wallace and Ewart on 8 December. Searching the shoreline just above Blaye, the Germans found two half-submerged canoes which had clearly been deliberately scuttled. These contained various items of British equipment similar to those found at the time of Wallace and Ewart’s arrest.

By the end of the day, the results of the sabotage had been compiled. The following day they were sent to Berlin by Ernst Kühnemann:14

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