THE BRAVERY of ‘Cockleshell Hero’, Royal Marine James Conway, has been honoured by a permanent memorial which was unveiled on 10 December in Stockport, his home town, reports James Treadway. The memorial is situated at Mount Tabor, just opposite the town’s war memorial.
Special guests included James Conway’s family, Major General Martin Smith CB, MBE (Royal Marines) along with Kenneth Brotherhood of the Salford Royal Marines Association who had originally led the campaign for the memorial to be set up to this exceptional local hero.
The memorial, and the event itself, will commemorate and honour the exceptional bravery and sacrifice of James Conway, one of 12 Royal Marines who volunteered for Operation Frankton, the famous commando raid against German shipping in the French port of Bordeaux on 7 December 1942. The mission called for the men to paddle in two-man ‘cockleshell’ canoes some 80 miles through the Gironde Estuary and up the Garonne River, and then to attach limpet mines to shipping in Bordeaux’s port facility.
In the event, one of the canoes was damaged during the disembarkation procedure from a Royal Navy submarine, HMS Tuna, and only ten men eventually made the hazardous journey.
After the …
