WW2 Cockleshell Hero Bill Sparks DSM, Former French Prime Minister Chaban Delmas signed Navy cover. 50th ann ...

WW2 Cockleshell Hero Bill Sparks DSM, Former French Prime Minister Chaban Delmas signed Navy cover. 50th ann Operation Frankton the Attack on Enemy shipping in Bordeaux. William Edward Sparks DSM (5 September 1922 1 December 2002) 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. During the night of 7 December 1942, ten Royal Marines set out in five canoes on Operation Frankton. They caused considerable damage to five ships, but six of the men were shot by the Germans and two died of hypothermia after their canoe capsized. Sparks and Major Herbert Blondie Hasler were pursued through France and Spain by the Germans for three months before they reached safety in Gibraltar. When Hasler flew home, Sparks was sent back to England under arrest, as no one in Gibraltar could corroborate his story. On arrival, he escaped from the military police and went to see his father, who had been told that he was missing in action. Two days later, he reported to the Admiralty and was about to be arrested again, when he slipped out to Combined Operations Headquarters, where he was greeted with astonishment. During the rest of the war, he served in Burma, North Africa and Italy. Jacques Chaban Delmas 7 March 1915 10 November 2000) was a French Gaullist politician. He served as Prime Minister under Georges Pompidou from 1969 to 1972. He was the Mayor of Bordeaux from 1947 to 1995 and a deputy for the Gironde department between 1946 and 1997. Good condition. All autographs come with a Certificate of Authenticity. We combine postage on multiple winning lots and can ship worldwide. UK postage from £5.99, EU from £7.99, Rest of World from £9.99