The Lost Band of Brothers Read Online Free PDF

beach 3 and then towed towards England behind a crowded boat only to be lost mid-Channel, the two bodies were left where they lay and nothing was removed. 4 A fifth landing party achieved nothing at all. Dawn found Colonel Clarke’s crowded rescue boat approaching Dover: ‘Grimy, dishevelled and triumphant and accompanied, appropriately enough, by a bandaged officer with bloodstains, they were cheered by every ship in harbour.’ 5
    Men returning elsewhere suffered mixed fortunes. Outside Folkestone – unexpected, unannounced and evidently bearing the smoke-grim of distant battle – one boat of raiders was refused permission to enter harbour and ordered to lie off under the muzzles of Folkestone’s defences whilst checks were made. All of which took time. Again, the rum ration was opened and two stone jars of SRD – Service Rum Dilute – were passed round the boat-load of weary heroes. Eventually permitted to proceed, upon arrival on terra by now not so very ferma they were arrested by the military police who believed them to be deserters.
    The raid was reported in the newspapers the next day with only the vaguest of details. It proved a timely tonic for the battered British public – and caused near apoplexy amongst members of the British Cabinet who had no idea Operation Collar had been authorised to take place. It hadn’t. Fearful of security leaks from high places, Director of Combined Operations General Bourne had told no one. He was only saved from court-martial by the timely intervention of the Minister of War, Anthony Eden.
    German troops occupied the Channel Islands on 30 June 1940. Two days later General Hastings Ismay, Churchill’s Chief Military Assistant and critical point of liaison between the Prime Minister and his Chiefs of Staff, received a memorandum from the Prime Minister. This stated: ‘If it be true that a few hundred German troops have landed on Jersey or Guernsey by troop-carriers, plans should be studied to land secretly by night on the Islands and kill or capture the invaders. This is exactly one of the exploits for which the Commandos would be suited.’ 6
    Thus began Operation Ambassador , Britain’s formal second raid upon a shore occupied by the enemy. It took place twelve days later on the night of 14–15 July 1940. The target this time was Guernsey. Its objective? To inflict casualties on the German garrison, capture prisoners and destroy any German aircraft and equipment found on the island. To carry out this operation No 11 Independent Company was joined by members of the newly formed No 3 Commando commanded by Major John Durnford-Slater. He and 140 of his men were to land at three separate points on the southern side of the island: the Major at Moulin Huet Bay supported by the destroyer HMS Scimitar , No 11 Independent Company at both Le Jaonnet Bay and Pointe de la Moye. The landing parties were to be transported by the destroyer, then transferred to an RAF launch whilst still some distance off to make their own silent and unobserved approach to the enemy shore.
    Durnford Slater and his men moved to Dartmouth, using the gymnasium at the Royal Naval College above the town as a makeshift gun room where naval cadets helped them load magazines for the precious Brens and tommy guns that had been sent down on loan from London. The attacking force left Dartmouth at 1845 on 14 July and arrived off the coast of Guernsey a few hours later in poor visibility, mist, drizzle and with a slight swell running. So far so good. But that, really, was as good as it got.
    The two parties from No 11 Independent Company never made landfall. The coast was too rocky and the compasses of both boats, apparently, had been knocked out of true during degaussing. One vessel headed off smartly, in error, towards Sark. The other developed engine trouble and barely managed to struggle back to the mother ship, HMS Scimitar . An earlier postponement of forty-eight hours now meant that the anticipated half-tide