The Cockleshell Heroes

United States, 1955 / 94 Mins

Director: Jose Ferrer

Starring: Trevor Howard, Anthony Newley, Victor Maddern, Jose Ferrer, Dora Bryan, David Lodge.

During WWII, a team of Royal Marines are sent on a perilous mission to infiltrate and destroy an impregnable harbour in German-occupied France in The Cockleshell Heroes.

At the height of the Second World War, a battalion of German ships are safely docked at the “unassailable” port of Bordeaux. Newly promoted Major Stringer (José Ferrer, also behind the camera as director) has a unique idea – send a team of commandos out in collapsable canoes, have them paddle seventy miles upriver in arduous conditions and blow up the German ships with limpet mines.

The Cockleshell Heroes is the true story of one of the most daring raids in British military history.

Will Heppa curator of artefacts at the Museum of the Royal Navy will give a short talk before the screening.