hello there just before we get into today's video why not check out a new channel from
me called wara graphics want to know all the details about some of history's most
famous battles and wars come join me on war graphics from sherman's march to the sea
to operation barbarossa if it's got people fighting each other
we'll cover it there is a link below i hope to see you over there and now today's video
the years 2010-2014 the release of three expendables films throwback action rom starring
a roster of aging 1980s action stars including sylvester stallone dolph lundgren bruce willis
chuck knowles jean-claude van damme and arnold schwarzenegger has returned mercenaries back for
one final job and presumably easy nostalgia fueled paychecks while the notion of assembling a team of
60 year olds to carry out a dangerous mission might seem like pure hollywood nonsense it's
not as outlandish as it might appear faced with a potential diplomatic crisis during the second
world war british intelligence called upon a team of real-life expendables to carry out a daring
commando raid in neutral portuguese india this is the incredible story of operation creek the last
ride of the calcutta light horse the battle of the atlantic which raged from the very first day
of world war ii to the very last has been covered extensively on this very channel but the desperate
struggle between allied shipping and german u-boats was not confined to the frigid waters
of the north atlantic u-boat operations ranged as far afield as the indian ocean where the marauding
submarines wreaked havoc on ships sailing in and out of british india and this deadliness only
increased thanks to an unexpected helping hand in august 1939 the freighters orenfels braunfels and
drachenfels of the german ddg hansa shipping line received a radio message warning them that
germany would soon be at war with britain the ships immediately made their way to the nearest
neutral harbor more mogao in goa india while most of the subcontinent had been colonized by britain
goa located on india's west coast some 500 kilometers south of bombay had been a colony
of portugal since 1510. and while portugal had long been an ally of britain during the second
world war it chose to remain neutral its cities and overseas territories becoming hotbeds of
allied and axis spies the three german freighters were soon joined by another axis vessel the
italian freighter and fora but since all four were merchant ships they were not considered a threat
and were ignored by both portuguese and british colonial authorities then in the fall of 1942
allied shipping losses in the indian ocean began to skyrocket with 46 merchantmen being sunk over
a six-week period if losses continued at this rate the flow of supplies to allied troops fighting in
the far east would soon be choked off at the same time agents of special operations executive or
soe britain's wartime sabotage and subversion organization intercepted coded radio messages
relaying the positions of allied merchant ships leaving bombay the signals were coming from the
erenfels moored in mamago harbor this discovery placed soe in a delicate position as taking out
the er and fells and its transmitter in a neutral harbour would be a diplomatic disaster soe agents
lieutenant colonel lewis pugh and colonel gavin stewart decided instead to target the network of
german and indian nationalist spies who gathered the shipping information for transmission to
the u-boats at the head of this network was the gestapo agent robert [ __ ] code named
trumpet who lived with his wife crete in goa's capital of penaggi on december 19th 1942 pew
and stewart staged a daring kidnapping in broad daylight abducting [ __ ] and his wife at gunpoint
and bundling them into a waiting car they then sped out of the city cut the telephone lines
to the border and injected their captives with a powerful sedative before driving onto the border
crossing as one officer spoke to the border guards the other waited in the car with the unconscious
[ __ ] in case of trouble the plan was to toss a sack of rupees into the street to distract the
locals then around the car through the gate and escape into british india mercifully the
guard suspected nothing and the two agents were allowed to cross the border unmolested
the [ __ ] were then taken to castle rakhanataka for interrogation the ultimate fate of the couple
is unclear with accounts differing as to whether they were released or shot as spies but whatever
the case their abduction did little to stem the tide of u-boat attacks in the first half of march
1943 alone 12 allied vessels totaling 80 000 tons were sent to the bottom of the indian ocean
and with that soe was left with only one option sinclair and fells given the delicate diplomatic
situation an open attack by regular british forces was out of the question however a covert operation
by a group of trained civilians might just do the trick to carry out this daring raid pew and lewis
turned to an unlikely outfit known as the calcutta light horse originally formed in 1872 the calcutta
lighthouse was a reserve cavalry regiment which had served with distinction during the bar war and
the first world war by 1943 however the unit was more a social club than a military unit composed
mainly of middle-aged out-of-shape bankers merchants and solicitors too old or unfit for
regular military service but they were all eager to see action and their involvement would lend the
raid codenamed operation creek enough plausible deniability to avoid diplomatic disaster in early
march of 1942 pugh approached the commander of the calcutta lighthouse colonel william grice and
revealed him the details of the operation though the raid would be highly risky he explained since
it was top secret the men would receive no credit no pay no medals and no pensions if anything
went wrong though initially skeptical grice assembled his men and asked for 18 volunteers
informing them only that i can tell you nothing about it except that the operation should take
about a fortnight and will involve a short sea voyage there it is gentlemen i leave it
to you as anyone willing to volunteer the 30 men assembled raised their hands grice then set about
winnowing down the volunteers eliminating anyone too old or ill to serve among those accepted for
the raid was corporal william manners who had lost an eye in a childhood accident and wore a
glass replica in its place when questioned about his selection grey simply replied
it was good enough for admiral horatio nelson why shouldn't it be alright for you in the end 14 men
from the calcutta lighthouse were selected for the mission the raiding party being filled out with
four men from the rival calcutta scottish regiment this ragtag bunch of over-the-hill reservists
was then put through a crash course in commando operations being instructed in hand-to-hand combat
weapons and explosives handling and shipboarding procedures they then studied the blueprints of the
ironfells captured by soe the regular army drill sergeants in charge of the training were less than
impressed by their over-the-hill trainees with one complaining if these are the lighthorse what
must the heavy mob be like nonetheless the men dutifully completed their training and to avoid
suspicion made their way in small groups by train to that southwestern port of kochi from where they
would board a ship that would take them to goa when they arrived however the men of operation
creek discovered to their shock that the ship was not a royal navy destroyer or even a torpedo boat
but a tiny 30-year-old steam hopper barge called the phoebe used to dredge rivers and canals the
phoebe was barely seaworthy and had to hug the indian coast to keep from capsizing but with
british shipping in the far east stretched to its breaking point it was all that could be spared
meanwhile sui officer richard lippett traveled to goa to arrange a distraction the attack was
scheduled for the early morning of march the 9th when the catholic colony would be celebrating
the last day of carnival to ensure that most of the irefel's crew would be ashore and distracted
lippett posing as an employee of liverpool-based shipping line john holton company persuaded the
wife of a prominent german resident to hold a reception for the officers of the german and
italian ships he also paid local brothel owners to offer a free night of services to all sailors in
the harbor finally he bribed local officials to ensure that both the lighthouse and boy marking
the entrance to the harbor would be inoperative on the night of the attack and with that the
stage was set for one of the unlikeliest covert operations of the second world war
around 2 30 a.m on march the 9th 1943 the phoebe slipped into the mall margo harbor
and steamed straight for the ironfells with the lighthouse out of commission and the harbor basin
bathed in darkness the skeleton crew aboard the german freighter had little time to react before
grappling hooks and bamboo boarding ladders came clattering out of the gunwales the crew
switched on the ship's searchlight but a round from a submarine gun immediately destroyed it
moments before the paunchy middle-aged commandos of the calcutta lighthouse came storming aboard
faces blackened with camouflage paint shoes sold in an inch of sound deadening felt and pockets
stuffed with explosives the raiders fanned out across the ship quickly dispatching the
captain and five crew members one man even took a moment to drill a pistol round through a portrait
of adolf hitler hanging in the captain's wardroom but while the raiders had achieved total surprise
they were too slow to prevent the german crew from incinerating the ship's code book setting
off a fire trap on her stern and disabling her engines they also managed to blast the ship's horn
the pre-arranged signal to shore in case of enemy attack however with carnival still in full swing
the portuguese authorities were slow to react meanwhile a team of raiders ventured below dexen
located the rfl secret transmitter which they reduced to scrap metal with explosives and machine
gun afire but with the ship's deck of blaze and her engines out of commission the raiders initial
plan to commandeer or tow away the erenfels had to be abandoned she would have to be scuttled in
place instead thankfully the crew had beaten them to the bunch opening the ship's sea [ __ ] to keep
her out of enemy hands commander bernard davis the captain of the phoebe ordered the barge's lines
cast off at the boarding party to withdraw as they did the rfl's crew regrouped and counter-attacked
only to be driven off by gunfire and blast from a fire extinguisher a few were tackled to the
deck handcuffed and dragged aboard the phoebe as prisoners before the barge pulled away and
steamed into the darkness within minutes the airfields burst into flames and sank to the bottom
of the harbor this was followed by explosions aboard the browfells drachenfels and anfora whose
crew fearing goa was being invaded by the british decided to preemptively scuttle their ships as
she slipped out of goa phoebe transmitted a single code word to sue headquarters long shanks mission
accomplished operation creek was an unqualified success with all four axis ships being sent to
the bottom for a loss of not a single raider axis crew members who abandoned ship were arrested by
the portuguese authorities and in turn for the remainder of the war local newspapers reporting
that conflicts between pro-nazi and anti-nazis had caused the crews to mutiny and scuttle their own
ships thus the secrecy of the operation was maintained and diplomatic relations between
britain and portugal preserved more importantly however the raid had an immediate and dramatic
effect on allied shipping losses in the second half of march german u-boats sank only a single
ship the panamanian freighter norton in april they sank only three the allied war effort in the far
east was now free to kick into high gear meanwhile the volunteers of the calcutta lighthouse sworn
to secrecy over their role in the raid quietly returned to their civilian lives among these was
jack breen a partner in a life insurance firm upon returning to work bruene was confronted by
his partner and handed a newspaper article about the sinking of axis ships acting innocent breen
asked what that had to do with anything to which his partner replied hell of a lot didn't you know
i'd insured the damn things they're worth over 4.5 million pounds there'd be a claim
as long as you're armed unable to speak openly about their contributions to the war effort the
man of calcutta kalkata lighthorse instead created a secret symbol of their daring raid a seahorse
which they included on the masthead of gallup the regimental magazine and crafted into jewelry
for their wives for many years no one outside of this exclusive group knew what the symbol
meant in 1947 following india's independence from britain the regiment was finally disbanded but the
motley crew of middle age businessmen had proven their worth to the very end epitomizing american
general douglas macarthur's famous maxim that an old soldier never dies it just fades away
and if this unlikely story sounds like the plot of a movie that's because it was in 1974 the british
government finally declassified all documents pertaining to operation creek these formed the
basis for author james lee saw's 1978 non-fiction book boarding party which two years later was
adapted into the feature film the sea wolves starring gregory peck david niven and roger moore
you