It was a top-secret mission which had a major bearing on the success of D-Day and Allied victory in the Second World War.
Eighty years ago today, two brave commandos were sent to the north Norfolk coast for an undercover mission which paved the way for Operation Overlord – the codename for the Battle of Normandy.
On the night of December 22, 1943, Logan Scott-Bowden, a major in the Royal Engineers, and his Special Boat Service (SBS)-trained sergeant Bruce Ogden Smith swam from a landing craft through freezing cold waters and ashore Brancaster beach in a night-time rehearsal of the landings.
Once ashore, they took core samples of sand with special tool and collection bags, giving themselves up after proving they could escape detection from the posted sentries which included Whitehall boffins and military commanders.
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The successful test run at the Norfolk coast led to Whitehall’s Combined Operations leaders giving the D-Day landings the green light.
Scott-Bowden recalled in 1994, on the 50th anniversary of D-Day: “It was the dark period and we were in luck as there was some mist.
“Having swum ashore we crawled in an inverted ‘W’ course to achieve wide coverage, took samples, recording their positions on our underwater writing tablets and incidentally, located all the sentries without being detected.
“We had the additional burden of a large bandolier with a dozen 10-inch tubes with phosphorescent numbers on their caps, and an 18-inch auger which was efficient.
“Pushed fully into the sand and given one half-turn, when pulled up, it produced a 10-inch core sample form the lower end.
“Having gone back to the sea, we then stood up and walked ashore, shouting to the frozen sentries, who converged on our 15cwt truck at the back of the beach, where we displayed our wares in the heavily dimmed headlights.”
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