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Submitted to 大象传媒 Radio Kent 鈥淧eople鈥檚 War鈥� by Andrew Green on behalf of his late father, Robert 鈥淏ob鈥� Green and his late uncle, Sidney 鈥淪am鈥� Green. He fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

My father and uncle were both living in Hawkinge at the outbreak of the war. Their father had died in 1937 and their mother and a sister were to be killed in an air raid on Hawkinge Aerodrome in September 1940.

They both went to sea鈥︹��

Robert (Bob) Green.

My Father cycled with some of his mates to Chatham at the outbreak of the war to join the Navy. He found himself drafted to the Royal Naval Patrol Service at Lowestoft where he trained in minesweeping.

After serving in minesweeping trawlers and briefly in MTB鈥檚 from Dover and other east and south coast ports, he volunteered for special service and found himself in a 鈥淧rivate Navy鈥� run for the Special Operations Executive under the title of DDOD(I).

Based in the Helford River in Cornwall, their job was to run special agents and others in and out of occupied France from locations on the coast of Brittany.

The vessel used for these excursions was designated MFV2023, a small fishing boat, built to resemble a type of French boat to be found in Brittany. The major difference was that she had a fast launch hull shape beneath the waterline and was fitted with powerful engines to give her a high top speed.

One part of the job was to travel under cover of darkness to mingle with the French fishing fleet at dawn and to spend the day 鈥渇ishing鈥� under the eye of the German guard ship. This was usually one of the French fishing vessels with armed Kriegsmarine personnel aboard as 鈥済uests鈥� for the day.

During this exercise, the opportunity would be found to transfer information, equipment and sometimes people to a resistance-manned boat.

Acting upon information provided by the French Resistance, 2023 would at the last possible moment be painted to represent a French boat which was not to be present on the day. Hull and wheelhouse colours, name and port number would all be faithfully copied.

Unfortunately, on one occasion intelligence was faulty and 2023 and her crew found themselves 鈥渇ishing鈥� alongside an identical twin. This induced great concern as whilst trying unobtrusively to put some distance between the boats, the guardship approached on its regular beat.

Here it should be mentioned that 2023 was making about four knots on the underwater exhaust pulse of her large engines as they ticked over. One of the crew had the job of burning cotton waste in a grate at the base of the thin dummy exhaust pipe rising ahead of the wheelhouse to give the appearance of chugging along on a small diesel engine.

All attention on the approaching guardship, the man responsible allowed some burning material to spill out of the grate, whereupon it set fire to the deck in the wheelhouse. This needless to say was promptly extinguished but not without a considerable amount of smoke.

Noticing this, the German in charge of the by now passing guardship enquired in impeccable French as to whether they required assistance. Being told 鈥渘on, merci鈥�, and as the smoke had dispersed, the Germans continued on their course.

The rest of the operation proceeded without further incident, 2023 returning to base at high speed as darkness fell.
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My late father only ever spoke of his special ops when material began to be published as official documents were released in the late seventies. Before that, secrets were secrets and, with his peers, he said nothing.

The above anecdote seemed a little too exciting, but I was fortunate to meet one of his mates from the 2023 who corroborated this account and one or two others pretty well word for word!

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