Lazaretto Point - Scenic Sandbank
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Lazaretto Point
Along the shore road moving towards Dunoon is Lazaretto Point, here stands a tall tower, a war memorial to the dead of both World Wars. In 2018 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the end of the first world war the memorial was provided with permanent floodlighting by a private donation and had a plaque placed near the monument to commemorate the installation. This point takes its name from the quarantine station and storage houses that were build in 1807, during the Napoleonic Wars. Lazar House, or Lazaretto, was the name for a hospital, first established by the Order of St. Lazarus. People suffering from leprosy, the plague and other infectious and contagious diseases were taken care of at this site. The Ships from foreign ports would ride out the period of quarantine, while their cargo would be discharged on to the station.
The Cockleshell Heroes
Operation Frankton was a commando raid on ships in the German occupied French port of Bordeaux in southwest France during the Second World War. The raid was carried out by a small unit of Royal Marines known as the Royal Marines Boom Patrol Detachment (RMBPD), part of Combined Operations inserted by HMS Tuna captained by Lieutenant-Commander Dick Raikes (The RMBPD would later form the Special Boat Service). The plan was for six kayaks (called "canoes" by the British) to be taken to the area of the Gironde estuary by submarine. Twelve men would then paddle by night to Bordeaux. On arrival they would attack the docked cargo ships with limpet mines and then escape overland to Spain. Men from no.1 section were selected for the raid; including the commanding officer, Herbert 'Blondie' Hasler, and with the reserve Marine Colley the team was thirteen in total. Only two of the 10 men who launched from the submarine survived the raid: Hasler, and his number two in the canoe, Bill Sparks. Of the other eight, six were executed by the Germans and two died from hypothermia. The full story can be read here 
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