Today in World War II History—December 11, 1942: “Cockleshell Heroes” Raid: British commandos who had landed in France from a submarine on Dec. 7 and canoed up the Gironde River, damage six ships in Bordeaux.
From Sarah Sundin's blog.
The Italian navy sank two Allied cargo ships, and damaged three others, in a manned torpedo raid on Algiers.
All in all, the Italian raid was more successful than the Royal Marine one on the same day.
The Battle of El Agheila commenced, which saw the British launch an operation to outflank the retreating Afrika Korps, which was both invading and withdrawing into Tunisia.
The town of El Agheila, Libya, had been the site of an Italian concentration camp earlier in the war which had confined 10,000 Bedouin in poor conditions.
Bedouins confined at El Agheila.
