A camouflaged two-man canoe sat near the back wall of the museum in Bordeaux. When I asked an attendant at the Centre National Jean Moulin if there was any information about this mysterious exhibit, he offered the sort of pained expression a French waiter might make if you told him you were vegetarian. He shrugged his shoulders and pulled down the corners of his mouth. ‘Rien du tout,’ he said. Nothing.
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It’s a peculiar oversight, especially as next month marks a key anniversary in the remarkable story behind this vessel (the one in the museum is actually a re-creation of the original).
In December 1942, HMS Tuna, a Royal Navy T-class submarine, surfaced a few miles off the coast of South West France and swiftly prepared to disembark 12 highly trained marines and their camouflaged canoes (the party was quickly reduced to ten when one of the canoes was damaged).