Major General Corran Purdon who died last week

I was reading the obituary of Corran Purdon this morning and it was so amazing to read about him and his involvement in the St Nazaire raid in WW2 for which he was awarded the MC that I thought I would share it here.  This video from You Tube is Purdon talking about it on a return visit to St Nazaire a few years ago.   There is another video of Micky Burn  also talking who mentions Purdon as being the bravest man,  Micky Burn also got the MC.  (His is a separate video but when I went back to find it and add it here, it is only a minute and half, I couldn't find it on YouTube again).

They embarked from Falmouth in the Campbeltown to blow up the dry dock at the French port of St Naziare on the Loire Estuary.  This was the only dock where the German battleship Tirpitz could refit.   Purton and his men were sent with the twin tasks of assaulting and destroying the German gun positions and protecting the demolition teams so they could lay and explode the demolition charges.  (They were successful and the dock was never used during the war again).

Major General Purdon has just died aged 97.  At the time he led the men into the winding  house he was 21.  The other man who I mention here who said Purdon was the bravest, was just 20. 

Truly amazing and very humbling is it not?   Very modest, no fuss, just getting on with the job they were given.

The obituary for Corran Purdon is in many of the UK  leading newspapers if you would like to read the whole thing.