The Royal Marines Boom Patrol Detachment and Praa Sands

The Royal Marines Boom Patrol Detachment (RMBPD) was a specialist unit of the British Royal Marines during the Second World War. Its origins can be traced directly to the Special Boat Service (SBS), a secretive unit formed to conduct daring amphibious raids against enemy shipping and coastal installations. The RMBPD was tasked with covert operations using small, collapsible canoes—often under the cover of darkness—to approach targets stealthily, plant explosives, and gather intelligence.

Praa Sands, with its wide, secluded beach and challenging tidal conditions, became an ideal testing ground for these operations. Here, the Marines practiced:

• Launching and navigating folding canoes in rough surf
• Moving quietly along hostile coastlines at night
• Approaching targets undetected and returning safely

The skills honed on Praa Sands were crucial for the success of later operations, and they formed a direct line to the modern Special Boat Service, one of the world’s elite maritime special forces.

These real-life exploits inspired the 1955 British film “The Cockleshell Heroes”, which dramatized the daring raid carried out by the RMBPD in 1942. In this operation, a small team of Marines used canoes to attack German shipping in the heavily defended port of Bordeaux, demonstrating courage, precision, and ingenuity—the very qualities they had trained for along beaches like Praa Sands.