WW2 hero is to be honoured at last
IT was a suicide mission which required a special kind of courage. Co-op milkman James Conway was one of those who had it.
Now, 75 years after taking part in a daring World War Two raid, his home town of Stockport is to create a fitting memorial to him.
On the night of December 7, 1942, the Royal Marine, aged just 20, was one of 10 men to paddle five collapsible canoes up the Gironde estuary in Nazioccupied France.
Their targets were German merchant ships heading for Bordeaux onto which they would fix limpet mines.
Operation Frankton would form the basis of the 1955 film ‘The Cockleshell Heroes.’
Conway, who lived with his mother Mary Ann at Heaton Mersey View, Larkhill, Edgeley, was chosen for the mission after another Marine suffered a sporting injury and had to step down.
The expedition was a spectacular propaganda success - but at a very high price.
Six German ships were sunk in shallow water - but six of the Marines, including Conway, were shot by the Gestapo after being captured. Another two drowned. Conway was in a canoe with Lt Jack MacKinnon.
Conway’s great niece, Jenny Conway-Meleady, said: “Jack’s knee was injured and we think the canoe sunk. They got to shore and were under instructions to go south towards the Spanish border.
“They were looked after by French families. Madam and Monsieur Jaubert, who had a farm in Cessac, took them in and arranged for them to get help further south. They got to La Reole, where Jim was taken to a prison and Jack to hospital. They were reasonably looked after. But word got around the village that two strangers had arrived and the Gestapo found out.
“The local gendarmes would not release them to the Gestapo, but they came back mob handed and took them away.”
Jenny, from Whaley Bridge, Derbyshire, added: “Jim was tortured for three months. According to German records he was killed on March 23, 1943, possibly in Paris, but we don’t know for certain. There is no grave.”
It was not until August 1945 that Conway’s family received formal confirmation of his death.
Jenny said: “We are very proud of Jim. He was really loved. It’s inspiring what he did. I am not criticising today’s kids, but it would be good for them to know how an ordinary lad put himself forward to do something so courageous.”
Local artists and sculptors across Stockport are now being invited to submit design ideas for a memorial honouring Conway.
It will be installed in a prominent location, close to Stockport War Memorial, Art Gallery and town hall at Mount Tabor and will be unveiled on the 75th Anniversary of the raid on December 7, 2017.
The deadline for submission is May 3, 2017. For more information go to www.the-chest.org.uk/ the CHEST reference number is DN251521.