Major General Corran Purdon
Officer who won an MC in the St Nazaire raid, was held in Colditz and cleaned up Hong Kong’s police
MAJOR GENERAL CORRAN PURDON, who has died aged 97, won an MC in the St Nazaire raid and, after being taken prisoner, made repeated escape attempts before being incarcerated in Colditz. In March 1942 Purdon, serving with No 12 Commando, took part in Operation Chariot, the daring attack on the huge dry dock at the French port of St Nazaire, on the Loire estuary. This was the only dock where the German battleship Tirpitz could refit. The fighting troops had the twin tasks of assaulting and destroying the German gun positions and protecting the demolition teams so that they could lay and explode their demolition charges.
At about 1400 hours on March 26, Purdon embarked from Falmouth in Campbeltown an old, former United States Navy destroyer which was to ram the enormous seaward gates. Its outline had been altered to resemble a German destroyer and it was carrying more than four tons of high explosive in the bows.
At 0100 on March 28, Campbeltown was caught in the glare of German searchlights and challenged by their signal stations. The destroyer was sailing under German colours and when some of the enemy shore batteries opened fire, the signaller duped them into stopping by signalling that the vessel was being fired on by friendly forces.
Thirty minutes later, with only five minutes to go, their bluff was called and every gun that could see them opened up. Campbeltown ran down the German colours, hoisted the White Ensign battle flags, increased speed to 18 knots and opened fire with its own Oerlikons and the 12-pounder.
As soon as the destroyer rammed the gate, Purdon and his demolition team ran up to the deck and scrambled down the scaling ladders under a blinding array of searchlights and intense fire. His objective was one of the two winding houses. Once inside, they laid the charges and connected them. Purdon pulled the igniters. As he said afterwards: “The entire building seemed to rise several feet vertically before it exploded and disintegrated.”
Motor launches taking part in the operation had been destroyed and many of the boats designed to evacuate the force could not reach the docks. The order was given to fight their way into the town, split into small groups and try to get back to England by way of France, Spain and Gibraltar.
Purdon and his team charged forward like a rugger scrum. As he wrote afterwards: “A hail of enemy fire erupted as we crossed a bridge, projectiles slamming into girders, bullets whining and ricocheting off them and from the cobbles.” A grenade then burst at his feet and the explosion lifted him off the ground, wounding him in the left leg and shoulder.
His trousers were wet with blood but his leg still worked and he joined a group that was scrambling over backyard walls and in and out of houses. They hid in a cellar but only four of the 16 in their party were unwounded and when the door burst open and a detachment of well-armed Germans rushed in, surrender was the only sensible option.
At noon Campbeltown exploded with a huge roar. There was a large loss of life among the German military and civilians. The dry dock was out of action for the rest of the war. Purdon was awarded an MC for his part in the raid.
Corran William Brooke Purdon, the son of Major General WB Purdon, DSO, OBE, MC, late Royal Army Medical Corps, was born at Queenstown, Co Cork, on May 4 1921. The family is reputed to have its own banshee that howls when one of them is going to die. Corran remembered that on receiving reports that the banshee had been heard, telegrams were sent to everyone in the family to find out if they were all right.
Young Corran was educated at Campbell College, Belfast, before going on to Sandhurst. His fellows, he said afterwards, behaved reasonably well, although there was one occasion when an amorous cadet asked for Purdon’s assistance in hauling up to their floor a laundry basket containing an attractive young usherette from the local cinema.
In 1939 he was commissioned into the Royal Ulster Rifles (RUR). He was most disappointed not to be sent to France with the 2nd Battalion and in 1940 he joined No 12 Commando, which was being formed in Londonderry.
There was rigorous training in the Hamble and in Scotland. At a dance in Ayr he met Patricia Petrie. They were engaged within three weeks, but it was more than four years before they were able to get married. In December 1941 he took part in an unopposed landing on the Lofoten Islands of Norway.
After being taken prisoner at St Nazaire, the wounded were treated at a hotel at La Baule. Purdon was then taken to a hutted camp near Bremen before being transferred to Oflag 1XAH at Schloss Spangenberg.
On the night of March 26 1943 the camp put on a play. After the performance Purdon and a comrade, Dick Morgan, carried a large wicker hamper used for the costumes back to the guardroom. While the guard’s back was turned they dropped the hamper and made a run for it.
There were shots, whistle blasts and raucous shouts as they tumbled down the steep hillside. They ran for the tree line in a desperate bid to be in the forest before a cordon was thrown around the area. In their headlong descent they lost a precious compass and tins of food.
Heading for Belgium, they travelled by night and laid up during the day. One evening they had a narrow escape after burrowing into a pile of hay, high up in a barn. Two farm workers climbed the ladder and started forking down some of the hay, but did not find their hiding place.
A few days later, standing on a station platform in the dark during an air raid, bareheaded and wearing British battle dress, hoping to smuggle themselves on to a train travelling west, they were spotted by a railway policeman and arrested at pistol point. After nine days on the run they were returned to Spangenberg and placed in solitary confinement for two weeks.
Purdon was subsequently caught working on a tunnel and was sent to Oflag 1VC, Colditz Castle, a camp for persistent escapers. In April 1945 the Pows were liberated by the Americans.
At the end of the campaign Purdon rejoined 1 RUR as adjutant and accompanied the battalion to Palestine as part of 6th Airborne Division, where friction between Arab and Jewish factions kept them busy on internal security duties,
There followed regimental and staff appointments in Northern Ireland, Egypt, Hong Kong, Malaya and Cyprus. In 1962 he assumed command of 1 RUR in West Germany and during the next three years he led the battalion in England and Australia as an air portable unit and as an operational jungle unit in Sarawak during the “confrontation” with Indonesia.
In 1965 Purdon moved to Warminster as Chief Instructor and Officer Commanding All Arms Tactical Division, School of Infantry. From 1967 to 1969 he commanded the Sultan’s Armed Forces in Oman and was director of operations during the Dhofar War. He was twice decorated for gallantry by the sultan and was appointed CBE at the end of his tour.
He returned to the School of Infantry, Warminster, in 1969 as commandant. His final appointments were GOC North West District from 1972 to 1974 and GOC Near East Land Forces Cyprus from 1975 to 1976.
Purdon was deputy commissioner of the Hong Kong Police from 1979 to 1981. He had been invited by the Governor, Sir Murray Maclehose (later Lord Maclehose), to clear up corruption and raise the morale of the force. He was awarded the Colonial Police Medal at the end of his tour.
The French government awarded him the Médaille d’honneur de St Nazaire in 2000 and appointed him Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur in 2005. He published an autobiography, List the Bugle: reminiscences of an Irish soldier (1993). In 2007, he appeared in a BBC documentary, The Greatest Raid of All Time, narrated by Jeremy Clarkson.
Corran Purdon married first, in 1945, Patricia Petrie. She predeceased him as did one of their sons. He married secondly, in 2009, Jean Otway who survives him with the younger son and daughter of his first marriage.
Major General Corran Purdon, born May 4 1921, died June 27 2018