A FORMER photographer has zoomed in on a section of modern British maritime history which has been kept in the darkroom for more than half-a-century.

Quentin Rees, from Torquay, focused his attention on the hitherto hush-hush exploits of military canoes which played an important role in the Second World War.

He has now fully exposed the intriguing contribution made to the war effort by the so-called 'Cockleshell Heroes' in their specially equipped tiny craft.

His fascination with the obscure story started when he answered an advert in a magazine which stated: "Commando canoe for sale."

Intrigued, he nipped up to Somerset to see the object of his fancy, which he found himself buying for £150.

One thing led to another, and before long he was being carried away on a tide of curiosity about his vintage acquisition, which came in five parts and was 18ft long.

Eight years later he has written the definitive account of the navy's smallest fighting fleet after following an exhaustive search for material around the country.

He reckons most of his book — The Cockleshell Canoes. British Military Canoes of World War 2 — contains facts, figures and photos which have never seen the light of day in any other publication.

"It does give me a huge tingle of satisfaction to know I've produced a whole section of British maritime history which has remained virtually unknown till now," says Quentin, who lives in Barton Hill Road.

He adds: "It dawned on me as I made my researches that there was a terrific tale to tell. I couldn't let it go. And much of the available information about the canoes was simply wrong. It had to be corrected."

Stroud-based publishing company Amberley felt the same way. It liked his story so much it has produced the book which has just been released at £19.99.

"I'm very pleased with it," said Quentin, who has been doing a TV, radio and newspaper publicity tour around the UK to promote his magnum opus.

And he revealed his biography initially started out as 'therapy' for him at a time when he was going through a difficult period in his life.

"In a way it helped and hindered me. The distraction of inquiry was very welcome, but sometimes it all got a bit too much. There was so much material to handle. It was hard work, but I've also had lots of fun," he confessed.

Quentin even tracked down a local hero in the shape of Lt George Davies from Totnes who took part in many cockleshell operations throughout the war and wrote the foreword to the book.

The one cockleshell campaign which did attract public attention — and was subsequently made into a film — was Operation Frankton in 1942, a canoe-led assault at Bordeaux which resulted in five enemy ships being badly damaged after limpet mines were attached to them by a crack team of Royal Marines.

Ten men took part in the daring night-time raid. Just two escaped with their lives. Two others were drowned and the remaining six were caught or betrayed and executed by the Germans.

Among the many interesting facts to emerge in his book are the possible named source for James Bond's madcap character Q who delights in showing off his inventions to 007 and the remarkable revelation that one 'cockleshell' was designed with a potential for carrying an atomic bomb.

"You could say the book has an explosive ending!" quips Quentin.

Sales of the book have been so good that the publisher is now running off a second impression.