A big hit in it's time

and I think I used to like the film on TV as a kid but it seems a bit stodgy and contrived now. I'm not sure what Trevor Howard was doing in there and Anthony Newly being his usual cheeky chap was just a bit annoying - though it's nice that David Lodge was given prominence and allowed to beat up the spiv. The ending wasn't filmed well - for a start it was just a bit silly anyone got past the guard by going under the pier and the model ships exploding at the end were hopelessly unconvincing.
I looked up the raid and apparently it was not that effective, six ships were damaged but five repaired very quickly and the Germans really did execute the Marines they captured. Perhaps most ridiculously there was another operation underway to attack the ships by a different branch of Britain's special operations units but neither knew of the other - if they'd been able to combine the two attacks it would have been far more effective.