Mountbatten hesitated to risk Hasler because his expertise in covert kayak operations was difficult to replace. Hasler had built the Royal Marines Boom Patrol Detachment around precisely the kind of clandestine insertion Frankton required, making him both the logical commander and a scarce institutional asset. Submarines, carriers, destroyers, and Royal Marines repeatedly supported wartime maritime special forces, exposing a broad part of the service to their usefulness. That experience may have helped the Royal Navy and Royal Marines preserve a Special Boat lineage after 1945, unlike the Army's temporary disbandment of the SAS.
Chapter · 23:10-28:00
Hasler, the RMBPD, and the Special Boat legacy
Herbert 'Blondie' Hasler's specialist unit became one strand in the Royal Navy and Royal Marines' postwar special-operations tradition.