Sixteen-year-old James Conway was working as a milkman when World War Two broke out in the September of 1939.
Conway, from Edgeley in Stockport, signed up to join the Royal Marines where he trained for a secret mission, later named Operation Frankton.
He was among 12 men chosen to be part of what was widely considered to be one of the most audacious raids during the war.
Conway’s story has featured in Radio Manchester’s Hidden Manchester series, which shares the forgotten, untold and heroic stories of the region.
By March 1942, Britain was struggling to fight back against Nazi Germany.
The mission was to attack enemy German ships, known as blockade runners, moored at the port of Bordeaux in occupied France.
The ships carried cargo needed for the Nazi war effort.
“It was too risky to do aerial bombing,” said Stephen Martindale, from Bolton, who is a former Marine and runs the CS22 veteran expeditions group.
“There was no accurate way to guide munitions from the air on to a certain target, so they came up with an ingenious plan of how can we attack it from the water?”