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RAIDS AND SUBVERSIONS 139

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RAIDS AND

SUBVERSIONS

With much of Europe under Nazi control by mid-1940, Britain

resorted to unconventional means of attacking the enemy. A

secret body—the Special Operations Executive (SOE)—trained

commandos in guerrilla tactics and employed special forces

to conduct clandestine operations in occupied territory.

At a time when Hitler’s plans for Europe

seemed close to success, Britain’s War

Cabinet considered it important to take

the offensive by staging surprise attacks

on occupied territory. Sometimes these

took the form of combined operations,

with air, land, and naval forces working

together. The first such raid, on the

Lofoten Islands in Norway, was

conducted successfully in March 1941.

Other attacks followed, aimed at

spreading fear along the coasts. The

most ambitious was the assault on St.

Nazaire in March 1942, the success of

which encouraged Allied commanders

to launch the disastrous Dieppe Raid

five months later.

“In no previous war ... have resistance forces been

so closely harnessed to the main military effort.”

US GENERAL DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER, 1945

Meanwhile, from early 1941 onward the

SOE had been coordinating espionage

and sabotage activities in the occupied

lands, as well as liaising with resistance

movements across the continent (see

pp.176–177). Some incursions were

conducted by its own operatives, while

others employed SOE-trained resistance

fighters inserted back into their own

homelands to carry out missions.

The SOE’s activities were sometimes

controversial, as they risked triggering

Nazi reprisals on local civilians. Yet

by striking into the heart of occupied

Europe, they kept the spirit of resistance

alive and helped prepare the path for

D-Day (see pp.186–187).

MAJOR-GENERAL SIR COLIN GUBBINS

1896–1976

The SOE—also known as “Churchill’s secret

army”—was officially formed in 1940. The

organization was shaped and then led by

Colin Gubbins, the son of a British diplomat.

Gubbins served with distinction in World

War I, winning the Military Cross for rescuing

wounded men under fire. He developed an

interest in irregular warfare while serving in

Russia and then Ireland in the immediate

post-war years. In 1940, after service in the

brief Norwegian campaign, he was seconded to

the newly formed SOE, taking over as its head

in 1943. There he coordinated the work of

resistance groups in the occupied lands, playing

a significant, if little-acknowledged, part in the

victorious Allied war effort.

Assault route Attack on heavy

water plant

Assault route Attack on port

OPERATION FRANKTON

DECEMBER 7–12, 1942

Celebrated after the war as the “cockleshell

heroes,” a team of Royal Marines was carried by

submarine to the mouth of the Gironde River.

They then paddled more than 62 miles (100 km)

upstream in folding kayaks (“cockles”) to the port

of Bordeaux—a journey that took five nights—and

attached limpet mines to shipping, damaging six

vessels. Eight of the ten men who made the assault

died during the raid or were executed after it.

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Assault route Attack on port

OPERATION CHARIOT MARCH 28, 1942

An Allied naval and commando raid on the port

of St. Nazaire succeeded in blowing up the only

dry dock big enough to handle large warships

on France’s Atlantic coast. To do so, an obsolete

destroyer packed with high explosives was

rammed into the dock gates. At the same time,

commandos attacked targets in the town. The

cost was heavy: of 611 men involved in the raid,

169 were killed and 215 captured.

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OPERATION GUNNERSIDE

FEBRUARY 27–28, 1943

An attack on the hydroelectric plant at the Rjukan

waterfall in Telemark, Norway, destroyed the only

facility able to produce the heavy water needed

for the Nazis’ experimental nuclear weapons

program. It was carried out by Norwegian

resistance fighters assisted by the SOE. Parachuted

from England, then traveling cross-country on skis,

the team successfully evaded capture after

completing their mission.

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Nov 25, 1942 An SOE team

working with local resistance fighters

destroys the Gorgopotamos Bridge

in central Greece.

Assault route Attack on port

THE DIEPPE RAID AUGUST 19, 1942

An Allied show of force, the Dieppe Raid was the

largest assault on the French mainland before

D-Day. More than 6,000 troops were involved,

5,000 of them Canadian; over half were killed,

wounded, or captured. Survivors were evacuated

within 10 hours of the launch of the assault, which

failed in its main objectives. In addition, the RAF

lost more than 100 planes, and a Royal Navy

destroyer had to be scuttled.

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