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The first successful parachute drop in British history.
The first successful raid on German occupied Europe.
The first use of morphine by regular soldiers.
The first use of the Sten gun.
The first parachute jump on enemy territory by John Frost, the guy who would later lead
2 Para to the Arnhem Bridge.
And it’s hilarious from start to finish.
This was a daring raid to steal German radar technology, technology that would be used
to drastically reduce Allied air force casualties and give them a massive advantage in the air
war.
It was perhaps one of the turning points of the entire war.
This is Operation Biting, the Bruneval Raid, 1942.
Britain began ‘radar’ research in 1935,
hoping to both detect and destroy enemy bombers using new ‘death ray’ technology.
And while radar ‘death rays’ never became a thing, Robert Watson-Watt, Arnold Wilkins,
and - surprisingly - work carried out by the Post Office, lead to the creation of Radio
Detection Finding (RDF) which could detect aircraft.
RDF would eventually become known as RAdio Detection And Ranging - which was where the
acronym RADAR came from.
‘RADAR’ would later lose its capital letters to become ‘radar’, although this wouldn’t
happen until 1943, but for the sake of clarity, I’m just going to refer to RDF as radar
throughout this video.
By the time Britain went to war, it had a string of radar stations throughout southern
and eastern England, and the east coast of Scotland, known as ‘Chain Home’.
These could detect aircraft up to a distance of 130kms, giving the British much needed
assistance during the Battle of Britain in 1940.
Enemy aircraft would be detected by the radar sites as they flew over the sea and the RAF
would send fighters to intercept them.
At the beginning of the war, Britain was noticeably ahead of German radar research.
In 1940, at Birmingham University, John Randall and Harry Boot created the ‘cavity magnetron’
- a small device that allowed the British to develop radar in ultra-high frequencies,
and therefore could detect smaller objects without the need for big bulky equipment.
“The cavity magnetron was the single most important invention in the history of radar.
This remarkable piece of apparatus was given as a free gift to the USA, along with several
other inventions, as part of the inducement to enter the war on the side of the British.”
But Germany was making progress in the world of radar too.
Both sides were trying to create smaller and smaller equipment that worked at shorter wavelengths.
And the person given the responsibility of finding out what the Germans were up to in the world
of radar, was civilian scientist Dr Reginald Victor Jones.
“It was fortunate that the nation had such a man as Jones working in his sphere at that
time, for he had a remarkable ability to predict what logical developments could be achieved
by the enemy, even before they had become a reality.” Ford, The Bruneval Raid.
Jones predicted - and was right - that the Germans were developing radar detection systems.
Work was slowed, however, because the scientists and engineers working on these systems belonged
to commercial companies who worked in isolation.
They didn’t pool their knowledge because they were working as rivals.
Nonetheless, the Germans developed ‘Freya’ - an early warning radar system, with a range
of 160kms.
Göring heard about Freya - which had been developed for the Kriegsmarine - and ordered
a bunch of these systems for his Luftwaffe.
In 1940, the British suspected that the Germans were using radar, but didn’t have any ideas
what it was, or how it was used, and how effective it was.
All they really knew was it was called ‘Freya’.
Dr Jones needed a working system so that he could answer these questions.
And thanks to observations from the destroyer HMS Delight, it was suspected that a German
radar station existed on the Cherbourg Peninsula, in France.
Aerial photographs later confirmed this to be the case on the 22nd of *February 1941.
Two days later, Dr Jones’s assistant, Derrick Garrard, took a radio receiver down to the
south coast and detected Freya transmissions.
This confirmed to the British that the Germans definitely had radar, and were using it.
Later, another form of German radar, called ‘Würzburg’, was also detected.
Freya couldn’t detect the altitude of enemy aircraft, but used in union with Würzburg,
the Germans now could detect the altitude as well.
This was the foundation of the Kammhuber Line, which was intercepting British bombers and
causing the RAF Bomber Command a lot of casualties.
Dr Jones needed to get his hands on a German Würzburg radar system in order to develop
effective countermeasures to German radar.
If the British could find effective countermeasures to German radar systems, this would give them
a massive advantage in the air war, and help them win the war as a whole.
But where would they find one?
Dr Jones calculated that a Würzburg radar would have a range of about 40kms, which meant
that there must be one station every 80kms along the French coast.
He narrowed down the likely sites, and on the 15th of November, the RAF Photo-Reconnaissance
Unit took pictures of the coastline north of Le Havre in France.
Photograph o2Y was studied in great detail, as it contained a Freya station located close
to the cliffs.
Dr Jones’s other assistant, Dr Frank, discovered a small black object on the photograph - no
bigger than a pinprick on the actual photo itself - with a path leading to it.
Two more flights on the 4th and 5th of December 1941 confirmed the existence of what was quite
clearly a Würzburg radar installation.
“Jones was overjoyed when he received the photographs for they confirmed the existence
of Würzburg in the form that he had expected. Its antenna was a parabolic dish with a diameter
of around 3m. Its equipment appeared to be housed in a small shed located at the base
of the aerial. The whole installation was situated remote from any other building in
a low-banked hollow. Close by was a nineteenth-century villa, which no doubt housed the technicians
manning the radar installation. The site itself was no more than 100 metres from the cliff
edge, with a clear view out to sea.” Ford, The Bruneval Raid.
Jones and Frank looked at the area, and saw how open the area was.
It was surrounded by open countryside, with no significant town nearby, and it was next
to a beach.
Basically, this was a perfect place for a raid.
Jones realised that stealing the radar was a distinct possibility.
In December 1941, Dr Jones went to the Combined Operations Headquarters and requested a raid
on the Bruneval radar site.
Combined Operations, or ‘CO’, was set up in July of 1940 and as of October 1941,
was under the command of Lord Louis Mountbatten, cousin of the king.
It was just a HQ unit with no troops of its own.
However, it would plan operations that would be submitted to the Combined Chiefs of Staff
Committee, who would grant permission for the raids to be conducted.
“It was met with a great deal of enthusiasm, for the raid was just the type of enterprise
that Combined Operations were looking for. The attack was not intended merely to be an
in-and-out punitive foray, for it had a worthwhile objective that would contribute to the nation’s
security. It was also an operation that would cause great disquiet within the Nazi hierarchy,
a thought that would please the Prime Minister immensely.” Ford, The Bruneval Raid.
More information was needed about the Würzburg site.
So the British went to a couple of French agents and asked them to gather information
about the area.
Agents Pol and Charlemagne (these were their nicknames by the way) were the agents who
decided to go to the Bruneval area and take a look.
Agents Pol and Charlemagne drove to Bruneval village from the east, reaching the Hotel
Beau-Minet, which was unusual for its time as it had central heating and could stay open
most of the year.
The owners of the Hotel Beauminet
told ‘Charlemagne’ and ‘Pol’ what they knew about the area.
They said that 60 Luftwaffe men were stationed in the big rectangle of farm buildings to
the north called Le Presbytère (Theuville on Modern Maps).
In Bruneval itself was a platoon of 30 German troops led by a sergeant.
These guarded the route down to the beach.
They were housed in the hotel they were actually in, which was now closed to other visitors,
and in a villa overlooking the beach [villa Gosset].
Two bunkers with machine guns guarded the beach exit, and the road was barred by barbed-wire
emplacements.
The beach and the grass beside the road were mined.
At the end of this conversation, ‘Charlemagne’ and ‘Pol’ told the hotel owners that they
were going to go visit the beach itself.
The hotel owners were shocked - erm, the beach was guarded and clearly not accessible!
But Pol and Charlemagne were not dissuaded.
At the barbed wire outside the villa Stella Maris, they were stopped by a German sentry.
They told the sentry that they were students from Paris, who wanted to see the 'ocean', before
they returned to the city.
And the sentry smiled, and raised the barrier-post on the road, let them pass, and then casually
led them through the minefield - revealing to them that it wasn’t mined.
In addition, because he’d led them to the beach, the two agents were able to look around,
and they saw two German machine gun positions as well as the sea, which clearly didn’t
have any water obstacles, nor was it protected from the land by mines.
The two agents headed back and then bid the sentry goodbye.
They’d only been there a few minutes, but they had gathered immensely valuable intelligence.
And the German sentry won the 1942 Moron of the Year Award.
Yes, not only did he let them through and escorted them to the beach, he walked them
through the the ‘Achtung Minen’ signs.
They walked over the “minefield” - which was quite clearly not an actual minefield.
“If the Germans did intend to mine the beach, no one had got around to it yet. This piece
of intelligence by itself was priceless.” Downing, Night Raid.
What an idiot!
The information that this moron had allowed the agents to gather was radioed back to London
who now had all the information they needed to plan the raid.
Now obviously, the French agents hadn’t gathered all the information needed about
the enemy at Bruneval.
They had identified two bunkers overlooking the beach, but there were others.
Photo-reconnaissance sorties over the area showed there was a line of three emplacements
guarding the road.
And these were linked by trenches.
Two more weapons pits were located along the cliff between the Würzburg and the Freya
positions.
And the Germans had units in the area, which we’ll get to shortly, but even so, the British
now had massive amounts of information about their enemy.
“Frost reflected that rarely had men been given so much information about the enemy
they were coming up against: ‘the strength, the billets, the weapons and even the names
of some of the Germans were known.’ ” Downing, Night Raid.
Guarding the forty-five-mile stretch of coast
from Le Havre north-east to Sotteville-sur-Mer was Lieutenant General Stever’s 336th Infantry
Division.
“A Prussian, upright, formal and strict, a professional officer not a committed Nazi,
Stever had been in the army since before the First World War. In 1940 he had led a Panzer
division in the assault on France and Belgium, but it was thought he had not been a success
as a Panzer commander and so in late 1940 he was put in command of the 336th Infantry
Division. This would have been seen as a severe demotion.” Downing, Night Raid.
The Colonel von Eisenhart-Rothe’s 685th Infantry Regiment of 336th Infantry Division
was based around Bruneval.
It was a new regiment, formed at the end of 1940.
And interestingly, both the 336th Infantry Division and 685th Infantry Regiment would take part
in the fighting around the Battle of Stalingrad, although not in the city itself.
They would fight for their lives during Operation Uranus and Little Saturn, serving in Army
Detachment Hollidt as it tried to breakthrough to Stalingrad.
The soldiers at Bruneval were part of Major Paschke’s 1st Battalion of the 685th.
The troops stationed at the Hotel Beau-Minet and the Stella Maris, both near Bruneval,
were from the 1st Company of the 1st Battalion.
This was under the command of Oberleutnant Huhn.
Bearing in mind that Huhn is the German word for chicken.
Another German company of regular infantry was based nearby, but it would take at
least three hours to reach Bruneval.
There was also a reconnaissance battalion at Yport, sixteen miles away, which had armoured
cars.
British planners thought that it was possible for one or two of these cars to reach Bruneval
within an hour, if alerted early enough.
But the intelligence report did conclude that - “No tanks have yet been located in the
neighbourhood.”
Aerial photographs suggested that the heaviest weapons the Germans were armed with were light
machine guns.
There was no evidence of mortars.
The German army didn’t man the radar stations - they were manned with Luftwaffe personnel.
The Luftwaffe men at Bruneval were part of the 2nd Reconnaissance Company of the 23rd
Luftwaffe Air Reconnaissance Regiment.
Most of the Luftwaffe men were armed similar to conventional German infantry, but they
weren’t as well trained or had the experience that the army infantry had.
“The conclusion of the intelligence assessments was that the troops in the immediate vicinity
of the drop zone were a mixture of radar and communication specialists defended by relatively
lightly armed soldiers.” Downing, Night Raid.
So, let’s take a look at the map and place these units in the appropriate places.
Now, I just want to point out that the names in the north of this map need a bit of an
explanation.
If you’re reading books on this battle, or have checked out maps that are about it online
the names may not correspond to the map in this video, or even each other.
Theuville, or the “Rectangle” as the British call it, is this farm here north of the Würzburg,
which is surrounded by trees.
However Theuville is the modern name for it. At the time it was called Le Presbytère.
But the sources are confused on this, and if the sources refer to German troops at Le
Presbytère, it could mean either Theuville, or the small village to the east.
And then we get to the village of La Poterie - bearing in mind that the entire area is
also known as “Cap d’Antifer La Poterie”, meaning that when the sources refer to La
Poterie, they could also be referring to the entire area.
Confusing! Anyway, let’s place the units.
The headquarters of 1st Battalion of the 685th Infantry Regiment was seven miles by road
from Bruneval - miles away.
But Huhn’s 1st Company was located at La Poterie village, and had troops at the Hotel
Beau-Minet and the Stella Maris.
The portion of 1st Company at La Poterie, approximately 70 men, did not have transport.
Although this is contradicted by other sources that say one platoon did have transport, which
was then spotted in the middle of the raid.
At the farmhouse of Le Presbytère, or the Rectangle, was the sixty Luftwaffe men lead
by a sergeant.
At the the Würzburg radar at Bruneval, a sergeant named Gerhard Wenzel commanded the
9 men there - who were based in the Villa Gosset.
Gerhard Wenzel was of no relation to the Wenzel who had attacked Fort Eben Emael in 1940.
It’s worth noting for now that the British assumed that these men at the Villa Gosset were
specialist Luftwaffe engineers since they were so close to the radar.
Down by the beach, the Stella Maris villa, and the road itself were surrounded by 10
foot deep barbed wire.
The garrison of Stella Maris villa consisted of a platoon of thirty men under the command
of a sergeant.
Five of these men slept in the villa, which had become a guard post manned twenty-four
hours a day.
Above and behind the Stella Maris were a bunch of machine-gun positions and pillboxes facing
out to sea.
This area was known as “Beach Fort” by the British.
There were more machine gun positions along the road heading inland, and more pillboxes
which were under construction.
There was a single powerful pillbox positioned on the shoulder of the cliff opposite the
Stella Maris, which had a commanding view of the beach and the valley inland.
This was nicknamed the “Redoubt” by the British.
Half a mile up the coast at Cap d’Antifer (the lighthouse), another 30 operators manned
the Freya radar station.
“The men working on the two radar stations were kept apart as much as possible and were
forbidden to discuss their work. So the Würzburg operators had no idea what the Freya team
was up to, and vice versa.”
But both radar sites were linked by telephone to the coastal defence centre at Octeville-sur-Mer,
just outside Le Havre.
In essence, there were machine gun nests, which would be a problem, and there were more
powerful Wehrmacht units spread across the countryside which could hammer the British
paras if they were delayed in their evacuation.
The raid, therefore, had to be short sharp and sweet, if the British forces were to get
out alive.
While the obvious method of attack was by sea, there was the option to use Britain’s
airborne forces.
British airborne forces were looking to redeem themselves after their disastrous first operation
in Italy in February 1941, when 11th SAS Battalion parachuted to destroy the aqueduct near Calitri.
This first raid resulted in all but one paratrooper being captured, and it didn’t really have
an impact on the Italians at all - so not a good result overall.
The idea at Bruneval was to use the paratroopers in the raid because they would descend from
the sky swiftly, and silently, giving them the element of surprise.
And then they would be evacuated by sea after they’d done the deed.
Mountbatten agreed, as did the Chiefs of Staff.
Here’s a super-quick history of the early British parachute units -
In September of 1941, Gale’s 1st Parachute Brigade was established.
11th SAS Battalion, which had taken part in the raid on Calitri, became 1st Battalion
of Gale’s 1st Parachute Brigade.
2nd and 3rd Battalions were raised from army volunteers.
On the 31st of October 1941, Major General Frederick ‘Boy’ Browning’s 1st Airborne
Division was created, with 1st Parachute Brigade under its command.
Browning and Gale were told on the 14th of January 1942 that one company of paratroopers,
with some sappers as support, would be needed to carry out the raid.
Gale decided that Frost’s C Company from Flavell’s 2nd Battalion should go, as they’d
been in training for the past few months and were performing quite well.
On the 20th of January, Major John Frost was briefed that his company was moving to Tilshead
Camp on Salisbury Plain for a training demonstration to the War Cabinet, which would be conducted
at the end of February.
John Frost hadn’t actually completed his parachute training and had to quickly go to
Ringway aerodrome in Manchester and finish his required jumps to earn his parachute wings.
I think this just shows how young the British airborne forces were at this time.
Frost and his C Company arrived at Tilshead on the 24th of January, still without knowledge
of what they were going to do.
It was only later - much later in fact - that Frost was told what the plan actually was.
And this was only because Frost complained to divisional headquarters about the exercise he was doing.
He said he wasn’t happy that his company was being split up into fighting groups rather
than operating in three platoons as it normally did.
Frost was finally told that he wasn’t preparing for a demonstration, but a raid on enemy territory,
and that is why his company was being split up.
So the training continued.
Bad weather and bad luck got in the way, with Frost calling some of the exercises
'disasters' and 'shambles'.
Things at this stage did not bode well for the raid.
The Bruneval operation was under overall command of the Commander-in-Chief Portsmouth, Admiral
Sir William ‘Bubbles’ James.
“Admiral James had acquired his unusual nickname from his having sat as the child
model for the painting Bubbles created by his grandfather, the celebrated artist John
Millais. The painting, now in the Lady Lever Art Gallery in Liverpool, was to gain worldwide
acclaim through its use in an advertisement for Pears soap.”
Yes, Bubbles.
So, Bubbles was in charge of the operation, and Frost’s C Company would be the raiding
party.
Frost would have 120 men in total for the mission.
They were split up into groups, with each group given a code-name.
Each group was then split into sections, with each section given a specific task.
Group Nelson was commanded by Second Lieutenant Euan ‘Junior’ Charteris and had 40 men.
It was split into four sections - Second Lieutenant Charteris’s three Light Sections and Captain
John Ross’s Heavy Section.
Captain John Ross was Major Frost’s second in command, so I’m not sure why Charteris
was given command of Nelson group, but he was.
Charteris’s three Light Sections were commanded by Sergeants Lumb, Grieve and Tasker.
The second group of 30 paratroopers (which didn’t actually have a name) was split into
three parties.
The first party was Lieutenant Peter Naumoff’s Drake Party.
The second party was called ‘Hardy’, commanded by Major Frost himself.
And the third party was Lieutenant Peter Young’s ‘Jellicoe’ party.
The final group was Lieutenant John Timothy’s ‘Rodney’ group, which was actually just
one party of 40 men.
And Royal Engineers were distributed to each group to help them complete their individual tasks.
Fun fact, prior to the war, Lieutenant John Timothy had been a Marks & Spencer assistant
store manager, and would go on to return to the company after the war.
In the meantime, he would be the first British parachutist to be awarded American jump wings,
becoming a liaison officer with the American airborne.
He also commanded R Company of 1st Para at Arnhem, where he was taken prisoner.
Frost’s C Company would be flown in by 12 aircraft from Wing Commander Percy Charles
Pickard’s No. 51st Squadron Bomber Command.
“...Pickard, was well known to the British public from his appearance in the propaganda
film Target for Tonight, in which he was shown flying the Wellington bomber ‘F’ for Freddie
on an operational sortie over Germany.” Ford, The Bruneval Raid.
As for the navy, the guy in charge of the evacuation of the paratroopers was Commander
F. N. Cook of the Royal Australian Navy.
Landing craft would pick up the paras, but didn’t have enough power to get themselves
back to Britain, so Motor Gun Boats would tow the landing craft back to Britain.
To steal the radar equipment, Lieutenant Dennis Vernon of the Air Troop Royal Engineers was
given the task of getting RAF Flight Sergeant Charles *** to the radar equipment to determine
what parts would be the most valuable.
“Flt Sgt *** was a technician at the Chain Home radar station at Hartland Point in north
Devon with a good working knowledge of RDF. He was regarded as being one of the best radar
mechanics in Britain.” Ford, The Bruneval Raid.
*** and Vernon, with two other sappers, were to photograph the Würzburg, dismantle it,
and remove as many key parts as possible.
They only had 30 minutes to complete this task, otherwise they risked being overwhelmed.
The other engineers needed to be trained on the rudiments of radar so they could steal
something useful should Vernon and *** be incapacitated during the raid.
Another scientist, Donald Priest, came from the Telecommunications Research Establishment
at Swanage.
Priest had extensive knowledge in RDF technology, and was the leading expert on British radar.
He was therefore thought so valuable that he was on one of the landing craft with two
men specifically tasked to protect him.
He had the codename Noah, and was only allowed to land and help dismantle the Würzburg if
Frost confirmed that the entire area was secure.
Under no circumstances was he to fall into enemy hands, so if Frost’s men couldn’t
secure the area, he wasn’t allowed off the boat.
So yes, Bubbles, Pickard, Cook, ***, Boy, and of course, Huhn the Chicken.
Oh, and the name thing gets worse - wait until we get to Private Donald Sutherland.
Yeah.
“As this was to be the first raid of the newly formed Airborne Division, the men were
acting as guinea pigs for all sorts of new ideas and gadgets.” Downing, Night Raid.
Like morphine!
Normally only medical officers would administer morphine, but these couldn’t come on the
mission because there wasn’t enough space on the aircraft.
So one in ten of the men were given special medical training, including administering
morphine.
“The medical officers of the Airborne Division realised they were setting a precedent and
waited with great interest to see how it would work out.” Downing, Night Raid.
The raiding party were also given a new radio transmitting beacon called Rebecca.
And the landing craft were given a matching receiver, Eureka.
These, operated by signallers who dropped with the Rodney group, would guide the landing
craft to the correct beach.
Inside the sea landing craft, “four black-faced Welsh commandos” (apparently) were armed
with Bren guns to give supporting fire to the parachutists when the evacuation was on.
“The raid also provided the chance to trial a new method of labelling the containers of
equipment dropped by parachute. A light attached to each container was set off when it was
thrown out of the aircraft so it could be quickly identified in the dark. Containers
with arms and weapons had red lights. Containers carrying signals equipment had green lights.
Containers with equipment for the engineers had purple lights. Three specially constructed
trolleys would be parachuted in with the function of carrying down the cliff to the beach any
electronic equipment seized. The containers holding the trolleys had orange lights.”
Downing, Night Raid.
The paras had rifles, new Sten guns, pistols, a few Bren guns, and hand grenades.
Frost described the Sten gun as “bloody awful” “a most inaccurate and unreliable
weapon.” Frost
I would recommend the Forgotten Weapons video on the Sten gun for more information, but
basically it was cheap to manufacture (which is exactly what Britain needed since she was already
bankrupt at this point) but was also prone to jamming.
The engineers would be armed with cameras, Mark IV anti-tank mines, a new Polish mine
detector, and burglars’ tools (like crowbars) to open the radar set.
Each group was given a No. 38 radio, operated by signallers, intended to co-ordinate the
land battle.
Two No. 18 sets would be used to signal the navy during the operation.
But the paras didn’t have all new equipment.
The RAF No. 51st Squadron had Armstrong Whitworth Whitley bombers, which were the oldest of
the three bombers in service in the RAF when the war broke out.
They were obsolete by this point, but were chosen as a temporary transport for this airborne
operation.
In order to provide an exit for the paratroopers from the aircraft, a large circular hole was
cut into the floor.
The problem was that if the paras didn’t exit correctly, they would smash their head
on the sides of the hole.
This was known as the “Whitley Kiss”.
And the cramped space and poor engine and aircraft stability meant that the men had
to sit on the floor with their backs against the walls and their equipment placed in specific
positions.
If they didn’t do this, the pilot would most likely lose control of the aircraft,
resulting in a crash.
The men were actually warned in the official instructions to sit in their appropriate positions,
otherwise they would crash.
Top end British military equipment!
The objectives of Operation Biting were to steal the radar equipment, and capture some
prisoners if there were officers or radio technical personnel available.
They didn’t have enough room for other sorts of prisoners, so they were told not to bring
any others back.
Biting’s start date would be determined by weather and moonlight conditions, and was
set for the 24th of February.
If weather prevented the raid that night, there would be only two more nights in which
to launch the attack - the 25th and 26th.
If these dates were missed, the mission would be postponed for at least a month until conditions
were right again.
And of course, the paras weren’t to linger too long, otherwise the landing craft would
get stuck on the beach as the tide went out.
And there was another reason not to linger too long.
“The essence of the operation was speed and surprise. The force of 120 men would not
be able to hold out for long against a determined counter-attack mounted by German reinforcements.”
Downing, Night Raid.
The paras were no match for tanks, or mortar attacks.
They had to get in, get the equipment, and then get out, quick.
Unlike previous commando raids, the objective was not to cause damage or chaos, although
there would be some of that as well.
Charteris’s Group Nelson would land at 0015 hours east of Bruneval.
Charteris was to lead his party of 20 men to the beach, take out the guard post, and
take out the two machine gun positions to the north and south of the road.
Ross’s party would act as a rearguard, holding the road from the beach towards the village
of Bruneval using anti-tank mines and their personal weapons.
Captain Ross’s men were to protect the evacuation and be the last men out.
The second Group of paratroopers would land half a mile inland at 0020 hours.
Their overall objective was the radar installation, and so it was split into three parties.
The 20 men of Frost’s Hardy Party were to capture the Villa Gosset at the top of the
cliffs.
This was thought to be the base for the radar operators, and so would be searched, prisoners
taken, and then destroyed with explosives during the withdrawal.
Young’s 10 man Jellicoe party would go for “Henry” - which was the nickname given
for the Würzburg - as well as the dugouts and pits around it.
Again, they would search for equipment in the dugouts and capture any radar personnel
they came across.
Naumoff’s Drake party would engage and defend any enemy approaching from the north.
The French agents had warned them that Le Presbytère had around 60 Luftwaffe troops,
tasked with guarding the Freya radar installation further up the coast.
The “Rectangle” was thought to be where the major German opposition
to the raiders would come from.
The Rectangle definitely had machine gun positions, but it was unknown to the British if it was
armed with mortars.
Drake party was to engage the Rectangle and keep the Germans there occupied while the
Würzburg was dismantled.
The 40 men of Lieutenant Timothy’s Rodney group were to be dropped five minutes after
the others at 0025 hours.
They would form up to protect the eastern side of the operation by holding off attacks
from La Poterie, and from the Bruneval road.
Rodney group would also provide a rearguard defense during the evacuation if needed.
Once they had got the radar equipment and the prisoners, they were all to head back to the
beach, where beacons would guide the landing craft flotilla to them.
The landing craft would then come in by two by two at a time, to allow an orderly evacuation.
Bren Gunners on the landing craft would keep the Germans at bay as they slipped off into
the night.
So, to summarise, Frost's men had to parachute in, regroup on target, steal some radar, and
embark on ships.
At least, this was the plan.
Let’s see how they British get on.
“There were only three nights in which conditions needed for the raid, a full moon with a high
tide, were ideal - the nights of Tuesday 24 to Thursday 26 February.” Downing, Night
Raid.
The men checked their weapons and packed their equipment on the morning of the 24th of February.
But because weather conditions had to be just right for a parachute drop, the stormy weather
on Tuesday 24th caused the operation to be postponed.
On the Wednesday, they did the same - checked their weapons and packed their equipment.
Then again, in the afternoon, postponement due to strong winds called the operation off.
On Thursday 26th of February, the last day that the operation could begin, the men checked
their weapons and packed their equipment once more.
Rumour spread about that the postponement would come again and that it would mean the
mission would be postponed for at least a month until conditions were suitable once
more.
“The men were convinced that the divisional commanders would do anything to avoid this,
and so would probably take a risk and launch the raid even if the weather was less than
perfect. This meant that they would probably be jumping in dangerous conditions.”
But again, in the afternoon, the raid was postponed.
And that was it, the opportunity was missed.
The mission was cancelled.
Just kidding.
On Friday the 27th of February, even though Major Frost and his men thought they would
be ordered to stand down, a message arrived from Airborne headquarters saying they’d
decided to extend the window of opportunity by one more night.
The wind had died down, and the men were instructed to get ready.
In Portsmouth, Commander Cook and Admiral James were onboard the HMS Victory, in its
dry dock.
In Nelson’s own cabin, Cook and James reviewed everything - the weather, temperature, air
pressure, the forecasts, the tidal conditions - everything!
James was hesitant, thinking that the tide would go out too soon, which would beach the
landing craft.
But Cook had a trump card up his sleeve - well, it was a post card.
“He had found a pre-war picture postcard of the beach at Bruneval showing a lady bather
in summertime standing near the sea. From this it was possible to see that the beach
on which the embarkation was to take place was less steep than they had imagined, and
so the change in tidal conditions would be less critical. As a result James was persuaded
that the raid should definitely go ahead.” Downing, Night Raid.
After calling Norman and Browning to confirm their views - both were eager to go - James
sent out the signal “Proceed with Operation Biting.”
The men still doubted that the raid was on, until they were given French currency and
handkerchiefs with a map of France printed on them.
And, General Browning appeared in full uniform to wish them good luck.
There was now no doubt in their minds, they were going.
Frost had a last meal before the raid with officers from the Glider Regiment, who didn’t
know what C Company was about to do, such was the secrecy of the raid.
C Company were offered tea and sandwiches as they stood outside their aircraft at Thruxton
airfield.
Some blackened their faces, and teeth, so they would be harder to spot at night.
A last minute report came in saying that weather conditions were perfect, with snow on the
ground at Bruneval.
This troubled Frost, because his men had left their white smocks at their barracks at Tilshead,
and snow would make their blackened faces and teeth pointless.
They’d also be easier to spot in the snow.
However, he didn’t share his ill feelings with his men.
Tea consumed, the men followed their operational orders and relieved themselves on the grass
beside the runway.
This was because the Elsan lavatories had been removed from the Whitley bombers in order
to provide space for the paratroopers.
Again, top end British military equipment.
With a piper playing his bagpipes, the men climbed into their planes.
They had to sit on the floor in assigned positions, in sleeping bags, and wore silk gloves to
keep warm.
By 2230 hours, they were all airborne, heading out across the channel at 2315.
They headed towards Fecamp on the French coast.
As they flew, they experienced a range of emotions, mainly nervousness and anxiousness.
Would they get shot out of the sky? Would their parachute not open? Would they land
in the wrong area, or meet heavier than expected resistance?
To cope, some men sang songs, others read books, some slept.
“Most thought that anyone who could still their nerves, sit quietly and go to sleep
on the flight before a combat jump was super-cool. In fact this was not the case. People respond
differently to tension and for some it was easier to be calm, collected and self-possessed
than it was to take part in communal singing or games. There was not a single man who deep
down did not feel fear of what lay ahead.” Downing, Night Raid.
Frost wrote about the 10 men in his aircraft - “Spirits were high; indeed, I can describe
them as terrific.” Frost.
Corporal Stewart was known as the company gambler, and had won a few games recently.
Winning another game onboard his aircraft, he told the others that if he was killed,
anyone who found his wallet would be a very lucky man indeed.
“Lieutenant Charteris discovered that the man next to him in his aircraft was one day
older than he was and they would both be celebrating their twenty-first birthday in a few days’
time. They swore they would get through the mission and celebrate together.”
After just short of two hours, the Whitley’s approached the French coast.
The men were told to prepare for action.
The hole in the base of the aircraft was opened, filling the planes with freezing air from
outside.
“Each man connected the static line of his parachute to the cable that ran along the
fuselage. Every man checked that the line of the man next to him was fully secured.
The men nearest the hole could look out and see the calm sea below.”
But that calm would soon disappear.
Anti-aircraft gunners opened up, and hit the Whitney’s as they flew over the ships at
Yport.
Frost was one of the unlucky men near the holes in the floor of the aircraft to watch
the tracers coming up towards them.
The pilots started taking evasive action, which had the danger that they would go off
course and scatter their paras all over the countryside.
This is what happened on D-Day two and a half years later.
But this time they could see the French cliffs and the Cap d’Antifer lighthouse - the only
one on this stretch of coastline.
The pilots therefore got their bearings.
The Würzburg operators, who had been watching the Whitleys on their equipment, grew more
alarmed.
They saw the British bombers coming towards them!
They were the target for a bombing run!
The sirens rang out and the men dove for cover in the dugouts.
But it wasn’t bombs they had to worry about.
The green light was sounded and the paras dropped.
At 0015 hours, Lieutenant Charteris jumped from the very first aircraft, which was flown
by Wing Commander Pickard.
It was a perfect drop, and he and the other nineteen men of Nelson party gathered their
containers and equipment.
Charteris had landed with two sticks of men.
One stick was commanded by Sergeant Lumb, the other by Sergeant Grieve.
And this was when Charteris realised something was wrong.
Surveying the landscape, the horrible truth dawned upon him.
They’d landed in the wrong place. Worse, Charteris couldn’t tell where he was. Or even,
which direction the correct beach was. They were lost.
However the next wave of Whitley’s passed overhead, allowing Charteris to gauge which
way north was.
He still couldn’t tell if he’d dropped too soon or too late, and therefore still
didn’t know which direction to go.
But he reasoned that they’d dropped too early, and therefore headed, in what he hoped,
was the right direction.
Charteris led one stick, (Sergeant Lumb’s) in a rough diamond shape as they jogged off
to the north.
Sergeant Grieve followed behind Charteris as they both headed towards Bruneval.
Meanwhile, the German sergeant in charge of the platoon at the Hotel Beau-Minet witnessed
paratroopers dropping to the ground.
He checked the time as he called his company headquarters at La Poterie - it was precisely
0015 hours.
Company commander Oberleutnant Huhn was alerted.
And by sheer coincidence, his company had been out on exercise, with 30 men having just
returned to base.
Huhn immediately ordered these men to head towards Le Presbytère to reinforce the Luftwaffe
troops there.
“This was not good for the British raiding party. They had anticipated that it would
take at least two hours for any troops from La Poterie to arrive on the scene, but the
first platoon were on their way within minutes of the first Para landing.”
Huhn also ordered the sergeant at the Beau-Minet to alert the guard at Stella Maris.
Corporal Schmidt answered the telephone at the Stella Maris.
It was company headquarters on the line, telling him that parachutists had dropped in the area.
Corporal Schmidt woke his sergeant, who in turn ordered his men to get up and ready,
handing out hand grenades to his men.
He then chastised them for being too slow to get up!
The sergeant at Stella Maris was ordered to take a section of his men and man the machine-gun
positions above the villa on the other side of the cliff.
Thanks to Huhn’s quick response, the Germans were rallying far more quickly than the British
had hoped for.
Five minutes after Charteris, Frost and his party landed right in the middle of their
drop zone.
Frost landed softly in the snow, got up, and immediately did the one thing he’d been
dying to do since he’d drunk tea a couple hours earlier - urinate on German occupied
Europe.
Rodney group, commanded by Lieutenant Timothy, jumped four minutes after Frost and his men.
The first four men of the third jumped successfully, albeit in the wrong place, but the sixth man to jump
got his foot caught in the static lines of the men who already jumped.
He was suspended beneath the aircraft head first, with three quarters of his body out
the Whitley.
The others dragged him back in, and the pilot turned about to run the gauntlet of flak again.
The remaining men jumped, including the man who’d been suspended on the first attempt.
“It was the one jumping mishap that night and it only delayed the forming up of the
men who had reached the correct DZ by about five minutes.” Downing, Night Raid.
Rodney team organized themselves and took up positions behind the main assault party
to defend the rear of Frost’s men from counter-attack from La Poterie.
As Frost was joined by more and more paratroopers, it appeared that the only action happening
was the guns firing from the Freya radar site - who were aiming up at the aircraft.
There is a bit of a discrepancy in the source material here, and we’ll discuss that later,
but it appears as though Frost now discovered that Charteris and 20 men of Nelson group
hadn’t arrived.
Not willing to delay for too long, Frost ordered Ross to wait a few more minutes for Charteris
to turn up.
And then, with or without him, Ross was to head towards the beach.
With that Frost and the rest of his men moved out towards their objectives.
Equipment gathered, Frost and Lieutenant Young set off towards the villa and radar site with
Hardy and Jellicoe groups.
In less than ten minutes, they’d gone 600 yards and reached the Villa Gosset.
There was no sign of German alarm.
Frost ordered his men to fan out, and the villa and the Würzburg was surrounded.
The door to Villa Gosset was wide open - which was unexpected.
A great debate had happened before the mission discussing the various methods the paras would
use to open the door.
That all went out the window as Frost simply strolled up to the open door.
As casual was this stroll that he almost forgot to blow his whistle - to indicate the start
of the attack.
But just as he was about to walk in, he remembered, and blew his whistle.
“Frost and six men charged into the ground floor through the open door. Frost fired eight
rounds from his pistol. Another group of men burst in through windows on the other side
of the house. They threw grenades into each of the four rooms on the ground floor but
each room was completely empty. The paratroopers charged up the stairs, yelling at the top
of their voices in English ‘Surrender’ and in German Hände hoch’.”
“They burst into a room on the first floor where a single German soldier with a rifle
was looking out the windows towards the Würzburg. The poor man did not stand a chance. The first
Para into the room killed him with a burst from his Sten gun.” Downing, Night Raid.
Frost was surprised to find that this German was the only person in the villa, and that
there was no furniture in any of the rooms.
What he didn’t know was that the RAF had bombed the place six months earlier and that
an incendiary bomb had dropped on the bed belonging to the sergeant.
Since then, the Germans had avoided the villa, thinking it safer to sleep in the dugouts.
Meanwhile at the dugouts and radar, Lieutenant Peter Young’s men charged forwards and engaged
the Germans.
The German sentry at the Würzburg site challenged Young’s men twice before firing at them.
The paras then shot him dead.
“After that we hunted them out of cellars, trenches and rooms with hand grenades, automatic
weapons, revolvers and knives. Most were killed, but some ran away, and one tried to hide over
the edge of the cliff. Having got there, he wanted to surrender, and I looked over to
see him with his hands up. At the time I thought I had seen nothing funnier than a German trying
to scramble up the lip of a cliff with his hands up.” Young
They hauled the dangling German up, and took the prisoner over to Frost.
Nagel the German-born Jew, who was Frost’s interpreter, went by the name Private Newman.
Newman ripped a badge off of the prisoner’s uniform.
Now the sources differ - it was either a Luftwaffe badge, or a Swastika. Not sure which.
Either way, this was the first time he’d seen a German in uniform and was overcome
with hatred of his enemy.
Through Newman, Frost asked the prisoner how many Germans there were in the area.
“With a sudden swell of courage, the German replied defiantly, ‘One thousand.’ Sergeant
McKenzie struck him hard across his jaw with the butt of his rifle. Another man made it
clear that he thought they should kill the prisoner now. Stunned and near to tears, the
prisoner’s courage collapsed and he rapidly started to tell his captors that there were
only a hundred Germans in the neighbourhood. This was exactly what the intelligence reports
had predicted.” Downing, Night Raid.
But he did say that the Germans had been warned about British parachute landings around an
hour before this point.
The prisoner’s name was Heller, and he was one of the operators of the radar - just the
sort of prisoner that Frost needed.
With the raid progressing so well, Frost ordered his engineers to come out and start work on
the radar.
At 0100 hours Vernon, *** and the rest of the engineers dragged their equipment trolleys
out towards the Würzburg.
*** inspected the radar as Vernon began taking photographs with his Leica camera.
The Leica company is in fact German, so not sure why Vernon had a German camera, but the
company had an interesting history before the war - I recommend you look up the
“Leica Freedom Train” for more details.
Unfortunately, the flashes of the Leica alerted the Germans at the Rectangle - Le Presbytère.
And the Germans opened fire.
Frost was alarmed at how quick the German response at the Rectangle had been, and quickly
ordered his men out of the villa to take up positions around the Würzburg.
As the men came out, Private McIntyre was hit by fire coming from the Rectangle.
And he was the first British soldier killed in the raid.
Frost ordered Naumoff’s Drake party to deploy to the right of his men and return fire.
As if this fire wasn’t bad enough for the British, the Wehrmacht infantry platoon that
had been out on exercises also now joined the Luftwaffe troops at Le Presbytère.
At first, they thought that the British were going for the Freya site, but soon they realised
that the Würzburg was the intended target.
Most of the men had rifles, but they did have two light machine-guns.
These Germans were just four hundred yards away, and could see the British clearly under
the moonlight and against the snow.
As the bullets flew around them, Vernon and *** continued to work on the radar, with Sapper
Stan Halliwell hesitating before cutting the radio cable with his hacksaw.
Had the power supply been turned off?
As he sawed the cable, he found out that - luckily - it was turned off.
*** and Corporal Jones tried to unscrew the compartments as Vernon continued to attract
attention with his flashlight.
The other paras cursed at him for attracting the Germans!
Since they couldn’t unscrew them, Coz and Vernon had decided to smash their way into
the radar boxes using hammers and even axes.
Corporal Jones used a large crowbar as leverage, and part of the frame was torn off.
This part of the casing wasn’t just a case, it was part of the switching unit that allowed
the transmitter and the receiver to use the single aerial.
“It was a vital part of the Würzburg’s design.” Downing, Night Raid.
But they had no choice - they had to work quickly, under fire, and couldn’t take liberties.
They had to break the thing into pieces.
And at this point, some of the Germans, growing in confidence, had moved into the open area
between the Rectangle and the villa.
Both Drake and Rodney Groups were by now fully engaged with the Germans at the Rectangle.
Worse, a paratrooper had spotted three vehicles approaching Le Presbytère. [the Rectangle]
This could be the start of substantial German reinforcements, such as additional infantry
armed with mortars (which Frost’s men wouldn’t be able to combat) or even just armoured vehicles
(which would tear them to shreds).
In reality, it was one reserve platoon from La Poterie, who were now deploying in the
area and increasing the volume of fire upon Frost’s men.
Frost considered leaving - getting out while they still could.
He knew they couldn’t hold against armour, or even mortars and artillery, which the
presence of the vehicles suggested was arriving.
But at the same time, the engineers had only had 10 minutes out of the 30 minutes they
were meant to have had at the Würzburg.
The whole point of the mission was to steal parts of the Würzburg - if they left now,
they may not have anything of value.
It was a hard decision, but Frost had to make it.
Should we stay or should we go?
I would like to point out that there’s a major discrepancy in the source material at
this point.
I do not want to lead you down the wrong path, so I’m going to tell you what the discrepancy
is, and let you know which account I think is true.
But feel free to come to your own conclusion here.
The sources that I have contradict each other over the timing of when Frost learns about
Charteris and his men dropping in the wrong place, and whether the beach was secure or
not.
Ford and Oldfield say he learns about Charteris straight after the drop when they were gathering
at the meeting points, but whereas Ford says Frost knew that the beach was secure, Oldfield
says he didn’t.
The book ‘Night Raid’ suggests that he learns about Charteris and the beach not being
secure as he’s fighting around the Würzburg.
And in Frost’s own book, A Drop Too Many (written years after the war, so maybe not
super-accurate or reliable) he says he learns about this from Charteris himself AFTER the withdrawal
from the Würzburg and didn’t know the beach was secure or not.
The problem is, without knowing the exact time when Frost learns about Charteris or
the beach not being secure, it’s difficult to know why Frost makes the decision to withdraw
early from the Würzburg.
Frost orders the engineers to stop work at the radar after just 10 minutes, and orders
his men to start heading towards the beach.
This was a full 20 minutes short of the 30 minutes they were meant to have had to disassemble
the radar.
The whole point of the mission was to get the radar equipment.
If they left early, they may be leaving large quantities of radar equipment behind, thus
rendering the mission less effective, or even a complete waste of time.
So why?
Why leave so early?
Was it because Frost already knew that the beach wasn’t secure, and therefore wanted
to head towards it to reinforce the assault on the beach?
Ford and Oldfield say that Frost learns about Charteris immediately after the jump, contradicting
both Night Raid and Frost’s own account.
This is probably the most likely scenario, simply because they all gathered at the assembly
point, so Frost would have known if all his men had made it or not.
But even if he had known about Charteris, Ford and Oldfield make it clear that Frost
ordered Ross to wait a few more minutes for Charteris.
Frost’s priority was to go for the radar, and perhaps he decided to see if Charteris
would turn up or not, and see if the beach was secure or not, after he’d completed
his main objective.
And this makes a lot of sense, because while he might have known that Charteris hadn’t turned
up on time, he still wouldn’t have know at the Würzburg if the beach was secure or
not.
Night Raid says he found out that the beach wasn’t secure at the Würzburg.
This, apparently influences his decision to withdraw, which makes sense when you consider
how early he orders the retreat.
And it backs up Ford’s version of events, which also says he knew about the beach not
being secure at the Würzburg.
The problem is that this version of events doesn’t make much sense.
When Frost finds the beach hasn’t been secured, his men are pinned down on the approach, and
he even turns back to re-secure his rear at the Villa Gosset, which had only just been
lost to the Germans.
This doesn’t sound like he knew the fact that the beach was not secure.
And Frost himself says this in his account - he didn’t know before the withdrawal.
His reaction to being stalled in his withdrawal to the beach, and then the subsequent counterattack
he makes towards Villa Gosset, was probably to secure the area that he had, to give the
others time to take the beach.
This is the most logical sequence of events, and that is what Frost says happened in his
account, and is backed up by Oldfield’s version of events.
And, in Frost’s account, he states that the communications had broke down.
He had no working radios, and because his men had been split into assault groups, rather
than keeping with the traditional Company structure, he actually complained about not
being able to send runners to find out what’s going on.
This makes a lot of sense, and directly contradicts what Night Raid says when it says.
“By now, he knew that Charteris and his Nelson party had been dropped in the wrong
place and had not yet taken control of the beach.” Downing, Night Raid.
How? Why? Who told him? When did they tell him?
“Some of the radio operators were missing and in any case the new radios were not working
properly. As a consequence Frost had no clear communications with parts of his company.
He cursed the fact that he and his party had been organized into an assault group for the
attack and he now had no sort of company organisation around him through which to receive information
and issue orders.” Downing, Night Raid.
So he had little or no communications, but then had suddenly heard that Charteris hadn’t
made it and secured the beach and secured it?
Yes, Night Raid contradicts itself here.
Interestingly, Oldfield points out that after the battle, a report said that the 38 Sets
worked well, however Frost himself says -
“All our small wireless sets failed to work so I had no idea how the other parties had
fared and I began to feel the lack of a proper Company Headquarter organization. We had turned
ourselves into an assault group for the attack on the villa and now, when I wanted some signallers,
runners and my sergeant-major, they were all dispersed doing other tasks.” Frost
All in all, it does appear that Frost didn’t know whether the beach was secure or not at
this point.
But this leaves a big question - why then did Frost withdraw early from the Würzburg?
Ford and Night Raid both say that this was a combination of factors.
The mounting pressure from the Germans, someone spotting German vehicles, and the fact that
Frost knew about Charteris and that the beach wasn’t secure.
Confronted by many issues, Frost made the decision to withdraw.
But Frost’s account states that while the fire from the Germans made things “uncomfortable”,
it didn’t cause any additional casualties other than Private McIntyre at the start of
the shooting.
This perhaps wasn’t a factor.
“However, some time later we noticed vehicles moving up behind the wood. These might contain
far more dangerous elements and once the enemy began to mortar us in the open it would be
difficult to get the equipment away.” Frost
It seems he made a gut reaction to withdraw relatively safely before the Germans could
deploy mortars or armoured vehicles against them, which appeared to be arriving at the
time.
So it was threat of German reinforcements, the breakdown of communications, and - perhaps
- the fact that the engineers were almost done.
“His men had been loading the pieces of equipment they had dismantled on to canvas
trolleys and we all moved off down towards the beach.” Frost
It’s possible, unlike what other the accounts suggest, that the engineers were almost done
with the Würzburg.
If this is the case, then why linger around at the radar site? They may as well get going
towards the beach and evacuation point, rather than risk getting hit by mortars or armoured
vehicles.
It’s hard to say, but I think this is the most logical conclusion here.
So, without knowing whether the beach was secured, and fearing the impending mortar
or armoured attacks, Frost makes the decision to withdraw early, but safely, even if they
didn’t have all portions of the radar equipment.
It's a hard decision - and we’ll see how good or bad this decision was at the end of the
video.
But knowing what you do now, what would you do in Frost’s position?
Would you withdraw? Let us know in the comments below.
The time was now 0115 hours, and Frost and his men were coming under more accurate and
intense fire from the Rectangle.
*** and Vernon had had just ten minutes of the thirty minutes promised them at the Würzburg.
But Frost could not hold on any longer.
*** and crew gathered everything they could and placed it on the trolleys, not really
aware what they were taking and what they were leaving behind.
They moved the trolleys from along the plateau to the edge of the cliff, which was not an
easy task.
They blew up what was left of the Würzburg as they left, but Frost didn’t see the point
of blowing up the villa Gosset as it wasn’t in use by the Germans.
Meanwhile, Captain Ross had moved towards Bruneval and Beach Fort.
Without Charteris’s two light sections, Ross only had half of the 40 men he was meant
to have had to take the area and secure the beach for the evacuation.
In the original plan, Nelson would have been split up to take out the different positions.
But now that Ross had half as many men as he needed for the assault, he had no choice
but to split the men he did have into three groups and take a stab at the mission regardless.
Sergeant Tasker’s group would strike the casements on the northern cliff.
Sergeant Sharp’s men would move down the slope towards the wire on the beach.
And Ross, with a small group, would try to clear the enemy in the defensive positions above
Stella Maris.
“By 0030 the men at the Stella Maris were in position and waiting to see what would
happen next. Only Corporal Schmidt, the telephone orderly, had been left behind to keep in touch
with company and battalion headquarters in order to relay any further messages that came
through.” Downing, Night Raid.
Ross’s men moved forwards.
As Taskers men moved to the north to take the Redoubt area, Ross’s heavy section (with
Sergeant Sharp, two signalers, two sappers, two Bren gunners and a runner) moved towards
the beach road.
The German sergeant at the Stella Maris saw Sharp and his men moving across the hill on the
far side of the road.
He fired a flare up into the sky, lighting up the entire area with white light.
If they were German troops they would have fired a different coloured flare in response.
Since that didn’t happen, the sergeant fired his automatic pistol across the valley towards
the moving figures.
This provoked a response from Sharps’ men, who fired back at the old villa.
“However, the sergeant at the beach post ordered the rest of his men into the defensive
positions above the villa at Beach Fort where he had already positioned his machine gun.
This gun now opened fire on the Paras on the slope opposite, forcing them to lie low. But
then Tasker’s men, higher up the side of the cliff and overlooking Beach Fort, opened
on the German troops, spraying the whole area with bullets from their Sten guns. Now it
was the turn of the German defenders to get their heads down.” Downing, Night Raid.
The Germans were surprised by the intensity of the fire hitting them.
Grenades were thrown, and a full-scale battle erupted at the beach.
Neither side had the advantage.
Inside the Stella Maris, Corporal Schmidt was kept busy as Major Paschke, commander
of 1st Battalion of 685th Infantry Regiment, was on the phone asking what was going on.
Schmidt replied that they were in the middle of a fight with British paratroopers.
Paschke didn’t believe him, and asked to speak to the sergeant.
Schmidt went outside to call for the sergeant but immediately came under fire from the other
side of the valley and was unable to get to the sergeant.
The Royal Navy’s landing craft flotilla had assembled just off the coast at 0025 hours
waiting for the signal from the paras to pick them up.
The lighthouse at Cap d’Antifer came on suddenly, which confirmed to the navigators
that they were in exactly the right place.
However, what they didn’t realise was that the lighthouse had been started to assist
the large German ships approaching their position.
A mile further out to sea, two German destroyers and two E-boats (torpedo motor boats) were
spotted by the British.
Cook ordered the vessels to cut their engines and keep quiet.
If a fight broke out between the two flotillas, the British would be wiped out.
The Germans seemed to be slowing down.
Had they spotted the British ships!?
“The MGB crews prepared for action but knew that they would be totally outgunned by the
German vessels.” Downing, Night Raid.
No they hadn’t been spotted, and the German ships were now turning and moved off towards
Le Havre.
“It seemed that they had been waiting for clearance to enter the harbour.”
“Because they had been between the German vessels and the land the British vessels had
been disguised and had not been spotted, even though it was such a clear night. It would
have been the end of the whole operation if the German destroyers and E-boats had got
in among the evacuation fleet.” Downing, Night Raid.
At the beach, the stalemate continued.
The Germans and paras were battling it out, but there neither could make progress.
It was now that Frost led his men around the pillbox and to the crest of the hill.
Someone in the valley below shouted that the beach was secure, that the boats were coming
in, and to come forwards, leading Frost to move his men over the crest.
Interestingly, none of the sources say who shouted this, but it wasn’t true - perhaps
it was a German?
A machine gunner that had been pinning down the other units, now turned his attention
to the paras coming from the north.
The piece of radar equipment in ***’s hand was hit by a bullet, but luckily neither he
nor the equipment was seriously damaged.
However, Sergeant-Major Strachan, who had been five yards behind Frost, was hit by seven
bullets, three of which hit him in the stomach.
Frost turned back and pulled Strachan behind the pillbox.
Morphine was injected.
Frost could now hear Ross in the valley somewhere shouting “Don’t come down. The beach had
not been taken yet.”
Frost now realised that the two other Nelson sticks mustn’t have turned up.
This meant that Ross had not been able to secure the beach and evacuation point.
Frost therefore ordered Young to take a mixed section of ten men from Drake, Hardy, and
Jellicoe down to reinforce Ross.
In the meantime, he ordered everyone else to take cover and wait for now.
It was then that a runner from Rodney told him that the Germans had reoccupied the villa
and were advancing towards him to his rear.
Frost, wanting to secure his position, had no choice but to order some of his men to
turn about and head back to the villa Gosset.
Frost took a few paras, including Lieutenant Vernon, and charged towards Villa Gosset with
Rodney group.
Surprised by this sudden assault, the Germans fled back to the Rectangle.
These were probably Luftwaffe soldiers, which is why they didn’t put up much of a fight.
However, despite this limited success, Frost was in a bad position.
His forces were surrounded on enemy territory, and his only route of evacuation was blocked.
If something didn’t happen now, it would only be a matter of time before his small
force was overwhelmed.
The beach had to be secured.
Charteris and his nineteen men from Nelson had in the meantime been jogging north, and
had spotted the lighthouse in the distance.
They were relieved, knowing they were heading in the right direction.
Unfortunately, due to confusion and haste, Grieve’s men became separated from Charteris’s
men shortly after leaving their drop zone.
At this point, Charteris intended to move south of Bruneval and go towards to beach.
However, the Germans at Hotel Beau-Minet had heard the battle raging near the cliff top.
And without orders, and in the confusion of the night, the sergeant sent out small patrols
to recon the area around Bruneval and report what was going on.
“It so happened that one of the patrols went south in the direction of Charteris and
his men, who were advancing towards them.” Downing, Night Raid.
As Charteris’s men crossed the north-south road leading to Bruneval, they came under
fire from the hotel Beau-Minet.
Private Sutherland was hit in the shoulder and was unable to keep up.
He therefore went into hiding.
Charteris was about to move his men west, through a wooded area, directly towards the
beach.
“Moving quickly through the woods on either side of the steep little valleys it was dark
and confusing, and the German patrol became split. One man separated from the rest saw
the familiar sight of soldiers moving through the woods and fell in behind them, trailing
them for some minutes.” Downing, Night Raid.
The German called out to them.
And the British then realised that he wasn’t one of their own.
They began to scramble as the German also realised his mistake and screamed.
Charteris, near the rear of the group, turned and pulled out his revolver, but in his haste
forgot to release the safety catch and couldn’t fire.
The German fired his rifle, but didn’t take proper aim and missed.
Sergeant Gibbon turned and aimed his Sten gun at Private Hill.
Private Hill, who had been running with the German, realised what was happening and quickly
dropped to the floor.
Gibbon fired over Hill and hit the German, killing him instantly.
“It later became part of the mythology of Bruneval that the Paras had used their knives
to kill the German in complete silence. But this was not what happened, and the sound
of the shooting had given away the presence of Charteris and his section moving up towards
the village.” Downing, Night Raid.
I will point out though that Grieve’s separated section did reportedly kill a German with
a knife, so perhaps this is where the confusion lies.
Meeting resistance to the south of Bruneval, Charteris changed his plan, deciding to head
inland and go around Bruneval.
Moving through the eastern side of Bruneval, Charteris’s group climbed the other side
of the valley.
This was when they were fired upon again.
Now, Charteris’s sections became separated, with the rear section moving left into the
wood.
They moved out across the scrubby land to the north, with Charteris’s NCO’s barking
orders and generally making noise.
The noise the British were making might attract the Germans.
‘I was sure, however, that speed was more important than silence.’ Charteris
Sergeant Grieve on the other hand had reached around the western side of Bruneval and had
crossed back south of the main east-west road.
After a quick pause to catch their breath, they then turned towards the beach.
Ross was joined by Nauomoff’s section at the bottom of the slope, with both sections
now preparing for a combined rush on the German positions.
As they were about to charge, Grieve’s men let loose their war cry ‘Caber Feigh’
(dear antlers) and assaulted the German defenses from the southeast.
Ross and Nauomoff’s men therefore decided to keep to the original plan by laying down
suppressing fire on the Germans.
Charteris’s men had finally reached the beach area, moving to the area south of the
Redoubt.
Charteris met up with Timothy.
“Timothy was able to tell Charteris that the operation at the radar station had been
a complete success and that Frost had started to move off the plateau but that the beach
had still not been captured.” Downing, Night Raid.
Then Charteris found Frost, who told him that his men were mainly armed with Sten guns,
which didn’t have the range to engage the Germans defending the beach.
He therefore ordered Charteris to take the beach, now.
Charteris only had three men with him now - Sergeant Gibbons, Corporal Laughland and
Corporal Hill.
Exhausted from their long jog, Charteris took Hill’s rifle and gave him his Colt pistol.
It was now 0200 hours.
Mixed with several men from other sections, Charteris lead his men to the edge of the
cliff beside the Stella Maris. Then Charteris lobbed grenades onto the balcony.
He charged.
As the grenades exploded, Charters and some of his men moved across the road.
More grenades were lobbed into the basement.
Luckily, with the grenades going off, and effective fire coming from Tasker’s squad,
the Germans kept their heads down.
Charteris was the first to reach the villa, and threw more grenades into the building.
Corporal Schmidt was still on the telephone to Major Paschke, when the grenades blew up
around him.
Major Paschke got angry, demanding to know what all the noise was about.
Corporal Schmidt told him it was British grenades going off around him.
Major Paschke told the man he must withdraw - and then put the phone down.
Not able to get out, the Schmidt withdrew into the inner room and turned the lights
out.
Unable to find the front door, Charteris went around the back of the building and charged
into the open door, with Sergeant Grieve behind him.
Charteris shouted ‘Hände hoch’ and ‘Komm hier’ into the darkness.
Schmidt could see the two paras stood in the room, lit up by the passageway behind them,
but realised they could not see him.
“I wondered whether I should fire, but could not bring myself to shoot into a man’s body
at a range of a few yards. I therefore surrendered.” Schmidt.
He threw up his hands and came forwards out of the shadows to surrender.
In the heat of the moment with everything going on, Charteris may have reacted by killing
him.
But luckily for Corporal Schmidt, Charteris decided to disarmed him.
Clearing the rest of the house, Charteris paused for breath.
Seconds later, Captain Ross appeared from the road below.
Ross and his men took this opportunity to press forward into the German defensive positions
at Beach Fort, along with Sergeant Grieve’s men.
Attacked from two sides, one German pillbox was grenaded, wounding one German and killing
another.
Corporal Stewart, the gambler who was also in Grieve’s section, was hit in the head
during this fight.
Turning to Corporal Freeman, he said ‘I’ve had it. Here’s my wallet.’
The wallet was packed with a weeks’ worth of takings from all the gambling.
Freeman happily took the wallet and then turned to examine Stewart.
After checking him over, Freeman informed Stewart that he’d only been grazed.
Stewart replied - ‘Gie us my bluidy wallet back, then!’
Meanwhile, the German sergeant decided it was time to flee to the south with the remainder
of his men.
It was now 0225 hours.
A little late, but Beach Fort was finally in British hands.
Interestingly, while the sources conclude that the taking of the Stella Maris and Beach
Fort was the turning point of the battle, they differ on who should take praise for
the action.
Most conclude that Charteris should take the credit.
“Charteris’s action in storming the Stella Maris had been the turning point of the night’s
action. The Germans had at last ceased firing and appeared to have fled up into the woods
above the road.” Downing, Night Raid.
But as Oldfield points out -
“...Grieve manoeuvred into position south of [the Stella Maris] and it was his determined
rush, supported by elements of Ross’, Naoumoff’s and Young’s sections that overcame the beach
defences.” Oldfield, Bruneval.
Either way though, with the beach now secure, the next problem was getting off of it.
And it was now down to the Navy to pick them up.
When Frost returned to the Redoubt pillbox, everything became quiet.
He gave the order to move down to the beach, and ***, Jones, and the other sappers started
dragging their trolleys down the slope.
The trolleys were hard to move though over the ice, and kept slipping.
So in the end they abandoned the trolleys and the tools they had taken with them, and
simply carried the stolen radar equipment on their shoulders down to the beach.
All at the beach, the sappers used their mine detectors to make sure that the ‘Achtung
Minen’ signs weren’t only for show.
*** and his men sat down under the cliff.
Charteris ordered a Bren gunner to take up position where the German machine gun had
been, gaining a commanding view of the entire area.
He also positioned other men in the German slit trenches to guard the beach.
At this point, Corporal Campbell appeared, saying he’d been sent by Sergeant Lumb.
Lumb was now in the woods behind Bruneval under heavy fire from the Germans in the hotel.
Charteris cursed, then ordered Campbell to go get Lumb and his men back to the beach.
“Charteris also spent a moment looking out to sea, hoping desperately to see the landing
craft appear. He realised that the situation was getting serious. They were about an hour
behind schedule.” Downing, Night Raid.
Frost met up with Captain Ross for the first time since the mission began.
They only had one concern now - the navy.
“There was now time to take stock. So far the object had been achieved. We had very
few casualties. We knew roughly where everybody was. We had given the enemy a good hammering
and so far they had produced no effective counter-measures. It was about quarter-past
two in the morning. All we wanted now was the navy.” Frost.
The radio operator with them said he wasn’t getting through to the navy.
“Frost himself started signalling, using his torch with the blue light. Still he got
no response. The sappers with the Eureka system started sending the signal from the beacon
out to sea. But again there was no response. By now it was 0230 and the Germans had had
more than two hours to mobilise a force to counter-attack the beach.”
A mile and a half out to sea, Cook wondered why he’d hadn't got a signal from the beach.
At 0145 hours, the flotilla had tried to make contact with the paras, but had no luck.
“The lookouts strained to pick up the agreed signal from the Para commanding officer’s
blue torch or any other sign that the beach had been secured.” Downing, Night Raid.
Cook had no choice but to wait since he didn’t know if the beach was secure.
But how long should he wait?
He had to be well away before daylight, and they were already an hour behind schedule.
“As a last measure, someone suggested [to Frost] that green flares should be fired from
both ends of the beach. Frost agreed and the flares were fired. But still there was no
response.” Downing, Night Raid.
Frost gathered his officers and ordered them to prepare a perimeter defence.
Some had found a small fishing boat, and Frost ordered the radar equipment loaded onto it,
and the wounded, and it would be sent off to sea.
It could carry eight men, and might make it back to England.
As this meeting was happening, someone ran up and shouted ‘Sir, the boats are coming
in! The boats are here! God bless the ruddy navy, Sir!’
Cook had ordered the flotilla to moved to about 300 yards off the beach, where they
were to wait.
At this distance, a lookout had seen the green flares in the haze and so the landing craft
had moved in.
Instead of two by two, all six boats came in at once.
“The consequence was a free-for-all.” Downing, Night Raid.
The wounded, prisoners, radar equipment and *** and the sappers got onto the first boat.
They left, but got stuck on the shingle.
A naval lieutenant, by the name D.J. Quick, jumped into the sea and attached a line to
another landing craft that was also pulling away.
They managed to get the craft going and went off to sea.
With that, Frost ordered a general withdrawal.
As the men scrambled onto the boats, one German machine gunner opened fire on them from the
cliffs.
And German grenades fell onto the beach, causing more chaos.
Luckily, none of the fire was accurate, and the Bren gunners on the landing craft fired
back at the cliffs.
Thinking the Bren gunners were firing at his own men (because they weren’t using tracers)
Frost ordered them to cease fire.
One Bren gunner remarked to Frost ‘We thought you was a Jerry with a suicide wish, but we
gave you the benefit of the doubt.’
“In the circumstances it was clearly impossible for Priest to land to examine the installation.”
Wading into the water to get on the boats, the British pushed them off the shingle.
One boat started off, only for its front ramps to randomly open up.
The sailors managed to close the ramps, but three feet of water was now in the boat.
The paras hastily bailed out the water with their helmets to get away.
The smooth evacuation plan where the paras were meant to make sure everyone was there
also didn’t happen.
Frost was the last to embark on the final boat.
Wading through the water, he climbed on the boat and ordered the boat crew to wait while he
shouted for anyone else still left on the beach.
When there was no reply, the boat sailed off.
It was 0315 hours, exactly three hours after the raid had begun.
Priest had been on the landing craft where the radar equipment was and started to look
at the pieces.
When they reached the motor gun boats, they had to transfer the equipment across from one ship to another.
Priest feared that they would drop the pieces into the sea, and began to panic.
But after a few minutes, everything was loaded successfully and he could relax again.
When Frost reached his motor gun boats, he was told that two signallers had made contact
with the naval flotilla.
“They had been in the group with Sergeant Lumb, in pursuit of whom Charteris had sent
Corporal Campbell when the battle at the Stella Maris was over. But, pinned down by heavy
fire, they had been unable to get to the beach while the landing craft were there. They arrived
on the beach as the last vessels were pulling away, and sent a message pleading with the
navy to come back to get them.” Downing, Night Raid.
Frost wanted to go back, but Cook forbid this, telling him about the two German destroyers
and two E-boats and said that for the safety of the whole party, they had to get away quickly.
“Frost reluctantly accepted Cook’s decision. But he hated the idea of leaving men behind.”
Downing, Night Raid.
On the way back, Frost continued to worry about the men he’d left behind and blamed
himself for not double checking before leaving.
“The reality was that in the circumstances this had just not been possible. It had been
a case of every man for himself. It was almost inevitable that with the communication failures
that had plagued the operation from the moment the Paras landed, combined with the wide dispersal
of the force over cliffs and woods, some men would miss the order to withdraw. But in the
few hours of the Channel crossing, Frost grew more and more annoyed with himself. For a
while he completely lost sight of the fact that the operation had been a success.”
When Frost got a message from Priest telling him that the radar equipment was good and
would reveal everything the scientists wanted to know, Frost was relieved and became less
disheartened.
His mood was a lot better by the time he got back to England.
The Germans reported that at 0445 hours that the enemy attack was over.
At 0600 a Panzer unit arrived - these being the troops the Paras had feared most.
Private Donald Sutherland (no relation), who had been part of Charteris’s section, was
wounded and had taken shelter in the woods near a farm.
Germans searched the farm during the morning, and then left shortly after.
Sutherland, cold, hungry and in pain, decided to visit the farm, knocking on the door.
Madame Delamere took him inside and her husband gave him coffee and brandy.
German soldiers came back and, realising he’d have to give himself up, he tore off his airborne
wings, gave them to the family (who kept them for the rest of the war) and surrendered.
Three paras had been left on the beach, all from Nelson group.
They’d been pinned down in the woods near Bruneval and arrived on the beach a few minutes
too late.
Lance-Corporal McCallum used his radio to signal that there were still men left behind.
No one responded though.
The three paras hid in a cave until the enemy had searched the area.
When they ventured out, they med up with two more paras, who had been part of
Lumb’s group.
The five men realised that the navy weren’t coming back for them so discussed what to
do next.
Deciding that a group of five men was too big to survive in German occupied France,
two headed off south to try to get to Vichy France.
The other three, including McCallum, headed south and found a cave.
They were later discovered by a Luftwaffe patrol, who, reluctantly, handed them over
to the German army after a heated argument with a patrol led by Oberleutnant Huhn.
They also were escorted back to the Hotel Beau-Minet, and eventually to Berlin, where
they were questioned by Luftwaffe officers.
“The Luftwaffe officers were surprised that unlike the German Fallschirmjäger, the British
Paras were part of the army and not the RAF.” Downing, Night Raid.
The other two paras that had gone off towards Vichy France managed to travel south for several
days.
One French farmer reported their presence and a manhunt began.
They eventually got to a bridge and attempted to cross the Cher river into the unoccupied
zone, an alert German sentry questioned them.
And while their papers were in order (thanks to help from the French underground), the fact that they couldn’t
speak German or French gave them away, and so were taken into custody, along with a French couple who
were helping them.
The French couple, who weren’t married, were sent off to three concentration camps
(having been moved around from one to another, although not together).
But both would survive the war and would later marry.
The six British paras were eventually sent to a PoW camp at Lamsdorf in Upper Silesia,
Poland, and later were liberated by Red Army in 1945.
Privates McIntrye and Scott had been killed - their bodies left in France.
Eight casualties were returned to England.
Six others were missing, presumed captured.
Browning claimed that the British had killed a minimum of 40 Germans.
In reality, only five Germans were killed, two wounded, and five missing.
Three prisoners were taken with the paras, so the fate of the other two missing Germans is unknown.
“Perhaps the other two had taken the opportunity to escape from the service.”Bruneval
The Monday after the raid, Frost was driven to Downing Street, where he was ushered underground.
He met with Browning and most of the Chiefs of Staff, and the War Cabinet.
Churchill appeared puffing his large cigar.
And he said ‘Bravo, Frost, bravo, and now we must hear all about it.’
John Frost and Charteris were awarded the Military Cross.
And it’s worth noting that the road leading to Theuville from the villages of Le Presbytère
and La Poterie is now called “Street of Major Frost”.
The British airborne forces received great prestige and more raids were decided on in the future.
The German 336th Infantry Division joined Paulus’s Sixth Army in May of 1942, but
was withdrawn in July after being mauled in fighting around the town of Rossosh.
It would later perish in the Crimea.
The Germans responded to the para raid by demolishing villa Gosset six weeks after the
raid, doing the British a favour.
They also surrounded their radar positions throughout France and the Low Countries with
barbed wire to prevent future parachute landings.
What his did though was tell the RAF where their positions were as it was easy to see
on aerial photographs where the barbed wire had prevented livestock from eating the grass
beneath it.
Tall grass basically meant enemy positions.
This allowed the British to spot several new Freya and Würzburg sites they hadn’t spotted
before, and contributed in planning for other raids, as well as D-Day.
But, while this was a nice surprise, this was nothing compared to what the British learnt
from the stolen radar.
The point of the raid was to steal German radar technology.
After just ten minutes at the Würzburg, the paras had taken what they could, but would
it be enough?
Was Frost’s decision to leave so early correct?
“Jones was absolutely delighted by what he found. Only one significant component had
been left behind in France and that was the display screen, probably the least important
feature.” Downing, Night Raid.
Yes, Frost was correct.
The thing is, his account hints that they were done at the Würzburg after just ten
minutes, yet the other sources say he left early.
Perhaps, after hacking their way hastily into the Würzburg, they actually did get everything
they needed very quickly and therefore didn’t leave early at all.
Jones saw how better engineered the equipment was compared to British equipment.
It was easier to remove faulty parts and replace them with working ones.
Realising that many of the components he had had already been replaced, Jones could work
out the date of manufacture and figure out the name of every factory building parts of
the Würzburg.
Not only that, he calculated how many parts were actually being produced, which was about 150 sets
per month, although with spare parts it was probably more like about 100 new sets.
He realised that the Bruneval Würzburg was an older model of Würzburg, and that the
Germans had newer and better sets.
And most importantly, Jones and the other scientists analysed the set they had and discovered
ways to jam it.
The operator that they’d captured was interrogated.
Heller was questioned, and British found him willing to talk.
He had failed to learn Morse code, had been arrested and sentenced to six months imprisonment
for going AWOL due to his leave being rejected in September 1939 as his baby daughter was
taken seriously ill and later died, and then went AWOL again two weeks after release to
go on a two-day drinking spree.
He was sent to Bruneval as a way of getting rid of him from his previous unit.
Low IQ and little training, plus low morale, meant that Heller did not understand even
the basic principles of radar.
When Jones asked Heller to put the parts of the Würzburg together though, he was surprised to
see that Heller was actually able to do it.
“However, Jones was learning an important lesson about the German radar technology.
Although no scientist and no engineer, the prisoner was part of a team using cutting-edge
technology. Not only was it supremely well engineered, it was clearly designed for use
by operatives with a very low technical competency, people who would have been regarded as unsuitable
in the RAF.” Downing, Night Raid.
It was discovered that the Luftwaffe had a very low priority in recruiting personnel
for their radar and signals units.
Also, Hitler had banned amateur radio before the war, meaning that there was no reserve
of skilled and enthusiastic amateurs in which to draw recruits from.
The Germans had to design kit that was super easy to assemble and disassemble that even
idiots could do it.
It was learnt that the Freyas could detect the approach of Allied aircraft from about
90 miles out.
As the aircraft came within 25 miles, the Würzburgs would turn on, and could even spot
individual aircraft.
These radar created a massive defensive shield running from Denmark to Northern France, known
as the Kammhuber Line.
Learning ways to jam the Würzburgs, the British put them into action.
Just two months after Bruneval, thin aluminium strips were developed that could be dropped
from aircraft to give the impression that there were more bombers than there actually
were, and prevent the operators seeing how many aircraft there were.
This system was called ‘Window’, and a heated argument raged over whether to use
it or not, because it was feared that if the Germans learnt the technique, they’d be
able to use it on the British.
Interestingly, the Luftwaffe had also figured out the principle of “Window” over the
Baltic, but Göring had forbidden its use in case the British figured out the same technique.
“Bizarrely, both sides had worked out the system but neither wanted to use it.”
Several small and simple techniques were discovered to avoid German radar, like spiraling down
a few hundred feet which would confuse the German operators.
However, when the British finally did use Window for the first time on the 24th of July
1943, it had a massive impact on the Germans.
Hamburg was hit hard, and the Luftwaffe response was dismal, hitting only 12 bombers out of
the 791 that took part in the raid - much less than previous British losses.
More raids hit Essen and then Hamburg again.
“At long last the Kammhuber Line had been blinded and the German night fighter menace
muted.” Downing, Night Raid.
But the Germans learnt of ways around this and then the British developed new ways around
the German countermeasures.
A radio arms race ensued, but the advantage had gone to the Allies.
“The disabling of the German ground radar defense system in the summer of 1943 was a
victory of immense importance. It was the air war equivalent to the victories at El
Alamein and Stalingrad, and of the defeat of the U-boat menace in the Atlantic. Like
these other victories it did not bring about the immediate collapse of the enemy. But it
was a turning point from which there was no going back, despite the development of counter-measures.”
“The Para raid at Bruneval had made a decisive contribution to the scientific war.”
This was the first successful British parachute operation of the war.
The first successful raid on German occupied Europe.
And it was perhaps one of the turning points of the entire war.
What do you think? The Bruneval Raid a major turning point? Or not as crucial as Stalingrad
and El Alamein?
Let us know in the comments below.
Thank you to my Patreons - you guys not only helped buy the books needed for this documentary,
but also helped sort out some of the problems behind the scenes, like deciphering the sources
and finding out where places actually were (because the sources were terrible).
As I say every single time, you guys are awesome!
Apart from my animated video on the raid and capture of Fort Eben Emael by German Fallschirmjäger
paratroopers, I’m going to recommend the video by Forgotten Weapons about British Submachine
Guns, including the Sten Gun.
The speed of the development and production of the Sten gun is just insane, and everybody
knew it was rubbish, but once again - top end British military equipment!
Link on the screen and in the description below.
Thanks for watching, bye for now.