Operation Lost

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During World War II, Operation Lost was a seven-man Special Air Service patrol conducted in Brittany alongside Operation Dingson in June and July of 1944.

These operations trained and armed local fighters and harassed the defenders as they tried to react to the Overlord landings. The Lost team was active from 23 June to 18 July.

The team was led by Lt. Col. Oswald A. J. Cary-Elwes, a career soldier asked to join the SAS by its founder David Stirling. Stirling and Cary-Elwes were friends.

The Lost team was given instructions to search for and re-organise a company of irregular French resistance members formerly in touch with British forces, but which had been attacked and dispersed into woodland. This company was led by the one-armed French General Bourgoin.

Lost was a major success and led to the destruction of a large number of enemy aircraft. Lt. Col. Cary-Elwes was eventually exfiltrated from northern France via submarine, using an escape route maintained by MI9, a now-defunct part of the British Intelligence apparatus, at the time closely allied to the Special Operations Executive (SOE).