Operation Biting

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RAF photo-reconnaissance picture of the Bruneval Würzburg (the dish-shaped object in the left-foreground)

The Bruneval Würzburg from another angle, showing the equipment in profile

During World War II, Operation Biting (also known as the Bruneval Raid) was a successful Combined Operations raid to capture components of a German Würzburg radar set at Bruneval, France, on 27/28 February, 1942.

British scientists, led by R.V. Jones, needed to find out more about Würzburg radar so that they could come up with countermeasures in their ongoing battle of the beams with German scientists. Jones thought that the Germans might locate Würzburg radars at the same sites as Freya radar, so he requested aerial reconnaissance of known Freya sites. On 22 November 1941, a reconnaissance Spitfire took photographs of a Freya radar site in the grounds of a cliff top hotel at Bruneval, a village on the French coast, a few dozen miles ^[1] from Le Havre, which contained unknown structures. On 5 December, a low-level reconnaissance flight by Tony Hill took very clear front and side pictures of the Würzburg radar with a person in the frame, which allowed the size of the radar dish (about 3 meters (10 feet) in diameter) to be assessed.

R.V. Jones judged that it was probably a Würzburg installation, so Combined Operations, which was under the command of Lord Louis Mountbatten, looked at the feasibility of a raid. A plan was drawn up to use a team to carry out a raid drawn from the recently trained paratroopers of 1st Parachute Brigade. A RAF radar operator, Flight Sergeant C.W.H. Cox, would accompany them, and they would photograph the radar in detail and carry off whatever components they could.

On 27 February 1942, the raiding party of 116 men from B & C Companies, 2nd Battalion, the Parachute Regiment led by Major John Frost, took off from RAF Thruxton and was dropped on Bruneval from twelve Whitley V bombers of 51 Sqn RAF led by Squadron Commander Wg Cdr P. C. Pickard. The raid met considerable enemy resistance but they were able to photograph the installation, rip out some of the key electronics, and capture a Würzburg technician. As planned, they then retreated from the cliff tops down onto a beach where their naval evacuation was covered by men drawn from units of V Corps providing protection during the naval evacuation stage. It was later discovered that the Royal Navy flotilla had been playing 'cat-and-mouse' with a German force of a Destroyer and E-boats who passed within a mile of the landing. The British losses were two killed, six wounded and six captured on the night itself. Two signallers were captured 9 days later trying to reach Switzerland. Five Germans were killed and two taken prisoner, including the technician.

Back in Britain, examination of the Würzburg components showed that it was of a modular design that aided maintenance and made the hunting down faults simpler than on similar British models. This was confirmed during the interrogation of the captured German technician, who proved to be less well trained than his British counterparts.

However Würzburg operated over a very narrow band and its simplicity left no provision for dealing with the then unused countermeasure, Window. The allies had developed chaff but it had not been used due to the fear that the Germans would simply copy it and use it against their own radar which was more complicated but more flexible. Following the information gained from the raid they knew that they could employ chaff and that its subsequent use by Germany would be proprtionately ineffectual.^[2]

Operation Biting memorial at Bruneval, Northern France.

The success of Operation Biting was splashed across the British press and went some way to improve the public's morale after a string of failures, including the armed forces' attempt to stop the German Channel Dash two weeks earlier. The success of the raid also highlighted to the British authorities how vulnerable British installations close to the sea were to enemy commando raids. This prompted the relocation of the TRE from Swanage to Malvern, where it has remained ever since.

In response to the Biting raid, the Germans fortified their radar sites. During the large but very costly Dieppe Raid, a subsidiary raid failed to capture Freya components because of the new fortifications. As is the tendency with the military in all countries, detailed plans were drawn up as to how fortification should be done. This helped with aerial reconnaissance, because the defences had a signature design which were much easier to spot from the air than the sites had been previously without the defences. Once found, the sites could be bombed.

A report written by Major-General Robert Laycock in 1947 said there was a German raid on a radar station on the Isle of Wight in 1941, possibly Operation BITING was inspired by this raid. ^{[3] [4]}

[edit] Influence on popular culture

The film The Red Beret (1953), although ostensibly a vehicle for Alan Ladd as a North American joining the British Parachute Regiment, contains a thinly disguised version of Operation Biting. In the film, Leo Genn plays "Major Snow" and the radar expert on the mission is "Flight Sgt. Box". Later in the film they go on another mission to North Africa which is very similar to those carried out by Major Frost and the 1st Parachute Brigade.

The film Two Men Went To War (2002) is based on the true story of two British army dental technicians (Sergeant Peter King and Private Leslie Cuthbertson) who went AWOL and made their own private raid on France. The film infers that they coincidentally attacked the radar site at the same time as the official raid, blowing up the cookhouse and the Freya radar antenna. [1]

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