Operation Dryad

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Operation Dryad
Part of North West Europe Campaign
Date 2–3 September 1942
Location Casquets, Channel Islands
Result British victory
Belligerents
 United Kingdom  Nazi Germany
Commanders and leaders
United Kingdom Major 'Gus' March-Phillipps Nazi Germany Unknown
Strength
No. 62 Commando

Operation Dryad was a raid on the Casquets lighthouse in the Channel Islands by British Commandos during World War II. The Commandos captured the lighthouse and its occupants and departed leaving no trace that anyone had ever been there.

Background

The Casquets Lighthouse was built in 1724, and is located 6 miles (9.7 km) west of the island of Alderney in the Channel islands. Its located amongst some of the fastest ocean currents in the English Channel. The Lighthouse consists of a 88 feet (27 m) tower and two shorter towers on a barren rock. After the German occupation of the Channel islands in 1940, they set up a naval radio station in the lighthouse. Its isolated location made it a perfect objective for a commando raid. The commandos selected to carry out the raid belonged to No. 62 Commando also known as the Small Scale Raiding Force (SSRF).

The raiding party consisted of 12 men from the SSRF, the commanding officer Major Gus March-Phillips, his second in command Captain Geoffrey Appleyard, some of the others involved were Captain Graham Hayes, Sergeant Winter, Private Anders Lassen and Dutch Lieutenant Henk Brinkgreve.

Mission

Just after midnight they arrived at the lighthouse Appleyard was the first to leap ashore and tied their boat forward and Hayes was in control of the stern-line, which had been attached to the kedge-anchor that had been dropped on approach to prevent the boat from being smashed against the rocks. All the landing party made it safely ashore without any damage to the boat. Appleyard handed the bowline to another and Hayes remained in control of the stern-line as the raiding party departed. The Commandos made their way through barbed wire up the steep rocky surface to the lighthouse courtyard unchallenged. Once in the courtyard the group dispersed to their prearranged objectives. Appleyard and Sergeant Winter dashed up the spiral staircase to the tower light only to find it unoccupied. The garrison was totally surprised. Appleyard said, "I have never seen men so amazed and terrified at the same time." Three were sleeping, two were just turning in and two others were on duty. the seven Germans were taken prisoner without a shot being fired. One German, who was in charge of the lighthouse operation, fainted at the sight of the commandos. Another was initially thought to be a woman because he was wearing a hairnet. The seven prisoners, some still in their pyjamas, were taken to England. Several codebooks were found and also taken back for analysis. Appleyard who survived the raid suffered an accident and fractured his tibia as he re-boarded their boat.[1][2][3]

Aftermath

The next raid for the SSRF was 12/13 September Operation Aquatint. The raiding party led by March-Phillips would all be killed or captured. Winter and Hayes were captured, Hayes after having succeeded in crossing the French–Spanish border was later executed in Fresnes prison.

In October 1942 Appleyard now in command of the SSRF was in charge of a raid on Sark Operation Basalt where four German prisoners who had been tied up were shot and killed as they tried to escape. Adolf Hitler incensed with the Commando raids, issued the Commando Order which ordered that all captured commandos in or out of uniform were to be shot. He also protested the binding and killing of German prisoners, and gave orders to shackle British prisoners of war who were captured during the Dieppe raid. Appleyard later joined the Special Air Service (SAS), he was posted missing believed killed when returning from a SAS mission the plane he was travelling on was lost over the Mediterranean. Private Anders Lassen would be commissioned and win a posthumous Victoria Cross while serving with the Special Boat Squadron of the SAS in Italy 1945.

In 1943 commandos would again raid the Casquet Lighthouse. This time the actor Douglas Fairbanks Jr. would be one of the raiders.

Notes

    1. ↑ Binney, p.152
    2. ↑ "Naval codewords". Naval History. Retrieved 11 June 2010. 
    3. ↑ Foot, M. R. D. (4 November 1993). "Obituary,Peter Kemp". London: The Independent. Retrieved 11 June 2010. 

    Bibliography

    • Richards, Brooks; Foot, M R D (2002). Clandestine Sea Operations to Brittany: 1940 - 1944. Routledge. ISBN 0-7146-5316-0. 
    • Brown, Gordon (2008). Wartime Courage: Stories of Extraordinary Courage by Ordinary People in World War Two. Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. ISBN 0-7475-9607-7. 
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