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Operation Flipper (also called the Rommel Raid) was a British commando raid, during the Second World War, carried out mainly by men from No. 11 (Scottish) Commando. The operation included among its objectives an attack on the headquarters of Erwin Rommel, the commander of the Axis forces in North Africa. It was timed to strike on the night of 17/18 November 1941, just before the start of Operation Crusader, a major British offensive. The operation was a failure, Rommel had left the target house weeks earlier and all but two of the commandos who got ashore were killed or captured. One of the SBS team who had secured the beach for the commando party also escaped. ==Planning== From October–November 1941, a plan was formulated at Eighth Army headquarters to attack four objectives behind Axis lines: *Rommel′s presumed headquarters near Beda Littoria, some inland from Apollonia, Libya *a wireless station and intelligence centre at Apollonia *an Italian headquarters and communications cable mast at Cyrene *the headquarters of the Italian Trieste Division near Slonta Although not specified in the orders, the goal of the raid was to kill or capture Rommel, to disrupt German organisation before the start of Crusader. Rommel's headquarters was believed to be at Beda Littoria, because of the reports of Captain John Haselden, who had reconnoitred the area disguised as an Arab and reported that Rommel's staff car came and went from the former Prefecture building. The operation was led by Lieutenant-Colonel Robert Laycock and Lieutenant-Colonel Geoffrey Keyes, present throughout the planning stage, selected the most hazardous task, the attack on Rommel′s headquarters for himself. Beda Littoria had only briefly been Rommel's headquarters and had been taken over by the chief quartermaster of ''Panzergruppe Afrika'', General Schleusener. Some weeks earlier, Rommel had moved his headquarters nearer to Tobruk, since he believed commanders needed to be close to the action. Rommel was not even in North Africa during Operation Flipper, having gone to Rome to request replacements for supply ships sunk by the British.〔Terry Brighton, ''Masters of Battle: Monty, Patton and Rommel at War'', Penguin UK, 2009 ISBN 0141029854.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Operation Flipper」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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