|
Operation Josephine B (or Operation Josephine) was a military mission in June 1941 during the Second World War. The mission, was organised jointly by the Free French and the British Special Operations Executive (SOE), together with the Royal Air Force for air drops. The operation was initially stalled by a lack of up-to-date information, but ultimately succeeded in its main objective, the destruction of an electrical transformer station in Pessac, near Bordeaux. Six of the eight transformers were destroyed, resulting in the Italian submarine base at Bordeaux being hampered for weeks and a variety of other problems for the Italian and German occupiers. The operation was SOE's first success in occupied France and it considerably enhanced the organisation's standing. == Preparation == The transformer station in Pessac, near Bordeaux, had long been recognized by the SOE as a target of particular interest but difficult to reach by air. The plan was to drop a team of saboteurs by parachute; they were to break into the transformer station, attach bombs and incendiaries with delay timers. The bombs would wreck the transformers and the incendiaries would set fire to the transformer cooling oil to complete the destruction. A team of six Polish volunteers was trained and equipped. They set off from RAF Tangmere; but a technical fault released their two containers of equipment over the lower Loire, and they had to turn back. The aircraft crashed on landing, killing some of the crew and seriously wounding all the soldiers. The SOE then turned to its Free French (or RF) section. Sergeant J. Forman, Sub-Lieutenant Raymond Cabard and Sub-Lieutenant André Varnier (aka Jacques Leblanc) were briefed for the operation. Forman had recently returned from Operation Savanna, the first attempt to insert SOE trained Free French paratroops into German-occupied France. That mission had failed leaving behind some of the agents including who had then travelled to Paris. The sabotage team were sent to SOE's Station XVII for training in industrial sabotage by Cecil Vandepeer Clarke. Man 1 also had a compass, a watch and a whistle. 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 Josephine B」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|