Operation Bulbasket

Operation Bulbasket
Part of Western Front
Date6 June – 24 July 1944
Location
Result Partial British success[1]
Belligerents
 United Kingdom Nazi Germany Germany
Commanders and leaders
United Kingdom Captain John Tonkin Nazi Germany Brigadeführer Heinz Lammerding
Strength

1st Special Air Service

  • 'B' Squadron (40 men)

A small team from the Special Operations Executive

9 French Resistance fighters
Elements of the:
2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich
17th SS Panzergrenadier Division Götz von Berlichingen
Casualties and losses

34 Special Air Service men captured and executed
1 US Army Air Forces pilot captured and executed

7 French Resistance fighters captured and executed
Unknown

Operation Bulbasket was an operation by 'B' Squadron, 1st Special Air Service (SAS), behind the German lines in German occupied France, between June and August 1944. The operation was located to the east of Poitiers in the Vienne department of south west France; its objective was to block the Paris to Bordeaux railway line near Poitiers and to hamper German reinforcements heading towards the Normandy beachheads, especially the 2nd SS Panzer Division – Das Reich.

During the course of the operation amongst other things, the SAS men discovered the whereabouts of a petrol supply train, which was destined for the 2nd SS Panzer Division. The supply train was destroyed by Royal Air Force bombers the same night.

The Special Air Service team had made their base near Verrieres, the location of which was betrayed to the Germans. In the follow-up attack on their camp, 33 men from the Special Air Service were captured and later executed together with a United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) pilot who had fallen in with them, after bailing out of his P-51. Seven captured Maquisards were also executed in the woods after the attack. Three other SAS men, who had been wounded in the fight and taken to hospital, were executed by lethal injections while in their hospital beds.[2]

  1. ^ The terms of reference given in SAS Amended Instruction No. 6 included "strategic operations against the enemy lines of communication from the south of France to the Neptune area as occasion may occur ...". This objective was fulfilled.
  2. ^ Outrage at this execution of prisoners by the Germans should be tempered with the knowledge that the SAS was instructed not to take prisoners. Hastings, page 207.