Operation Bulbasket

Operation Bulbasket
Part of Western Front
Date 6 June–3 July 1944 Location Poitiers, Vienne department France Result British victory
Belligerents
United Kingdom	Nazi Germany
Commanders and leaders
Captain John Tonkin	Brigadeführer Heinz Lammerding
Strength
59 men'B' Squadron, 1st Special Air Service small team from the Special Operations Executive Unknown numbers of French Resistance fighters	Elements of the 2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich Elements of the 17th SS Panzergrenadier Division Götz von Berlichingen
Casualties and losses
34 Special Air Service men captured and executed 1 American Air Force pilot executed	Unknown

Operation Bulbasket was an ill-fated operation by 'B' Squadron, 1st Special Air Service, behind German lines in German occupied France, between June and August 1944. The operation to the east of Poitiers in the Vienne department of south west France, was tasked 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, they 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 camp near to Verrieres, the location of which was betrayed to the Germans. In the following German attack on their camp, 33 men from the Special Air Service who were in the camp at the time, were captured and later murdered along with one American Air Force pilot who had fallen in with them, after bailing out of his P-51 Mustang. Three other Special Air Service men, who had been wounded in the fight and taken to hospital were murdered by lethal injections while in their hospital beds.

Background

The men involved in Operation Bulbasket were part of the Special Air Service Brigade. The Special Air Service (SAS) was a unit of the British Army during the Second World War, formed in July 1941 by David Stirling and originally called "L" Detachment, Special Air Service Brigade—"L" being an attempt at deception implying the existence of numerous such units. It was conceived as a commando type force to operate behind enemy lines in the North African Campaign In 1944 the Special Air Service Brigade was formed and consisted of the British 1st and 2nd Special Air Service, the French 3rd and 4th Special Air Service and the Belgian 5th Special Air Service. They were to undertake parachute operations behind the German lines in France, and then carry out operations supporting the Allied advance through Belgium, the Netherlands, and eventually into Germany.

Map of France, the Vienne department is highlighted in red

In May 1944 the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) had issued order for the Special Air Service Brigade to carry out two operations in France. The two operations were Operation Houndsworth in the area of Dijon given 'A' Squadron 1st Special Air Service and Operation Bulbasket in the area of Poitiers given to 'B' Squadron 1st Special Air Service.

The focus of both operations would be the disruption of German reinforcements from the south of France to the Normandy beachheads. To carry out the operation they would destroy supply dumps, block the Paris to Bordeaux railway line near Poitiers, attack railway sidings and fuel trains. One unit they especially wanted to delay was the 2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich which was based in the area around Tolouse in the south of France. The intelligence experts at SHAEF responsible for planning the Normandy landings, had estimated it would take three days for the panzer division to reach Normandy.

The officer in command of 'B' Squadon, 1st Special Air Service was a Captain John Tonkin with Second Lieutenant Richard Crisp as the second in command. Both men were briefed on the operation by SHAEF in London 1 June 1944. Over the next two days they spent time at the headquarters of the Special Operations Executive who had agents of SOE F section operating in the area under the command of Captain Maingard alias Samuel, who also had links with the two main French Resistance groups in the area the Francs tireurs et Partisans and the Armée Secrète. Tonkin was also given a list of rail targets by Headquarters Special Air Service.

Mission

A Special Air Service Jeep armed with Vickers K machine guns of the type used during Operation Bulbasket

The advance party for Operation Bulbasket including Tonkin were flown to France by a Handley Page Halifax belonging to 'B' Flight, No. 161 Squadron RAF the special duties squadron. Their drop zone was an area of the Brenne marsh 19 miles (31 km) south west of Châteauroux, which they reached at 01:37 hours 6 June 1944. On the ground to meet them was their Special Operations Executive contact Captain Maingard. Two further groups from 'B' Squadron were parachuted in, one on 7 June 1944 and the second on 11 June 1944. Also dropped at the same time were Vickers K machine gun armed Jeeps.

Once on the ground the Special Air Service Squadron set about preventing German reinforcements reaching Normandy. They targeted the rail network, laid mines, conducted vehicle patrols in their Jeeps, trained member of the French Resistance. On 10 June a French railwayman informed Tonkin that a train which comprised of at least 11 petrol tankers was parked at the rail sidings at Châtellerault, these were the petrol reserves for the advancing 2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich. To confirm their location Tonkin sent Lieutenant Tomos Stephens on a reconnaissance of the area. Travelling alone by bicycle Stephens made the 74 miles (119 km) round trip returning on 11 June 1944, he confirmed the location of the petrol train. He also reported they were too heavily guarded for the Special Air Service squadron to deal with. Tonkin contacted England and requested a bombing attack on the train. That same night a force of 12 Royal Air Force de Havilland Mosquito bombers attacked the train in its sidings. The bombing mission was a success and they completely destroyed the fuel reserves for the 2nd SS Panzer Divisions Das Reich.

To prevent their camp being located or compromised by informers or German radio direction finding equipment, Tonkin regularly moved its location. The location of any new camps had to be close to water and a drop zone for parachute resupply. The camp located near to Verrières was near to their drop zone at La Font d'Usson and had an adequate water supply. The Special Air Service Squadron had been at Verrières between 25 June and 1 July 1944. The local population had also become aware of the camp's location and Tonkin was warned by Maingard that if the locals knew, informers would soon tell the Germans. Tonkin ordered the squadron to move to a new camp just south in the forest des Cartes. This new camp was also close to their drop zone at La Font d'Usson and they were expecting a critical resupply drop over the night of 3/4 July 1944. On their arrival at the new camp at Bois des Cartes the water supply from a well failed and Tonkin decided to return to Verrières until a more suitable camp site could be located.

German attack

The German SS Security Police had been informed that the Special Air Service camp was located in a forest near to Verrières. On 1 July 1944 they had sent agents into the forest to attempt to locate the camp and assembled an attacking force based on the reserve battalion of the 17th SS Panzergrenadier Division Götz von Berlichingen which was based at Bonneuil-Matours. With the arrival of the Special Air Service Squadron back at their old base camp, Tonkin set out himself on 2 July 1944 to try and locate a new camp. He returned in the early hours of 3 July 1944 and soon after his return the Germans attacked, having managed to surround the camp during the night. The force in the forest camp comprised of 40 Special Air Service men, an United States Army Air Corps North American P-51 Mustang pilot Second Lieutenant Lincoln Bundy who had been shot down 10 June 1944 and had fallen in with the Special Air Service and nine men from the French Resistance.

The Germans attacked at dawn and the fight was over by 14:00. As the Germans searched the forest the Special Air Service men tried to break out and escape. A party of 34 were escaping down a forest track when they were ambushed and captured. The leader of the party Lieutenant Tomos Stephens was beaten to death by a German officer using his rifle butt. The Special Air Service men and the American pilot should have been treated as prisoners of war. However their fate was determined by the issue of the Commando Order by Adolf Hitler which called for the immediate execution of commandos or parachutists, no matter if they had been captured in uniform. The decision of who was going to execute them was the cause of an argument between the German Army and the SS. The result of the argument was the army would carry out the execution. On 7 July the surviving prisoners of war, 30 Special Air Service men and Second Lieutenant Bundy, were taken into the woods near to St Sauvant, forced to dig their own graves then executed by a German firing squad at dawn. Their bodies were then buried in a mass grave. Three Special Air Service men who had been wounded and hospitalised were killed by the administration of lethal injections. The 34 men executed in the woods were re-interned in the village cemetery of Rom, Deux-Sèvres. The bodies of the three men executed in the hospital have never been located, but they are commemorated by a plaque among their comrades' headstones in Rom.

Withdrawal

Tonkin and the remainder of the Special Air Service Squadron escaped, regrouped and carried on with the mission until the order to cease operations was received on 24 July 1944. During the period between 10 June and 23 July the Special Air Service Squadron had attacked railway targets 15 times, the main roads the Route nationale 10 south of Vivonne and the Route nationale N147 between Angers– Poitiers–Limoges were mined. They also had some success attacking targets of opportunity. Over the night of 12/13 June 1944 Lieutenant Crisp, one of those later executed, was in command of a patrol that laid mines on the N147 in the Forêt de Défant, just before the 2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich arrived in the area.

The 2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich during their advance to Normandy were responsible for the Tulle murders on 9 June 1944 and the massacre at the village of Oradour-sur-Glane 10 June 1944. The operations by the Bulbasket team amongst others delayed the arrival of the division in Normandy until the end of June. The 2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich was responsible for the capture of the Special Operations Executive agent Violette Szabo on 10 June 1944. They handed her over to the Sicherheitsdienst security police in Limpges.

Aftermath

In December 1944, after the German Army had been driven from the area, men working in the forest near St Sauvant discovered an area of disturbed branches and broken earth. They started to examine the site and discovered what remained of a number of bodies. The local police force were informed and on 18 December started excavating the grave. A number of bodies were wearing Allied uniform; most of their identity tags had been removed but two remained which identified them as members of Operation Bulbasket, while another was identified by his name inside the battle dress tunic. A further body in civilian clothing was identified as Second Lieutenant Brundy.

The 31 bodies were taken to Rom and reburied with full military honours in the village cemetery. The body of Lieutenant Stephens who had been beaten to death is in the village cemetery in Verrières. The bodies of the three men murdered in hospital have never been located, but a memorial plaque was erected beside the Special Air Service graves in Rom cemetery.

References

Notes

Bibliography

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