12. Operation Flipper Succeeded – Except For One Thing
A pair of submarines set out from Alexandria on November 10th, 1941, carrying 59 Commandos between them. They reached their landing site on the night of November 14th, where an advance team that had been parachuted earlier awaited them. One submarine landed its contingent, but the other was struck by a squall and ran aground, with the result that only 7 of its Commandos reached shore, while the rest were stranded. With the available attack force thus drastically diminished, the mission was redacted and reduced to only attacking Rommel’s headquarters and that of the Italian division.
The Commandos headed off for their targets on November 15th, and despite heavy rains, reached their attack positions on the night of the 17th. At midnight, they struck in a meticulously executed attack – and discovered that they had been acting on poor intelligence: Rommel was not at the HQ, but was in Italy, where he had been since November 1st. He would not return to the field until November 18th – the day after the raid. Only 3 German supply officers and an enlisted soldier were killed, and a fuel depot was destroyed. In exchange, the raiders were wiped out, with only two Commandos managing to evade pursuit and reach British lines 37 days later. All the rest were either killed or captured.
