During
World War II,
Operation Colossus was an experimental raid by thirty-eight of the five hundred men of No.2
Commando, who trained as Britain’s first paratroops in
1940. Despite being told they had only an even chance of returning at best, every man in the Commando volunteered.
Maj. T. Pritchard commanded and among his men were three interpreters, one an Italian national who was formerly a waiter at the
Savoy Hotel,
London.
The objective was to blow-up a fresh water
aqueduct near
Calitri in southern
Italy, where it spanned the
Tragino gorge. It was not a major military target, though it did supply some two million people including the ports of Bari and Brindisi and the naval base of Taranto. The object was primarily a test to see if the
RAF could deliver men accurately to an enemy target, and the men could achieve their objective by air drop and exfiltrate themselves afterwards.
On
10 February 1941, all but one of the six Whitley bombers dropped their men between 50 to 250 metres of the target. The sixth, suffering navigational problems, dropped its men and unfortunately much of the mission's explosives, two hours late and two miles north. On examining the aqueduct it was found the structure was of concrete and not brick as intelligence advised. All heavy explosives available were packed around one of the side piers and anything remaining to a small nearby bridge over the
Ginestra stream, to hamper repairs,
(though an officer later stated that “just for the hell of it” was part of the equation).
Both detonations were successful and the Commandos set about making their way overland to the mouth of the
Sele River, some 50 marching miles away on the
Mediterranean coast south of
Salerno. The British submarine
HMS Triumph was to meet them offshore at this point, but unfortunately one of the Whitley bombers chose this spot to make a forced landing after incurring engine failure. As the downed bomber would attract considerable attention, the submarine abandoned any rendezvous.
Memorial to the men of the Parachute Regiment at Tatton Park
As it happened, the Commandos never reached the coast. Winter conditions forced them to leave their slow cross-country route and take to the roads. All at once when passing through a small town they found themselves passively but purposefully surrounded by civilians and local police. Declining to fire upon civilians, the Commandos gave themselves up.
Within 36 hours of landing all men were in enemy hands, though one managed to escape back to England soon after. The Italian national was imprisoned separately, court-martialed and shot. The aqueduct was repaired in about a month during which time reservoirs coped. This raid, or ‘test’, provided valuable lessons for British
Combined Operations, and served notice to the
Axis that British soldiers were now airborne.
Operation Colossus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
First-ever British parachute operation
For the first time I have seen "History" at close quarters,and I know that its actual process is very different from what is presented to Posterity. - WWI General Max Hoffman
