Operation Flipper


Operation Flipper was a British commando raid during the Second World War, mainly by men from No. 11 Commando. The operation included an attack on the headquarters of Erwin Rommel, the commander of Panzergruppe Afrika in North Africa. It was timed for the night of 17/18 November 1941, just before the start of Operation Crusader. The operation failed as Rommel had left the target house weeks earlier and all but two of the commandos who landed were killed or captured. One member of the Special Boat Section team, who had secured the beach for the commando party, also escaped.

Planning

From October to November 1941, a plan was formulated at Eighth Army headquarters to attack:
Although not specified in the orders, the goal of the raid was to kill or capture Rommel, to disrupt German organisation before the start of Crusader. Rommel's headquarters was believed to be at Beda Littoria, because Captain John Haselden had reconnoitred the area disguised as an Arab and reported that Rommel's staff car came and went from the former Prefecture. The operation was led by Lieutenant-Colonel Robert Laycock; Lieutenant-Colonel Geoffrey Keyes, present throughout the planning stage, selected the most hazardous task of the attack on Rommel's headquarters for himself. Unbeknownst to the planners, Beda Littoria had only briefly been Rommel's headquarters and had been taken over by the chief quartermaster of Panzergruppe Afrika, General Schleusener. Some weeks earlier, Rommel had moved his headquarters nearer to Tobruk to be close to the action. Rommel was not even in North Africa during Flipper, having gone to Rome to request replacements for supply ships sunk by the British.

Raid

10–14/15 November

On 10 November, carried Keyes, Captain Robin Campbell, Lieutenant Roy Cooke and 25 men. transported Laycock, Captain Glennie, Lieutenant Sutherland and 25 men from Alexandria. On the night of 14/15 November 1941, Keyes' detachment landed on the beach of Khashm al-Kalb, guided by two-man Special Boat Section teams in folbots. The beach lay near a place known as Hamama, some behind Axis lines. Once ashore, they made contact with Haselden, delivered earlier by the Long Range Desert Group for reconnaissance. The weather deteriorated and Laycock's group had a much more difficult time getting ashore. Laycock and seven men landed but the rest were stranded on Talisman. With only 34 of the 59 men available, instead of four detachments attacking the targets, there were only to be three. Laycock remained at the rendezvous with three men to secure the beach, Keyes led his detachment of 25 men for the attack on Rommel's supposed headquarters, while Lieutenant Cooke took six men to destroy the communications facilities near Cyrene. Haselden's detachment completed its mission and was picked up by the LRDG.

15–18 November

Shortly before first light, Keyes' men moved to a wadi, where they sheltered until dark on the second night then moved off. Their Arab guide refused to accompany the party in the deteriorating weather. Keyes then led his men on a climb, followed by an approach march of in pitch dark and torrential rain. Hiding in a cave during the day, the detachment advanced to within a few hundred yards of the objective by 22:00 on the third night. At 23:59, Keyes led his party past sentries and other defences up to the house. Unable to find an open window or door, Keyes took advantage of Campbell's excellent German by having him pound on the front door and demand entrance. They set upon the sentry who opened the door. Campbell shot him and Keyes might have been wounded in the scuffle. The official version is that Keyes opened the door to a nearby room, found Germans inside, closed it again abruptly, reopened it to hurl in a grenade and was shot by one of the Germans. Only one round was fired by the Germans during the raid on the HQ.
Keyes was taken outside but quickly died; shortly afterwards, Campbell, having forgotten his orders to shoot on sight, was shot in the leg by one of his men. He passed command to Sergeant Jack Terry and remained behind. Terry gathered the raiding team and retreated with 17 men to rejoin Laycock at the beach. An Italian source, not explicit in naming the British names, points that Cooke's men encountered a platoon of Italian police paratroopers. The Italians had been searching for the British raiders close to the village Mansura.

19 November

According to the source, 2nd Lieutenant Alfredo Sandulli Mercuro and the 3rd Platoon, 2nd Company, 1° Battaglione Paracadutisti Carabinieri Reali encountered what he thought was a band of Arabs hiding along a mountain ridge on 19 November. When called upon by Mercuro's Arab interpreter, the Italians were fired on and the paratroopers engaged what they now knew were British commandos, who withdrew to a cave. With no way out, the wounded commandos surrendered after Mercuro threatened to use flamethrowers on them. The paratroops took prisoner a group consisting of an officer, one NCO and three other ranks. Except for the officer, all the British were wounded and received medical treatment from the Italians. Mercuro searched the cave and found small arms and three demolition charges. The Italians suffered three wounded during the fight.
It proved impossible for the Laycock party to re-embark on the submarines and they waited for the weather to improve. They were discovered and exchanged fire with local Italian gendarmes. Aware that they could not hope to stand off the large force that was surely being organised, Laycock ordered the men to scatter. Laycock and Terry made it to safety after 37 days in the desert and Bombardier John Brittlebank, one of the SBS team who had guided the commandos in the folbots, escaped and survived alone in the desert for forty days until picked up by Allied troops. The rest of the raiding force was captured, some of them wounded. Contrary to some reports, only Keyes was killed by the Germans; one man had drowned during the landing.

Nominal roll

On 17 November 1941, the day of the raid, Rommel was in Italy, having left for Rome on 1 November, which became known to British military intelligence via Ultra on 17 November and that he was due back in Africa on 18 November. An emergency signal was sent to Middle East Command but was too late to stop the operation. On 15 November, a decrypt of an Italian C 38m machine cipher had revealed that the Italians knew from divers sources that a British landing was imminent near Apollonia.
The German historian Hans Edelmaier suggests that Rommel was not the objective of the raid and his name not featuring in the plan supports this. There is no proof that Haselden reported Rommel's presence at the house in Beda and it has never been explained how Rommel was to be found or recognised by the commando unit. The only extant evidence that Rommel was the object of the raid came from a witness, Gunner Jim Gornall, who related that Keyes briefed the men on board the Torbay that their objective was to "get Rommel". When news of the raid reached him, Rommel was said to be indignant that the British should believe his headquarters was behind the front; Rommel preferred to be near the front line with his troops.

Casualties

The British suffered two men killed, 28 captured and three men escaped; German casualties were four killed and three wounded. Keyes' body and those of the four dead Germans were buried with military honours on Rommel's orders in a local Catholic cemetery. For his actions Keyes was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross. The citation for the award was written by Robert Laycock, who contrary to British military custom, was not a witness to Keyes' actions on the night in which he was killed. Almost none of the statements in the citation are verifiable and some contradict witness accounts.
Sergeant Jack Terry was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal and Bombardier John Brittlebank later received the DCM for actions including the Rommel Raid. Gunner Jim Gornall was awarded the Military Medal.