Benina and Benghazi, Cyrenaica, Italian Libya, North Africa
Result
Allied operational failure
Belligerents
United Kingdom
Italy Germany
Commanders and leaders
David Stirling
Casualties and losses
~70 vehicles
Unknown
v
t
e
Western Desert Campaign
1940
Invasion of Egypt
Compass
Nibeiwa
Sidi Barrani
1941
1st Bardia
Tobruk 1941
Mechili
Beda Fomm
Kufra
Giarabub
Sonnenblume
Tobruk siege
2nd Bardia
Twin Pimples
Brevity
Skorpion
Battleaxe
Crusader
Flipper
1st Bir el Gubi
Point 175
2nd Bir el Gubi
1942
Acrobat
Gazala
Bir Hakeim
Tobruk 1942
Mersa Matruh
1st Alamein
Sidi Haneish
Alam Halfa
Agreement
Bigamy
Caravan
Nicety
2nd Alamein
Bertram
Braganza
Outpost Snipe
El Agheila
Associated articles
Frontier Wire
Devil's gardens
Fort Capuzzo
Maletti Group
Camouflage
Babini Group
Combeforce
3rd Indian Motor Brigade
Baggush Box
Sonderkommando Blaich
Operation Bigamy[1]a.k.a. Operation Snowdrop was a raid during the Second World War by the Special Air Service in September 1942 under the command of Lieutenant Colonel David Stirling and supported by the Long Range Desert Group. The plan was to destroy the harbour and storage facilities at Benghazi and raid the airfield at Benina in Libya in coordination with the RAF. The raid was part of a deception plan for Operation Agreement, the much larger raid on Tobruk.
The plan involved a "gruelling journey around the southern edge of the Great Sand Sea"[2] but ended in failure. The raiding force was discovered at a road block by an Italian reconnaissance unit and Stirling decided to withdraw[1] to Kufra. During the withdrawal, the Luftwaffe picked off nearly 70 of the vehicles on the barren terrain. The survivors were reformed as the 1st Special Air Service regiment.[3]
The frequently used, albeit inaccurate, name "Operation Snowdrop" stems from early editions of William Boyd Kennedy Shaws' book Long Range Desert Group. At the time, War Office security policy would not permit Shaw to use real operational code names.
In September 1967 Len Deighton wrote an article in The Sunday Times Magazine about Operation Snowdrop. The following year Stirling was awarded "substantial damages" in a libel action about the article.[4] The passage complained of states "Stirling himself had insisted upon talking about the raid at two social gatherings at the British Embassy in Cairo although warned not to do so". Stirling made the point that Winston Churchill had been at both gatherings and the issue was raised in a private discussion with the Prime Minister.[2]
^ abMolinari, Andrea (2007). Desert raiders: Axis and Allied Special Forces 1940–43. Botley, UK: Osprey Publishing. pp. 70–71. ISBN 978-1-84603-006-2.
^ ab"Libel Damages For 'Operation Snowdrop' Leader". The Times. 24 May 1968.
^West, Nigel (2009). Historical dictionary of Ian Fleming's world of intelligence: fact and fiction. The Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0-8108-6190-9.
^"Wartime Raid is Recalled in Leader's Libel Actions". The Glasgow Herald. Glasgow. 24 May 1968. p. 9. Retrieved 30 March 2015.
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