Operation Biting

OPERATION BITING
BRUNEVAL - 27th/28th FEB 1942

In February 1942, men of the newly formed British 1st Airborne Division, went into action for the first time. In one of the most daring raids of the war, they seized, and brought back to England, vital components of a German 'Wurzburg' radar installation.

Radar was one of the key, high-technology battlegrounds of the war. It secured R.A.F. Fighter Command's narrow victory in the "Battle of Britain" but the Luftwaffe also used radio navigation aids for blind bombing in the blitz. In 1941 British bombers began to take the war to the heart of Germany forcing the Luftwaffe to develop its own defensive radars. Britain responded with jamming techniques and a private battle, the "battle of the beams," developed between boffins on both sides to gain the advantage. Heading up the British team was Dr. R.V. Jones of the Air Staff.

Throughout 1941 Jones and his team built up a detailed picture of the German radar network along the channel coast. That autumn a series of low-level photo reconnaissance pictures revealed the presence of a newly installed 'Wurzburg' early warning radar. It was on a cliff top close by the small French village of Bruneval near Le Havre. Below the installation lay a beach and Jones saw the possibility of dispatching a Commando raid to retrieve the Wurzburg array from its exposed position. The idea was passed from Air Intelligence to the headquarters of Combined Operations whose chief, Lord Louis Mountbatten, approved the plan.

The German defences at Bruneval were reconnoitred by the French resistance. From the intelligence gathered it was decided that a frontal assault on the beach would meet heavy resistance. The planners decided that paratroops would be dropped inland by Whitley bombers of the R.A.F. under the command of Squadron Leader Charles Pickard. After completing the operation, they would be taken off the beach by the Royal Navy with No 12 Commando providing covering fire against German coastal positions.

The unit chosen for the operation was C Company of the 2nd Battalion of the 1st Parachute Brigade - 120 men commanded by Major John Frost. Nearly all the men were drawn from Scottish regiments, including the Black Watch, Cameron Highlanders, King's Own Scottish Borderers and the Seaforths. They were to be accompanied by a technical expert, an RAF radar operator, Flight Sergeant C.W.H. Cox. His job was to identify the components needed and to remove them from the Wurzburg. Cox, a former cinema projectionist, was ill equipped for such an operation. He had never been in a ship, or on an aircraft, before!

The planners knew that the project would be totally compromised if German Intelligence became aware of British interest in the Bruneval site so the "need to know" doctrine was strictly applied. The parachute unit believed that they had been chosen to put on an exercise for the War Cabinet to demonstrate techniques and capabilities for raiding a headquarters building behind enemy lines. Training was arranged at an existing training area used by the Glider Pilot Regiment so the arrival of another unit caused little interest. When naval units were involved most of the training was conducted at night in Scotland but it did not go well and ended miserably. Locations were often changed and during transfer all unit and qualification insignia were removed from the paras uniforms. Most sailors didn't discover the identity of the raiding force until the final stages of the training were completed.

The plan for the operation was simple. The paratroops were to be dropped in three units. The first under the leadership of Lieutenant John Ross and Lieutenant Euen Charteris, was to advance on, and capture the beach. The second, subdivided into three sections and commanded by Frost,

was to seize a nearby villa and the Wurzburg and the third, led by Lieutenant John Timothy, was to act as a rearguard and reserve.

The raiding party was ready for action by February 20th 1942. A scale terrain model, made by the RAF's Photographic Interpretation Unit, had been used to familiarise the raiding force with the area around Bruneval. Until the last minute the various buildings were labelled by function without any geographical information. Full-scale exercises on the south coast of England completed the training. After several anxious days of waiting for the weather to clear the raid went ahead on the night of February 27/28th. The Whitleys dropped the paratroops from a height of 600ft (180m) on to the countryside below.

Lieutenant Charteris' two sections were dropped about a mile and a half (2.5km) beyond their intended position. Charteris quickly regained his bearings and he and his men set off, at the double, across the icy landscape.

Frost's section took only ten minutes to gather at their rendezvous point. They met no opposition as they moved on the villa. Flight Sergeant Cox and an engineer detachment, hauled trolleys over a succession of barbed wire obstacles. Frost's men surrounded the villa and advanced towards the open front door. Frost blew his whistle. He later recalled, 'Immediately explosions, yells and the sound of automatic fire came from the proximity of the radar set.' The paratroops rushed the villa which they found completely empty save for a single German firing from the top floor.

Soon afterwards Cox, and the engineers, began to dissemble the Wurzburg's components, ripping most of them out by sheer force as bullets whistled around their ears. By this time heavy fire from German positions in a wooded enclosure about 300 yards (275m) to the north of the villa, was making life increasingly uncomfortable for Cox and the paras. The arrival of vehicles threatened an imminent mortar barrage and, after half an hour, Frost gave the order to withdraw. However a machine gun in a pillbox, which was still held by the Germans, now barred the way to the beach. The Germans were regrouping and advancing from the villa. Not a minute too soon Charteris' two sections arrived on the scene having already had a brisk encounter with an enemy patrol. The pillbox was silenced and the beach taken.

It was now about 02.15 hrs but the raiders were not yet out of danger - there was no sign of the Royal Navy! Frost's signaller's were unable to make contact with the landing craft which were to evacuate the paras. As a last resort several red Verey lights were fired. Then, just as Frost was preparing to rearrange his defences to meet the anticipated German counterattack, one of his signallers shouted, 'Sir, the boats are coming in! The boats are here! God bless the ruddy navy, sir!' Three LCAs came inshore escorted by three gunboats. Each LCA had the additional fire power of 4 bren guns manned by men of No 12 Commando.

The evacuation into six landing craft, with the sea running high and the Germans firing, was anything but orderly. Two of Frost's signallers failed to rendezvous and were left behind. However the Commandos managed to keep the German troops at bay until 03.30 hours when the last LCA left the beach area under heavy German fire. The raiders, and their precious Wurzburg cargo, were transferred to gunboats. They learned that the Navy had been delayed by the presence of a German destroyer and two E-boats. The German warships had passed within a mile (1.6km) of the landing craft but had not spotted them. With the dawn Royal Navy destroyers and a squadron of Spitfires arrived to escort the flotilla to Portsmouth. The Destroyers played 'Rule Britannia' over their loud hailers.

It is said that the Commandos had orders to shoot Cox if his capture by the Germans seemed inevitable. True or not there is no doubt that had Cox's knowledge about British radar fallen into German hands, they would have gained some advantage in the 'battle of the beams.'

However, a much greater prize to German intelligence would have been the capture of Don Preist. A little reported fact about Operation Biting was the involvement of a section from 181 Airlanding Field Ambulance RAMC, who provided medical cover. Lieutenant A Baker and twenty men travelled from their base at Chilton Foliat together with C Company of the 2nd Parachute Battalion to Inveraray in Scotland for specialist training prior to the raid. Later practices were held off the coast of Dorset. On the raid itself they sailed part of the way on the MV Prins Albert, a former Belgian ship, before transferring to ALCs, LCSs and a Motor Gun Boat to act as medical support to the returning paratroopers. Several casualties were treated on the journey home. Two men were killed in the operation and six were missing, all of whom survived the war. Two German prisoners were brought back, one of them the Wurzburg's operator. The German report on the raid commented: 'The operation of the British Commandos was well planned and executed with great discipline... although attacked by German soldiers they concentrated on their primary task.' The raid had been a great success due in large measure to the element of surprise. Even while reading an account of the action in a newspaper the Supply Officer of the Glider Pilot Regiment, whose training area the paras shared, did not associate them with the raid.
Allied Forces: Air - 1 Whitley Squadron; Sea - Landing Craft & Escorts; Land - 1st Airborne Division, elements of the French Resistance.

Axis Forces: Sea - 1 Destroyer, 2 E-Boats; Land - Infantry patrols & Bruneval defence force.
The upside- Wurzburg radar components successfully removed from German radar installation + capture of an operator.
Downside (Negative) - Two men killed & six missing.