Operation Colossus - Preparation

Preparation

On 26 April 1941, the Prime Minister was shown a demonstration of the airborne force that Britain currently possessed, and was informed that although some 800 parachute troops had been trained, their deployment was severely limited by the lack of suitable aircraft which could be used to transport them to any prospective targets. The primary airborne formation in existence by this time was No. 11 Special Air Service Battalion, which numbered approximately 350 officers and other ranks, and had been formed from No. 2 Commando, a Commando unit which had been selected for conversion into an airborne unit. The Commando began intensive airborne training in June 1940, originally 500 strong, but this had been reduced to 21 officers and 321 other ranks by September 1940; despite already receiving rigorous training, many of the commandos failed their training by refusing to conduct a parachute drop. One senior RAF officer at the Central Landing Establishment believed that such a large number refused due to a combination of inexperience and a fear that their parachute would not open when they jumped out of the aircraft. On 21 November 1940 the Commando was officially renamed as No. 11 Special Air Service Battalion and reorganized to form a battalion headquarters, one parachute wing and one glider wing. By 17 December the battalion had officially completed its parachute training, including taking part in a number of demonstrations for military observers, and was considered to be ready for active duty.

There were few airborne resources available to the British Army by mid–1941. The only unit trained and available for an airborne operation was No. 11 Special Air Service Battalion, there were very few transport aircraft available to transport an airborne force, there were few RAF flight crews with experience of parachute droppings and none with operational experience, and there were no specialized overseas facilities to cater exclusively for airborne operations. However, it had been decided that some form of airborne operation would have to be carried out. The reasons for mounting an operation with such meagre resources were two–fold; firstly a successful raid would demonstrate to the rest of the world that Britain was still a force to be reckoned with and had not been defeated, and secondly a raid would test the fighting ability of the battalion and its equipment, as well as the RAF's ability to deliver paratroopers at a predetermined location at a required time. The target chosen for the operation was an aqueduct that crossed the Tragino river in the Campania province of southern Italy near the town of Calitri. The aqueduct carried the main water supply for the province of Apulia, which at the time was inhabited by approximately two million Italians and included the strategically important port of Taranto; it was hoped that destroying the aqueduct and depriving the population of their regular water supply would damage their morale, and also have some impact on the Italian war efforts in North Africa and Albania. The aqueduct was a significant distance from the Italian coast, making it unlikely that a sea–borne raiding party could reach it, and it was believed that it was too strongly constructed to be destroyed by aerial bombing; as such, an airborne raid conducted by parachute troops was thought to be the ideal way to eliminate the aqueduct.

A small force of thirty–eight men–seven officers and thirty–one other ranks–was selected from the battalion and designated X Troop, commanded by Major T.A.G. Pritchard of the Royal Welch Fusiliers. Three Italian–speaking interpreters were attached to the troop for the duration of the operation: Squadron Leader Lucky MC, Rifleman Nasri from the Rifle Brigade and a civilian named Fortunato Picchi, a waiter in the Savoy Hotel. Training for the operation began in January 1941 and lasted for six weeks, in order to allow time for six Whitley bombers to be converted to drop parachutists. A full–scale model of the aqueduct was built in early February to allow the troop to practice its assault, and during training one enlisted man was killed when he parachuted into an ice–covered pond and drowned before he could be rescued. The plan for the operation called for six Whitleys of No. 91 Squadron RAF to transport X Troop from Malta to the target area on 10 February, while another two bombers would carry out a diversionary raid against railway yards at Foggia, approximately 60 miles (97 km) to the north of the aqueduct. At 21:30 the troop would be dropped around the objective, attack and demolish it, and then withdraw 50 miles (80 km) to the coast to the mouth of the Sele River, where the submarine HMS Triumph would pick them up on the night of 15 February.