Operation Titanic - Aftermath

Aftermath

The mission went according to plan. The only aircraft lost were two Short Stirlings and their crews from No. 149 Squadron taking part in Titanic III. Eight men from the Special Air Service failed to return; they were all either killed in action or executed by the Germans in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.

At 02:00 on 6 June 1944, the Germans reported the landing of parachutists east of Caen and in the Coutances, Valognes and Saint-Lô areas and hearing ships engines out at sea. The 7th Army was placed on full invasion alert, but General Hans Speidel decreased the level of alert when it was reported only dummy parachutists had been found. However, Generalfeldmarshall Gerd von Rundstedt ordered over ½ of the 12th SS Panzerdivision Hitlerjugend to deal with a parachute landing on the coast near Lisieux which were found to be dummies from Titanic III. The dummies and Special Air Service teams of Titanic IV diverted a Kampfgruppe from the 915th Grenadier Regiment, which was the only reserve element of the 352nd Infantry Division away from the Omaha and Gold beaches and the 101st Airborne Divisions drop zones. The regiment spent the morning of 6 June searching the woods for the parachutists, believing an airborne division had landed in the area.Enigma intercepts from the area of Titanic I, revealed that the German commander was reporting a major landing up the coast from Le Havre (well to the north of the landing beaches) and that he had been cut off by them.