Dan Snow's History Hit - The Commando Raid that Changed the Course of WW2

Episode Date: January 12, 2020

In October 1942 the British launched a small raid on the Channel Island of Sark. A cast of characters who gave their colleague Ian Fleming ideas for a new secret agent character, James Bond, crept ashore and captured German prisoners. A scuffle broke out and two of them were killed. The commandos escaped with one prisoner and that might have been the end of it. When Hitler heard the news however he went ballistic and very shortly after issued his infamous Commando Order. Henceforth they were to be shot on sight. It was another ratcheting up of the ferocity, and criminality of the Nazi war effort. In this podcast Dan visits the Channel Islands. Meets a local expert and retraced the steps of the raid. 

Hi everyone, welcome to Dan's Notes History Hit. I spent quite a lot of time last year in the Channel Islands. It's an archipelago of islands off the Normandy coast and where the rest of Normandy reverted to French control after the Hundred Years' War, the Channel Islands remained subject to the British Crown. In particular, I was in the islands of Guernsey, the Bailiwick of Guernsey.

These islands of Guernsey are grouped around Guernsey, the Bailiwick of Guernsey. These islands of Guernsey are grouped around Guernsey itself, and then the smaller islands like Alderney, Sark, and Herm. I was in the islands of Guernsey because they've got a fascinating wartime history. Together with the rest of the Channel Islands, they're the only British territory to be overrun by the Germans during the Second World War. They endured Nazi occupation, and we've got another podcast coming soon with some memories of people that were children under that Nazi occupation. It's a big year, 2020, to go to the islands of Guernsey. It's the 75th anniversary of their liberation from German occupation during the Second World War. They were only, the German forces on the islands only surrendered just before the end of the war itself, as the Allies mopped up Nazi resistance in Germany itself.

I've been working with Visit Guernsey, and you guys should head out there. There is a seven-month festival from April to October, Heritage 75. They've got World War II occupation sites that aren't usually open to the public, some of which I was able to visit when I was there, which they will be opening,

so you can go and check all that out, guided heritage walks. But they've also got, you you know awesome things like food experience and heritage and hidden kayak hidden cave kayak tours they've got it all go to visit guernsey.com slash heritage 75 for more information you can see the documentary i made out there in guernsey if you go to historyhit.tv you use the code code POD6, P-O-D-6, and you get six weeks totally free of charge. Check out what we're doing over there. We're trying to build the world's best history channel.

And you'll be able to see some of my adventures in the islands of Guernsey as well with brand new Second World War archaeology coming to light. This podcast is an account of a raid that took place on Sark, a raid that inspired the James Bond character in Ian Fleming's novels, a raid that, well, had an impact on the wider strategic course of the Second World War. In this episode, you're going to hear from me, Daniel Sark, you're going to hear from Major Marco Sciotti, who's an expert in Guernsey on the events of the raid, and you're also going to hear from historian Eric Lee. And the three of us are going to on the events of the raid and you're also going to hear from historian Eric Lee and the three of us are going to tell the story of Operation Basalt. Enjoy.

I've come to a headland on the south coast of Sark in the Channel Islands. I've got a low autumnal sun which is turning this cerulean blue water around me silver as it shines down over Jersey. I can see about eight miles away and this is a precipitous cliff but it wasn't too precipitous for the British commandos because here in October 1942 they launched one of their more famous raids. Britain had been driven out of the continent following Dunkirk in

1940 and Winston Churchill was determined that the fighting would be taken to the Germans on the continent not just in theatres like North Africa. Firstly they did a bunch of these like this was not the only time they ever did a raid like that and the other ones they had done were particularly successful and it came out of Churchill's mind that Churchill couldn't bear the idea that parts of the British Isles were occupied by the Germans, and nothing much was happening there. So Sark was described by the Germans as an eclat de paradis, a perfect little island of paradise.

The RAF wouldn't bomb it, so the Germans were there. It was like holiday camp for them. This was unbearable for Churchill. The commandos were formed, and they carried out a series of raids. Famously, there was a large amphibious raid on Dieppe, but there were raids at places like Saint-Nazaire, there were raids in Norway, all sorts of raids. This raid on the Channel Islands was designed to gain intelligence

about German building on the Channel Islands, the so-called Atlantic Wall, which was a huge series of fortifications designed to stop Allied invasion of Northwest Europe. But it was also designed to check on the people of Sarg. They were subjects of His Majesty King George VI after all. The only British subjects that have been incorporated into the Nazi German Empire. And this raid took place led by a guy called Geoffrey Appleyard and on the night of October the 3rd, very late, just before midnight, on the night of October 3rd, he led his men, 12 men, up this cliff that I'm standing on now and inland. It was the second attempt to land on the island.

It was the usual formula in that they were trying to take prisoners of war to get some intelligence and find out enemy dispositions on the island. On the night of the 3rd of October, which was actually a very hot, sunny day in Sark, the force set off an operation of basalt on MTB 344, which was a- That's a motor torpedo boat, so very, very fast. Yes, stripped down one, which was faster than average, commanded by Lieutenant Freddie Bourne.

That crossed the channel and went south about Sark and approached the coupé, the causeway between Big and Little Sark and it was challenged there by a searchlight, a German searchlight that asked them to identify themselves. They very coolly responded in German with a searchlight to say that they were an e-boat with engine trouble. So flashing a light on and off, so Morse code in German. In German, yeah. They were given clearance so they put into Derebel Bay next to Point Chateau, which is known locally, the headland there is the Hog's Back. They landed in what was known as a goatly boat,

which was a collapsible wooden boat, a very basic canvas and wood thing. Landed on the headland, they climbed up the rocks, scaled the rocks. It wasn't a particularly difficult climb. When they got to the top, it was full moonlight, which was time to aid them with their escape. When they got to the top, they thought they saw some enemy soldiers and they waited for a while, actually, only to find out that they were targets because it was a range.

So they proceeded from there. They have what they call primary target, which you realise when you do the research that primary target means the first house they're going to run into. Then secondary target is the second house. They had no idea what the Germans were. They had no idea what was on the island. They found a Napoleonic cannon,

which from the air they thought was a German machine gun emplacement. It turned out to be a relic of the 18th century. They were heading for a first building, which was a cottage in a valley nearby, and they were basically going to knock on the door and try and get any information they could they arrived it wasn't occupied so they they carried on the point man was a an officer called lieutenant anders lassen who was a dane serving in the british army so they carried on across the valley lassen then led them up the

other side of the valley they followed an earth bank which is still there you can actually retrace it and appeared at a house called La Jaspeleri now when they got there Geoffrey Uppleyard decided that they were going to go in and find someone this time so they actually broke a window got inside and Geoffrey Uppleyard and one of the other soldiers went upstairs and they found a lady there by herself, who was one of the soldiers actually described as an elderly lady. When you look back, she was in her late 30s. Oh, ancient.

She was a Mrs Pittard. She was recently widowed. She'd been married to the Doctor of Sark, who was a very popular man. She was very helpful. She told them everything she knew about the Germans there. She gave them some she knew about the Germans there, she gave them some copies of the local newspaper and she let them take some food and this was quite interesting, they were keen to take that and the commanders wanted to take it back to be analysed to see the

quality of the food of the bread that was being produced to get an idea of how hungry everybody was there. So once they'd completed that, Geoffrey Uppeyard offered her the opportunity to return to England with them. She declined, but they asked where the nearest Germans were. She indicated that they were just up the track at what is now a hotel. So it was about 150 meters away and we're pretty certain of the route that they took to get there, there was a covered route. They made their way up towards this building, the D-car it's called. Basically, there were some German pioneers, some engineers were billeted there. And these were chaps who, they weren't frontline soldiers,

they were engineers who were working on the defences of Creux Harbour and putting up a sort of a barricade there. There was one man on guard, so they stopped in what would have been their final assault position for what we probably call it now and interestingly the man who used to own the property was an ex-army officer and he was visited by the radio operator from this raid who actually talked him through the whole thing and what happened on the night and you can see where they actually stopped and from where anders lassen went forward to do the close recce he found one german sentry on guard

who was like most centuries in the middle of the night um you know was just ambling around not paying that much attention he went back reported to apple yard and said that he could handle it so apple yard sent him forward and uh andersassen killed him with a knife he stabbed him in the back with a Furban Sykes dagger and they said they could hear the radio operator said you could hear the muffled noise that the cry go up so they were in basically once they heard that they went forward they left the radio operator plus one in the final assault position so that they could escape afterwards they were then looking for prisoners, so there was an annex on the side of the DCAR,

which was a corrugated iron building. It was actually half an old Presbyterian chapel, which the Sarkis had bought from Wales. And this was accommodation for the soldiers. Appleyard organised everybody. They got inside in the connecting corridor, and on his signal they each went into a room to seize the soldiers that were in there there's an account from one of the

corporals who was involved called Redbourne which it was a slightly chaotic a bit comical in that of course the German soldiers didn't know what was going on called Redbourne said that he pulled the blanket off the soldier in his room who pulled the blanket back up again this. This happened three or four times. They didn't know what was going on. And then they started fighting, and it was quite a fistfight. They got the prisoners out into the corridor, and there were quite a few of them, so they tied them up. That's where the problems really began. While they were in the corridor and they were getting more prisoners out, some of the German prisoners realised that actually there weren't many commandos there,

so they started acting up a bit and started giving them trouble. It got to the point where the commanders were struggling to keep control of them, these guys were starting to make a noise, the prisoners, and they attempted to break free. One of them woke the rest of the guards, they called out the guards, so by this stage the British commanders had real trouble, they were outnumbered and they didn't know where the Germans were coming from. They were probably surrounded. It's said then that one of the officers gave the order to shoot prisoners. Certainly there was shooting and fighting.

Apparently, Corporal Resbourne says that Anders Lassen just held on to two prisoners himself without shooting and managed to keep them under control. One of them in his account said that he had a particularly big prisoner and he ended up fighting with him on the ground, quite nasty punch up and lots of shooting. There's still a splash, there's still bullet damage on one of the cottages over there from it because the guard had come out and really no one could see anything, it was dark and they were shooting. Appleyard managed to get them away and they got away with one prisoner land a viking longship on island shores scramble over the dunes of ancient egypt and avoid the poisoner's cup in renaissance florence each week on echoes of history we

uncover the epic stories that inspire Assassin's Creed. We're stepping into feudal Japan in our special series, Chasing Shadows, where samurai warlords and shinobi spies teach us the tactics and skills needed not only to survive, but to conquer. Whether you're preparing for Assassin's Creed Shadows or fascinated by history and great stories, listen to Echoes of History, a Ubisoft podcast brought to you by History Hits. There are new episodes every week. They got not just any German. This is like one of the unknown things about when you do a little bit

of research and digging. The guy they got was the commander of the group. When all the others began running away panicking and thinking they could do this, the one guy who kind of knew what he was doing, the commander, realized this is really a stupid idea. We'll just go with the British and get in the boat. There's no reason to resist. We could die. And they did die, some of them. So the guy they captured actually was the one guy who could tell them stuff about the mines. And not just in Sark, they had just come from France. So he could talk about stuff that was very relevant to the D-Day landings. And he was considered a goldmine of intelligence.

So there were no British casualties. They got one prisoner and they killed three who are buried in Fort George Cemetery over here. They retraced their route in the dark, running flat out, and they were pursued by the whole guard. They rode their little dory out to the waiting motor torpedo boat, which had been given strict instructions

to leave by 2.30 in the morning if Appleyard had not returned. It was now 3.30, and as they rode out to this motor torpedo boat, they heard its engines go on. It was about to abandon them. They made it to the boat in the nick of time, and it was able to power back across the channel at around 40 knots, making it back to British waters before daybreak. Germans didn't know what hit them. It is pitch black. They have no idea what's going on. They know there's been some shooting and some guys have been taken. They don't know what's happened.

And in the morning, they find some bodies. And they realize that some of their men had been, you know, the British have gotten away and some of their men have been killed and the men who had been killed had their hands tied. Word goes to Hitler, he says this is a war crime. He's shocked. Imagine Hitler thinking, you know, the hypocrisy, this is unbelievable. He's absolutely shocked that somebody would do such a thing.

And he issued, mainly as a result of this raid, but influenced by the commando activity, he issued his infamous commando order. He said that the commandos should not be subject to the Geneva Convention because they were fighting in a criminal manner. He said in future all terror and sabotage troops of the British and their accomplices, who do not act like soldiers but rather like bandits, will be treated as such by German troops and will be ruthlessly eliminated in battle wherever they appear. Of course, in discussions afterwards and analyses, it's debatable whether it's a war crime. You're not allowed to bind

prisoners. However, on the battlefield, while removing a prisoner, someone's becoming a prisoner, it apparently is legal to bind them. You can't bind them in the camps, but on their way to the camps, you're allowed to. So the British had a defense of this. It was not illegal.

And also, it was under battlefield conditions. If they had not done this, the Germans would have... One of them actually started beating up the British, even with his hands tied. Some realized what a horrific order it was. I think the Rommel was one of them who refused to carry it out. But the commander in Norway and several of the others really did take this seriously

and began executing Allied prisoners in cold blood. So that was a terrible repercussion. And so you kind of weigh all the Allied commanders who were executed, weigh the intelligence collected on Sark. OK, maybe it wasn't worth it in that sense. But they couldn't have anticipated that the Nazis would start executing Allied prisoners. Some of the people involved in the raid would go on to play a hugely important role in special forces and indeed in the foundation of the SAS. Yes, that's right. It was an interesting unit, the SSRF.

There were more officers probably than soldiers. And they all, as you say, a lot of them went on to play a key role in the rest of the war. It was an interesting unit, the SSRF. There were more officers probably than soldiers. And they all, as you say, a lot of them went on to play a key role in the rest of the war. Geoffrey Appleyard had done his holidays as a child there. So he guided them. His guidebook was a walking guide. It was published in 1906, which is still in print. That's how they got them around the island.

He used to climb the cliffs there for fun. And they built a model. And he looked at home movies. His family had a movie camera. They'd made home movies on Sark. He looked at those to prepare for the raid. So it was kind of farcical and amateurish or whatever. But the results were spectacular. And Churchill demanded to meet with Appleyard immediately afterwards in Downing Street. And they met, and they talked. Churchill was very proud of what they'd done. Jeffrey Appleyard formed part of one of the earlier SAS units, and he was the ops officer, and he was involved with the invasion of Sicily. A very sad story.

Two of his men were jumping into Sicily to organise the partisans. He briefed them, and they were going to jump from an aircraft, and as he was walking past them, just on a spur of the moment, he decided he'd go with them just to see them off, is the sort of thing that you might do. So he climbed aboard and the aircraft was never seen again. It's believed that it was probably a blue on blue, probably shot down by, maybe by a US battleship. So invasion of Cisla was less than a year after he landed here in Saar? Yeah, yeah, yeah. All the officers on the raid were killed during the war.

Not a single officer survived. There was that kind of bravery that inevitably they were all going to die. They all had illustrious careers, brave careers, you know, throughout the war. Anders Lassen is a very well-known figure in the world of Special Forces because the raid on Sark in his account that was the first time that he killed a man with a knife and from there his war just got bigger and bigger and more notorious. Some of the fighting that he did in the islands in the Mediterranean he's credited with clearing one side of a street by himself. Sir Peter de la Billière's book has

got a chapter about him some extraordinary things that he did but he went on to be a squadron commander in one sas and sadly he was involved in the raid at lake camacchio in in northern italy just before the end of the war when he was personally leading a squadron it's a very shallow lake and they were advancing down a very narrow causeway so there was no way out. They came under fire, returned fire. It was quite a serious firefight. But then the enemy position put up the white flag and he went forward to take the flag. It was a ruse and he was killed and the rest of the squadron piled in and finished the job.

But that was the end of his war. He was the only non-Commonwealth soldier in the Second World War to be awarded the Victoria Cross. It was a dain, an aristocrat, quite a character, quite a lot written about him. Did the Germans crack down on the people of Sark? Did Sark remain quite a cushy place? No, not at all. They immediately began deportations,

and they started with the husband, who was American, of the Dame of Sark. He was one of the first that was taken off. A very large group was taken off right after that. So, I mean, they weren't punished in the way you'd be punished if you were in Poland, you know, or Ukraine. I mean, this was a different level of punishment. The Germans always treated the British with kid gloves. They were very careful how they treated the Channel Islanders, as you know. But it got pretty brutal and pretty nasty at that point. And they reinforced Sark.

I mean, they put many, many more mines. And Sark became much more of a fortress after that, for no reason. This is an important milestone, marking the further descent of German forces into criminality and barbarism. That's Mrs Pittard. She was arrested, she was deported, she was sent to a camp in Germany where she spent the rest of the war. But then this remarkable woman who opened the door in her nightclothes and gave such valuable help to the commandos came came back to Sark,

where she lived until her death in 1969, and she's buried just up the way here in the churchyard. I feel we have the history on our shoulders. All this tradition of ours, our school history, our songs, this part of the history of our country, all work out and finish and liquidate. One child, one teacher, one book, and one pen can change the world.

He tells us what is possible, not just in the pages of history books, but in our own lives as well. I have faith in you. Hi everyone, it's me, Dan Snow. Just a quick request. It's so annoying, and I hate it when other podcasts do this, but now I'm doing it,

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which is nice. So if you could do that, I'd be very very grateful i understand if you want to subscribe to my tv channel i understand if you're not by my calendar but this is free come on do me a favor thanks