Hi all Just got back from my Remembrance Weekend trip to Normandy. It was fantastic. Anyway while I was exploring Omaha beach, I came a cross a plaque on the sea wall, in recognition of `Operation Aquantint`. It had a commando dagger and the text showed it was in recognition of the Royal Marine Commandos that carried out operations to liberate France. I couldn`t take a picture coz it was too dark. I made a quick note of it in my notebook and moved on. It must`ve been very dark or I must`ve been very excited about the whole trip because now when I read the notes for that particular plaque they don`t make sense. Just a bunch of hasty scribbles. I wrote next to it `12th Sept. Major March Phillips` I`ve done various internet searches and checked my books but I can`t find anything of "Aquantint". Can anybody help? What was "Aquantint"? Thanks Jack
Glad you enjoyed your trip, Jack ! It was 'Operation Aquatint ' - a small Commando 'pinprick' raid mounted on 12th September, 1942. I believe that all the Commandos were tragically killed when they encountered a German patrol - some Commandos being shot in the water. I really feel that No. 9 should reply to this one....?
You rang??? Operation Aquatint is significant, but nothing to do with Royal Marines, (for f’s sake who writes this stuff??). The raid was conducted by the SSRF – Small Scale Raiding Force – on the night of 12/13 September 1942. The SSRF was ‘formed’ by Louis Mountbatten Feb/March 1942 (Chief of Combined Operations), to mount cross channel capture and destroy raids. Ah but you say, weren’t there already the Commandos, trained and experienced in this? Yes, but the Commandos were ‘Churchill’s boys’, the SSRF would be under direct control of Louis! Get my drift? Louis was after about 50 men and, as it happened, the SOE had formed a group referred to as ‘Maid Honour Force’, after the ship they sailed off to their West Africa operations in. They were currently in-between engagements, catching a few rays in South Africa, and Louis ‘negotiated’ them off the SOE for his SSRF. They remained on the SOE’s role but were operationally under Combined Ops and Louis set the missions and the missions had to be approved by SOE, blah, blah, blah. With everybody claiming an interest, the SSRF had various names. The SOE designated them as ‘Station 62’ which fitted their jargon and Combined Ops No.62 Commando, which suited theirs. They were based at Anderson Manor in Dorset and given one MTB, number 344, which was faster than either of the two launches they were initially supposed to use, despite the fact it had a tendency to ‘fly’ if driven flat out in more than a Force 4 wind. They affectionately named their boat ’The Little Pisser’, and no, you couldn’t get 50 men on an MTB. The operational driving force behind the SSRF was Major Gustavus Henry ‘Gus’ March-Phillipps DSO, MBE, (originally RA and No.7 Commando) who was to be succeeded by Maj. John Geoffrey ‘Apple’ Appleyard DSO, MC and Bar, also from No.7 Commando. Operation Aquatint was a mission to shoot-up some Germans and snatch a prisoner from St Honorine, to the east of what would become Omaha beach. Eleven men went ashore while ‘Apple’ remained on the MTB being still encumbered by a broken ankle from the previous raid. Another famous member of the SSRF was Anders Lassen VC who was not on this raid. The plan was to land along the coast from St Honorine, scale the low cliffs and approach from the rear. On the night it was not possible to identify the exact landing point so they landed closer to the town and almost at once things started to go wrong. They encountered a 7 man German patrol which was dispatched and a prisoner taken (who maintained he was a Czech). However, the gunfire alerted the forces at that local who reacted in numbers. Having stirred-up the hornets nest, Gus ordered the withdrawal back to their boat while under fire. By now Spandaus were in action, flares fired and at least one 20mm in play. The MTB tried to get closer and heard a call from the beach to abandon and get clear. The MTB itself was now under fire and one of the two engines was hit and US. Most Commandos made their boat and started paddling out. Some men started swimming from the beach and soon all alive were swimming when the boat was hit and sunk. Four were killed including March-Phillipps, some were taken prisoner and some escaped, one who shortly after returned to France as an SOE agent. Apple and the Little Pisser made it back to England where it was decided to immediately make the SSRF back up to strength with Apple in charge. He led the infamous raid on Sark which included some men of No.12 Commando and Anders Lassen. This raid, Basalt, was the one where the ‘tying of prisoners hands’ incident occurred which is believed to have been a major contributing factor to Hitler’s Commando Order (18th October 1942).The SSRF didn’t continue much longer (last op Pussyfoot 3/4 April 1943) and most returned to No.12 Commando as by then that was where most had been ‘loaned’ from. Some including Apple and Lassen went out to the Med with Bill Stirling (brother of David ‘SAS’ Stirling) and found themselves in either the SBS or the SAS, this in itself is not an easy lineage. Apple later went missing when his plane went down in the Med en route to an operation in ’43 while technically with an SAS formation. Gus March-Phillipps is buried at St. Lauren-sur-Mer, Calvados, and his grave shows the 12th as date of death while the two others there (Sgt. Williams and Pte. Lehniger [born Petschau, Bohemia]) have the 13th, being the day they were shot. No.9 ps. if you want to be correct and/or show a little class, the Commandos carried a Fighting Knife, not a 'dagger'! [ 13. November 2003, 05:55 PM: Message edited by: No.9 ]
Aah!!! AQUATINT! No wonder it didn`t come up on an internet search. See, I told you I wrote it in the dark and was very exciteable!! I`ve taken my self outside and given myself a good shoeing for not taking proper notes. Thank you for that very detailed info. Incidently, I took about 80 photos over there. Most are of the beach where my Battalion landed in the first wave and a load are of emplacements and casemates. However theres some hardware like a Hetzer, Pak 43 etc etc.I`m thinking of sharing them with you guys, how can I do that? Do I need to put them on the web or can I post them direct on this forum??? Thanks again for the info. Jack
Well, just keep adding an ‘N’ when noting my car’s index. I’ve been puzzling why the plaque refers to ‘Royal Marines’??? If it’s a recent plaque, it could have either commissioned by the Royal Marines, (hep, two, three, four), or it’s a piece of incredibly sloppy work? If it’s an old plaque the SSRF, having an SOE connection, may have still been on the classified list at that time? Equally they wouldn’t have been given information about No.62 Commando, which after this point had other clandestine units added. Re photos, you can’t paste directly from your computer to this site. You need to paste them to your own web site/home page and then link to them using this sites magic formula. e.g. </font><blockquote>code:</font><hr /><pre style="font-size:x-small; font-family: monospace;"> </pre>[/QUOTE]The magic code this site needs is . In-between this goes the full address of the picture on your site/page. No.9
