Operation Postmaster

In 1941 the Admiralty started receiving reports that German submarines were using the rivers in Vichy French parts of Africa as a base for refuelling. The unit selected to investigate the reports was the Small Scale Raiding Force (SSRF) also known as No. 62 Commando. While being under operational control of Combined Operations Headquarters, No. 62 Commando was under the command of Major Gus March-Phillipps. Maid Honor, a 65-ton Brixham yacht trawler, left Poole harbour on 9 August 1941, bound for West Africa. The five man crew were under the command of March-Phillipps. Freetown was the agreed rendezvous for both groups, Appleyard's party having arrived at the end of August. SOE maintained a presence in West Africa, where it could observe Vichy French, Spanish and Portuguese territories with the intention of identifying and hindering any activities that threatened Britain's colonial possessions. While the commandos were searching for the German submarine bases, SOE agents had become aware of three vessels in the port of Santa Isabel on the Spanish island of Fernando Po off the coast of Africa near the border of Nigeria and Cameroon. In his visits to the island, SOE agent Leonard Guise kept the ships under observation, and in August 1941 submitted a plan to seize Likomba and disable ''Duchessa d'Aosta''. Approval for the military operation in a neutral port was given by the Admiralty on 20 November 1941. To transport the raiders to the island, two tugs, Vulcan and Nuneaton, were provided by the Governor of Nigeria, Sir Bernard Bourdillon. The raiding force would consist of 32 men: four SOE agents, 11 commandos from the SSRF and 17 men recruited from the local population to crew the two tugs. The mission suffered a blow when the British General Officer Commanding (GOC) West Africa Command, General Sir George Giffard refused to support the mission. He declined to release the 17 men required, stating it would compromise some unnamed plans he had in mind, and that the act would be seen as piracy and could lead to repercussions. As a safeguard the Admiralty also dispatched HMS Violet, a , to intercept the vessels at sea, which would provide the cover story that they had been intercepted while trying to make their way home to Europe. ==Mission==

from the air SOE agent Richard Lippett had obtained employment with the shipping company John Holt & Co (Liverpool), which had business offices on the island. Having taken up the post, he started to make preparations for the raid. He became aware that the crew of ''Duchessa d'Aosta'' were in the habit of accepting invitations to parties ashore and had held their own party aboard ship on 6 January 1942. Under the guise of a party-goer, Lippett managed to gain information about the readiness of the ship for sea, crew numbers, and the watch arrangements. The raiders left Lagos in their two tugs on the morning of 11 January 1942, and while en route they practised lowering folbots (folding kayaks) and boarding ships at sea under the command of Captain Graham Hayes. They approached Santa Isabel harbour and at 23:15 and 23:30 hours on 14 January 1942; both tugs were in position outside the harbour. Onshore, Lippett had arranged for the officers from ''Duchessa d'Aosta to be invited to a dinner party; 12 Italian officers and two German officers from Likomba'' attended. The boarding parties assembled on the decks of the two tugs as they entered the harbour. Vulcan, with March-Phillipps and his second in command Appleyard on board, headed for ''Duchessa d'Aosta. As they approached, a few men could be seen on the after deck of the merchant vessel, but they seemed to take no notice of the tug other than to shine a torch in its direction. At the same time, folbots under the command of Hayes from Nuneaton, were being paddled towards Likomba and Bibundi, which were moored together. Challenged by a watchman on Bibundi'', they persuaded him with their reply that it was the ship's captain coming back on board. The men from the canoes boarded Bibundi, and the two-man crew on watch jumped overboard. After attaching explosive charges on the anchor chain, the commandos guided Nuneaton alongside Likomba to take her and Bibundi in tow. As soon as they were ready, the charges were detonated, releasing the anchors, and Nuneaton started to tow Likomba out of the harbour. Eleven men from Vulcan had managed to board ''Duchessa d'Aosta; while one group attached charges on the anchor chains, another searched below-decks, collecting prisoners. Blowing the anchor chains, Vulcan started to tow Duchessa d'Aosta'' out of the harbour. The explosions had alerted the population of the town, who started to gather on the pier, but no attempts were made to stop the ships from leaving. Several anti-aircraft emplacements opened fire at imagined targets, believing the explosions to have been caused by an aerial attack, but the six-inch guns protecting the harbour from attack from the sea remained silent. From entering the harbour to leaving with the ships under tow, the operation had taken 30 minutes, without any losses to the raiding party. Out at sea on 15 January 1942, March-Phillipps established a routine of watches and placed guards on the 29 prisoners they had taken. During the evening they started to have trouble with the tugs' engines and the tow ropes to the captured vessels. The next day Vulcan reached the location for the rendezvous and was "captured" at sea by HMS Violet. Nuneaton, suffering from engine trouble, managed to contact the Nigerian collier Ilorin by semaphore, which in turn contacted Lagos, and a ship was dispatched to tow them into port. ==Aftermath==

The Special Operations Executive had now demonstrated their ability to undertake operations, no matter the political consequences. Hugh Dalton, the government minister in charge of SOE, informed the British prime minister Winston Churchill of the outcome of the raid. He also stated his belief that "other neutral governments would be impressed that Britain would, if needed, disregard the legal formalities of war in their efforts to succeed". The agent in charge of SOE Africa station submitted a report to the head of SOE Colin Gubbins reflecting on the success of Postmaster: "perhaps next time it will not be necessary for prolonged negotiations before undertaking a 30-minute operation". British Naval Intelligence issued their own communique: The details of the raid were being kept secret even from the British chiefs of staff, who were only informed, on 18 January 1942, that ''Duchessa d'Aosta had been intercepted offshore and was being taken to Lagos. In the aftermath of the operation, Maid Honor was left in Lagos and eventually sold to the Sierra Leone government as a converted trawler. Duchess d'Aosta was sailed to Greenock and then managed by Canadian Pacific as the Empire Yukon for the Ministry of War Transport. Likomba was managed by the Elder Dempster Lines, which renamed it Malakel'' in 1947 and then sold it to Liberia in 1948. After the raid March-Phillipps was awarded the Distinguished Service Order, Hayes was awarded the Military Cross, and Appleyard a Bar to his Military Cross; Lippett and Guise were each appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire. Another commando, and the only professional sailor on the raid, Private Anders Lassen, was the first man to board ''Duchessa d'Aosta''. For conspicuous efficiency in getting the ship under way, Lassen was given a commission in the field, Hayes evaded capture and crossed the Spanish border, only to be handed over to the Germans who kept him in solitary confinement for nine months before he was executed by firing squad on 13 July 1943. March-Phillipps was killed during Operation Aquatint in September 1942. Appleyard later joined the Special Air Service, and on the same day that Hayes was executed Appleyard was reported missing when his plane failed to return from a mission. Lassen also joined the Special Air Service; he was awarded two bars to his MC and promoted to major. He was killed in Italy in 1945, and awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross for his actions there. ==Notes==