When the Nazi’s under the command of Hitler invaded Western Europe, the British government began to make provisions in case the worse case scenario happened and Britain was invaded.
In 1938 there was a plan hatched that would create an under ground army of resisters whose job and sole aim would be to make life difficult for the invading army and thus make them think twice about the invasion.
It was this civil defence plan that gave the new Prime Minister Winston Churchill the idea for a unit that could annoy, hinder and damage the nazi war machine while in France. Winston Churchill had been a great follower of war, his first experience being in Cuba when the Spanish were thrown out and later in Southern Africa, both these campaigns used the terror aspect to strike at the heart of the army, this use of sabotage and irregular war gave Churchill his ideas and later would prove him to be a main player in the allied countries war effort.
In 1940 Churchill order the creation of the Special Operations Executive with a mandate to “Set Europe Ablaze” the unit was house in Whitehall, London within the Ministry of Economic War Fare, with the minister in charge being Hugh Dalton. Who often appeared on newsreels explaining about the ministry and the fact that they did such top-secret work?
The Special Operations Executive’s head was a military man called Colin Gubbins; his job was to make sense of the suggestions for operations that had been thought up by the mainly civilian staff. One such operation was to assassinate the “Pathfinder” Pilots, these were the German pilots who were able to fly at night and attack with such accuracy, while the RAF were still only able to fly the much more dangerous day time missions.
The Plan was simple, a unit id flown into France, they plant a large bomb in the road, the Pathfinders pilots who are being transported by bus to the airfield, could all be killed or severely injured putting the pathfinders out of business. The operation was given the go ahead and named Operation Savannah, five people were dropped into France, the planned failed when the unit realised that the Pathfinder pilots all made their own way to the airfield. A classic example of bad planning, and much to the joy of the Special Intelligence Service who believed that the Special operations Executive were intruding on their territory.
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