Operation Ambassador

Part of World War II

Date	14–15 July 1940
Location	Guernsey
Result	British failure

Belligerents

United Kingdom

Germany

Commanders and leaders

Ronnie Tod
John Durnford-Slater

Unknown

Strength

140

469

Casualties and losses

4 captured

None

Operation Ambassador was an operation carried out by British Commandos on 14–15 July 1940 within the context of the Second World War. It was the second raid by the newly formed British Commandos and was focused upon the German-occupied Channel island of Guernsey.

The raiding party consisted of 40 men from the newly formed No. 3 Commando under the command of Lieutenant Colonel John Durnford-Slater, and 100 men of No.11 Independent Company under Major Ronnie Tod.

Due to a series of mishaps, poor fortune and the haste with which it was planned and implemented, the raid resulted in no immediate military gains for the British, although the experience gained in the mounting and conduct of the operation was to prove invaluable for the success of subsequent Commando operations.

On 30 June 1940 the Germans landed troops on the Channel Islands. Two days later, the British prime minister, Winston Churchill sent a memo to his chief staff officer, General Hastings Ismay, asking him to begin planning an operation for a raid on the islands as soon as possible and stating that he felt that it would be the type of operations that the newly formed Commandos would be suited for. After that, things began moving very quickly. Indeed, the War Office approved the proposal for an operation later that day and shortly after planning began in earnest.

Code named "Ambassador", it was decided that the operation would follow two preliminary operations code named "Anger". The preliminary operations would be undertaken to gather necessary intelligence prior to a raid by 140 men which would land on the island of Guernsey and attack the airfield with the purpose of destroying aircraft and buildings, as well as capturing or killing members of the garrison. The units that were chosen for the raid were 'H' Troop from No. 3 Commando and No. 11 Independent Company. No. 3 Commando, under Lieutenant Colonel John Durnford-Slater, had only just been raised, having completed its recruitment on 5 July, and had not yet begun training, while No. 11 Independent Company under the command of Major Ronnie Tod had been raised earlier in June and had a few weeks earlier undertaken Operation Collar, which had been a hastily organised and largely unsuccessful raid on Boulogne. During the planning stage, Durnford-Slater went to London where he worked out most of the details with David Niven, who was then serving as a staff officer in the Combined Operations Headquarters.

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Wikipedia