Operation Biting

Operation Biting
Part of World War II
RAF photo-reconnaissance picture of the Würzburg radar array at Bruneval in December 1941
Date 27–28 February 1942 Location Bruneval, France Result British victory
Belligerents
United Kingdom	Germany
Commanders and leaders
John Frost	Unknown
Strength
120 paratroopers & commandos 1 Sqn RAF transports RN support crafts	Approximately 130
Casualties and losses
Two killed, six wounded, six captured	Five killed, two wounded, two captured, three missing

Coordinates: 49°40′16.06″N 0°09′42.60″E / 49.6711278°N 0.1618333°E / 49.6711278; 0.1618333

Operation Biting, also known as the Bruneval Raid, was the code name given to a British Combined Operations raid on a German coastal radar installation at Bruneval in northern France, which took place on the night of 27–28 February 1942 during World War II.

A number of these installations were identified from Royal Air Force (RAF) aerial reconnaissance photographs during 1941, but their exact purpose and the nature of the equipment that they possessed was not known. A number of British scientists believed that these stations were connected with the heavy losses being experienced by RAF bombers conducting bombing raids against targets in Occupied Europe. The scientists requested that one of these installations be raided and the technology it possessed be studied and, if possible, extracted and brought back to Britain for further examination.

Due to the extensive coastal defences erected by the Germans to protect the installation from a seaborne raid, it was believed that a Commando raid from the sea would suffer heavy losses and give sufficient time for the garrison at the installation to destroy the Würzburg radar set. It was therefore decided that an airborne assault followed by seaborne evacuation would be the most practicable way to surprise the garrison of the installation, seize the technology intact, and minimise casualties to the raiding force.

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