Operation Flipper
| Operation Flipper or the 'Rommel Raid' | |||||||
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| Part of Operation Crusader during the Second World War | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
 United Kingdom
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 Nazi Germany
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| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
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Robert Laycock Geoffrey Keyes † |
Erwin Rommel | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 2 killed 28 captured (incl. 3 wounded) 3 escaped |
4 killed | ||||||
Operation Flipper (also called the Rommel Raid) was a British commando raid, during the Second World War, carried out mainly by men from No. 11 (Scottish) Commando. The operation included among its objectives an attack on the headquarters of Erwin Rommel, the commander of the Afrika Korps in North Africa. It was timed to strike on the night of 17/18 November 1941, just before the start of Operation Crusader, a British offensive. The operation was a failure, Rommel had left the target house weeks earlier and all but two of the commandos who got ashore were killed or captured. One of the Special Boat Section team who had secured the beach for the commando party also escaped.
From October–November 1941, a plan was formulated at Eighth Army headquarters to attack four objectives behind Axis lines:
Although not specified in the orders, the goal of the raid was to kill or capture Rommel, to disrupt German organisation before the start of Crusader. Rommel's headquarters was believed to be at Beda Littoria, because of the reports of Captain John Haselden, who had reconnoitred the area disguised as an Arab and reported that Rommel's staff car came and went from the former Prefecture building. The operation was led by Lieutenant-Colonel Robert Laycock and Lieutenant-Colonel Geoffrey Keyes, present throughout the planning stage, selected the most hazardous task, the attack on Rommel′s headquarters for himself. Beda Littoria had only briefly been Rommel's headquarters and had been taken over by the chief quartermaster of Panzergruppe Afrika, General Schleusener. Some weeks earlier, Rommel had moved his headquarters nearer to Tobruk, since he believed commanders needed to be close to the action. Rommel was not even in North Africa during Operation Flipper, having gone to Rome to request replacements for supply ships sunk by the British.
On 10 November, two submarines left Alexandria. HMS Torbay carried Keyes, Captain Robin Campbell, Lieutenant Roy Cooke and 25 men and HMS Talisman transported Laycock, Captain Glennie, Lieutenant Sutherland and 25 men. On the night of 14/15 November 1941, Keyes′ detachment landed on the beach of Khashm al-Kalb (The Dog's Nose), guided by a couple of two-man Special Boat Section (SBS) teams, in folbots (folding canoes). The beach lay near a place known as Hamama, some 250 mi (400 km) behind Axis lines. Once ashore, they made contact with Captain John Haselden, delivered earlier by the Long Range Desert Group for reconnaissance. The weather deteriorated and Laycock's group had a much more difficult time getting ashore, Laycock and seven men landed but the rest were stranded on Talisman. With only 34 of the 59 men available, instead of four detachments attacking separate targets, there were only be three. Laycock remained at the rendezvous with three men to secure the beach. Keyes led his detachment of 25 men for the attack on Rommel′s supposed headquarters, while Lieutenant Cooke took six men to destroy the communications facilities near Cyrene. Haselden's detachment completed its mission and was picked up by the LRDG.
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