Operation Harling

Operation Harling
Part of Axis occupation of Greece in World War II
The modern viaduct over the Gorgopotamos river
Date 25 November 1942 Location Greece Result Allied success
Belligerents
ELAS EDES  United Kingdom	Italy  Germany
Commanders and leaders
Eddie Myers Chris Woodhouse John Cooke Aris Velouchiotis Napoleon Zervas	?
Strength
ELAS: 86 EDES: 52 12	100 5
Casualties and losses
4 wounded	?

Operation Harling was a World War II mission by the British Special Operations Executive (SOE), in cooperation with the Greek Resistance groups ELAS and EDES, which destroyed the heavily guarded Gorgopotamos viaduct in Central Greece on 25 November 1942. This was one of the first major sabotage acts in Axis-occupied Europe, and the beginning of a permanent British involvement with the Greek Resistance.

Operation Harling was conceived in late summer 1942 as an effort to stem the flow of supplies through Greece to the German forces under Field Marshal Erwin Rommel in North Africa. To this end, the Cairo office of the SOE decided to send a sabotage team to cut the railway line connecting Athens with Thessaloniki. Three viaducts were targeted, all in the Brallos area: the Gorgopotamos, Asopos and Papadia bridges. The destruction of the Asopos viaduct was preferable, since it would take longer to rebuild, but the choice would be ultimately left to the mission's leader. The team would be under the command of Lieutenant Colonel (later brevetted to Brigadier) E. C. W. "Eddie" Myers of the Royal Engineers, "the only parachute-trained professional sapper officer in the Middle East", according to his second-in-command, Major (later brevetted to Colonel) Chris Woodhouse. After completion of the mission, the British team would be evacuated, leaving only Woodhouse, the Greek 2nd Lieutenant Themis Marinos and two radio operators to establish a liaison with the fledgling Greek Resistance movement.

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