Operation Loyton

Operation Loyton
Part of Western Front
Typical Vosges mountains landscape
Date 12 August–9 October 1944 Location Vosges Mountains, France Result German victory
Belligerents
United Kingdom	Nazi Germany
Commanders and leaders
Lieutenant Colonel Brian Franks	Standartenführer Gustav Mertsch
Strength
91 men 2nd Special Air Service Section from F Squadron, Phantom signals unit Unknown numbers of the French Resistance 3 Jedburghs from Team Jacob 1 downed Airman 622 Sqn Royal Canadian Air Force	Elements of the 17th SS Panzergrenadier Division Götz von Berlichingen
Casualties and losses
Special Air Service 14 killed and another 31 captured and executed. Phanton signals section 3 killed 210 French civilians arrested and sent to concentration camps where 140 died.	Unknown

Operation Loyton was the codename given to a Special Air Service (SAS) mission in the Vosges department of France during the Second World War.

The mission, between 12 August and 9 October 1944, had the misfortune to be parachuted into the Vosges Mountains, at a time when the German Army was reinforcing the area, against General George Patton's Third Army. As a result, the Germans quickly became aware of their presence and conducted operations to destroy the SAS team.

With their supplies running out and under pressure from the German army, the SAS were ordered to form smaller groups to return to Allied lines. During the fighting and breakout operations 31 men were captured and later executed by the Germans.

The Vosges is a region in north-eastern France close to the German border. In 1944 it was sparsely populated and consisted of wood covered hills, valley pastures and small isolated villages, an ideal area for a small mobile raiding force to operate. In late 1944 it was also the area that General George Patton's Third Army was heading towards, but outrunning their supplies they had stopped at Nancy. To counter the American advance the Germans had moved reinforcements, including the 17th SS Panzergrenadier Division Götz von Berlichingen, into the area.

A small SAS advance party commanded by Captain Henry Druce was parachuted into the Vosges on 12 August 1944. The drop zone was in a deeply wooded mountainous area 40 miles (64 km) west of Strasbourg. The advance party's objective was to contact the local French resistance, carry out a reconnaissance of the area, identify targets for an attack and locate a suitable dropping zone for the main force.

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