Operation BULBASKET 6 June - 24July 1944

My next foray into Europe is intended to take place in in France in August 2025 to investigate and research the graves of members of B Squadron 1 SAS murdered by the German army during Operation BULBASKET in June 1944. 

Operation BULBASKET was intended to block the Paris - Bordeaux railway to prevent or delay the German Army reinforcing the Normandy defences, particularly to delay the German 2nd SS Panzer Division 'Das Reich'. A party from B Squadron 1st Special Air Service Regiment (B Sqn 1SAS) under Captain John Tonkin was parachuted in on 6th Jnue 1944. Two further groups were parachuted in on 8th and 11th June, both of wihch included the 'trademark' SAS Vickers K-armed Jeeps. . 

The Operation's major success was confirming intelligence received on 10th June 1944 of the location of the petrol supply train of the 2nd SS Panzer Division, at Châtellerault. Lt Tomos Stephens conducted a solo recce of some 120 kms by bicycle to confirm the intelligence but reported that the target was too well defended for B Sqaudron to attack it, therefore the information was passed back for the RAF to destroy the target by precision bombing. That night 11th June 1944, 12 Mosquito fighter bombers -  6 from 138 Wing RAF Lasham and 6 from 140 Wing RAF Gravesend - attacked and destroyed the target in the railway sidings.

On the night of 3/4 July 1944, the SAS camp was attacked by the German Army after local collaborators had discovered its whereabouts and passed the information to the German SS Security Police. A force centred around the 17th SS Panzergrenadier Division "Goetz von Berlichingen" attacked the SAS camp. A party of SAS men, French Maquisards and an American pilot, led by Lt Tomos Stephens, attempted to break out but were ambushed on a forest track in the Foret du Verrieres. Lt Stephens was beaten to death with a rifle butt by a German Officer and 7 Maquisards were summarily executed.

The remaining men, and US Army Air Force P51 pilot 2nd Lt Lincoln Delmar Bundy, were taken prisoner. On 7th July, they were all taken to the woods near St. Sauvant, forced to dig graves, and executed by firing squad. The SAS men tried to persuade the Germans that 2nd Lt Bundy was an airman therefore not subject to Hitler's infamous 'Kommando Befehl' and should not be executed, but to no avail. Unfortunately Bundy was wearing civilian clothes and therefore would have been considered as coming under the terms of the Kommando Befehl, as a commando or paratroop saboteur operating behind the lines, therefore Bundy was executed with the SAS soldiers. Their bodies were then buried in three graves. Uniquely, Bundy's body was not consolidated with other American casualties after the war and remains buried with the SAS men with whom he died; possibly because he was buried in a communal grave containing 26 of the fallen troops.

Three wounded SAS men who had been taken prisoner and hospitalised are understood to have been taken from hospital and murdered by lethal injection. They were buried in an unmarked grave and their bodies have never been located.

Reprisal Raid. 

The Operation JEDBURGH team 'Hugh' which was conducting operations to the East of the Op BULBASKET area of Ops reported these events back to Special Forces HQ in England and requested that a reprisal attack be mounted against the HQ of the 17th SS Panzergrenadier Division that had murdered the SAS soldiers. SAS Brigade HQ liaised with No 2 Group (2 Gp) RAF, of the RAF 2nd Tactical Air Force, and Air Vice Marshal Basil Embry, Air Officer Commanding  2 Gp, ordered 140 Wing RAF to conduct the raid, and personally briefed the 14 aircrews taking part at RAF Thorney Island, where 140 Wing had moved shortly after the successful raid on the fuel tanker train in the Châtellerault railway sidings.  

The raid was in four phases;

• four Mosquitos would drop high explosive bombs;
• six Mosquitos would drop US AN-M76 Napalm-filled incendiary bombs;
• the remaining four Mosquitos would drop more HE bombs;
• finally the aircraft would return to strafe the target before returning to base.

The Mosquitos left Thorney Island at about 21:00 hours UK Local time, and rendezvoused with an escort of 12 Mustang MK III long-range fighter escort aircraft for the very hazardous low level evening 'daylight' crossing of enemy-held territory in Northern France. The force reached the target at approximately 21:00 local time, when the German troops were eating their evening meal. The attack went as planned and all seven barrack blocks were destroyed; local estimates of the number of German troops killed varied from 80 to 200. All aircraft safely returned to Thorney Island in the early hours of 15 July.

Aftermath.

Forest workers discovered areas of disturbed earth and broken branches in December 1944, whilst working in the forest near St Sauvant. Examination of the site revealed human remains so the local police were duly informed. On 18th December the site was excavated and several bodies of soldiers wearing British uniforms were discovered. The Germans had attempted to conceal the identities of the men by removing their identity tags, but two bodies were discovered with their tags intact thus confirming their identity as members of the SAS team; a battle dress blouse marked with the owner's name provided further confirmation, and a body in civilian clothes was confirmed to be that of 2nd Lt Bundy USAAF. 

The 31 bodies were buried in Rom village cemetery, with full military honours. The three men from the hospital were never located but are commemorated by a plaque next to the graves of their SAS comrades in Rom cemetery. 

Lt Tomos Stephens' body was found by locals and was interred in the vault of two local families, the Mangier and De Montjon families, in Verrières Communal Cemetery. 

Rest in peace brave warriors. 

Rom Communal Cemetery, Deux-Sèvres, France. The grave marker of 2nd Lt LD Bundy USAAF; to the right of the headstone is the plaque commemorating three wounded members of the SAS murdered by lethal injection after bringing removed from hospital. Behind are the headstones of c 30 members of the SAS team murdered by firing squad on 7 July 1944.