Operation Postmaster

Significance

Operation Postmaster was a British special forces mission conducted against Axis shipping harbored in the Spanish colonial port of Fernando Po in the Gulf of Guinea. Executed by the Small Scale Raiding Force and the Special Operations Executive, the operation targeted Italian and German vessels with the objective of seizing and sailing them to Lagos. The mission represented an early wartime use of SOE and SSRF assets in a theater far from the main European fronts, demonstrating the reach of British covert maritime operations in West Africa. The SSRF had sailed from Britain aboard the trawler Maid Honor in August 1941, positioning the unit months in advance of the January 1942 raid.

Commanders (1)