Operation Postmaster

Overview

Operation Postmaster was a British special operation conducted on the Spanish colony of Fernando Po, now known as Bioko, off West Africa in the Gulf of Guinea, during the Second World War. The mission was carried out by the Small Scale Raiding Force (SSRF) and the Special Operations Executive (SOE) in January 1942. Their objective was to board the Italian and German ships in the harbour and sail them to Lagos. The SSRF under the command of Major Gus March-Phillipps left Britain in August 1941 and sailed the Brixham trawler, Maid Honor, to the Spanish colony.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

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)