Operation Hawthorne

Operation

Operation Hawthorn was a British series of special forces raids on the Italian island of Sardinia by L Detachment of the Special Boat Squadron under the command of Captain John Verney.

A submarine will land three small parties of raiders on the west coast of Sardinia on three consecutive nights. The first on June 30^th, 1943, the second on July 1^st, 1943 and the last on July 2^nd, 1943. Each of the three parties will comprise two officers and 12 men and which will sub-divide once ashore, giving six raiding parties in total, each of one officer and six men. A fourth party was to be landed on the island’s east coast to establish a rendezvous point to which the other parties would make their way for subsequent extraction by submarine.

The six main groups intend to attack airfields and destroy the aircraft based on them.

The patrol, led by Lieutenant Allan Duggin, includes men such as Sergeant-Major Cyril Feebery, Leonard Thomas, Sid Dowland and Frank Noriega. However, the team faces immediate setbacks as Jim Kosbab and Jumper Workman, originally slated to participate, are sidelined by illness. Medical Orderly Keith Killby, despite suffering from malaria himself, volunteers to join the operation, to provide the needed medical support in this operation.

As the operation is about to commence, another contentious decision arises with the introduction of Louis Tempanyro, an American soldier of Italian descent, assigned to Captain Ian Brinkworth’s patrol. Tempanyro is chosen for his knowledge of Sardinia and his ability to speak Italian. However, this decision is questioned by medical orderly Keith Killby, who notes Tempanyro’s apparent lack of volunteerism, and the bypassing of the rigorous vetting process usually employed by the Special Boat Squadron. This situation highlights the tension between operational exigencies and the standard practices of vetting and preparation that are typical in such sensitive and high-stakes military operations.

June 27th, 1943

Brinkworth’s team arrives safely at their destination after four days. Upon arrival, they dispose of their rubber boats and Mae Wests before heading towards their designated airfield under the cover of darkness.

After roughly three hours of marching towards their target, they descend into a steep wadi, only to discover upon reaching the bottom that American soldier Tempanyro is missing. Despite an extensive search, he remains unaccounted for, leaving the team without their guide as daylight breaks, and with two members, including Wilson, the signaller, battling malaria. Brinkworth decides the best course of action is for the team to remain concealed in the wadi until nightfall. Over the next five days and nights, their advance towards the target is significantly slowed until Brinkworth makes the decision to divide the group, with Scully staying behind with the sick members and the rest moving towards the airfield with explosives.

June 30th, 1943

The team, missing Doug Wright due to severe illness, lands on the south-west coast near Capo Pecora. Wright, having been cared for by Killby in Algiers, is too ill to leave the submarine. Shortly after landing, Sid Dowland and Leonard Thomas, both weakened by malaria, lose their way from the main group during a reconnaissance mission. Cyril Feebery muses on the unpredictable nature of Special Boat Squadron or SAS missions, where despite careful planning, improvisation becomes necessary. Dowland and Thomas’s attempt to find a suitable resting place ends with Thomas collapsing from exhaustion. After Dowland descends to refill their water, he returns to find Thomas missing. When he finally finds Thomas again, it’s evident he’s in critical condition, barely able to breathe or speak coherently. Despite Dowland’s best efforts to care for him, Thomas dies as the sun sets. Dowland then buries him, taking only the necessary supplies, and continues alone towards the predetermined rendezvous point where Cochran, Killby, and the rest of the team are waiting.

July 2nd, 1943

Lieutenant John Cochran’s group reaches the east coast of Sardinia by dawn, and by night, they prepare to depart from the surfacing submarine. At this point, Killby is severely incapacitated by malaria, to the extent that his companions need to assist him into the rubber boats and drag him onto the beach. Overwhelmed by his illness, Killby experiences delirium, vaguely recalling his plea to an officer to leave him by the roadside to be discovered, a request the officer denies, citing the risk of compromising their mission.

Cochran’s responsibility is to set up a base camp and await the return of the sabotage teams upon completion of their missions. The landing area on the coastline is remote, with only a single distant figure spotted over the first five days. Meanwhile, Killby has recovered from his fever, but James Murray has died from malaria.

On their sixth day on Sardinia’s east coast, Killby notices an Italian patrol actively searching the area. Lieutenant Cochran’s attempt to disguise the Special Boat Squadron party as Germans conducting a training exercise fails, leading Killby to believe their mission has been compromised, likely due to a betrayal by Louis Tempanyro. This suspicion is shared by Sergeant Pat Scully, especially after Captain Brinkworth and others do not return from the airfield. Following protocol, Scully and his sick companions seek sustenance at a nearby farmhouse, where they encounter seemingly friendly hosts. However, their departure is met with capture by an Italian patrol, leading to their confiscation of belongings and a night spent in jail.

The following day brings interrogation at an army base, where threats and accusations of espionage are levied against them, though the proceedings do not breach Geneva Convention standards. The surprise of the next morning comes when Scully and his group are reunited with other captured members of their team, including Captain Thomson and Lieutenant Cochran, indicating a broader capture of SBS personnel.

During the initial 15 miles of their journey, the prisoners share stories with Captain Thomson, revealing the unfortunate deaths of Sergeant Duncan McKerracher and Private Bill Thomas, both Grenadier Guardsmen who had joined the SAS, due to malaria. The journey briefly pauses to pick up Corporal Shackleton and Private Gill, who have been in chains for the last two days, as Scully notes, adding to the concern that many of the captured men are suffering from illness. Their destination is Sassari, the culturally rich second largest city of Sardinia, where the prisoners’ experiences diverge. Scully describes their treatment as terrible, contrasting with Killby’s account of relatively fair treatment. Killby, leveraging his limited Italian, seeks assurance from their captors about their fate, receiving a reassuring ‘no’ to his inquiry about execution, highlighting the varied interactions and conditions faced by the prisoners during their captivity.

On the fifth day of Scully’s captivity, Sid Dowland is thrust into the same cell. Dowland, after burying Leonard Thomas, has been making his way east towards their planned meeting point. By his third day of travel, he enters the village of Montevicchio in the late afternoon, regretting not circumventing the village due to his exhaustion and eagerness to reunite with his team. As he navigates through the village under the cover of darkness, the silence is broken by a barking dog, prompting Dowland to flee into an olive grove, pushing his body to its limits. Despite a brief respite, the pursuit by dogs and their owners forces him to continue his escape until the sounds finally disappear. However, the physical toll of the chase leaves him spent. The next day, as he attempts to recover, an Italian patrol discovers and captures him, ending his attempt to reach the safety of his comrades.

Dowland shares his experience with Scully, noting that his captors isolated him for three days to undermine his resolve. In the days that follow, additional Special Boat Squadron soldiers, including Captain Brinkworth and survivors of Allan Duggin’s patrol, join them. This group had made it to their objective, only to find their efforts thwarted as the Italians, aware of British commandos’ presence, significantly strengthened their defenses around the airfield. Duggin, severely weakened by malaria and barely coherent, repeatedly urges Sergeant-Major Feebery to leave him behind. Feebery, faced with no viable alternatives, decides to take essential items from Duggin to aid their survival, ensuring that Duggin’s water bottle is securely attached to him, hopeful of Duggin’s recovery and self-sustenance upon awakening.

John Verney and Edward Imbert-Terry arrive after parachuting into central Sardinia, a few days following the seaborne patrols’ insertion. They reach the designated airfield near Ottana without issue and split their team, with Verney, Lance-Sergeant John Scott, and Lance-Corporal Bill Brown tackling the south side. For 45 minutes, they discreetly place bombs on six aircraft and in fuel storage areas, then retreat to their planned meeting spot. During their exit, they encounter a German soldier who questions them about a waiting lorry. Verney, faced with the choice of violence or deception, opts for the latter, convincing the soldier they are Italians on a nocturnal exercise. Once the soldier leaves, possibly doubting their story, the commandos quickly divert from their path. Moments later, at 4 a.m., the bombs detonate, sending a series of blasts echoing through the area. Verney and his team, pausing to witness the aftermath from a hillside, observe the significant impact of their sabotage, marked by a sequence of explosions that illuminate the early morning sky.

In his 1955 war memoirs “Going to the Wars,” John Verney recounts how he, along with Brown and Scott, manages to avoid capture for 12 days before ultimately being detained by Italian Carabinieri. This account slightly diverges from Sergeant Scully’s, which marks their capture on 6 July. The detainee population at the Sassari prison grows to include a mix of Special Boat Squadron soldiers, among them Louis Tempanyro. Contrary to his claim of being captured on 7 July, a guard reveals to the other prisoners that Tempanyro surrendered on 3 July, citing his dissatisfaction with how the English were treating him. Once in custody, Tempanyro quickly divulges all he knows about the mission, showing minimal resistance to sharing information with his captors.

In August, the captured men are taken from their cells and led on a march towards the coast. Dowland notes the kindness of villagers along the way, who, despite their own scarcity, share food such as bread, cheese, and apples with the prisoners. After trekking for over a week, they arrive at a small port and embark on a journey to Naples, ending up in an Italian prisoner of war camp. Sergeant Scully, however, remains behind due to contracting malaria followed by dysentery, receiving treatment in a hospital while his fellow soldiers depart for Italy. A month later, Scully recovers sufficiently to fly to Italy, coinciding with Italy’s armistice with the Allies. With assistance from the US Army, Scully flies to Tunis on September 20^th, 1943, ultimately rejoining the Special Boat Squadron. It’s at this point that Jellicoe learns about the full scale of the difficulties encountered during Operation Hawthorn.

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