Britain Sent 600 Paratroopers to Destroy Planes That Weren’t There

In November 1942, Britain dropped around 600 paratroopers behind enemy lines in Tunisia. Their mission was to reach Oudna airfield and destroy the German aircraft stationed there.

There was one problem: the planes weren’t there.

What followed was one of the British Army’s most chaotic airborne operations of the Second World War. With no transport, limited ammunition and no reliable route back to Allied lines, John Frost’s 2nd Parachute Battalion found itself hunted across Tunisia by German paratroopers, tanks and Italian artillery.

James Holland and Al Murray tell the extraordinary story of the Oudna operation: its disastrous planning, the brutal fight for survival and how hundreds of British paratroopers were lost pursuing aircraft that had never been there.

This is the story of Operation Torch, Britain’s first major airborne campaign and the mission that helped shape the future of the Parachute Regiment.

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With thanks to:

Nicola Rayner

Michael Merc

James Clayden

James Regan