Operation Bigamy ''a.k.a. Operation Snowdrop'' was a raid during the Second World War by the

Special Air Service The Special Air Service (SAS) is a special forces unit of the British Army. It was founded as a regiment in 1941 by David Stirling and in 1950, it was reconstituted as a corps. The unit specialises in a number of roles including counter-terro ...

in September 1942 under the command of

Lieutenant Colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colone ...

David Stirling and supported by the Long Range Desert Group. The plan was to destroy the harbour and storage facilities at

Benghazi Benghazi () , ; it, Bengasi; tr, Bingazi; ber, Bernîk, script=Latn; also: ''Bengasi'', ''Benghasi'', ''Banghāzī'', ''Binghāzī'', ''Bengazi''; grc, Βερενίκη (''Berenice'') and ''Hesperides''., group=note (''lit. Son of he Ghazi ...

and raid the airfield at Benina in Libya in coordination with the RAF. The raid was part of a deception plan for Operation Agreement, the much larger raid on Tobruk. The plan involved a "gruelling journey around the southern edge of the Great Sand Sea" but ended in failure. The raiding force was discovered at a road block by an Italian reconnaissance unit and Stirling decided to withdraw to Kufra. During the withdrawal, the Luftwaffe picked off nearly 70 of the vehicles on the barren terrain. The survivors were reformed as the 1st Special Air Service regiment. The frequently used, albeit inaccurate, name Operation Snowdrop stems from early editions of William Boyd Kennedy Shaws' book ''Long Range Desert Group''. At the time, War Office security policy would not permit Shaw to use real operational code names. In September 1967 Len Deighton wrote an article in '' The Sunday Times Magazine'' about Operation Snowdrop. The following year Stirling was awarded "substantial damages" in a

libel Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...

action about the article. The passage complained of states "Stirling himself had insisted upon talking about the raid at two social gatherings at the British Embassy in Cairo although warned not to do so". Stirling made the point that

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 Winston Churchill in the Second World War, dur ...

had been at both gatherings and the issue was raised in a private discussion with the Prime Minister.

References

1942 in Libya Conflicts in 1942 Special Air Service World War II British Commando raids Land battles of World War II involving the United Kingdom Battles and operations of World War II involving Italy Battles and operations of World War II involving Germany September 1942 events {{World-War-II-stub