During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, Operation Speedwell was an early

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 ...

raid against Italian rail targets near

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian ce ...

starting on 7 September 1943. The fourteen-man group split into a number of smaller units to destroy track and ambush trains. The surviving raiders returned to friendly lines by foot after up to seven months behind enemy lines, some after time in captivity.

References

* * * Conflicts in 1943 World War II British Commando raids {{World-War-II-stub