Operation Chopper was a

British Commando The Commandos, also known as the British Commandos, were formed during the Second World War in June 1940, following a request from Winston Churchill, for special forces that could carry out raids against German-occupied Europe. Initially drawn ...

raid by

No. 1 Commando The No. 1 Commando was a unit of the British Commandos and part of the British Army during the Second World War. It was raised in 1940 from the ranks of the existing independent companies. Operationally they carried out a series of small scale cros ...

during the

Second World War 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 ...

. The raid, over the night of 27/28 September 1941, targeted

Saint-Aubin-d'Arquenay Saint-Aubin-d'Arquenay () is a commune in the Calvados department in the Normandy region in northwestern France. Population See also *Communes of the Calvados department The following is a list of the 528 communes of the Calvados departm ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

; a troop of No. 1 Commando spent a day ashore. Sixty-five soldiers from No. 1 Commando left Portsmouth at 16.50 hours on 27th September 1941. Their mission was to land on the Norman coast at night in order to sound out the German defences, take prisoners and, above all, to harass the enemy by showing that Great Britain was still on the offensive. Part of the unit (Troop A) was to land at Saint-Vaast-La Hougue and the other (Troop B) at Courseulles-sur-Mer, but as a result of navigation problems, the motor gun boat towing the two landing craft carrying Troop B, drifted off-course. At around 01.30 hours - more than an hour late - the commando unit, led by Lieutenant Tom GORDON HEMMING, arrived, not at Courseulles-sur-mer, but at Luc-sur-Mer, landing at the foot of the sea wall, a few metres away from the Hôtel Beau Rivage, where the German command post was located. Two commandos - Corporal Cyril EVANS (age 24) and Fusilier Elwyn EDWARDS (age 20) - were killed and later buried in the cemetery at Luc-sur-Mer. The others made it back to Portsmouth on 28th September 1941 at around 10 o'clock in the morning. Both Lieutenant - later Captain - Gordon Hemming and his wife asked to be laid to rest in the cemetery at Luc-sur-Mer, near the men he lost in the early hours of 28th September 1941.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chopper, Operation of 1941 Conflicts in 1941 World War II British Commando raids 1941 in France Military history of Normandy C Amphibious operations involving the United Kingdom