Operation Bulbasket

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Operation Bulbasket was an operation undertaken by 'B' Squadron, 1st Special Air Service (SAS), behind enemy lines in German occupied France, between June and August 1944. The operation took place to the east of Poitiers in the Vienne department of south west France. Its objective was to block the Paris to Bordeaux railway line near Poitiers and to disrupt German reinforcements heading towards the Normandy beachheads, especially the 2nd SS Panzer Division – Das Reich. During the course of the operation, the SAS discovered the whereabouts of a petrol supply train destined for the 2nd SS Panzer Division. The supply train was destroyed by Royal Air Force bombers the same night. The SAS team made their base near Verrieres, the location of which was betrayed to the Germans. In the follow-up attack on their camp, 33 members of the SAS were captured and later executed together with a United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) pilot who had fallen in with them, after bailing out of his P-51 Mustang. Seven captured Maquisards were also executed in the woods after the attack. Three other SAS men, who had been wounded in the fight and taken to hospital, were executed by lethal injection while in their hospital beds.