page_title: Operations Wallace and Hardy
section_title: Hardy & Wallace
hierarchical_section_title: Operations Wallace and Hardy / Hardy & Wallace
context_page_description: Operations Wallace and Hardy also known separately as Operation Wallace and Operation Hardy were the codenames for two British Special Air Service operations during the Second World War that took place from 27 July to 19 September 1944. Initially two sets of operations by 2nd Special Air Service, they were eventually amalgamated into one. Their objective was to disrupt German lines of communication, coordinate the activities of the French Resistance and prevent German reinforcements moving to the Normandy beachheads.
  They operated from the Loire valleys, then mostly in the Forêt de Châtillon area in Burgundy and finally through to the forests of Darney to Belfort. The operation, which lasted six weeks in all, ended as they linked up with the US Seventh Army. The operations turned out to be the most successful of all the post D-Day SAS operations.
context_section_description: On 27 July Operation Hardy commenced - 55 men and seven Jeeps of 2nd Special Air Service under the command of Captain Grant Hibbert were parachuted near Châtillon-sur-Seine. They set up their base in the nearby forest and linked up with local elements of the French resistance. The previous month however 2,000 Germans swept the region and killed 37 Maquisards many of whom had been tortured. Nevertheless Hibbert all too aware of the situation undertook reconnaissance of the German strength and dispositions in the area.
  Despite being under orders not to engage the Germans, many of his men undertook aggressive patrols against rail and road communications over which reinforcements could be moved. Crucially they blew up a stretch of railway between Dijon and Langres and decimated a German convoy which was heading towards the Normandy front.
  With the Allied breakout in Normandy, it was realized that more and more Germans would be retreating through the area of SAS operations. In addition the German reinforcements for Operation Dragoon in the South of France, would also be diverted through the region as well as its retreat. As a result the area was to be reinforced by more SAS troopers along with members of SOE. Reinforcement parties and supplies were dropped in the same area on 8, 17, 20 and 23 August, and late in the same month the Hardy party would be joined a bigger operation - codenamed Wallace.
  On 19 August Operation Wallace commenced, under the command of Major Roy Farran, sixty men landed with 20 Jeeps at Rennes airfield near the Breton capital, which was by then under Allied control. Two days later Farran divided his party into three groups, and ordered them to maintain a distance of thirty minutes to increase the chances of not being discovered, as well as avoiding all German resistance. The journey to Hibbert's position took Farran and his men four days and some 200 miles (320 km) behind German lines and headed to the northern bank of the Loire river. The first fifty miles were uneventful, as local French resistance fighters were able to help the SAS troopers avoid German positions. Soon after a number ran into Germans in the villages and towns, and most had to fight their way out. A number of jeeps were lost as well as eight men; some escaped and even had to get their way back to Paris and join Farran by parachute at a later date.
  Now left with only seven of his original Jeeps, Farran pressed on, and as they approached the forest the column halted near a railway line. A train carrying Germans came into view; Farran ordered the engine to be targeted and it was shredded by a ferocious rate of fire from the column's Vickers K guns. The damaged engine came to a halt as the SAS men engaged the German troops in the rear of the train while the French civilians including the engine crew bailed out. As they approached their final destination they assaulted a German radar station and forced the German garrison to flee. Prisoners taken informed the SAS troopers that they believed the Jeeps to be the advance guard of General George S. Patton's United States Third Army.
  Eventually the party linked with Hibbert's men at the Hardy base. Farran took command of the combined group, which consisted of a composite squadron of 60 troopers, 10 jeeps and a civilian truck, and ordered it to move to another base deeper in the forest to avoid further German scrutiny.
caption: The Côte-d'Or area where Operation Wallace-Hardy took place
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