page_title: Operation Postage Able
section_title: Pilot operation
hierarchical_section_title: Operation Postage Able / Pilot operation
caption_attribution_description: English: The Royal Navy during the Second World Wat X-Craft 25 underway in Loch Striven, near Rothesay with Lieut J E Smart, RNVR, the Commanding Officer on deck by the conning tower.
context_page_description: Operation Postage Able was an X-class submarine-based Royal Navy operation in preparation for Overlord, the Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied Europe.
context_section_description: On New Year's Eve 1943/4, under the leadership of Major Logan Scott-Bowden of the Royal Engineers, a unit set out in motor torpedo boats to survey Luc-sur-Mer. Transferring to a hydrographical survey craft, they moved closer to shore where Major Logan Scott-Bowden and Sgt Bruce Ogden-Smith swam to the beaches. Collecting samples at designated points, they were careful not to leave behind evidence of their visit, and returned to England the next morning.
  On 16 January 1944, X20 planned to spend four days off the French coast. Commanded by Lt K.R. Hudspeth DSC* RANVR and Sub. Lt. B. Enzer RNVR, with the COPP (Combined Ops Pilotage Party) comprising Lt. Cdr. Nigel Willmott DSO DSC RN, and the same divers, Major Scott-Bowden and Sergeant Ogden-Smith.
  During the daytime, periscope-level reconnaissance of the shoreline and echo-soundings were performed. Each night, X20 would approach the beach, and the divers would swim ashore to take soil samples, collected this time in condoms.
  The divers went ashore on two nights to survey the beaches at Vierville-sur-Mer, Moulins St Laurent and Colleville-sur-Mer in what became the American Omaha. On the third night, they were due to go ashore off the Orne Estuary (Sword), but by this stage fatigue (the crew and divers had been living on little more than benzedrine tablets) and the worsening weather caused Hudspeth to shorten the operation, returning to HMS Dolphin on 21 January 1944.
  As a result of the operation, Hudspeth received a bar to his Distinguished Service Cross.
caption: X25 X-class submarine, the type used
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