Commando Missions
2025– · Sky History · 60 min · 1 season
S01E04 · Raincoat Operation
Tue, 6 May, 6:00 am
Operation Raincoat, a 1943 mission conducted in Italy to break through the German defence line and open the way to and liberate Rome. Allied artillery was tasked with creating a diversion while the soldiers advanced.
About
Impossible odds are part of the job.
By 1942, severely weakened by the Nazis, the Allies implemented a daring new strategy for waging war. Their disruptive technique was to attack Hitler's Reich from within. Featuring the minute-by-minute accounts of the brave soldiers who crossed deep into enemy territory, Commando Missions recounts these heroic top-secret operations.
In four spellbinding episodes that blend spectacular reconstructions with archives and animation, this premium series chronicles how these highly-trained guerrilla fighters slipped behind enemy lines to bring the German war machine to its knees. The near-impossible missions include: the upstream paddling expedition to disable German warships in Bordeaux; the six-man mission to destroy the Luftwaffe fleet at Heraklion; and, the deadly polar trek to take out an occupied Norwegian hydroelectric plant.
Episodes
- E01
Heraklion Operation
Tue, 15 Apr· 60 minThe Heraklion Operation, carried out in June 1942. Major Georges Bergé's team landed in Crete and moved across land, intending destroy Luftwaffe planes at Heraklion airfield. They destroyed about 20 Ju 88s, but despite escaping from the airfield found their retreat betrayed.
- E02
Frankton Operation
Tue, 22 Apr· 60 minOperation Frankton, of December 1942. The mission was for Royal Marines to place limpet mines on German ships in the occupied Bordeaux Harbour, 62 miles along the Gironde River. Five cockleshell canoes set off from submarine HMS Tuna at the mouth of the river. Only two reached the harbour and carried out the raid, escaping with the aid of the French Resistance. The damage to the ships and the resulting disruption to German supply lines had a significant impact on the war effort.
- E03
Musketoon Operation
Tue, 29 Apr· 60 minMusketoon Operation, a daring, small-scale commando raid on a German-held electricity generating station at Glomfjord in Norway, carried out by British and Norwegian commandos in September 1942. The mission involved a submarine crossing, an overland route and the destruction of the power plant.
- E04
Raincoat Operation
Tue, 6 May· 60 minOperation Raincoat, a 1943 mission conducted in Italy to break through the German defence line and open the way to and liberate Rome. Allied artillery was tasked with creating a diversion while the soldiers advanced.