Operation Archery: How unheralded Christmas battle paved way for D-Day

This time there was no football played between the trenches amid the carnage of war.

This time there were sniper bullets and artillery shells raining from the skies and sea as an intense battle raged during the season of peace and goodwill.

Unlike Christmas 1914, which saw British and German troops briefly lay down their arms for an impromptu ceasefire football match in no-man’s land, the last days of December 1941 witnessed a fierce, but relatively unknown battle between the Allies and German forces.

The fighting, which took place to establish control of two small but strategically important Norwegian islands, saw the British first deploy some of the tactics of land, sea and air assault which would successfully be used during D-Day two and a half years later.

Details of how the newly formed Commando regiment proved its worth during the Christmas battle of Vågsøy have thrown fresh light on what was the first successful combined sea and air operation used by the Allies to capture strategic territory in the face of entrenched German defences.

Historians who have studied the events of December 1941 now say the success of Operation Archery - whose story is told in detail for the first time in the Amazing War Stories podcast - forced the Germans to divert valuable troops to Norway, away from other ultimately more important fronts against the Allies.

It not only ensured the survival of the Commandos - whose usefulness as a separate unit some senior generals had questioned - but also cemented the reputation of the man who masterminded the assault, the then Naval Captain and Head of Combined Operations Louis Mountabatten.

Dr Chris Mann, Deputy Head of the Department of War Studies at The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, tells the podcast: “This raid was an unrivalled success. It was the first genuine joint sea-land-air operation undertaken by Combined Operations, and firmly established its and Mountbatten’s reputation with the previously skeptical British military hierarchy.

“All objectives were achieved. Several quislings were arrested and over 70 loyal Norwegians were brought back to Britain to help in the war effort. Some useful intelligence was captured and the propaganda, especially at Christmas, was vital.

“Most importantly however, this raid ensured the survival of the Commandos and cemented the value of combined operations - until this point the future of this force really was in the balance.”

The success of the raid also dealt a valuable propaganda blow against the Nazis at a time when they were still considered indomitable.

In the words of the podcast’s presenter Bruce Crompton, a military historian and former paratrooper, the raid on Vågsøy and the even smaller Måløy Island was an early Combined Operation “that would see the Commandos, the Royal Navy and the Royal Air force all work together with the Norwegian resistance to try and deliver a shockwave that would reverberate through the Nazi empire”.

The plan was devised and presented to Winston Churchill by Lord Mountbatten as a way of luring the Nazi’s into divert vital resources away from the Eastern front and give Britain a much needed moral boost - especially over the Christmas period.

It began when five Royal Navy vessels supported by a submarine left UK waters on the afternoon of Boxing Day.

Overhead the RAF was to provide air cover, laying down a blanket of smoke to mask the Commandos landings.

The men of 3 Commando were led into battle on December 27 by the legendary ‘Mad’ Jack Churchill, also known as ‘fighting Jack’ who would stride towards the enemy dressed in a kilt, playing the bagpipes and armed with a broadsword.

The British vessels were spotted by the Germans, triggering fierce exchanges of artillery fire. In just 9 minutes 20 naval guns had fired over 400 shells into an area less than 300 square yards.

On landing the Commandos came under deadly German sniper fire, dodging bullets in the streets of the small town of Måløy in South Vågsøy as they tried to reach the precious fish oil factories with orders to destroy them.

Norwegian civilians and resistance fighters carried sacks of explosives up from the waterfront to help the Commandos clear their own houses of Nazi troops.

At one stage Churchill led his men on an assault on a hotel where the Germans were holed up, focing the Germans to surrender after it was engulfed in flames.

Out at sea the Royal Navy captured a fleeing trawler containing German codebooks with the secret radio call-signs of every German vessel in northern Europe.

The battle lasted five hours and saw the Germans driven out of the town and valuable intelligence captured. As a result the German High Command diverted thousands more troops to Norway, depleting their forces facing the Russians in the East.

Dr Mann tells the Amazing War Stories podcast, which also aims to raise awareness around mental wellbeing in the Armed Forces over the Christmas period: “The raid played on Hitler‘s obsession with the vulnerability of Norway with over 30,000 troops being sent there immediately as reinforcements. By the middle of 1944 the German Garrison in Norway amounted to more than 350,000 troops. All of which could have been employed against the Allies and the Red Army elsewhere.”