Working for the SBS, Alexander was a 21 year old lieutenant (and temporary captain) stationed in Alexandria, Egypt during the summer of 1942.
While the other 20 men returned quietly to their torpedo boat, Alexander and a colleague, Corporal Peter Gurney, decided to stay behind and attempt the mission.
He was wearing civilian clothes (“silk shirt and gabardine trousers”) because he’d been called to re-do the same mission from earlier in the day, and so he’d rushed from the tennis courts back to his hotel in order to make it onto the torpedo boat.
On the morning of the second day, the two had entered a 6-person German tent in order to eat their breakfast (spaghetti bolognese and coffee); Alexander had taken one of their hats to protect against the heat.
That German officer also told him that Adolf Hitler had specifically ordered that “anyone playing commando games” should be shot immediately.
They were quickly evaluated by Field Marshal Erwin Rommel and General Westphal, who decided on imprisonment rather than execution.
Alexander later wrote that the idea that Gurney was “disposed of” in Berlin “haunts me.” During WW II, Colditz primarily housed Allied officers who were considered dangerous or escape risks.