The chief planner of Operation Tombola, an attack on the headquarters of the Wehrmacht's 14th Army near Reggio Emilia, made prematurely in contravention of orders from his superiors.

Lees rejected the offer, and replied vulgarly to Macintosh on 10 March: "“by not accepting your invitation to come out I gave you a moral victory, but I did not accept because I realise that the firm would have jumped at the opportunity of putting some British Liaison Officer type who would sit here doing fuckall and give them a peaceful job with FANYs (First Aid Nursing Yeomanry) on their knees”.

On 21 March Lees’ submitted a plan of attack, which would have been launched jointly with Italian Partisans and a contingent of Special Air Service (SAS) led by Major Roy Farran.

Despite SOE confirming Lees and Farran had received their orders, the pair disobeyed and attacked the German HQ according to their original timeline.

[5] On 17 July 1945 Major Farran recommended Lees be immediately gazetted with the Military Cross for his actions during the raid (making no mention of the orders to delay the attack).

Lieutenant Colonel John Grosvenor Beevor wrote in his rejection of the award: “It is not disputed that the facts given are correct or that this officer, along with SAS detachment, showed gallantry and enterprise.