1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 Operation Albumen was the name given to British Commando raids in June 1942 on German airfields in the Axis-occupied Greek island of Crete, to prevent them from being used in support of the Axis forces in the Western Desert Campaign in the Second World War.

The operations were carried out with similar raids against Axis airfields at Benghazi, Derna and Barce in Libya and were among the first planned sabotage acts in occupied Europe.

During the late spring of 1942, the airfields of Crete gained increased importance by becoming the main transit base for the Luftwaffe to fly supplies to the Axis forces in Egypt in their advance on the Nile Delta.

The operation unfolded according to plan and on 7 June the saboteurs, assisted by the locals Giorgos Psarakis, Kimonas Zografakis (nicknamed Blackman) and Kostas Mavrantonakis, managed to destroy 5 aircraft, damage 29 others and set fire to several vehicles and considerable quantities of supplies (including about 200 long tons (200 t) of aviation fuel) using delayed-action bombs.

On the night of 4/5 July 1943, two commando groups under the Danish Major Anders Lassen and the Greek Kimonas Zografakis, simultaneously attacked the airfield of Kastelli from two directions.

[6][7] The Tympaki team (led by David Sutherland of the Black Watch) discovered that due to air raids from Egypt, the airfield had been temporarily abandoned and the aircraft based there had been moved.

On 23 June, Jellicoe, Petrakis and the participants of the Kastelli and Tympaki operations were evacuated to Mersa Matruh, Egypt on a caique from Trypiti beach near the village of Krotos in south Crete.

After several days of interrogations under the threat of execution, Bergé, Mouhot and Sibard, who were captured after the Heraklion sabotage, were transferred to the Oflag X-C war prisoner camp in Germany.