It was led by Acting Wing Commander, later Group Captain, George Westlake of the Royal Air Force.

[1] By early 1945, the rail and road networks of northern Italy had sustained severe damage, forcing the Germans to resort to shipping goods into Venice and then moving them from there along rivers and canals.

The operation was planned to be extremely precise to avoid any such damage and was named Operation Bowler by Air Vice-Marshal Robert Foster, as a reminder to those involved that they would be "bowler hatted" (returned to civilian life) or worse should Venice itself be damaged.

The attack sank the German torpedo boat TA42 (ex Italian Alabarda),[2] two merchant ships as well as naval escorts and smaller vessels.

It seriously damaged a large cargo ship and destroyed five warehouses, an Axis mine stockpile (blowing a 100-yard (91 m) hole in the quayside) and other harbour infrastructure, such as an underwater training establishment for frogmen and human torpedoes.