During the course of the operation amongst other things, the SAS men discovered the whereabouts of a petrol supply train, which was destined for the 2nd SS Panzer Division.

[3][4] It was conceived as a commando type force intending to operate behind enemy lines in the North African Campaign.

One formation they especially wanted to delay was the 2nd SS Panzer Division - Das Reich which was based in the area around Toulouse in the south of France.

Maingard had links with the two main French Resistance groups in the area, the Francs tireurs et Partisans and the Armée Secrète.

[8] The advance party for Operation Bulbasket, including Tonkin, were flown to France by a Handley Page Halifax belonging to 'B' Flight, No.

Crawshay was not pleased with the task of supporting Bulbasket "mistrusting the SAS men's ability to operate effectively and not compromise security.

"[9] The next morning Tonkin, the advance team, and Crawshay met with their SOE contact, 'Samuel' (Maingard) and Paul Mirguet, commander of the Armée secrète, one of the two armed resistance organizations in the area.

The 2nd SS Panzer Division (Das Reich) with 15,000 men and 1,400 vehicles in southern France began its journey of 800 kilometres (500 miles) to Normandy on 8 June.

They attacked the rail network, laid mines, conducted vehicle patrols in their Jeeps and trained members of the French Resistance.

On 10 June a French railwayman informed Tonkin that a train composed of at least eleven petrol tankers was parked at the rail sidings at Châtellerault.

[13] The leader of the party, Lieutenant Tomos Stephens, was beaten to death by a German officer using a rifle butt, and seven captured Maquisards were executed in the woods.

On 7 July, the surviving prisoners of war, 30 SAS men and Second Lieutenant Bundy, were taken into the woods near to St Sauvant, forced to dig their own graves then executed by a German firing squad at dawn.

[14][15][16] Jedburgh team Hugh, operating in the area, reported back to Special Forces HQ, requesting a reprisal attack on the headquarters of the 17th SS Panzergrenadier Division in Bonneuil-Matours.

140 Wing RAF, which had already responded to Bulbasket's request for the attack on the supply trains in Châtellerault in the previous month.

IIIs for the daylight crossing, at low level, of enemy-held territory in Northern France and reached the target at approximately 21:00 local time, when the German troops were eating their evening meal.

The attack went as planned and all seven barrack blocks were destroyed; local estimates of the number of German troops killed varied from 80 to about 200.

Over the night of 12/13 June 1944 Lieutenant Crisp, one of those later executed, was in command of a patrol that laid mines on the N147 in the Forêt du Défant, just before the 2nd SS Panzer Division arrived in the area.

[20] The 2nd SS Panzer Division was responsible for the capture of the Special Operations Executive agent Violette Szabo on 10 June 1944.

[8] The bodies of the three men executed in the hospital, despite not being found, were commemorated with a memorial plaque which was erected beside the Special Air Service graves in Rom cemetery.