[5] The British airborne establishment began development on 22 June 1940, when the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, directed the War Office in a memorandum to investigate the possibility of creating a corps of 5,000 parachute troops.

The Royal Air Force provided a number of Armstrong Whitworth Whitley medium bombers for conversion into transport aircraft for paratroopers.

[10] On 26 April 1941, the Prime Minister was shown a demonstration of the airborne force that Britain currently possessed, and was informed that although some 800 parachute troops had been trained, their deployment was severely limited by the lack of suitable aircraft which could be used to transport them to any prospective targets.

One senior RAF officer at the Central Landing Establishment believed that such a large number refused due to a combination of inexperience and a fear that their parachute would not open when they jumped out of the aircraft.

By 17 December the battalion had officially completed its parachute training, including taking part in a number of demonstrations for military observers, and was considered to be ready for active duty.

The aqueduct carried the main water supply for the province of Apulia, which at the time was inhabited by approximately two million Italians and included the strategically important port of Taranto; it was hoped that destroying the aqueduct and depriving the population of their regular water supply would damage their morale, and also have some impact on the Italian war efforts in North Africa and Albania.

Three Italian-speaking interpreters were attached to the troop for the duration of the operation: Squadron Leader Lucky MC, Rifleman Nasri from the Rifle Brigade and a civilian named Fortunato Picchi, a deputy restaurant manager of the Savoy Hotel.

A full-scale model of the aqueduct was built in early February to allow the troop to practice its assault, and during training one enlisted man was killed when he parachuted into an ice-covered pond and drowned before he could be rescued.

51 Squadron RAF to transport X Troop from Malta to the target area on 10 February, while another two bombers would carry out a diversionary raid against railway yards at Foggia, approximately 60 miles (97 km) to the north of the aqueduct.

[14] At 21:30 the troop would be dropped around the objective, attack and demolish it, and then withdraw 50 miles (80 km) to the coast to the mouth of the Sele River, where the submarine HMS Triumph would pick them up on the night of 15 February.

[17] On 7 February X Troop boarded the six converted Whitley bombers and were transported 1,600 miles (2,600 km) to Malta without incident, despite a significant portion of the journey being over occupied France.

[18] At 18:30 on 10 February, the six Whitleys took off from Malta, each carrying one officer and five other ranks of X Troop; the flight to the target area was uneventful, with clear weather and perfect visibility.

After closer inspection, Pritchard ordered that the majority of the explosives be placed around the western pier and the rest against its abutment, in the hope that this would cause enough damage to destroy the aqueduct.

Leaving one man who had broken his ankle when he had landed with a nearby farmer, the remainder of the Troop withdrew from the area at 01:00, splitting into three groups and heading towards the coast.

[21] All were stripped of their weapons and equipment and transported to the civilian prison of Naples and then to the POW camp of Sulmona, with the exception of the Italian translator, Picchi, who was taken to Rome, found guilty of treason by the high court of the Special Tribunal for the Defense of the State (Tribunale Speciale per la Difesa dello Stato) and shot at the military prison of Forte Bravetta (Rome) on 6 April 1941.

Fearing that the message had been monitored by the Italians and that the submarine might sail into a trap, the decision was made by senior officers not to send it to the rendezvous point.

[25] All of the surviving members of X Troop would remain as prisoners of war until they were repatriated with the Italian surrender, with the exceptions of: Lieutenant Anthony Deane–Drummond and Sapper Alfred Parker.

After witnessing the execution by the Germans of a fellow escapee and a number of Italians (later recognized as a war atrocity), Parker again escaped and eventually made his way back to the UK after hitching a ride to North Africa on a US forces Dakota aircraft.