Operation Dryad was a raid on the Casquets lighthouse in the Channel Islands by British Commandos during World War II.

[1]: 191 The raiding party consisted of 12 men from the SSRF, the commanding officer Major Gus March-Phillipps, his second in command Captain Geoffrey Appleyard,[1]: 191  some of the others involved were Captain Graham Hayes, Sergeant Winter, Private Anders Lassen and Dutch Lieutenant Henk Brinkgreve, and Sergeant Geoffrey Spencer.

[2] After anchoring, the landing party rowed ashore, arriving just after midnight,[1]: 191  Appleyard was the first to leap ashore and tied their boat forward and Hayes was in control of the stern-line, which had been attached to the kedge-anchor that had been dropped on approach to prevent the boat from being smashed against the rocks.

Appleyard handed the bowline to another and Hayes remained in control of the stern-line as the raiding party departed.

The commandos made their way through barbed wire up the steep rocky surface to the lighthouse courtyard unchallenged.

Appleyard and Sergeant Winter dashed up the spiral staircase to the tower light only to find it unoccupied.

Weapons found included an Oerlikon 20 mm cannon, rifles and stick grenades, which were all dumped in the sea.

In October 1942 Appleyard now in command of the SSRF was in charge of a raid on Sark Operation Basalt where four German prisoners who had been tied up were shot and killed as they tried to escape.

Private Anders Lassen would be commissioned and win a posthumous Victoria Cross while serving with the Special Boat Squadron of the SAS in Italy 1945.