The operation was initially stalled by a lack of up-to-date information, but ultimately succeeded in its main objective, the destruction of an electrical transformer station in Pessac, near Bordeaux.

[1] The operation was SOE's first success in occupied France and it considerably enhanced the organisation's standing.

[1] The transformer station in Pessac, near Bordeaux, had long been recognized by the SOE as a target of particular interest but difficult to reach by air.

The plan was to drop a team of saboteurs by parachute; they were to break into the transformer station, attach bombs and incendiaries with delay timers.

They set off from RAF Tangmere; but a technical fault released their two containers of equipment over the lower Loire, and they had to turn back.

[1] Forman had recently returned from Operation Savanna, the first attempt to insert SOE trained Free French paratroops into German-occupied France.

[1] On the night of 7/8 June 1941, Forman climbed the perimeter wall and jumped down into the yard while carefully avoiding any contact with the high voltage cable.

In less than half an hour plastic explosive in boxes and connected to magnetic incendiary bombs was placed on each of the eight main transformers.

[1] The sabotage team made for Spain at a leisurely pace; they spent a quarter of a million francs (about £1,400 in 1941 roughly equivalent to £88,000 in 2025[7]) over a period of two months and "...left a trail of broken glass, if not hearts, behind them".

[1] The commune of Pessac was fined one million francs, 250 local people were imprisoned and a curfew was imposed from 9:30 pm to 5 am.

This strongly suggests that many industrial targets, especially if they cover only a very small area, are more effectively attacked by SOE methods than by air bombardment.