The operation consisted of twelve Norwegians of the Company Linge group, who had been trained by the British in Scotland and returned to Norway in March 1943.

The escape attempt failed when the group's vessel MK Bratholm I was detected and attacked by the German Räumboot R56.

Eleven Norwegian soldiers from the Company Linge died; one was shot at the site, ten were captured, interrogated and tortured by the Gestapo and then executed in Tromsø.

Stage was executed in 1947 in Slovenia for war crimes there; no criminal proceedings were brought against the four others who were charged in the case.

The latter, directed by the Norwegian director Harald Zwart, stars Thomas Gullestad as Jan Baalsrud and Jonathan Rhys Meyers as Kurt Stage.