The SSRF under the command of Major Gus March-Phillipps left Britain in August 1941 and sailed the Brixham trawler, Maid Honor,[1][2] to the Spanish colony.

The raid boosted SOE's reputation at a critical time and demonstrated its ability to plan and conduct secret operations no matter the political consequences.

[3] In 1941 the British Admiralty started receiving reports that German submarines were using the rivers in Vichy French parts of Africa as a base for refuelling.

[8]SOE maintained a presence in West Africa, where it could observe Vichy French, Spanish and Portuguese territories with the intention of identifying and hindering any activities that threatened Britain's colonial possessions.

[10] While the commandos were searching for the German submarine bases, SOE agents had become aware of three vessels in the port of Santa Isabel on the Spanish island of Fernando Po 30 kilometres (19 mi) off the coast of Africa near the border of Nigeria and Guinea.

[8] The three ships were the Italian 8,500-ton merchant vessel Duchessa d'Aosta, the large German tug Likomba, and a diesel-powered barge Bibundi.

[11] In his visits to the island, SOE agent Leonard Guise kept the ships under observation, and in August 1941 submitted a plan to seize Likomba and disable Duchessa d'Aosta.

He declined to release the 17 men required, stating it would compromise some unnamed plans he had in mind, and that the act would be seen as piracy and could lead to repercussions.

[9] The final go-ahead, eventually supported by the Foreign Office, was not given until 6 January 1942, on the grounds that, while suspicion of British involvement in the raid was inevitable, what counted was the avoidance of any tangible proof.

[15] SOE agent Richard Lippett had obtained employment with the shipping company John Holt & Co (Liverpool), which had business offices on the island.

Under the guise of a party-goer, Lippett managed to gain information about the readiness of the ship for sea, crew numbers, and the watch arrangements.

[16] The raiders left Lagos in their two tugs on the morning of 11 January 1942, and while en route they practised lowering Folbots and boarding ships at sea under the command of Captain Graham Hayes.

Eleven men from Vulcan had managed to board Duchessa d'Aosta; while one group attached charges on the anchor chains, another searched below-decks, collecting prisoners.

"[21] The Spanish government was furious about the raid, which was seen as a breach of the country's neutrality; Foreign Minister Serrano Suñer described the operation as an intolerable attack on our sovereignty, no Spaniard can fail to be roused by this act of piracy committed in defiance of every right and within water under our jurisdiction.

"[26]The details of the raid were being kept secret even from the British chiefs of staff, who were only informed, on 18 January 1942, that Duchessa d'Aosta had been intercepted 230 miles (370 km) offshore and was being taken to Lagos.

[33] On the same mission, Hayes evaded capture and crossed the Spanish border, only to be handed over to the Germans who kept him in solitary confinement for nine months before he was executed by firing squad on 13 July 1943.

[36][37] The 2024 film The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare portrays a heavily fictionalized version of the operation, based on the 2014 book Churchill's Secret Warriors: The Explosive True Story of the Special Forces Desperadoes of WWII by Damien Lewis.