[2] The raid against a target 1,250 mi (2,010 km) from Axis bases in North Africa was a success but on its return flight the Heinkel ran out of fuel and had to make an emergency landing; the crew and aircraft were rescued a week later.

An important LRDG base was the Free French airfield at Fort Lamy on the banks of Lake Chad, which was also part of the Royal Air Force delivery route from RAF Takoradi in Ghana, to Egypt.

[3] Theo Blaich was a German adventurer and plantation owner who had joined the Wehrmacht in 1939, arriving in his own Messerschmitt Bf 108B Taifun (Typhoon) KG+EM.

Blaich understood the importance of Fort Lamy as a way station in the overland transport and communication route from the west coast of Africa to the Nile, as well as a base for Allied operations against Libya.

[3] Sonderkommando Blaich was an Axis force comprising German and Italian personnel, equipped with a He 111H-6 from II/Kampfgeschwader 4 with all excess equipment, including the dorsal and ventral guns removed, a Savoia-Marchetti SM.82 (Marsupiale) transport aircraft carrying extra fuel for the Heinkel and Blaich's Taifun, which were to depart from the oasis of Hun on 20 January.

[3] The Sonderkommando flew to Camp 1 (Campo Uno) a remote natural airstrip in southern Libya at Bir Misciuro, which had been discovered by Vimercati-San Severino in 1935, when he landed there during a safari.

[1] The Heinkel was undamaged and turned northwards but the crew knew that the detour made it impossible to reach Campo Uno with the fuel remaining.

On 6,197 kHz, Wichmann managed to contact a wireless operator at the headquarters of Fliegerführer Afrika in Benghazi, 650 mi (1,050 km) to the north.

The raid caused General Philippe Leclerc to strengthen the anti-aircraft defences at Fort Lamy and to start hit-and-run operations against the Italian forces in the Fezzan region of Libya.