Talk:Operation Colossus

Anachronisms

It's confusing. For an event which "occurred on 10 February 1941" there is much stuff in the sections "Background" & "Preparation", which occurred after this event. e.g. "Preparation" begins "On 26 April 1941, the Prime Minister was shown a demonstration of the airborne force that Britain currently possessed,..."

For clarity it might be better to move most or some of such stuff to the "Aftermath" section. Presumably the PM was viewing in April because the operation was considered successful. Dajanes (talk) 13:21, 23 February 2020 (UTC)

Numbers

The numbers here are a little ambiguous - we say 38 in a few places, but then also "A small force of thirty-eight men – seven officers and thirty-one other ranks – was selected from the battalion and designated X Troop ... Three Italian-speaking interpreters were attached to the troop for the duration of the operation". This would imply a total of 41, or 40 if the one man who drowned during training was not replaced.

On the other hand, the description of the landing has "six Whitleys ... each carrying one officer and five other ranks", which would total 36.

Unfortunately I don't have access to the print sources cited here, but since 2009 a lot of primary material has turned up online, including the operations instruction - Appendix A has the total force as a commander, a covering party of 17, a demolition party of 18, and four reserves. Total 36 + four reserves. This is consistent with the six aircraft of six men each described in the article. I wonder why the sources went with 38?

That same site has some very interesting first-hand reports, which might be useful for expanding the article. Andrew Gray (talk) 22:25, 10 February 2026 (UTC)