Operation Narcissus, 10 July 1943

Operation Narcissus (10 July 1943) was an SAS raid carried out to support the Eighth Army landings on Sicily.

The target of the raid was a lighthouse on the south-east coast of Sicily which was believed to be the observation post for an artillery battery. The guns were in a position that might have threatened the British landings, so a party from the SAS was sent to investigate.

40 men from A Squadron, 2 SAS, were carried to Sicily on the Landing Ship HMS Royal Scotsman. They landed on the beach without any problems, and found that the area was actually unoccupied. They then returned to the Royal Scotsman, which went on to drop troops from the 51st Division on beach ‘Bark South’, at the southern tip of the Pachino peninsula, on either side of Portopalo Bay. The lighthouse must have been somewhere in that vicinity, although my sources don’t state exactly where.

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How to cite this article: Rickard, J (1 May 2018), Operation Narcissus, 10 July 1943 , http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/operation_narcissus.html

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