World War II Operations is the stuff of legends. Most have heard of Operation Market-Garden during World War II (thanks Sean Connery for the awesome film!), but what about the other classic and somewhat hilarious names of other major operations? Here are a few facts that inspired the comic. Enjoy and let me know if you want to learn more? thanks!

Operation Gaff

This was the code name for the 1944 Allied attempt to either kill or capture Field Marshall Erwin Rommel in France. The commando attempt failed and Rommel was later implicated in the attempt to assassinate Adolph Hitler, after which Rommel committed suicide vs. face a firing squad.

Operation Beggar

In 1943, the U.S. Army Air Force scheduled a drop of weapons and ammunition to the French Resistance during the Paris uprising. The operation was canceled at the last minute; instead, food and coal were flown to the city.

Operation Aphrodite

The Allies attempted to guide remote-controlled bombers to destroy hard-to-hit Nazi targets. An engineer and pilot took the plane off, armed the explosives in the air, and then bailed out. A separate aircraft would then use a remote control to guide the plane to the target. The thought was this process would minimize losses to bomber crews, but in fact, was pretty risky. In fact, Joseph Kennedy Jr. was killed on one of these missions when his plane exploded in the air.

Operation Cartwheel

In June 1943, General Douglas MacArthur and Admiral William Halsey executed a nine-month combined military operations in the Pacific Ocean. Admiral Halsey’s forces attacked New Georgia Island in the Solomons at the same time as General MacArthur’s forces occupied the islands of Woodlark and Kiriwina off New Guinea.

Operation Magic Carpet

This was the World War II Operations effort to transport U.S. servicemen back home from the European theater.

The Things Our Father’s Saw is other first-hand accounts of the “war over there” and Rick Atkinson’s Pulitzer Prize books on WWII like the Guns Last Light (a three-part series) are simply amazing. All four books are definite must-reads in my opinion.

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To learn or read more about these fascinating top-secret missions of “missile men”:

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