Operations Wallace and Hardy

Operations Hardy I–Wallace
Part of the Western Front
SAS Jeeps in France during Operation Wallace–Hardy I August 1944
Date 19 August – 19 September 1944 (1944-08-19 – 1944-09-19) Location Burgundy to the Vosges, France Result British victory
Belligerents
United Kingdom FFI	Nazi Germany
Commanders and leaders
Roy Farran	Unknown
Strength
115 men 2nd Special Air Service	Unknown
Casualties and losses
7 Killed 8 Wounded 2 captured (later escaped) 16 Jeeps destroyed[1]	500 killed or wounded 59 vehicles destroyed 1 train derailed[2]

Operations Wallace and Hardy I were two British Special Air Service operations during the Second World War that took place from 27 July to 19 September 1944. Initially two sets of operations by 2nd Special Air Service, they were eventually amalgamated into one. Their objective was to disrupt German lines of communication, coordinate the activities of the French Resistance and prevent German reinforcements moving to the Normandy beachheads.

They operated from the Loire valleys, then mostly in the Forêt de Châtillon area in Burgundy and finally through to the forests of Darney to Belfort. The operation, which lasted six weeks in all, ended as they linked up with the US Seventh Army.^[3] The operations turned out to be the most successful of all the post D-Day SAS operations.^[4]