• Operation Postmaster (1942)

Nationality:

British

B. Godden, a Scot, served as a secret agent designated "W51" in Spanish Equatorial Guinea during World War II. Initially stationed at the British Consulate in Bata, he was later transferred to Santa Isabel (present-day Malabo), the capital of the island of Fernando Po.

In this strategically sensitive region, officially neutral under Spanish rule, Godden carried out observation and intelligence work for British intelligence. His role was crucial in the lead-up to Operation Postmaster, a daring covert operation carried out on January 14, 1942, by the Small Scale Raiding Force (SSRF) in conjunction with the Special Operations Executive (SOE).

Godden played a role in the preparations for this operation, in which British commandos, under cover of night, managed to hijack two enemy ships—the German Likomba and the Italian Duchessa d’Aosta—from the port of Santa Isabel and tow them to Lagos. The operation was diplomatically risky but strategically successful, and is considered one of the first successful SOE operations in West Africa.

Captain Specht, furious after the hijacking of his ship, stormed the British consulate, where he was roughly handled by Godden before being arrested by Spanish authorities.

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• - LETT, B.G., Ian Fleming and SOE's Operation POSTMASTER, Pen & Sword Military, 2012.
  

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