Freetown Harbour

Freetown Harbour at Lumley Beach in Cockerill Bay was an important hub for the Royal Navy in West Africa during the World Wars. During WW2, a British AA-gun battery was stationed at the beach.

The Maid Honor, a converted Brixham trawler operated by the Special Operations Executive (SOE), departed Dartmouth on August 12, 1941, bound for equatorial West Africa. Her mission was to conduct covert operations against German U-boats and Axis shipping in the region, ultimately leading to the daring raid known as Operation Postmaster, which took place in January 1942 at the harbor of Santa Isabel on the Spanish island of Fernando Po (now Bioko, part of Equatorial Guinea). She reached Freetown on 21 September 1941.

The Maid Honor used Freetown to launch 3 reconnaissance missions in October 1941. She finally departed to conclude its mission on the 30th of November 1941.

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Source

• Text: TracesofWar
• Photos: A 17840 IWM
• LETT, B.G., Ian Fleming and SOE's Operation POSTMASTER, Pen & Sword Military, 2012.