21 Iyar 5701- May 18 1941
Operation Boatswain was the first in a series of co-operative missions in which Palmach fighters, recruited to defend the Jewish settlements in Mandate Palestine, undertook sabotage operations against Hitler’s allies, the forces of Vichy France in Lebanon and Syria. 23 Palmach commandos set out in a British police launch from Haifa to destroy oil refineries in Tripoli, Libya – with Major Anthony Palmer of British Special Operations on board to observe the operation. All trace of the mission was lost soon after the boat left Haifa, and their last transmission, “All’s well,” came from off the Lebanese coast. Various committees of enquiry – the last in 2000 – have resulted in the conclusion that the explosives on the boat must have detonated at sea, killing all those aboard. Palmer’s name appears together with those of the Palmach fighters who lost their lives on all the memorials commemorating the operation.
Palmach commandos from Operation Boatswain during a practice run near Caesarea