Operation Biting

Operation Biting recounts the February 1942 raid on the German radar installation at Bruneval in occupied France. British scientific intelligence wanted physical evidence of the Würzburg radar system, leading to a plan in which John Frost’s paratroopers would seize the site, Royal Engineers would dismantle key equipment and naval craft would evacuate the force from the beach.

Hastings follows the scientific problem, planning and personalities as closely as the short battle itself, showing how a small combined operation produced intelligence out of proportion to its size. Reginald Victor Jones’s analysis of German radar and Frost’s leadership are central to the story. The work is nonfiction military and intelligence history.