The first mission that was undertaken by SOE was a raid on the Oil storage tanks and refinery on the Lofoten Islands off the north west coast of Norway. This was SOEs first success.  The mission was the brainchild of Charles Hambro and its title was “Claymore”.

The idea originated with the Special Operations Executive and was approved by the Prime Minister Winston Churchill and the Chiefs of Staff committee. With the direction that it should be carried out by Special Operations Executive in collaboration with the Director of Combined Operations.

At a meeting on the 27^th January 1941 in Whitehall London, a discussion on the “Claymore “ raid was held between Brigadier Colin Gubbins, Mr Harry Sporeburg, Mr Charles Hambro of SOE and the staff of Combined Operations.

In the meeting “Claymore” objectives were laid out, its primary target was the Fish Oil plant and Trawlers but not local fishing craft. Additional to this was to distribute clothing and other goods to the remaining population, then to seize any of the “Quislings” that might be present.

Hambro pointed out at the meeting that British members of the party should do the distribution of the clothing and other goods, but that the Norwegians do the round up of the Quislings

It had a secondary objective that was not discussed, intelligence. It was known that certain ships were not only used for the legitimate act of fishing but also for intelligence.  SOEs interest was the capture of “Enigma” and its cipher (code) books in decoding German navel traffic.

The instructions as to how the explosives should be done to my father, were as follows.

"Plastic explosive was moulded into old waterproof gun cotton and put into black powder bags. This was then tied with gun cotton primer, linked to a length of detonator primer chord and pressed into the charge. The fuse was then taped up the bag, the end was then coiled into the top section of the bag, along with the specific time detonator tied into the upper part of the bag. Then it was pulled together with the drawstrings at the top. We also made wooden frames on which we fastened 2-pound incendiary bombs with a fuse attached. These were designed to allow the bombs to float." The remainder of the stores was made up of Nobel '808'

A note on one of the files states “That training will take place on the 14 February in a distant part of the UK” this was “Arisaig” SOE’s station in Scotland.