Operation Lucky Alphonse was a failed

British Armed Forces The British Armed Forces are the unified military, military forces responsible for the defence of the United Kingdom, its British Overseas Territories, Overseas Territories and the Crown Dependencies. They also promote the UK's wider interests ...

operation that occurred during the

EOKA The Ethniki Organosis Kyprion Agoniston (EOKA ; ) was a Greek Cypriot nationalist guerrilla organization that fought a campaign for the end of Cyprus#Cyprus under the British Empire, British rule in Cyprus, and for enosis, eventual union with K ...

insurgency in Cyprus. The British military sustained more than 30 casualties, mostly from an accidental forest fire.

Background

Operation Lucky Alphonse was launched in the area of the Troodos Mountains in order to destroy bases in the area and also to find and capture or even eliminate the EOKA leader Georgios Grivas. It was the continuation of the previous "Operation pepperpot" which had led the British Armed Forces to capturing a few weapons and weakening three cells. Grivas, alongside EOKAs second in command, Grigoris Afxentiou, had previously escaped capture by the British in the

Battle of Spilia The Battle of Spilia is the name given to a battle in the Cyprus Emergency that took place in the neighbourhood of the Cypriot village of Spilia on either 11 or 12 December 1955. The engagement involved approximately 12 members of Georgios G ...

, which took place in December 1955, making the British forces get entangled in a friendly fire incident which Britain took heavy casualties.

Operation

The operation entailed multiple units of the armed forces in the Troodos mountains and at some point, Grivas was spotted, however, in the ensuing gunfight, Grivas managed to escape. A fire starting shortly after leaving more than 30 casualties, however having minor success in the seizure of some ammunition, documents and the arrest of two individuals.

References

*David Carter
The Tragedy of Lucky Alphonse (The Paphos Fire)
Britain's Small Wars, 2005

Background

Operation

References

See also