The Diversionary Air Raid on Santa's Air

The first thing Matt Batten needed was ships, boats. He went to the Admiralty, they dragged their feet. There was a plan which would have been much safer for everyone involved that would have involved two destroyers but the navy vetoed it. The number of planes assigned to the diversionary raid wasn't decided until three days before the raid and there was nearly an almighty screw up in terms of sending the final go code. And many of them are said to have wept with frustration when they got back and learned that by failing to drop their bombs, they had jeopardised so many men in small boats below them.