Operation Cutting

'Cutting' was a British naval undertaking to lift and cut some 60 miles (100 km) of the Vichy French communications cable between Dakar in West Africa and Pernambuco in Brazil (24 August/3 September 1941).

For this undertaking, the 1,984-ton cable laying and repair ship Lady Denison-Pender, owned by Cable & Wireless Ltd and manned throughout World War II by men from St Helena, departed Freetown escorted by sloop Milford. The ship arrived in position on 28 August, and the operation was completed in one week.

In January 1943 the ship diverted the Italcable-owned cable, linking Malaga on the Spanish coast with the Azores islands group, into Gibraltar and Las Palmas in the Canary islands group.