Operation Spark (i)

'Spark' (i) was a British naval signals deception undertaking to support 'Hurry' (i) (1/2 August 1940).

As the main part of Vice Admiral Sir James Somerville’s Gibraltar-based Force 'H' steamed to the north-east to the position from which the elderly carrier Argus would launch Hawker Hurricane fighters toward Malta, the light cruiser Enterprise was detached from the main force to transmit pointless radio messages in the hope of confusing any Italian warplanes trying to fix the position of the British main force.

After this the cruiser was recalled to Gibraltar despite the fact that she was to have searched for the Vichy French merchant ship Gouverneur-Général de Gueydon, which was believed to be on passage from Algiers to Marseille with Edouard Daladier, a senior French politician being held by the Vichy French régime.