Operation Caliban

'Caliban' was a British special forces operation by the Belgian Independent Parachute Company (5th Special Air Service) to cut the railway lines near Peer in German-occupied Belgium in the area to the west of the Meuse river (6/11 September 1944).

Under the command of Lieutenant Freddy Limbosch, 26 men were parachuted into the area of Bourg Léopold in the north-eastern part of Belgium close to the western edge of the Maastricht appendix of the Netherlands, but the drop left the party widely scattered and the operation was therefore generally unsuccessful, although a small number of limited successes were gained in the period before the Belgian troopers were reached by the advancing British ground forces.

This operation was the only such undertaking by the Belgian element of the SAS in front of Lieutenant General Sir Miles Dempsey’s British 2nd Army, its other three undertakings (from west to east 'Noah', 'Brutus' and 'Bergbang') being in support of Lieutenant General William H. Simpson’s US 1st Army, the southernmost component of Field Marshal Sir Bernard Montgomery’s Allied 21st Army Group.