Operation Swordhilt

'Swordhilt' was an Allied unrealised plan to seize and hold a beach-head to the south of Brest on the western tip of the Brittany peninsula of German-occupied France as a means of aiding the break-out from Normandy (summer 1944).

The plan was developed within the 'Overlord' concept and in parallel with 'Lucky Strike', 'Beneficiary' and 'Hands Up' by Lieutenant General Omar N. Bradley’s US 12th Army Group, and envisaged the use of amphibious and airborne forces to secure viable port facilities on the Atlantic coast of the Breton peninsula. Within the plan Major General R. E. Urquhart’s British 1st Airborne Division was to have isolated Brest and destroyed the Morlaix viaduct.