history · 25 September 1940 · 84 years ago
Operation Lucid: The British Royal Navy filled each of the two old tankers War Nizam and War Nawab with 2,000-3,000 tons of heavy fuel oil, diesel oil, and gasoline, then dispatched them from Sheerness in southeast England and Portsmouth in southern England with destroyers, minesweepers, and torpedo boats as escorts. These two oil tankers were meant to act as fire ships against the German invasion barges which had gathered in French ports along the English Channel, but the operation was canceled when War Nizam broke down.