Learn while you play!

From week 4, one 200 piece Combined Operations related jigsaw will be added here with a link to the webpage concerned. To help you get started, the edge pieces only can be displayed. Good luck!

6 - 25/02/21 Jigsaw  Story behind the picture. PLUTO was more than a planet in WW2. It was an acronym for a top secret, large scale engineering project to pump fuel, for tanks and other vehicles, hundreds of miles from England, under the English Channel, to front-line troops as they advanced towards Germany - Pipe Line Under The Ocean x 21. Pumping stations on beaches were disguised as houses, cafes etc. Find out more here.

5 - 18/02/21 Jigsaw  Story behind the picture. Following major landings on enemy occupied territory, the advancing invading force needed air support from the RAF & USAF. This could only be provided from captured air fields or hastily improvised landing strips close to front lines. The Royal Air Servicing Commando Units serviced, maintained, repaired and re-armed aircraft under hazardous conditions.  Find out more here.

4 - 11/02/21 Jigsaw  Story behind the picture. This beautiful tranquil scene of a Norwegian fjord belies the drama, bravery and boldness of a small group of Commandos and two Norwegian corporals, working for the Special Operations Executive, in destroying aluminium production in the coastal town of Glomfjord. Shockingly, those captured were transported to Colditz and then to Berlin where they were executed. Find out more here.

3 - 04/02/21. Approx 100 pieces  Approx 200 pieces  Story behind the picture. There were many special units established in WW2 whose work was absolutely vital to the success of landings onto unimproved beaches in enemy occupied territory. Even their name was designed to deceive the enemy by concealing their real purpose - the Combined Operations Pilotage Parties.  Find out more here.

2 - 28/01/21. Approx 125 pieces  Approx 200 pieces Story behind the picture. The D Day Landings changed the course of the WW2. This map gives a visual representation of Operation Neptune, the amphibious phase of the D Day landings. Thousands of landing craft of many types put boots on the landing beaches, provided fire power on beach targets and anti aircraft cover for the fleet followed by the delivery of vehicles, tanks, supplies, medical provisions, armaments and follow on troops thereafter... all with Royal Navy heavy gun and RAF air support. Find out more here.

1 - 21/01/21.  Approx 100 pieces Story behind the picture. In late 2012, work began on the construction of the Combined Operations Memorial at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire. The larger rocks, transported from Loch Fyne in Scotland  where training in landing craft operations was concentrated, weighed several tons and required lifting gear Find out more here.