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A captain of Marines peered round the giant carnivore and presented him with a file marked: Operation Hoopla. Most Secret. By Hand of Officer only.

"Will you minute this and pass it on to 'Beaches'?"

"I thought 'Hoopla' had been cancelled."

"Postponed," said the Marine. "The party, we had in training was sent to Burma. But we're still working on it."

The intention of "Hoopla" was to attack some prodigious bomb-proof submarine-pens in Brittany. A peremptory demand for immediate action against these strongholds had been received from the War Cabinet. "If the Air Force can't destroy the ships, we can kill the crews," General Whale had suggested. Twelve men were to perform this massacre after landing in a Breton fishing boat.

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In view of Intelligence Report C/806/RT/12 that occupied France is being supplied with ersatz motor fuel which gives an easily recognizable character to exhaust fumes, it is recommended that samples of this fuel should be procured through appropriate agency, analysed, reproduced and issued to Hoopla Force for use in auxiliary engine of fishing boat.