Survivor's daughter honours men lost in SAS tragedy

Joanna Burri-Weaver laid a wreath in memory of her father's murdered colleagues

The daughter of a British Army officer who survived a massacre of SAS soldiers in World War Two has attended services to mark the 80th anniversary of the tragedy.

Lt Peter Weaver took part in Operation Bulbasket, a sabotage mission behind enemy lines in France in 1944.

His daughter, Joanna Burri-Weaver, from Harman's Cross, Dorset, said her father hid in a thicket to escape German soldiers who surrounded the SAS camp and later executed more than 30 men.

She joined other relatives in ceremonies at the soldiers' forest hideout near Poitiers and laid a wreath at Rom cemetery where they are buried.

Lt Peter Weaver - later promoted to Major - parachuted into France for the secret mission in 1944

The operation, in support of the Normandy landings, involved attacks on the rail network and German supplies.

SAS men parachuted into France in June 1944 and spent a month carrying out sabotage and reconnaissance missions near Poitiers to stop reinforcements reaching Normandy.

On 3 July, German soldiers surrounded a forest at Verrières where the men were camped, capturing and later executing many of them.

Many of the men involved in Operation Bulbasket, including Lt Weaver, were drawn from the Dorset Regiment

Ms Burri-Weaver said: "Of the 31 victims, the youngest was only 20 years old.

"On 7 July 1944, they were taken to the Forest of Saint Sauvant and were shot dead.

"Five months later in December they were found by boar hunters, identified and given graves next to each other in Rom cemetery.

"Eight men got out of the wood including my dad. He slipped into a thicket of brambles.

"The Germans used a sniffer dog but somehow it didn't pick up his scent."

A military service was held at the site of the men's forest camp at Verrières

On Sunday, relatives of Bulbasket survivors and their friends laid wreaths on behalf of the SAS Association on the soldiers’ graves at Rom.

The ceremony was attended by representatives of the French army, as well as standard bearers from military organisations.

Ms Burri-Weaver said: "It was a very emotional day. I never cry but found this honour incredibly sad. I am emotionally exhausted."

Lt Weaver, later promoted to Major, went on to join a unit that helped to liberate Belsen concentration camp, she said.

He retired to Dorset and died in 1991 at the age of 79.