Winston Churchill had no time for silly military codenames. In a 1943 wartime memo on the subject of coining operation names, he cautioned: “Do not suggest the character of the operation or disparage it in any way, and do not enable some widow or mother to say that her son was killed in an operation called ‘Bunnyhug' or ‘Ballyhoo.'” Understandable. However, military operations—British or otherwise—haven't always followed these principles, and some of their names seem downright ridiculous. Although there's rarely a (public) explanation of why the weird names were assigned, that doesn't make them any less amusing. Here are just a few of the more memorable.
1. OPERATION DRACULA
Operation Dracula was the Allied South East Asia Command's plan to reconquer the Burmese capital of Rangoon near the end of WWII. Part of the Burma Campaign, the operation was led by British and Indian forces via sea and sky to wrest the region from Japan, which had invaded in 1942.
