Hayes was the third founding member of the Small Scale Raiding Force (SSRF), a unit formed around a small group of commandos under the command of the Special Operations Executive (SOE). The commandos were formed in 1940 by order of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who called for specially trained troops who would "develop a reign of terror down the enemy coast", and by 1943 had become lightly equipped assault infantry specialising in spearheading amphibious landings.
The objective of Operation Postmaster was to board three Italian and German ships in the harbour on the Spanish island of Fernando Po, now known as Bioko, off West Africa and sail them to Lagos in Nigeria. The SSRF successfully captured the ships: Duchessa d’Aosta, an Italian 8,500 ton Merchant vessel; Likomba, a large German tug boat; and Bibundi, a diesel-powered barge.
Following the operation, Hayes was awarded the Military Cross.
The 2024 film The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare is very loosely based on Operation Postmaster. The part of Graham Hayes as Henry Hayes, being played by Hero Fiennes Tiffin.
Operation Aquatint was planned for a night in mid September 1942 as a reconnaissance mission near Sainte-Honorine-des-Pertes, a small coastal town near Port en Bessin in Normandy. The mission was to collect information about the surrounding area, and take a German guard prisoner. After the mission and on their way back to the beach to rejoin the Motor Torpedo Boat which had dropped them off, the SSRF commandos were fired on by a German patrol with machine guns and hand grenades. They attempted to swim out to the MTB which by now had also been discovered and was under fire and, unable to locate it in the darkness, were forced to swim back to the beach.
Hayes came ashore beside Asnieres-en-Bessin and was one of only four members of the 11-man team to escape. He managed to evade capture and made contact with a local French family who provided him with civilian clothing and contacted the French resistance. He was taken by train to Lisieux and after several weeks reached Paris, and was then moved along an escape line to the Spanish border, arriving in October 1942. After crossing into Spain he was stopped by Spanish border guards who handed him over to the Germans, and it is believed he had been betrayed by French double agent Jean-Louis Ortet, codename "Armand".[2] Hayes was returned to Paris and held in solitary confinement in Fresnes Prison for nine months before being executed by firing squad on 13 July 1943.
Hayes was buried at Viroflay New Communal Cemetery (Yvelines France),[3][4] and is commemorated at Linton Memorial Hall, near Wetherby West Yorkshire, along with his brother, Flying Officer Malcolm Hayes, who is buried in Saumur Communal Cemetery.[5]
