A small force of thirty-eight menseven officers and thirty-one other rankswas selected from the battalion and designated X Troop, commanded by Major T.A.G. Pritchard of the Royal Welch Fusiliers. Three Italian-speaking interpreters were attached to the troop for the duration of the operation: Squadron Leader Lucky MC, Rifleman Nasri from the Rifle Brigade and a civilian named Fortunato Picchi, a deputy restaurant manager of the Savoy Hotel. Training for the operation began in January 1941 and lasted for six weeks, in order to allow time for six Whitley bombers to be converted to drop parachutists. A full-scale model of the aqueduct was built in early February to allow the troop to practice its assault, and during training one enlisted man was killed when he parachuted into an ice-covered pond and drowned before he could be rescued. The plan for the operation called for six Whitleys of No. 51 Squadron RAF to transport X Troop from Malta to the target area on 10 February, while another two bombers would carry out a diversionary raid against railway yards at Foggia, approximately to the north of the aqueduct. At 21:30 the troop would be dropped around the objective, attack and demolish it, and then withdraw to the coast to the mouth of the Sele River, where the submarine HMS "Triumph" would pick them up on the night of 15 February.