Commandos & Rangers

D-Day Operations

Tim Saunders

• Publisher: Pen & Sword Military
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9781844158683
• eBook ISBN: 9781783461448
• Subtopic: Military & Maritime History

"A first-class work detailing the work of the elite British Commandos and their American counterpart the Rangers . . . Outstanding . . . 10/10." —The Great War Magazine
 
In the dark days of 1940, Prime Minister Winston Churchill showed his belief in ultimate victory by ordering the raising of the elite Commandos to "break the intolerable shackles of defeat." Having proved their worth in numerous raids and operations in the Mediterranean, they and their American counterparts, the Rangers, were automatic choices for the most demanding and vital missions of the D-Day Landings in June 1944. These included the capture of key ports, enemy coastal defences and the securing of vulnerable open flanks.
 
The tasks allotted to the Rangers included the seizure of Pointe du Hoc while No 4 Commando took the port of Ouisterham and 47 Royal Marine Commando that of Port-en-Bessin. These daring actions and many others are vividly described in this superb book written by a highly experienced battlefield tour expert and the author of many acclaimed guide books. Indeed, each chapter concludes with invaluable tour notes for those who wish to visit these historic sites.
 
It was only thanks to thorough planning, specialist training, inspiring leadership and, above all, the courage of the men involved that these missions were successfully achieved—but at great cost.

CHAPTER ONE

Commando Origins

The Boer kommandos of the 1899–1902 War in South Africa made a great impression on the young Winston Churchill and did much to foster his appreciation of irregular guerrilla warfare and unconventional soldiers. Following the losses suffered by the British forces in the west during May and June 1940, the new Prime Minister Churchill, against the grain of military wisdom, diverted resources into a force that could, in a small way, take the battle to the enemy and ‘break the bonds of the intolerable defensive’.

Churchill gave direction for the formation of ‘Commando’ companies and Special Service Battalions, consisting of ‘troops of the hunter class, who could create a reign of terror on the butcher and bolt policy’. The War Office called for soldiers to volunteer from the various UK commands, for ‘mobile operations’. Southern, Western, Northern Ireland and Scottish Commands were each to provide two battalions, while Eastern Command, London District and the Household Division one each. These units, while raised regionally, were made up of troops from ordinary units serving in the Command at the time. The policy of the day, of moving units away from their home area, meant that with the exception of the Household Division and Scotland the resulting Commandos were of a mixed regimental and regional origin.

The new Commando force practice a beach assault.

The initial Commando units were numbered 2 to 11, with No. 1 Commando being formed from independent companies and No. 10 having insufficient volunteers to form. The Royal Marines raised a unit in due course, which subsequently became A Commando and later 40 (RM) Commando. Nos 12 and 14 Commandos were formed later in 1940, and the following year the vacant No. 10 Commando was filled by Commando troops made up of foreign nationals from the occupied countries of Europe.

Lieutenant Peter Young of the Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment, based in Yeovil, remembered the call for volunteers in the aftermath of Dunkirk:

Commanding Officers were to ensure that only the best were sent; they must be young, absolutely fit, able to drive motor vehicles, and unable to be seasick. It was a leap in the dark, for absolutely nothing was said as to what they were to do, and in any case most regular soldiers make a point of never volunteering for anything.

With a more senior officer drafted in over his head, he volunteered for Special Service and for his pains, ‘got a rocket’ from his CO. Lieutenant Young was, however, summoned for interview by Southern Command, where he was interviewed by an officer with a ‘superficial resemblance to Mr Pickwick’ and asked if he was ‘all for this sort of thing (whatever that was)’. An answer of ‘yes’ was followed by a question about his familiarity with small boats. With another affirmative answer, Lieutenant Young ‘was in’ and duly summoned to training with Lieutenant Colonel (freshly promoted straight from Captain!) John Durnford-Slater’s newly formed No. 3 Commando. With the officers selected, they were sent out to find suitable Other Rank candidates. Amongst them was Private Jackman, who had served with 2nd Dorset in France and once back in barracks in Yorkshire had soon fallen out with his Company Sergeant Major.

I was always in trouble; fatigues and jankers were a regular part of my miserable military existence. I was really browned-off by the dull routine of coastal defence hundreds of miles away from my home town on the south coast, which was being bombed, while I was out of it.

When the call for volunteers came, I put my name forward and the company commander signed it straight off; they were pleased to see the back of me!

Commando training invariably involved marching long distances over rough terrain. The Highlands of Scotland were ideal.

By the end of June, the Commando units were assembling in various places on the coast of Scotland, Wales and the West Country: anywhere where there was demanding terrain and a rough coastline. Colonel Durnford-Slater recalled that he had thirty-five officers and five hundred men.

Instead of putting troops into barracks the Commando system was to give each man a subsistence allowance of 6s. 8d a day; the man was then required to find his own accommodation and food. This was in every way a splendid arrangement, it increased a man’s self-reliance and self-respect, developed his initiative and made him available for training at any time of the day or night ... or left in barracks for administration.

Those who were unsuitable, failed to perform and/or exploited the unusual administrative and disciplinary system, officers included, were Returned To Unit (RTU). Then, as now, RTU was the ultimate sanction of senior Commando officers and was freely used. A set of Commando standards developed very quickly, which were to be the foundation of their enduring success.

Eventually organised into a Special Service Brigade under the Director of Combined Operations, Admiral of the Fleet Sir Roger Keyes, himself a coastal raider during the Great War, the Commandos prepared for operations. From bases in towns on the coast they continued to train and conducted ‘some rather amateurish, pin-prick raids on the French coast’.

Sir Roger Keyes.

Operation COLLAR

Commando-type raids had been launched against Norway in May 1940, but what is acknowledged to be the first raid by British Commandos was launched during the night of 23/24 June 1940 on the French coast south of Boulogne-sur-Mer and le Touquet by one hundred and twenty men of No. 11 Independent Company who ‘brassed up a few likely targets’. This ‘Boy’s Own adventure’yielded few militarily worthwhile results but did provide Churchill with news that Britain was hitting back!

The Guernsey Raid

It was, however, H Troop of No. 3 Commando and again No. 11 Independent Company who were to launch the first significant raid in July 1940, about which Colonel Durnford-Slater commented:

Looking back, I can see that under such rushed conditions, with no experience, no proper landing craft and inadequate training, this first operation was foredoomed to failure.

Operation AMBASSADOR’s objective was Guernsey airport, which had been newly occupied by five hundred Germans. The Directorate of Raiding Operations was only twelve days old when the raid was mounted from Dartmouth; such was the Prime Ministerial pressure for action.

Colonel Durnford-Slater in Royal Artillery uniform

Conveyed across the Channel in 1918-vintage destroyers, HMS Scimitar and Saladin, the force was to land from RAF Search and Rescue boats. Almost ‘swamped by a wave’ Lieutenant Peter Young recalled:

As I struggled ashore (through chest deep waves) water poured from every part of my equipment; we wore full battledress, steel helmets, canvas shoes and gaiters. With clothing and equipment heavy with water.

We plodded up the steps with a dreadful squelching noise, half expecting to be ambushed any minute-and that in a place where it was impossible to deploy. Our worst fears seemed to be realised when as we neared the top there came a sudden burst of fire. Everyone froze.

It, however, turned out to be a negligent discharge of a Thompson sub-machine gun and H Troop withdrew without making contact with the enemy. An enemy machine gun did eventually open fire causing ‘some consternation’.

No. 11 Independent Company’s operations fared no better; boats broke down, another landed its Commandos on the island of Sark rather than Guernsey and the last boat ran into a rock. Suffice it to say, this raid, ‘a ridiculous, almost a comic failure’, provided many lessons for the newly raised Commandos.

Commando Training

Churchill’s reaction to the Guernsey Raid was stinging. ‘Let there be no more silly fiascos like those perpetrated at Guernsey. The idea of waking all these coasts against us by pinprick raids is one to be strictly avoided’. He directed that more worthwhile raids be prepared but the Commandos were regarded by the War Office as Winston’s private army and officialdom ‘wanted to abolish us’.

Lieutenant Colonel Charles Vaughan

Initially Commando units selected and trained their own men but as units and the Directorate of Raiding Operations became more established there were two developments. Firstly individual training that led to the award of the Commandos’ distinctive green beret was concentrated at Achnacarry House, in Westen Scotland. Achnacarry subsequently became the Commando depot, overseen by the formidable former Guards Sergeant Major, Lieutenant Colonel Charles Vaughan.

In the second development, Admiral Keyes concentrated Commando units’ raiding and amphibious training at Inveraray in Western Scotland. Here new doctrine and techniques to support raiding were being developed and courses run for bo...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Introduction
• Chapter One Commando Origins
• Chapter Two Invasion Plans
• Chapter Three Rudder’s Rangers at Pointe du Hoc
• Chapter Four Omaha Beachhead
• Chapter Five Operation AUBERY – 47 Commando
• Chapter Six St Aubin to Langrune-sur-Mer
• Chapter Seven Sword Beach and West
• Chapter Eight Douvres Radar Station
• Chapter Nine 1st Special Service Brigade
• Chapter Ten No. 4 Commando - Ouistreham
• Chapter Eleven Into the Line