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"From now on, all
men operating against German troops in so-called Commando raids are
to be annihilated to the last man...whether they be soldiers in uniform
or saboteurs, with or without arms...even if they make obvious their
intention of giving themselves up as prisoners, no pardon is on any
account to be given" -- Adolf Hitler, 18 October 1942
This infamous edict was issued to senior officers in the German armed
forces with the instruction that 'under no circumstances is it to fall
into enemy hands.' It was Hitler's furious response to rampant British
raiding parties attacking and harassing German troops and installations
across the coastlines of Europe and North Africa in the early stages
of World War II. At the heart of these missions were the Commandos,
Britain's first ever special forces. The name ascribed to them was one
that Winston Churchill knew well, originating in the Boer War when small,
self-sustaining fighting units carrying everything they needed conducted
highly effective operations against the enemy -- the British.
They came into being in June 1940 after Churchill asked his chiefs of
staff to 'propose me measures for a vigorous, enterprising and ceaseless
offensive for the whole of the German occupied coastline.' Within the
month ten independent Commando companies were in training, using volunteers
from all three Services, Army, Air Force and Navy. They formed up under
swashbuckling and eccentric officers who led them into what became some
of the most legendary, if at times foolhardy, exploits of the war.
Military men who were to become famous abounded. They
included David Stirling, who went on to found the SAS and Roger Courtney,
creator of the first Special Boat Service. Later, the Royal Naval Commandos
emerged for vital duties including landing ahead of the first waves
of invading Allied troops to plot and clear the well-protected and fortified
beaches, and took heavy casualties in the process, especially at Dieppe
in August l942. Then came the Royal Marines Commando formations, tough
fully-fledged fighting units who would move into the battlefronts by
land, sea or air. And so across the whole gamut of World War II, Commandos
figured strongly in all Allied operations against Axis forces from 1942.
It was the Commando units of the Royal Marines which
carried on those traditions after the war, engaging in virtually every
military scenario involving British troops from 1945 to the present
day, including the post-colonial wars, Korea, Malaya, Borneo, Suez and
the Middle East and later the Falklands, the Gulf War, Bosnia and Northern
Ireland. They became the elite of the British 'ready-to-go' forces,
capable of deploying at a moment's notice to anywhere trouble spot in
the world, independently of main military formations. Their training
is uniquely challenging and those who pass through it are awarded the
coveted Green Beret, the distinctive hallmark of the Commando ethos.
Theirs has been a relentless military journey...one
now recounted in this, the latest in John Parker's acclaimed series
on British military activity ... bloody, fearful accounts, carefully
reconstructed and dramatically recalled in their own words by men who
were there ... a wealth of brilliant and dramatic stories of commando
action recounted in actual first-person testimony, skilfully drawn together
to cover every major event in the 60 year history of the British Commandos.
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Published in hardback 17 September 2000 by Headline;
paperback June 2001 |
