Often overshadowed by the Heroes of Telemark – the Special Operations Executive’s (SOE) raid on the heavy water plant at Vermork – Operation Musketoon was an equally daring raid on a Norwegian industrial target that was vital to the Nazi …
On 9 March 1945, twenty-seven men from the Special Boat Squadron (SBS), were tasked to attack the enemy occupied Villa Punta, on the Yugoslav island of Lussino. Initially occupied by Italian fascists, the fortified villa had recently been reinforced with …
Within days of No.11 (Scottish) Commando returning from the Litani River raid it became clear that it was likely to be disbanded, a fate that had already befallen both No. 7 and No. 8 Commando. However, the unit’s fate was …
The routine for the officers and men in the Commandos was quite different to that from the regiments that they’d left behind. With no barracks or fixed accommodation, they lived in billets where their meals were provided by the families …
Bill Millin was the commando piper of Lord Lovat’s 1st Special Service Brigade. The following is his personal account of landing on Sword Beach on D-Day: ‘I went along to the Hamble River, aboard the landing craft with twenty-one others, …
No.11 (Scottish) Commando was raised in Galashiels in the summer of 1940, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Dick Pedder, from volunteers from the Scottish Commando. From Galashiels they completed a 100-mile march to Ayr before commencing arduous commando training …
Operation Postmaster was one of the most audacious raids of the Second World War. In August 1941 a small force working for the Special Operations Executive (SOE) departed Poole in a converted Brixham trawler called the Maid Honor. Their destination …
Eight months before the attack on the French port of Bordeaux by the men later immortalised as the Cockleshell Heroes, a less well known, equally daring, and arguably more successful raid was carried out by two canoeists from No. 6 …
Two weapons spring to mind when conjuring up an image of the Second World War commandos. The iconic Fairbairn and Sykes Fighting Knife popularly known as the ‘Commando Dagger’, and the Thompson Machine Carbine – the legendary ‘Tommy Gun’. However, …
