British Commandos to differentiate from other foreign units similar uses, were the first military raiding units, officially recognized by history, not attached to a regiment, created by the British army during the Second World War as early as June 1940 which, employed in an unconventional way and in apart from the usual military tactics for the time, despite being directly inspired by what was done during previous recent wars, were intended to attack, disrupt and carry out reconnaissance operations on German forces on the European continent.
General
These commandos were made up of volunteers from all branches of the British armed forces, the Commonwealth and later from the countries of Europe occupied by the Nazis during the Second World War. Only the best elements were accepted, who had to be young, in perfect physical and mental shape, able to drive, maintain and repair motor vehicles and not be seasick. One of the clearly defined conditions was the right to leave the commandos voluntarily and to return to his original unit after an operation. Few participants asked to do so.
With humor and derision, Winston Churchill gave this name "commandos" in reference to the Afrikaner "Kommandos" who had undermined the British troops during the Boer War. They were peasants, snipers, who operated in small groups on foot and on horseback in ambushes and surprise attacks only to disperse and then vanish into the wilderness which was their natural environment. Numerical and material weakness became a military force in the mobility of dispersion and concentration in raids and harassment by attacking fixed positions and supply convoys by surprise
The British commandos were light troops operating in units of 3-4 versatile men, each of whom could replace the other, following their motto "commando soldiers apt a tout" in reference to Marshal Ney of the Napoleonic Wars. The composition and armament are variable depending on the operation envisaged. A commando commander once complained bitterly, “An officer is always wrong until proven guilty.”
The commando expected, and rightly so, to be well informed (briefing) on the operation and its details to know what was going to happen. This was the secret of success in hundreds of operations. Intelligent and well-informed men knew the object of the operation:when the events were unfavorable and the leaders defeated, the training followed and their talents enabled them to improvise and continue the mission. The officer commanded shrewd, educated, motivated men who could carry out his plans and whose command was no longer "forward" but "follow me." This was what defined the operation of the British commandos.
History
The man who invented the commandos as such, was Lieutenant-Colonel, and future General, Dudley Clarke CBE, CB (1889-1974), in the dark and crucial aftermath of Operation Dynamo of the re-embarkation of the British Expeditionary Forces in Dunkirk in 1940. With General de Gaulle's call to continue the fight everywhere by joining him in the Free French Forces, a form of resistance began. Subsequently, there were therefore separate French units in the ranks of the British commandos, as for other Belgian, Polish nationals, or other nations of occupied countries. It was not a foreign legion, but a kind of multinational army. Dutley Clarke was the military aide to General Sir John Dill, the Chief of the Imperial General Staff at the time of the defeat of the Allies, English, Belgians and French, and who found himself at the head of weakened British forces, having lost all their equipment in Dunkirk. He recalled the guerrilla battles fought by the Spanish patriots against the mighty Napoleonic army and the Arab revolt in Palestine where he had served in 1936. His question was:"How can desperate men wage guerrilla warfare with the only weapons they are able to carry, without artillery or logistical support, to fight a powerfully armed adversary, established from Dunkirk to the Pyrenees". The question quickly went up the chain of command to Prime Minister Winston Churchill who had recently promised victory at the cost of sweat, blood and tears.
Military operations
The United Kingdom threatened with invasion with the preparations for Operation Sea Lion, a German landing project in England and subjected to the preparatory bombardments of the Lutwaffe during the Battle of Britain, Prime Minister Winston Churchill demanded feats of arms and victories to announce them to the BBC and thus support the morale of the population. For this, the British commandos launched raids in the far north of Norway, on the entire Normandy coast to the islands of the Channel Islands which saw the entry on the scene of the new commando troops who operated later, during the war, as far as the Balkans, in Greece and in the theater of operations in North Africa, changing camouflage colors like chameleons and operating techniques according to the nature of the terrain and the adversary.
After a series of very hard training where only those who passed the tests obtained the certificate, the right to wear the badge and could join the various operational units. Originally, these volunteers came from the naval infantry companies of the Royal Marines and the first commando raids were amphibious operations, the first of which took place in the Boulogne-sur-Mer region (Operation Collar) on the night of 23 on June 24, 1940 and the second on the Channel Island of Guernsey (Operation Ambassador) on the night of July 14 to 15, 1940. These "mosquito bites" sufficiently annoyed the adversary and supplied enough victory bulletins to the BBC . These were the 2 main goals of commando operations:to inspire confidence in the English camp and concern in the adversary. During their development, the British commandos came under the orders of Admiral Lord Mountbatten, the king's cousin and head of the Combined Operations.
On the western front, there were two major operations, one of which is still controversial. It was Operation Jubilee in the port of Dieppe on July 10, 1942 which was both a total success as a commando operation of irregular forces on both flanks and an equally total failure as a landing of Canadian regular force infantry in the centre. Lessons were learned from this to prepare for the future landing in Normandy on June 6, 1944. The first was not to directly take a port and the second was not to mix heavy regular infantry forces with light irregular commando forces. . On D-Day, the British commandos first attacked discreetly and silently as usual to take and hold the bridges and road junctions until the arrival of heavy regular troops for relief.
L he other success of the British commandos was the heavy operation Chariot on the port of Saint-Nazaire on March 28, 1942
Special Forces Units
:Special Air Service, Special Boat Service, Long Range Desert Group and Chindits
On the desert terrain of the great open spaces of North Africa, the reconnaissance missions presented the particularity of solitary navigation with few landmarks. The LRDG (Long Range Desert Group) was formed in 1940 by Commander Ralph A. Bagnold to collect intelligence and pass it on to headquarters. These patrols covered a wide area, from the Mediterranean Sea to Chad and from Egypt to Tunisia, on the desert flank of the fighting along the coast. The trucks of this group transported Leclerc's Free French Forces in their first raid on Mourzouk and Koufra from Chad before the FFL possessed their own vehicles for future raids and entered Tunisia and completed the South African campaign. North by joining the British forces from Egypt and the American forces landed in North Africa during Operation Torch.
Special Air Service
From scouts, the LRDG had become a transporter for the SAS which will have its own vehicles for surprise attacks far behind the front line before disappearing into the wild. These surprise attacks kept the adversary on constant alert and pinned down many enemy forces that would have been useful elsewhere. The ingenuity and fearlessness of the SAS is symbolized by its motto "Who dares wins".
David Stirling and Jock Lewes, both 2nd Lieutenants of B Battalion (Lieutenant Colonel Daly's No. 8 Command), General Robert Laycock's Layforce, founded the Special Air Service (SAS) in 1941 which revolutionized the way to fight a war and many of today's special forces are copying its tactics. The philosophy of the SAS is to reject all formal tactics to have none, improvisations are at the center of its success. The formal tactic is of the order of Schrödinger's principle "Order from Order" or principle of organization by extension in the execution of a program or recipe. The improvisations are of the order of the principle of von Foerster "Order from Noise" or principle of organization by availability to the event.
As the front moved from North Africa to Sicily and Italy, the SAS adapted to the terrain with the same philosophy. During the Normandy landings, the SAS operated in Brittany to fix the German troops who were stationed there. The SAS took part in all the wars of decolonization to become an anti-terrorist force, thus storming the Iranian embassy in London and freeing the hostages. During the 1991 Gulf War, SAS patrols returned to their primary terrain, the desert, attacking and pushing them further into the desert, Iraqi mobile Scud batteries to put them out of range of their potential targets. /P>
Special Operations Executive
This very special service is responsible for instigating and developing subversion, sabotage and guerrilla warfare in the countries occupied by the Axis forces (Germany, Italy, Japan).
It has Forces scattered across all theaters of operations. Force 6 (Headquarters in Algiers, for operations in the South of France), Force 101 (Khartoum, operations in British Somalia and Ethiopia), Force 133 (Cairo, operations in the Mediterranean basin), the Force 136 (Kandy, operations in the Far East), Force 139 (London, operations in Poland and Czechoslovakia), Force 266 (Bari, operations in Yugoslavia and Albania) and Force 399 (Bari, operations in Central Europe ).
A volunteer in the Free French Forces, Pierre Boulle took part in the campaign and Burma with the SOE from where he drew the substance of his two short stories from which a film was taken:The Bridge on the River Kwai.
The SOE was disbanded on January 15, 1946 and amalgamated with MI6.
Special Boat Service
The SBS, Special Boat Service, whose motto is United we conquer (United we conquer) is the ancestor of the French naval commandos and the American SEALs from the UDT (Underwater Demolition Team) extended in Sea Air Land from the special forces of the fight against the guerrillas. But not combat swimmers, it should be specified who owe their technique to the Italian units of Prince Borghese:La Décima Mas, ancestor of the Comsumbim, copied by the whole world since its creation.