THE ROYAL NAVAL COMMANDOS

by S. H. Kipling

Early Raids

The early amphibious raids by the Commandos between l940 and l942 pointed up to the obvious need for better intelligence and control on the beaches. The earliest attempt at exerting some control had been by the Royal Navy manning the landing craft, but when this proved inadequate, specialized 'beach parties' were formed and were first tried during Operation Ironclad to capture the port of Diego Suarez at the northern tip of Madagascar between 5th and 7th May l942. This proved so successful that the Royal Naval Commandos (sometimes known as 'Beachead Commandos') were formed. Their duties included: landing in or ahead of the first wave to clear the beaches, to mark limits of the beachhead, consolidate the beachhead, clearing personnel and equipment from the beachhead expeditiously, helping moor landing craft correctly, removing mines and underwater obstructions, taping the safe passage routes off the beaches for the wounded, informing subsequent waves of important intelligence about the defences and strenghts of the enemy and advising how to exploit the enemies weakness, setting up important ammunition and supply dumps, also supporting a wide variety of troops with any initial advance inland, supervising enemy prisoners of war, being available to tackle any task and act as a rearguard during any withdrawals.

The first Royal Naval Commandos were formed during the spring of l942 from general service, reservists and hostilities only Officers and Ratings; each Commando unit came under the command of a Lieutenant-Commander or Commander, and had three sections eg K1, K2, and K3 each consisting two officers (a beachmaster BM and assistant beachmaster ABM), a Petty Officer and seventeen other ratings of varying rank, acting rank could be found from time to time. Later Commandos would consist of ten officers and sixty-six other ranks divided into three parties of twenty-five men each (one beachmaster, three assistant beachmasters and twenty-two other ranks) who would be responsible for a particular section of beach on a large invasion. Each RN Commando unit could occasionally be found under the command of a principal beachmaster PBM, who usually had the rank of Captain but this usually only occurred on larger invasions where each unit was spread over many miles.

Dieppe

In August l942, members of the Royal Navy Commands (C and D) took part in the Dieppe raid, Operation Jubilee, with a beachmaster and beach party assigned to each of the beaches. Some could not reach their assigned beach due to heavy gunfire. They suffered very heavy casualties with many others becoming prisoners of war, but who would play other roles within the heart of Germany itself, some quite interesting, such as the famous story of 'Albert RN'. Despite the problems at Dieppe a lot was learnt in particular the need for Combined Operations and within this there was an obvious need for RN Beach Parties who would be vital in any major amphibious as well as smaller operations. It was clear that they needed specialized training and a school was established at Ardentinny, Scotland to train the RN Commandos. Meanwhile Lord Louis Mountbatten had taken over the command of Combined Operations - whose motto was 'United We Conquer' and the RN Commandos were later to share in the many actions covered by this famous wartime organisation.

Training

The school at Ardentinny would accomodate between 500 to 600 men. Officers were all mixed in with the ratings, a most unusual thought for the times, and they made good use of Loch Long for amphibious landing drills, reconnaisance and gaining specialised beach skills. Other training included weapons usage, rock climbing, assault courses, embarkation and debarkation using various types of landing craft under battle conditions, route marches and field survival. Many of these skills were honed at Achnacarry where trainees were put through their paces by the famous Army Commando Officer, Colonel Vaughan, and very few were ever 'RTU' - returned to their unit as being unable to complete the course as nobody wanted that stamped on their service record. The R.N. Commandos were expected to pass the Commando training course and receive their much coverted green beret along with the famous F-S dagger from Colonel Vaughan at a special parade. It is said that their time spent at Achnacarry was responsible for their new motto 'Imprimo Exulto' - first in last out.

Some received additional training at Kabritt, near the Suez Canal, for duties in the middle East , while others went to the Jungle Battle School at Chittagong for duties in South East Asia. Others went on to complete the parachute training course and would later wear the SAS/SBS wings. Some went on to complete underwater swimming courses to qualify as 'Frogmen'. All of these skills were to prove invaluable and along with the experience gained at Dieppe helped to mold and expand the Royal Naval Commando.

North Africa

Once formed RN Commandos were assigned letters rather than numbers. By the end of l943 twenty-two units had been formed. During Operation Torch in late l942, four hundred and ten RN Commandos proved themselves in the first major Anglo-American amphibious operation of the war. Four augmented units - C (reformed after heavy losses incurred at Dieppe), E, F, G and parts of H and J - took part in the Torch landings which were carried out by three task forces (Western Task Force - Casablanca, Central Task Force - Oran and the Eastern Task Force). The RNC landed with the first assault elements and took immediate chage of the beaches. After first eliminating snipers they dug slit trenches for protection and set up Lewis guns for use against low flying enemy aircraft. The RNC major task was to guide ashore 29,000 troops, 2,400 vehicles and l4,000 tons of supplies on three different beaches which was to prove vital for the forthcoming actions. Those R N Commandos working with the American assault troops wore American uniforms since the Vichy French Troops were suspicious of the British. Overall the RN Commandos worked very efficiently during Torch despite the fact that controlling the incoming landing craft proved very difficult. It was far better than it would have been had they not been present.

Italy

The next major operation for the RN Commandos was the invasion of Sicily, Operation Husky, which involved more than 2,000 ships and landing craft. The units involved were C,E, F,G, K, M and N, they were only involved with the Eastern Task Force (British) but still had to cover twenty-seven landing beaches. Once the Assault troops were ashore the RN Commandos job was often just getting started since they usually had to work the beaches for weeks after directing in the supplies and reinforcements and guiding out the wounded and prisoners of war. As a sideline RN Commandos took the Island of Monte Cristo, which had an enemy radio station capable of plotting Allied shipping in the area and report back to the mainland. Also, D party took the Island of Pantelleria in June l943.

In September of l943, RN Commandos went in with the Army assault troops and Royal Marine Commandos when the Allies landed in Italy. They were C, G, H, K, M, N and O parties, and later during the advance up the Italian coast they helped open up anchorages. At both Salerno and Anzio landing RN Commandos had to deal with minefields before they could signal the waiting landing craft to come in. At Anzio they had to use their F-S daggers to probe for wood encased mines which could not be located with the Royal Engineers metal detectors. Sand bars offshore also created great difficulty during this landing but the RNC performed admirably, keeping the heachhead functioning throughout the initial landings and for months afterwards despite almost constant German shelling. As the advance moved further up the Italian mainland they were given two additional roles, the recovery of escaped Allied prisoners of war along the Adriatic coastline and protecting war criminals from local inhabitants, long enough to get them back for Allied interrogation and preparation for war crimes trials once the war was over.

In early June, l944 a tragedy struck the RNC while involved in Operation Brassard which was the invasion and capture of the Island of Elba. A and O parties were to take part and two sub-sections from each having been specially rehearsed to carry out some of the tasks in this important landing , however no amount of training could have foreseen the enemies coastal defences, inland batteries and gun sites which put up such stiff opposition that many of the enemy gunners were killed by their own guns.

It was not until l9 June, l944 that the islands garrison finally surrendered and Elba passed into Allied hands. The casualties sustained by the RNC had been heavy and the operation was nicknamed 'bloody little sideshow'. The parties making up A and O had suffered the most but O.3 was practically wiped out losing 2 officers, 2 petty officers, l leading seaman and l3 ratings killed, while A party lost 2 officers and l8 men killed. The remnants of these parties were eventually returned to the United Kingdom.

Yugoslavia and Greece

Some of the R.N. Commandoes had a break from Italy. They crossed into Yugoslavia or went down to the Greek Islands to help push the enemy back. Those who remained in Italy found themselves up against a new enemy, namely those unfortunates who were conscripted from the German occupied countries. They were quite tough fighters and at times suicidal due to the fact that if they did not fight for the Germans they, or their families , would be shot. If they were captured they would have been returned to their homeland after the war and again could have been shot as traitors, basically they had nothing to loose so the Germans used them mainly against Allied Special Forces who were also known for their toughness. The R.N. Commandos reached Northern Italy at the end of the war just as the Allies were about to launch the invasion of Austria. They were denied this movement but instead found themselves returning to Southern Italy, and then returned back to England by sea.

Far East

R. N. Commandos who specialised in jungle warfare at the training school at Chittagong included H party which took part in the landings on the Arakan coast. These operations commenced with Screwdriver in February 1944 followed by Srewdriver II. C and E parties were active in Malaya in 1945 and helped prevent the Japanese carrying the war into India.

Normandy

The largest R. N. Commando operation of the war was Neptune, the naval portion of Overlord. Eight parties F, J,L,P,Q,R,S,T and W (mostly Canadians) were scheduled and trained for this the largest amphibious operation of the war. R.N. Commandos went in the first wave in order to judge whether landing craft of subsequent waves could land at the same point or had to go elsewhere. They took heavy casualties at Normandy, on some beaches having to dig in and fight off counter attacks but their commando training made them very effective at dealing with the German defenders, a task they found actually less difficult than dealing with the congestion on the beaches. Wrecked landing craft and vehicles were a major problem especially when they blocked the exits from the beachhead. Despite these difficulties they managed to clear the obstacles, organise the exits and begin bringing supplies ashore. Most of the R.N. Commandos on the Normandy beaches stayed for at least six weeks helping to salvage sunken landing craft, moor Mulberry Harbours and Phoenix Piers, but most of all bringing order out of chaos of the largest amphibious operation in the history of warfare.

Walcheren and the Rhine

The Normandy invasion was the high point of R.N. Commando operations but it did not mark the end of hostilities for they went on to take part in the capture of Walcheren and in crossing the Rhine at Arnhem, although not in the abortive airborne assault, L and M parties were most active here. It was later decided to send the R.N. Commandos to the Pacific to take part in the invasion of the Japanese home islands and C,E H,J,M,N,R and V parties were picked for this task. They were to join force X and Y from the South East Asia Command (SEAC) but fortunately it was not necessary to do this once the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki had brought a speedy conclusion to hostilities.

The end of the war

Not only did the R.N. Commandos have to go through same rigorous training the Army and Marine Commandos went through but they also had to perform a difficult command and control task amid the chaotic conditions of an amphibious operation. At the end of W.W.2 they ceased to exist but the gap left was quickly noticed and from time to time, under different names, their roles were revived along with the old spirit, slightly modernised as would be expected for post war operations right up to the recent Gulf War of January 1991.

Honours and awards given to members of the Royal Naval Commando, both during and after the war are difficult to identify as the London Gazette entries do not identify the recipients as serving in the R.N.C, only when an individual citation comes to light. However every member who served knows about his own courage, humour and inevitable tragedy in those dark war years. To many today it is history, but to those who took part at the time it was everyday life which was written in the best traditions of the ROYAL NAVY.

Postscript:

Today these veterans in union with those of other specialist R N Assault Landing Parties who equally served in every assault landing from Dieppe to the Crossing of the Rhine have formed the RN Commando Association. These units are :- Beach Signal Sections; Landing Craft Obstacle Clearance Units; Combined Operations Pilotage Parties; the Special Boat Squadron; Forward Observation Bombardment units, and not least members of the WRNS who served in support of them.

The aims of the Association are: To foster the interest of comradeship and friendship, founded during World War Two. To hold a reunion annually at a time and place specified by the Comittee. To assist where possible,members in need and hardship. To send a tribute in the form of a wreath, when a member expires and if possible a representative. To set aside a fund to help widows and orphans. To put members in touch with each other, in the spirit of Esprit de Corp. To publish a Newsletter of membership and events.

On 23 May, l987 a Memorial Plaque was dedicated 'In memory of the Officers and Men of the Beach Parties and Royal Navy Commandos who gave their lives for their country during the Second World War l939-45' at Ardentinny.

'Then they are glad, because they are at rest and so he bringeth them unto the haven where

they should be.'

Details of the authors' unit RNBC 'NAN'

Formed at HMS Armadillo in February, l943 under the command of Lieutenant Commander MV Redshaw, RNVR. On completion of training proceeded to Foliot (camp at Plymouth, now Marine Commando Barracks) and Achnacarry, the Army Commando Training Centre, before being attached to Force V with whom the unit sailed for Sicily on 29 June l943.

After Operation Husky, 'Nan' was stationed at Bougie before returning to Sicily to take part at the crossing from Messina to Reggio. In October, l943 the unit moved to HMS Saunders at Kabrit where it remained until it returned in the cruiser HMS Phoebe to Italy in time for the Anzio Landings, operation Shingle on 22 January l944 at which 'Nan' company sustained several casualties. After a period in Corsica and Naples the unit moved to the Adriatic in May, l944, where it saw extensive service in the forward port areas with the 8th Army. 'Nan' unit was disbanded at HMS Dundonald in November l945.

Principle Beach Masters RNBC 'NAN'

Act.Commander PWF Stubbs, DSC, RN, April-September l943

Lieutenant J Russell, DSC, RN September l943-February l944

Lieutenant-Commander TJ Turton RNVR May-June l945

Lieutenant A Varley, RNVR June-November l945