No. 12 Commando
No. 12 Commando was a battalion-sized commando unit of the British Army during the Second World War. Formed in 1940 in Northern Ireland, they carried out a number of small-scale raids in Norway and France between 1941 and 1943 before being disbanded and its personnel dispersed to other commando units. Background The commandos were formed in 1940, by the order of Winston Churchill the British Prime Minister. He called for specially trained troops that would "develop a reign of terror down the enemy coast". At first they were a small force of volunteers who carried out small raids against enemy occupied territory, but by 1943 their role had changed into lightly equipped assault infantry which specialised in spearheading amphibious landings. The man initially selected as the overall commander of the force was Admiral Sir Roger Keyes himself a veteran of the landings at Galipoli and the Zeebrugge raid in the First World War. Keyes resigned in October 1941 and was replaced by Admiral Louis Mountbatten. By the autumn of 1940 more than 2,000 men had volunteered for commando training, and what became known as the Special Service Brigade was formed into 12 units called commandos. Each commando would number around 450 men commanded by a lieutenant colonel. They were sub divided into troops of 75 men and further divided into 15-man sections. Commandos were all volunteers seconded from other British Army regiments and retained their own cap badges and remained on their regimental roll for pay. All volunteers went through the six-week intensive commando course at Achnacarry. The course in the Scottish Highlands concentrated on fitness, speed marches, weapons training, map reading, climbing, small boat operations and demolitions both by day and by night. By 1943 the commandos had moved away from small raiding operations and had been formed into brigades of assault infantry to spearhead future Allied landing operations. Three units were left un-brigaded to carry out smaller-scale raids. History Formation Formed on 5 August 1940 at Crumlin after gathering in Belfast and Derry in Northern Ireland, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel S. Harrison, the unit, although technically a part of the Special Service Brigade under Brigadier Joseph (Charles) Haydon, largely remained independent of it and carried out small scale raiding and sabotage operations. The new unit was drawn from Irish regiments and from the 53rd and 61st Divisions which were based in Northern Ireland at the time. Training was conducted at various locations in Northern Ireland, including at Aldergrove Airport, where the commandos carried out a mock attack. In early 1941 they were billeted for a brief time at Warsash before undertaking combined operations training at Inverary, Scotland. Operations Compared with some of the other commando units, No. 12 Commando had a short history. Its first raid came on the night of 27/28 July 1941 when a party of 16 men carried out a landing near Ambleteuse, France. Embarking on an assault landing craft, they were towed to a position from the mouth of the Slack River