UKLF CSG and 30 Commando

An Introduction

By

Lt Col A.J. MCInerney RM

The previous page was: "29 Commando Royal Artillery"

United Kingdom Landing Force Command Support Group (UKLF CSG) has developed from its origins as Headquarters and Signals Squadron. Evolution over successive operational tours of Afghanistan and Iraq has resulted in an Information Exploitaion (IX) Unit that is the cutting edge of contemporary operations.

Through full spectrum Surveillance and Reconnaissance, Intelligence and Influence operations the Unit now delivers information dominance, whilst maintaining the life support communications and enablement of the Brigade HQ as a core task.

The name UKLF CSG has become less indicative of our operational functions, quite apart from being rather cumbersome. After Operation Herrick 5 and 9 the Unit has become better known across the Defence and Security arena as the IX Grp.

29 Commando Royal Artillery

30 Cdo IX Gp RM

Over the last few years a trawl for a suitable parallel in the history of RM and RN Commando-trained units has been conducted. WW2 30 Commando (Special Engineering) Unit shone out.

The focus of this Unit on gaining information about the enemy and their capabilities, including right at and beyond the 'front line' - a space now reasonably equated with the physical and conceptual battlespace occupied by the Brigade Reconnaissance Force (BRF) and other Unit reconnaissance assets - made this Unit and ideal candidate.

The role and history of this little known, but important, Commando Unit makes it an illustrious ancestor of this constantly developing Unit. We are emmensely proud to be able to carry on the history of 30 Commando.

On 20th March 2010, Al Faw day and our Unit memorable date, UKLF CSG changed its name to 30 Commando Information Exploitation Group Royal Marines (30 Cdo IX Gp RM)

A Short History

By

Captain M. Harrison RM

One of the lesser known Commando Units during WW2, 30 Commando (30 Cdo) was inspired, in the great tradition of copying good ideas (whatever their source), by the Wehrmacht 'Abwehrkommando'.

This was a formation, which existed to provide specialised troops, which advanced with or ahead of leading fighting elements, exploiting information from documents, equipment and personnel.

The idea was not initially well received by rhe Joint Intelligence Committee, but Ian Flemming. Personal Assistant to the Director of Naval Intelligence and, indepedently a staff officer from MI5, Major W G Cass, suggested it and persisted in applying pressure, with the result that the Unit was created in September 1942.

The jont nature of the original Unit was striking. 33 Tp was RM, 34 Tp Army, and 36Tp RN. This in the days when a troop was equivalent to what is now known as a company or squadron (if you have ever wondered why a QMS is also a TQ, there is your answer - he is the Troop Quartermaster...) The Unit was raised as 30 RN Commando (Special Engineering Unit)

Members of the Unit were highly trained

Building on on the firm foudation of wartime Commando training, they were taught about identification of classified material, weapons and equipment, safe breaking and lock picking, searching of premises and ships, identification of persons from photographs and descriptions, prisoner handling and interrogation, and languages.

Officers received additional training in the Enigma machine, radar, radios, search receivers, underwater weapons and ship construction. This all supported the primary mission: the collection of mainly technical intelligence from enemy headquarters and installations.

However strategic the mission, the function was at a tactical level, and Troops worked both with Intelligence Corps Field Security Sections and larger formations, including Operation Torch.

Units visited Norway in 1943

The Unit sent elements to the Norwegian coast in early 1943. This even though the Unit had been so recently formed. However Torch was the first operation as a Unit, and included notable successes such as the capture of Enigma rotors from the Italian Armitice Commission's building by 33 Troop RM, which perfected its tactics for integration with lead units as they advanced to Tunis.

This forward operation was crucial to the preservation of information and equipment from looting and ignorance as much as enemy action.

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Moving on to Italy

The Unit was split and focused on a Radar station at Cape Passero, as well as an Italin D/F station. as they moved through Sicily and Italy, underwater weapons, a T-39 mobile radar, a German 'Y' station which had fallen over a cliff (it had been used against the communication of the 8th Army), an Admiral and many other important things were captured by 30 Commando.

In the midst of all this, they also conducted some beach beach and landing site reconnaissance, much as British Raiding Force can be tasked to do today.

In November 1943 the RN and RM troops were returned to Britain to prepare for Opertation Overlord. 34 Tp remained in Corsica. At this point the Unit was re-designated as 30 Assault Unit, being now more or less a RM half-battalion of 200 ranks.

Their size and function meant that they were grouped with the SBS and Royal Marines Boom Patrol Departmen rather than the 600-strong Commando Units. They were also reorganised to form A, B and X Tps.

They worked in the prelude to Operation Overlord from an underground room in the Admiralty, where they worked with a detailed Knowledge of D-Day plans and integrated themselves with the relevant national forces in order to have the greatest possible effect.

Operation Overlord itself saw continued successes for the Unit, split into three and landing on Juno and Utah beaches, with Americans and Canadian and British forces as appropriate.

They landed four days after D-Day

Part of the force went ashore with British troops, but most landed on D+4. They focused on enemy weapon capabilities and radar. This included V-weapons, a particular interest at the time.

In August X Tp entered Paris alone and attacked the Nazi U-Boat HQ, with what the Naval Intelligence Department considered the 'greatest intelligence haul of the war' for the cost of one man killed.

After some operations against ports along the Channel coast the Unit returned to the UK for preperations for the final assault on Germany. This again included port attacks, including one against the Deschimag shipyard at Bremen.

Although after Ve day a detachment was sent to the Far East and again renamed, this time as 30 Advance Unit. Operations were precluded by the Japanese surrender. Nonetheless activities continued and resulted in the acquisition of much useful confidential material in Singapore, Indo-China and Hong Kong.

30 Advance Unit was Disbanded in 1946.

UKLF CSG is now: 30 Cdo IX Gp RM

The next Link below will be: "539 ASRM"

30 Commando 539 ASRM

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