7 Commando

Laycock's Commandos in the Middle East

The previous page was: "No.4 Army Commando"

7 Commando; In February 1941, Laycock in command of Nos.7,8, and 11 Army Commandos, sailed as Layforce, for the Middle East in three infantry assault landing ships, H.M.S. Glengyle, Glenearn and Glenroy. Layforce became a Brigade of the 6th Division of General Wavell's 8th Army.

Wavell had just defeated Graziani and had captured 180,000 Italian prisoners. For a moment it seemed as though the campaign in North Africa was over, for the Italians. The Italians had been well equipped but they had no stomach for a fight to the death.

Then on 30th March the enemy counter-attacked. Rommel with his Afrika Korps had arrived in Cyrenacia, and the complexion of the campaign changed over night. His men were exceptionally fine troops and he himself no mean opponent.

The business of freeing Africa was to be long and drawn-out ending in 1943.

No.4 Army Commando

By the time Laycocks men reached Egypt

The initiative had passed to the enemy. The picture of the war in the Mediterranean was indeed sombre.

The Navy had won the battle of Cape Matapan; Somaliland and Abyssinia were free; but everywhere else the British Armies were suffering a series of reverses, everywhere on land where they had succeeded they were now facing humiliation and defeat.

Rommel was driving ahead against the weak British advance guard at Mersa Brega and Benghazi; German forces were also driving the Britain's out of Greece and Yugoslavia.

Desperation was setting in

Laycock was ordered to mount a raid on the enemy-held port of Bardia, with the object of harassing the enemies' line of communication and inflicting as much damage as possible on his supplies and materials of war.

This hasty idea failed from the start, the submarine H.M.S. Triumph sent to guide the Commandos to their destination was attacked on the way there by the Royal Air Force.

The Triumph arrived late, onboard were two members of the Special Boats Section, Captain Courtney RM and another rank wrecked their foldboat attempting to launch it from the submarine with a heavy swell running.

These problems caused the Commandos to land in the wrong place, and were unable to carry out their tasks. During the withdrawal the Force experienced much difficulty with the compass of their assault landing craft.

This was the first raid in which Admiral Sir W.H. Cowan, Bt., K.C.B., D.S.O., M.V.O., took part. The Admiral was 71 years old.

The proceedings were momentarily

Enlivened by the unexpected arrival of Laycock's liaison officer, Captain Evelyn Waugh, Royal Marines, the novelist. He had been ordered to accompany his commanding office wherever he went.

To the harassed Laycock's question "What brings you here?" Waugh calmly replied: "merely loyalty, sir."

Small scale raids on the enemy's lines of communication might well have caused Rommel and his Afrika Korps to look uneasily over their shoulders, had they been carefully planned.

But there were three facts that prevented their execution: firstly, the campaign in Greece which, besides removing the bulk of Wavell's army to that country, they also took from the Commandos their infantry assault ships which were indispensable for such raids; secondly the enemy had gained air superiority, or something closely approaching it.

Operations therefore,

By any craft slower than a destroyer became exceedingly hazardous. Lastly, the Divisions left in Africa after the bulk of the army had been sent to Greece, were seriously short of men.

Layforce became the only troops in general reserve. They were now required for infantry roles, but they had no administration like an infantry brigade has.

Army Commandos were specially trained for raiding, and their weapons are light, their equipment is what they can carry. They do not have the luxury of cooks among their ranks; they have to feed themselves however best they can. They get extra money to do without the comforts of the average fighting soldier; although highly trained they are not equipped to do infantry work.

Because of the shortage of men on the ground Laycock's Unit, began to break-up. No.11 Commando was sent to Cyprus to form part of the garrison there; while Nos.7 and 8 and a formed composite Commando made up from the remenants of other Commandos, they formed the reserve for the army in Africa.

At the end of May they were called upon to reinforce what remained of the British garrison in Crete, so that a withdrawal might be made or at least attempted.

Crete was attacked and captured

By German parachute and airbourne troops between 20th May and 1st June 1941.

7 Commando, under F.R.J. Nicholls, landed successfully in Suda Bay on the night of 26/27th May. They were very ill equipped for the task they had been set. They had no artillery and no mortars, only rifles, sixteen Bren guns and a number of Tommy guns.

None of these weapons is of great use in a retreat where actions should be fought by the retreating troops with arms which will cause the enemy to deploy before he can catch up with them.

Dawn found the Commandos holding a defensive position astride the main road inland from Sphakia. It was a position where they expected to be heavily dive bombed and shelled; and they were not disappointed.

The men stood up to this experience very well, finding, as others before them, that the physical effect of dive-bombing bears no relation to the effect which it may have on the nerves.

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As one Commando remarked:

"Do you remember what the old lady said in the middle of a blitz?"

"There is something to be said for those bombs-they do take your mind off of the war."

The general opinion of this dive-bombing was expressed by Captain Evelyn Waugh, who, after experiencing it for some time, said: "Like all things German it was very efficient and went on much too long." No.7 Commando delivered a fierce counter-attack upon some Germans established on top fo a hill to the extreme left flank where they were in a position to fire a volley of rifle fire right along the line of advancing Commandos with fixed bayonets made a hasty decision to vacate the position.

This was the first occasion on which the Commandos had used the bayonet, and they proved once again (a phenomenon noted in World War I) that the German infantry soldier, though a brave and tough fighter, dislikes cold steel.

"One thing is certain after Crete," said Nicholls in a letter describing this and other actions, "is that, man for man, there is not any question as to who is the better. Although they (the Germans) had every advantage of air support, etc., whenever the Commandos counter-attacked or got to close quarters, which in our own case was twice, they dropped their weapons and fled before us-a very heartening sight."

From the morning of the 27th until

The night of 31st May, the Commandos fought a rearguard action which enabled the main evacuation at Sphakia to take place.

The correct techniques was soon discovered. Before dust one or two counter-attacks by seven or eight men kept the Germans on their toes; these sufficed to keep the enemy quiet throughout the night.

The difficulties on the beach at Sphakia were such that, by the time it was the turn of the Commandos to be taken off, very few craft were available. Many officers and men had to be left behind and, in all, the casualties of the Force killed, wounded and missing amounted to six-hundred, or three quarters of their strength.

A few got back in a landing craft which, when the petrol gave out, they took to North Africa by means of a sail made of blankets lashed together with bootlaces; the passage took six days.

Those who remained went into the hills and formed into fighting groups with some of the locals to continue a clandestine operation against the enemy.

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