Commando Conception

It was Dudley Clarke's idea on 4th June 1940

The previous page was: "Before D-Day"

Commando Conception: 4th June 1940 for Britain it was not very easy to view the future with optimism.

The great bulk of the British Army had been withdrawn 'out of the jaws of death and shame to their native land,' from Dunkirk, they had lost all of their guns and equipment, and would be in no condition to fight the enemy for a very long time.

It was a case of back to the drawing board for Britain?

One man, Lieutenant-Colonel Dudley Clarke (Royal Artillery) was among many who felt that Britain had to do something?

He started to think back over time; how had other nations coped in the past when their main armies had been driven from the battlefield, and their arsenals captured by a superior enemy?

Before D-Day

Guerilla tactics

With his mind roving back through history. There were the guerillas in Spain in the Peninsular War; they formed small independent groups who took part in irregular warfare; they did well.

Then there were the Boer Commandos, which for two years harried more than 25,000 British troops.

In 1936 in Palestine a handful of ill-armed fanatics had been able to 'dissipate' the strength of more than an army of regular soldiers.

Could something of the same kind be done at this grim hour?

Could desperate men, armed with only the weapons that they could carry, carry on a guerilla warfare against an enemy with far superior forces.

He approached Winston Churchill

That night he could not sleep the Commando Conception stayed at the forefront of his mind, by morning he was convinced.

He mentioned his scheme to his superior Chief of Imperial General Staff, Sir John Dill.

He approached Winston Churchill with Clarke's scheme; Churchill could clearly see the potential of Britain's Commandos, he loved the idea. He said: "we could do with 'a bash the enemy and run,' force, he was so excited with the idea that everybody thought it was his.

Two days later Dill informed Dudley Clarke that his Commando Scheme was approved, and that he was to mount a raid across the channel at the earliest possible moment.

That afternoon section M.O.9 of the war office was brought into being under the general direction of Brigadier Otto Lund. Clarke then approached the navy; he had ships for transportation in mind.

Set ting foot on German held soil

5 days after the Commando Conception approval on 12th June 1940 Lieutenant General Sir Alan Bourne, K.C.B., D.S.O., Adjutant General of the Corps of Royal Marines, was placed by the Prime Minister, in charge of Raiding Operations.

The new organisation of commandos came into being with the most commendable speed.

On 24th June the hastily formed '11 Commando' set off for the French coast near Boulogne in crash boats; the fore runner to landing craft.

They landed in four parties; pleased to set foot on German held soil. Landing along the coast. 3 were uneventful, men in another boat landed at the Plage de Merlimont, four miles south of Le Touquet.

They approached a large building surrounded with barbed wire. It was filled with the enemy; they were enjoying themselves. Two sentries stood on guard outside, they died quickly and silently.

The wire was too thick to charge the building for an attack, they lobbed hand grenades through the glass windows and withdrew to the boat. There was an exchange of fire with a patrol; that went quiet. Dudley Clarke was grazed on the side of the head from the fire with a German bullet, but survived intact.

It was unbelievable that the man who conceived the Commando Scheme was the first Commando to be wounded.

Modern-day Pages Fast Boats Pages Joe Wezley Pages

1945 Mountbatten of Burma Wrote:

When the commandos were first raised, commandos were composed almost entirely of soldiers, with a sprinkling of Marines; this was a mistake, for it was above all the Marines who, by virtue of their sailor-soldier training. Should be eminently suited for Combined Operations and raids.

I therefore raised a number of commandos composed entirely of Marines; and I am glad to think that the Admiralty have retained the Royal Marine Commandos.

Who fought along side the Army Commandos in the war, and who are now keeping alive the amphibious tradition which for so long have been theirs, and of which the proud symbol is now the green beret which they have retained.

The next Link below will be: "Commando"

Commando Conception Commando

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