No. 3 Commando
No. 3 Commando was a battalion-sized Commando unit raised by the British Army during the Second World War. Formed in July 1940 from volunteers for special service, it was the first such unit to carry the title of "Commando". Shortly afterwards the unit was involved in a largely unsuccessful raid upon the German-occupied Channel Island of Guernsey.
In 1941 they were involved in successful raids on the Lofoten Islands and Vaagso, in Norway, before taking part in the costly Dieppe raid in August 1942, where the unit was tasked with knocking out a German coastal artillery battery on the eastern flank of the main landings, although due to a chance encounter in the Channel with a German convoy, a large majority of the unit failed to make it ashore.
In early 1943, the unit was sent to Gibraltar before moving to North Africa in April from where they were involved in the Allied invasion of Sicily and operations in Italy prior to being withdrawn to Britain to prepare for Operation Overlord. On D-Day they went ashore on 6 June 1944 as part of the 1st Special Service Brigade tasked with linking up with the 6th Airborne Division on the eastern flank of Sword before being withdrawn. Later they took part in the Allied counterattack during the Ardennes Offensive in early 1945 before taking part in the advance into Germany as part of Operation Plunder.
Following the end of the war, No. 3 Commando carried out occupation duties in Germany before it was disbanded on 4 January 1946.
History
Formation and early raids
Formed in Plymouth in late June 1940 following the Dunkirk evacuation, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel John Durnford-Slater, No. 3 Commando was the first British unit to use the title of "Commando". By 5 July 1940 they had been fully raised and a little more than a week later they carried out one of the first Commando raids of the war. This raid, known as Operation Ambassador, which had been hastily organised at the behest of the British prime minister, Winston Churchill, was probing raid on the German-occupied island of Guernsey. As a result of a number of mishaps and hurried planning, the raid proved to be unsuccessful.In October 1940, as part of a reorganisation of the Commando formations, the unit was amalgamated with No. 8 Commando into a single special service battalion known as the 4th Special Service Battalion, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Robert Laycock. As a part of this organisation, the unit's name was changed to 'A' Special Service Company. At the end of 1940, the special service battalions were reorganised into a headquarters and two Commandos and the name of the unit reverted to No. 3 Commando. In January 1941 the special service battalions were broken up, the Commandos were delinked and raised back to full battalion-sized units themselves.
In March 1941, 250 officers and men from No. 3 Commando took part in the first large-scale Commando raid, which was launched on four ports in the Lofoten Islands in Norway. The raid, codenamed Operation Claymore, proved to be a considerable success, resulting in the capture of a number of wheels of the German Enigma encoding machine which helped the Allies to decode German radio traffic later in the war, as well as the destruction of a considerable amount of petrol and oil and the capture of several hundred Germans.
Vaagso
On 27 December 1941, the Commandos carried out another raid in Norway, this time on the port of Vaagso and the island of Maaloy known as Operation Archery. Under overall operational command of Brigadier Joseph Haydon who directed the operation from HMS Kenya, Nos. 5 and 6 Troops under Major Jack Churchill landed on Maaloy while Durnford-Slater led Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 4 Troops ashore on Vaagso. In addition to the troops from No. 3 Commando, there were two troops from No. 2 Commando acting as the floating reserve.Following a brief naval bombardment the troops on Maaloy succeeded in securing the island; however, the four troops in Vaagso experienced considerable resistance from the German garrison and their attack up the main street briefly stalled before Durnford-Slater signalled Haydon requesting the floating reserve be released to him and No. 6 Troop under Peter Young were ferried across from Maaloy.
Overhead a considerable air battle ensued, while in the anchorage the naval force continued to bombard the shore line and attack German shipping in the port. On the shore the fighting in the streets continued for a number of hours and as the Commandos advanced up the main street intelligence teams searched buildings for valuable documents before demolition teams planted explosives and destroyed them. Finally, by 13:45 the order for the Commandos to withdraw was given. Withdrawing by troops back down the road, they moved back to the landing craft and by 14:45 they had re-embarked, taking a number of German prisoners and Norwegian volunteers with them.
The overall losses for the Commandos were 19 killed and 57 wounded, the majority of which were from No. 3 Commando while 120 Germans were killed and a further 98 captured.
Dieppe
In August 1942 No. 3 Commando was involved in the ill-fated Operation Jubilee, an exploratory raid on Dieppe in France. The plan called for a frontal assault on the port by the Canadian 2nd Division. Before this would take place, however, Troops from No. 3 and 4 Commandos would land at beaches on the eastern and western flanks and neutralise two German artillery batteries that were covering the main anchorage. No. 3 Commando was assigned the task of attacking the Goebbels Battery, landing on the eastern flank, under Durnford-Slater's command. The battery was located near Berneval-le-Grand, about half a mile from the sea with steep cliffs in front of it. It was decided that No. 3 Commando would land on two beaches to the east and west of the battery, from which gullies rose towards the battery and which would provide concealment while the Commandos approached the battery.Image:No. 3 Commando men after Dieppe raid.jpg|thumb|left|alt=A black and white photograph showing soldiers wearing combat equipment sitting in a small watercraft beside a pier|Men from No. 3 Commando arrive back at Newhaven following the Dieppe raid.
As the convoy of landing craft and other vessels ferried the Commandos across the English Channel; however, they had a chance encounter with a German tanker escorted by a number of armed trawlers which proceeded to fire upon them. In the confusion that followed a number of the landing craft were damaged and forced to turn back, while others were reported as missing and believed sunk. As a result the decision was made to abandon the attack.
Nevertheless, unbeknown to their commanders and each other, and having lost communications, the seven landing craft that had been reported missing made for their assigned beaches, determined to press on with the attack. In the end two parties landed, one party consisting of six craft carrying approximately 120 men under Captain R.L Willis landed on the beach opposite Le Petit Berneval to the east of the battery—Yellow I—while the other, consisting of only one craft of 20 men from No. 6 Troop under Major Peter Young landed to the west at Yellow II.
Of the 120 men that landed at Yellow I, 37 were killed, 81 were captured, mostly after having been wounded, and just one managed to evade capture and return to Britain. Among those that were killed was Lieutenant Edward Loustalot, a United States Army Ranger, who was the first American soldier to be killed in the European theatre of operations. The smaller party, under Young, however, fared better and managed to advance within of the battery, however, due to lack of numbers they were unable to launch an assault on the battery and instead proceeded to harass the gunners for a number of hours and distract them from their purpose of firing on the anchorage before they were forced to withdraw. They succeeded, albeit briefly, to divert the guns from their task of firing on the ships off the coast. Major Young's withdrawal was effected with such haste, and under such heavy fire, that he did not have time to board the Motor Launch on which he returned home; he was towed part of the way, in the water, clinging to a line attached to the stern of the ship.
Sicily and Italy
After the Dieppe raid, a long period of lull followed for No. 3 Commando during which time they were based around Weymouth and were brought back up to strength with an intake of 120 former policemen who had volunteered for service with the Commandos and had just completed their training at the Commando Depot at Achnacarry in Scotland. In January 1943, however, the unit received orders to move to Gibraltar, where they were stationed as a precaution in case Germany decided to invade Spain. While there the commanding officer, John Durnford-Slater, carried out reconnaissance of potential targets in Spain from the air and sent officers on leave across the border to gather intelligence.Image:Commando landings Sicily 9 10 July 1943.jpg|thumb|right|alt=A black and white photograph showing a warship firing its armament at positions on the foreshore, while in the distance landing craft move towards the beach|A destroyer fires on Axis positions while Commandos carry out landings on the beach during Operation Husky.
In April 1943 the unit was moved to North Africa, landing at Algiers before later moving to Alexandria where they began preparing for operations as part of Operation Husky, the Allied invasion of Sicily. On 10 July 1943, landing ahead of the main force near Cassibile, a few miles south of Syracuse on the Sicilian coast, half of No. 3 Commando—Nos. 4, 5 and 6 Troops, under the command of Durnford-Slater, carried out a night time attack on an Italian artillery battery without suffering a single casualty. Meanwhile, Nos. 1, 2 and 3 Troops under the command of Peter Young, carried out a landing at Scoglio Imbiancato, a beach near Fontane Bianche, which was unopposed but a series of navigational delays meant that they landed later than planned. Nevertheless, the two forces managed to link up before capturing the town of Cassibile later that night.
On 13 July, the Commandos embarked once more upon the Prince Albert with the task of landing in the Bay of Agnone, behind enemy lines and capture the Ponte dei Malati bridge and hold it, intact, until the 50th Division, which formed the vanguard of the advancing British Eighth Army, under General Bernard Montgomery, could relieve them. It was described as the "most perilous enterprise of its career".
The landing took place in two waves due to a shortage of landing craft. The first wave hit the beach near Agnone Bagni, about from the bridge, at 22:00 hours and took fire from the Italian defenders almost immediately. Under the leadership of Durnford-Slater, Young and Lieutenant George Herbert, all experienced combat officers, the Commandos eventually managed to fight their way off the beach and push inland. The second wave followed a few hours later, also under fire, and despite one of the eight landing craft running aground on some rocks, most of the men were also able to get off the beach.
The Commandos were involved in a number of minor skirmishes as they advanced towards the bridge, however, by 03:00 on 14 July the lead elements reached the north-east end of the bridge, where Durnford-Slater halted the men to re-organise before launching the assault. Shortly after the assault began, with No. 4 Troop leading the way. Within ten minutes the pillboxes had been cleared and No. 3 Commando, had taken control of the bridge.
With a strength that continued to grow until there was about 350 men around the bridge, the charges that had been placed on the bridge were removed and No. 3 Commando settled in to defend the bridge as they waited for 50th Division to arrive. Over the course of the next few hours they were subjected to mortar fire and shelling from a Panzer IV tank. Eventually, as casualties mounted and their reinforcement became overdue the Commandos were forced to abandon the position, nevertheless they had prevented the bridge from being blown up and it was eventually recaptured as the Eighth Army arrived a short time later. The unit, however, suffered heavily for the success, suffering 30 killed, 66 wounded and 59 missing or captured. The bridge was later renamed No. 3 Commando Bridge in their honour.
At the end of the Sicilian campaign Durnford-Slater took over command of a brigade-sized element consisting of No. 3 and No. 40 Commando and the Special Raiding Squadron and as a result Peter Young took over command of the unit. Following this, in late August 1943, after receiving replacements from No. 12 Commando which was in the process of being disbanded, the unit carried out a number of reconnaissance operations across the Strait in preparation for the invasion of Italy.
On 8 September, two troops from No. 3 Commando took part in a dawn landing at Porto San Venere as part of the main invasion, helping to clear the quay. The rest of unit arrived shortly afterwards and then they moved on to Vibo Valentia, where they waited for further orders. On 19 September, No. 3 Commando received orders to proceed to Bari along with the rest of Durnford-Slater's brigade. Arriving there on 30 September, two days later 180 men from No. 3 Commando, organised into four troops under Captain Arthur Komrower, embarked from Manfredonia as part of the attack force tasked with capturing the port of Termoli.
The detachment from No. 3 Commando went ashore in the first wave, securing a bridgehead through which the rest of the force proceeded to advance. By 08:00 on 3 October Termoli had been captured; however a counterattack by 16th Panzer Division continued until early on 6 October, during which No. 3 Commando defended an exposed forward position in what Durnford-Slater described as "probably their finest performance of the war". Shortly after they received orders to return to the United Kingdom in order to prepare for the invasion of Normandy.