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36-549: In 1940, volunteers were called for from serving British Army soldiers within certain formations still in Britain and men of the disbanding Divisional Independent Companies originally raised from Territorial Army (TA) divisions and who had seen service in the Norwegian Campaign . In November 1940 these army units were organised into a Special Service Brigade under Brigadier J. C. Haydon with five Special Service battalions. By

72-488: A seaplane anchorage but it was too heavily defended for them to risk an attack. The final group landed at Stella Plage under the command of Tod. It encountered a German patrol and in the short exchange of fire that followed, one man was slightly wounded. After the raiders returned to England, the Ministry of Information issued a communique: Collar met with mixed success two German sentries were killed and their only casualty

108-714: A number of exercises against a local infantry battalion on the River Hamble . During the exercise the men discovered the boats they had been supplied with were not good enough to transport them across the English Channel . Having no other transport of their own, the Royal Air Force (RAF) was approached for the use of four of its air sea rescue boats based at Dover , Ramsgate and Newhaven . The raid would be carried out by 115 officers and other ranks, who were divided into four groups. Each group would be landed on one of

144-685: A raid on the Pas de Calais on 24 June. They also participated in Operation Ambassador in conjunction with No. 3 Commando , in which it was planned that the company would attack an airfield on the German-occupied Channel Island of Guernsey while the Commando secured the landing beach and created a diversion. After a postponement, the raid commenced on 14/15 July 1940, but faulty compasses on their launches meant that only one boatload from

180-593: A support section. The companies therefore were unsuitable for holding fixed defences or mounting rearguard actions. Gubbins realised that the soldiers and junior officers of the newly-raised companies were untrained in mountain and irregular warfare . He therefore requested for 20 selected officers of the Indian Army , with experience in the North-West Frontier to be attached to the independent companies. The selected officers flew from Karachi to Britain aboard

216-621: A variety of roles from conventional infantry to special reconnaissance. When the British Army left Malaysia and the Brigade of Gurkhas was deployed to Hong Kong in 1971, the company was disbanded. Operation Collar (commando raid) Operation Collar was the codeword for the first commando raid conducted by the British forces during the Second World War . The location selected for

252-692: The Guards Division and Household Cavalry. In 1963, a new company-sized unit of the Brigade of Gurkhas, the Gurkha Independent Parachute Company , was formed to serve as part of 17th Gurkha Division , the formation operating in Malaysia . The new company was formed from volunteers from the infantry regiments and corps units of the Brigade of Gurkhas, and was primarily tasked with airfield seizure, but during its time in Malaysia, it operated in

288-520: The Imperial Airways flying boat Cathay . Formal approval for the establishment of the independent companies was given only on 20 April, but No. 1 Independent Company had first embarked for Norway on 27 April. On 2 May, Gubbins was given command of "Scissorsforce", consisting of Nos. 1, 3, 4, and 5 Independent Companies, and ordered to prevent the Germans occupying Bodø , Mo and Mosjøen . Part of

324-660: The War Office responsible for irregular operations, which was asked to plan for raids on the Norwegian coast. The department's head, Colonel J.C.F Holland, summoned Lieutenant Colonel Colin Gubbins , who led MI(R)'s mission in Paris , to prepare and train the troops. On 9 April, the Germans launched Operation Weserübung by occupying Oslo and Narvik and several other ports in Norway, which ttok

360-610: The British Army had been making plans for a campaign in Norway , ostensibly to support Finland in the Winter War against the Soviet Union , which then had a non-aggression pact with Germany . When the Finns capitulated on 12 March 1940, the troops that were assigned to the operation were instead sent to France . Nevertheless, contingency planning continued. That included MI(R) , a department of

396-540: The British Army. No. 1 (Guards) Independent Parachute Company was formed in 1948 as the remaining element of 1st (Guards) Parachute Battalion. The company served as part of 16 Parachute Brigade , which was the British Army's sole remaining post-war airborne formation. Manned exclusively by soldiers from the Household Cavalry and Brigade of Guards , the company was quickly tasked as 16 Parachute Brigade's pathfinder unit and saw extensive service on operations until it

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432-614: The French had just signed the Second Armistice at Compiègne with Germany on 22 June 1940. The new British Commandos were not yet adequately trained and most units were still short of troops. An independent company of those which were being absorbed into the commandos was selected. The unit chosen was No. 11 Independent Company, under the command of Major Ronnie Tod of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders . No. 11 Company had been raised after

468-760: The allies by surprise. On 13 April, Holland submitted MI(R)'s first proposals to the War Office. He intended to break up the Lovat Scouts to form the raiding parties. However, the Scouts' commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Leslie Melville, objected and instead Holland proposed to form the Independent Companies. Ten companies were formed from volunteers from Territorial Army divisions that were still stationed in Great Britain: The establishment of each company

504-1089: The autumn of 1940 more than 2,000 men had volunteered for commando training, and the Special Service Brigade now consisted of 12 units which were now called commandos. Each commando would number around 450 men, commanded by a lieutenant-colonel . They were divided into troops of 75 men and further divided into 15-man sections . The Commandos were all volunteers, seconded from other British Army regiments , but they retained their own regimental cap badges and remained on their regimental roll for pay. The Special Service Brigade consisted of five Special Service battalions, numbered one to five. These Special Service battalions were eventually renamed commandos. The No. 1 Special Service Battalion became No. 1 and No. 2 Commandos . The No. 2 Special Service Battalion became No. 9 Commando . The No. 3 Special Service Battalion became No. 4 Commando . The No. 4 Special Service Battalion became No. 3 Commando . The No. 5 Special Service Battalion became No. 5 and No. 6 Commandos . In 1943

540-513: The autumn of 1940 more than 2,000 men had volunteered for commando training. Under pressure from Winston Churchill to start raiding operations, Combined Operation Headquarters devised Operation Collar. The objective of Collar was to be a reconnaissance of the French coast and to capture prisoners. The raid was to take place just three weeks after Operation Dynamo , the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force from Dunkirk , and

576-457: The beach, only to discover their boat had put back out to sea. During the wait, two German sentries stumbled on the group and were quietly bayonetted . Another German patrol approached across the sand dunes and the group was forced to swim out to the boat, leaving its weapons behind. The group that landed at Hardelot penetrated several hundred yards inland and returned to its boat without meeting any Germans. The men that landed at Berck discovered

612-706: The brigade's infantry units in several actions in Nordland until all British troops were withdrawn from Bodø in the early hours of 1 June. The ten independent companies were disbanded after the Norwegian campaign. While most of their men were returned to their parent units and formations, calls were being made throughout the army for men to join the new commando units. Those men from the independent companies who volunteered were formed on 14 June into No. 11 Independent Company, with an establishment of 25 officers and 350 other ranks . The company took part in Operation Collar ,

648-438: The commandeered coaster Nordnorge at Hemnesberget , roughly midway between Mosjøen and Mo. A platoon of No. 1 Independent Company and some Norwegian reservists defending the town were outnumbered and forced to escape by boat after a stiff resistance. No. 1 Independent Company and some Norwegian troops attacked the next day but failed to dislodge the Germans, who had been reinforced and resupplied by seaplanes. Gubbins's force

684-601: The commander was Admiral Sir Roger Keyes , a veteran of the Gallipoli Campaign and the Zeebrugge Raid in the First World War . In 1940, the call went out for volunteers from among the serving Army soldiers within certain formations still in Britain, and men of the disbanding divisional Independent Companies originally raised from Territorial Army divisions who had seen service in the Norwegian Campaign . By

720-474: The commando training centre at Lochailort before he enjoyed a distinguished record as a brigade and division commander. Although the independent company concept was largely abandoned, a pair of company-sized units were formed after the end of the Second World War to undertake various specialist tasks. Both units, although primarily trained as airborne forces, were exclusively drawn from specific elements of

756-403: The commandos started to move away from smaller raiding operations. They had been formed into brigades of assault infantry to spearhead future Allied landing operations. Of the remaining 20 Commandos, 17 were used in the formation of the four Special Service brigades. The three remaining units No. 12, No. 14 (Arctic) and No. 62 Commandos were left to carry out smaller-scale raids. But by the end of

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792-522: The company actually landed, and even then it was at Little Sark , on the wrong island, where there were no Germans. No. 11 Independent Company was disbanded shortly afterwards and its remaining personnel were incorporated into the new commando units. Gubbins returned to MI(R) and eventually became the director of the Special Operations Executive. Lieutenant Colonel Hugh Stockwell , who had commanded No. 2 Independent Company in Norway, set up

828-425: The end of the campaign but No. 11 Company was formed from volunteers from the first ten Independent Companies on 14 June 1940 and took part in the first British commando raid, Operation Collar . After the Second World War , the concept of the independent company was maintained in the airborne forces with the formation of a pair of company-sized units operating independently within larger formations. Early in 1940,

864-488: The force (Nos. 4 and 5 Independent Companies) arrived at Mosjøen on 8 May. Early on 10 May, they successfully ambushed the leading Germans advancing on Mosjøen from the south but were harassed by Luftwaffe aircraft during the long daylight hours and were outmatched by the main body of German Gebirgsjäger (mountain troops). Exhausted, they were withdrawn by a Norwegian coaster to Bodø on 11 May. On 10 May also, 300 Gebirgsjäger with two mountain guns disembarked from

900-620: The hunter class who can develop a reign of terror down the enemy coast." One staff officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Dudley Clarke , had already submitted such a proposal to General Sir John Dill , the Chief of the Imperial General Staff . Dill, aware of Churchill's intentions, approved Clarke's proposal. The Commandos came under the operational control of the Combined Operations Headquarters . The man initially selected as

936-510: The mission, came in close to investigate. At around 02:00 hours on 24 June 1940, the boats reached France and put their men ashore. The group that landed at Le Touquet had the Merlimont Plage Hotel as an objective. Intelligence had suggested that the Germans were using the hotel as a barracks. When the group reached the hotel they discovered it was empty and the doors and windows boarded up. Unable to find another target, they returned to

972-553: The operation but they failed to gather any intelligence or damage German equipment; their only success was in killing two German sentries. After the British Expeditionary Force had been evacuated from Dunkirk in 1940, Prime Minister Winston Churchill called for a force to be assembled and equipped to inflict casualties on the Germans and bolster British morale. Churchill told the joint Chiefs of Staff to propose measures for an offensive against German-occupied Europe, and stated: "They must be prepared with specially trained troops of

1008-477: The other Independent Companies on 14 June 1940. They were formed by asking for volunteers from the men already serving in the other companies and had an establishment of 25 officers and 350 other ranks . Having been selected to carry out the first commando raid on occupied France , No. 11 Independent Company was moved from its base in Scotland to the south coast British port of Southampton . On arrival it conducted

1044-473: The raid was the Pas-de-Calais department on the French coast. The British Commandos had not long been formed and were not yet trained and the operation was given to No. 11 Independent Company under the command of Major Ronnie Tod . The raid's objective was the reconnaissance of four locations and the capture of prisoners. Over the night of 24/25 June 1940, 115 men of No. 11 Independent Company carried out

1080-413: The target beaches at Neufchâtel-Hardelot , Stella Plage , Berck and Le Touquet . They were to spend no more than 80 minutes ashore before returning to their boats. The RAF boats were not equipped for a mission like this and lacked exact navigation equipment and the compasses were known to be unreliable. Crossing the channel they also came to the notice of patrolling RAF aircraft who, not being aware of

1116-621: The units would remain permanently assigned to the garrison. In the 20th century, the name was used for a temporary expeditionary formation of the British Army during the Second World War . Initially, there were ten independent companies, which were raised from volunteers from Territorial Army divisions in April 1940. They were intended for guerrilla -style operations in the Allied campaign in Norway . The companies were disbanded after returning to Britain at

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1152-605: The year these three commandos had all been disbanded, to supply replacements for the other commando units. The formation of the brigades was: The previous Special Service Brigade Headquarters was replaced by Headquarters Special Services Group under Major-General Robert Sturges . The four brigades were destined to serve in different theatres of war. The 1st and 4th brigades were based in the United Kingdom and destined for service in North-western Europe . The 2nd Brigade

1188-518: Was 21 officers and 268 other ranks, organised as three platoons, each of three sections. Some personnel from the Royal Engineers and Royal Signals were attached to each company headquarters. As the companies were intended to be mobile in rough terrain and to operate independently for several days, they were lightly equipped. Each company's only heavy weapons were Bren light machine guns , a single Boys anti-tank rifle and some two-inch mortars in

1224-872: Was based in the Mediterranean for service in Italy and the Balkans . The 3rd Brigade was based in India for service in Burma and the Pacific . Independent Companies An independent company was originally a unit raised by the English Army , subsequently the British Army , during the 17th and 18th centuries for garrison duties in Britain and the overseas colonies . The units were not part of larger battalions or regiments , although they may have originally been detached from them, and

1260-470: Was disbanded in 1975. Both the role and the history of the company were perpetuated by the formation of separate platoons . In 1985, a new Pathfinder Platoon was established as part of the Parachute Regiment within 5 Airborne Brigade , and in the late 1990s, a platoon within B Company of 3rd Battalion, Parachute Regiment was designated as 6 (Guards) Platoon, manned exclusively by men recruited from

1296-506: Was then placed under the command of 24th (Guards) Brigade at Bodø. The destroyer that carried the brigade's commander, Brigadier William Fraser , was put out of action by the Luftwaffe, and Gubbins assumed command of the brigade. Nos. 1 and 3 Independent Companies of the former "Scissorsforce", reinforced by No. 2 Independent Company, which had recently landed at Bodø, thereafter generally fought in rearguard actions while they were attached to

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