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Africa in April from where they were involved in the Allied invasion of Sicily and operations in Italy prior to being withdrawn to Britain to prepare for Operation Overlord.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Service Brigade tasked with linking up with the 6th Airborne Division on the eastern flank of Sword before being withdrawn.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".Durnford-Slater 2002, p. 12.Chappell 1996, p. 52 & 57.No. 3 Commando is considered to be the first Commando unit raised, as at the time No. 1 and No. 2 Commando did not exist as the intention was to raise them as airborne units later, while other Commando units were raised shortly after. Durnford-Slater 2002, p. 12; Saunders 1959, pp. 22–23. By 5 July 1940 they had been fully raisedDurnford-Slater 2002, p. 15. 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.Chappell 1996, p. 45.Saunders 1959, pp. 21–22. As a result of a number of mishaps and hurried planning, the raid proved to be unsuccessful.Laffin 1999, p. 13.
In October 1940, as part of a reorganisation of the Commando formations, the unit was amalgamated with No. 8 (Guards) Commando into a single special service battalion known as the 4th Special Service Battalion, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Robert Laycock.Durnford-Slater 2002, pp. ix–x. As a part of this organisation, the unit's name was changed to 'A' Special Service Company.Durnford-Slater 2002, p. ix. 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.Durnford-Slater 2002, p. x.
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.Chappell 1996, p. 12. 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.Chappell 1996, pp. 12–13.
Vaagso
On 27 December 1941, the Commandos carried out another raid in Norway, this time on the port of Vaagso (Nor: Vågsøy) and the island of Maaloy (Måløy) known as Operation Archery.Chappell 1996, p. 14. Under overall operational command of Brigadier Joseph (Charles) 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.Durnford-Slater 2002, pp. 75–76.There were also medical and engineer personnel from No. 4 and No. 6 Commandos. Chappell 1996, p. 14.
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.Durnford-Slater 2002, pp. 81–82.
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.Durnford-Slater 2002, pp. 84–85. 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.Durnford-Slater 2002, p. 86. Finally, by 13:45 the order for the Commandos to withdraw was given.Durnford-Slater 2002, p. 84. 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.Saunders 1959, p. 51.
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.Durnford-Slater 2002, p. 88.Naval casualties consisted of two killed and six wounded, while eight Royal Air Force aircraft were shot down. Durnford-Slater 2002, p. 88.
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.Ford 2003, pp. 30-33. No. 3 Commando was assigned the task of attacking the Goebbels Battery, landing on the eastern flank, under Durnford-Slater's command.Ford 2003, p. 33. 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.Durnford-Slater 2002, pp. 91–92.
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.Ford 2003, pp. 41–43.Of the 23 landing craft that originally set out, four had been forced to turn back with engine trouble before the run in with the German convoy, eight were forced to turn back due to damage as a result, four were sunk, and seven were originally thought missing but eventually made the coast. Saunders 1959, p. 89. As a result the decision was made to abandon the attack.Durnford-Slater 2002, p. 105.
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.Ford 2003, p. 43. 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.Ford 2003, p. 44. 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.Ford 2003, p. 45.Saunders 1959, p. 90.For the raid 42 officers and men from the US 1st Ranger Battalion were attached to No. 3 Commando. Durnford-Slater 2002, p. xiii. 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.Saunders 1959, pp. 7–11. 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 (ML346, commanded by Lt A.D. Fear DSC RNVR) 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.Durnford-Slater 2002, p. 109. 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.Durnford-Slater 2002, p. 116.Saunders 1959, p. 131. 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.Durnford-Slater 2002, p. 117.
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.Saunders 1959, p. 132. 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.Durnford-Slater 2002, p. 135.Saunders 1959, p. 136–137. 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.Saunders 1959, p. 137.