No. 10 (Inter-Allied) Commando was a Commando unit of the British Army during the Second World War, recruited largely from non-British personnel from German-occupied Europe. This unit was used to help co-ordinate attacks with other Allied forces.
The unit's origins were in a British volunteer unit proposed in August 1940 which recruited from Northern Command. A low number of recruits, however, meant that the unit was disbanded and the volunteers returned to their units. In July 1942, the unit was raised again as a multinational force, recruiting volunteers from German-occupied Europe and enemy aliens. It included volunteers from France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway, Denmark, Poland and Yugoslavia, organised into independent sub-units known as "troops".
Units from No. 10 (Inter-Allied) Commando served in North-West Europe, the Mediterranean, Scandinavia and Burma, mostly in small numbers attached to other military formations. By the end of the war, No. 10 Commando had become the largest commando formation in the British Army.
Background
"Commando" units were first created in 1940, by order of the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, as small highly trained units which would "develop a reign of terror down the enemy coast".Chappell, p.5 At first they were a small force of volunteers who carried out small raids against enemy-occupied territory,Chappell, p.3 but by 1943 their role had changed into lightly equipped shock troops specialised in spearheading amphibious assault landings, commando style raids, long-range penetration, and urban warfare.Moreman, p.8
The man selected as the overall commander of the force was Admiral Sir Roger Keyes, himself a veteran of the Gallipoli Campaign and the Zeebrugge raid of the First World War.Chappell, p.6 By March 1941 there were 11 battalion-sized units now called commandos. Each commando would consist of around 390 men in a small headquarters and six "troops" of three officers and 62 men each.Chappell, p.7
The idea for a foreign commando unit came from a junior French naval officer, Philippe Kieffer, after he heard of the successful Lofoten raid. The idea was eventually put to the then Chief of Combined Operations, Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten who could see the value of a foreign commando unit but insisted it should include volunteers from all the occupied territories.van der Bijl, p.6 It falls under the command of 1st Special Service Brigade.
Formation
No. 10 (Inter-Allied) Commando under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Dudley Lister was formed on 2 July 1942. The men of the new commando were all foreigners except for the British headquarters. Headquarters consisted of a British Commanding Officer, second in command, adjutant, intelligence officer and NCO, medical officer and medical orderlies, signals officer and signals section, training officer, quartermaster, administration officer and drivers. The formation of No. 10 (Inter-Allied) Commando meant that by the end of the war it was the largest commando unit in the British Army. Like all British Commandos the men of No. 10 (Inter-Allied) Commando went through the six-week intensive commando course at Achnacarry. The course in the Scottish Highlands concentrated on fitness, speed marches, weapons training, map reading, climbing, small boat operations and demolitions both by day and by night.van der Bijl, p.12
In May 1943 the commando moved to Eastbourne on the Sussex coast where they carried out specialist training which unusually for a non-parachute unit included parachute training at No.1 Parachute Training School RAF, Ringway near Manchester (over 80% of the Polish troop were parachute qualified) and they also trained in mountain climbing and Arctic warfare.van der Bijl, p.11 At the same time as the move to Eastbourne the commando got a new commanding officer when Lieutenant Colonel Peter Laycock took over command on 15 May.van der Bijl, p.25
No. 1 (French) Troop No. 1 Troop was formed in April 1942 by Philippe Kieffer, from an intake of 40 Frenchmen, who were initially called 1re Compagnie de Fusiliers Marins (1st Company of Naval Rifles). Over time the Unit grew up to a second troop (see below, Troop 8) and a half Troop (K-GUN). The unit retained its links with the Free French Forces wearing FNFL insignia and headgear.van der Bijl, p.5 Troop 1, Troop 8 and K-Gun were attached to No 4 Commando for Overlord operation and the Netherlands campaign.
No. 2 (Dutch) Troop
Free Dutch Forces No. 2 Troop consisted of 62 men under command of Captain Mulders. The troop formed in June 1942 was always below establishment and never deployed as a complete independent unit. The men acted as liaison officers, guides and interpreters during operations Market Garden, Infatuate I and II.van der Bijl, p. 6
About 48 men from the Royal Brigade "Princess Irene" started on 22 March 1942 with preliminary training at No 3, No 4, No 9 and No 12 Commando. In May 1942, the group met at the Commando Basic Training Centre in Achnacarry, Scotland, for command training. Ultimately, of those 48 men, 25 received the green beret. No. 2 Dutch Troop was part of No. 10 (Inter-Allied) Commando. 29 June 1942, the graduates left Achnacarry and moved on to RAF Dundonald at Troon on the Scottish west coast for commando air support and assault troop training. It was here the foundations were laid for the post-war Dutch commando unit. From Troon they went to the new port of Portmadoc in North Wales, where they were included as No. 2 (Dutch) Troop in No. 10 (Inter-Allied) Commando. Several members of the Brigade “Princess Irene” then followed the commando training to supplement No 2 Dutch Troop. In May 1943 the strength of No 2 Dutch Troop was five officers, 12 NCOs and 67 corporals and men. In 1943 No. 2 (Dutch) Troop was assigned to be deployed in the Far East against the Japanese. Only five Dutchmen were deployed from India, partly with No 44 (Royal Marine) Commando and partly with No 5 Commando, behind enemy lines in Araan, Burma.
After the war, members of No. 2 Dutch troop served in Depot Speciale Troepen (DST) after former in Korps Speciale Troepen (KST) (1945–1950); after that it formed the Korps Commandotroepen.
No. 3 Troop ("X" Troop)
No. 3 Troop, perhaps better known as "X" Troop, was possibly the strangest unit in the British Army, since it consisted mostly of personnel who were technically enemy aliens – German and Austrian refugees, many of them Jews – under the command of Captain Bryan Hilton-Jones. The existence of No 3 (X) Troop was first publicly referred to in the 1971 edition of the Alpine Journal in its obituary of Bryan Hilton-Jones. Its first members, in July 1942, were eight Sudeten Germans from Czechoslovakia.van der Bijl, p.6. Officially named No. 3 (British) Troop as a cover, the name "X Troop" was devised by Winston Churchill; "Because they will be unknown warriors... they must perforce be considered an unknown quantity. Since the algebraic symbol for unknown is X, let us call them X Troop".Garrett 2021, pp. 49-50
Most members of the troop were Jews of German, Austrian or Eastern European origin. Other members were German political refugees, or members of other religious minorities persecuted by the Nazis in Germany.van der Bijl, p.5 They were almost all recruited from the "Alien Companies" of the Pioneer Corps, which had been raised from vetted inmates of internment camps, who had been detained under Defence Regulation 18B as "enemy aliens". Some had arrived in Britain as refugee teenagers in the Kindertransport.Garrett 2021, pp. 10-11 One member had been imprisoned in Dachau and Buchenwald concentration camps before escaping.Garrett 2021, p. 178 All members of the troop adopted British names and false personal histories.Garrett 2021, pp. 60-62
The total number of men that served in X Troop is given in various sources as between 87, the number given the X Troop war diary, and 142 which includes a half-troop raised in the last days of the war.Garrett 2021, p. 300 They never fought as a complete unit but were seconded in groups of two to six to other Commando units as interpreters and interrogators. Their language skills and rigorous Commando training also made them valuable for raiding parties behind enemy lines, gathering intelligence and capturing prisoners.van der Bijl, 2006 pp.17–8Garrett 2021, pp. 135-136
Initial training for the first fifty three recruits was at Aberdovey on the west coast of Wales, commencing in October 1942.Garrett 2021, pp. 79-80 They joined the rest of No. 10 Commando at the Commando Basic Training Centre, Achnacarry. Three X Troopers were selected to participate in the Allied invasion of Sicily,Garrett 2021, p. 105 and two played a major role in Operation Tarbrush, a covert reconnaissance of the French coast.Garrett 2021, p. 128 Forty five members of X Troop participated in the Normandy landings on 6 June 1944, of whom 27 were killed, wounded or reported missing. X-Troop also participated in the Adriatic campaign;Garrett 2021, p. 191Operation Infatuate, the assault on Walcheren in the Netherlands;Garrett 2021, p. 197 Operation Plunder, the Rhine crossing,Garrett 2021, p. 217 and the Rhineland Campaign.Garrett 2021, p. 230 Following the end of hostilities, X Troop participated in the Denazification programme and gathered evidence of war crimes for the Nuremberg trials.Garrett 2021, pp. 251-261
Three members of this troop wrote books on its history: Ian Dear's Ten Commando, 1942-1945 (1987), Peter Masters' Striking Back: A Jewish Commando's War against the Nazis (1997) and Peter Leighton-Langer's X steht für unbekannt: Deutsche und Österreicher in den britischen Streitkräften im Zweiten Weltkrieg (1999) and The Kings Most Loyal Enemy Aliens (2006). Professor Leah Garrett's history X Troop: The secret Jewish commandos of World War II, published in 2021, found a previously classified report about X Troop's part in the unsuccessful Dieppe raid of 19 August 1942. Five X Troop members, all Sudeten Germans, were ordered to enter the German HQ and "pick up all documents, etc of value, including, if possible, a new German respirator” with the inference that 'respirator' referred to the Enigma cypher machine. It has been suggested that the whole large military operation was cover for the objective of securing Enigma materials.
A memorial at Aberdovey to No. 3 Troop and the twenty members who were killed was unveiled in May 1999.Garrett 2021, p. 274
In fiction The Troop's work was the inspiration for James Leasor's 1980 novel The Unknown Warrior. Leasor had heard the story about the unit from Colonel Sir Ronald Wingate and had it confirmed by Admiral Earl Mountbatten of Burma, who suggested that he write the book. Many of the members of the troop were still alive at the time of writing and so the author was able to carry out interviews with them and others involved, as acknowledged in the book. However many still wished to remain anonymous, fearing retribution for what they did, even though it was 35 years after the end of the war. The book tells the true story of "X" Troop commando Stephen Rigby, a.k.a. Stefan Rosenberg and "Nimrod", a German Jew by birth. He is chosen for a secret and dangerous part in the deception plans to persuade the Germans that the D-Day invasion would take place near Calais and not in Normandy. His secret mission saw him dropped in France, pursued by both the Resistance and the Germans, and eventually briefing in person first Rommel and then Hitler before escaping to return to British forces.
No. 4 (Belgian) Troop
No. 4 Troop was formed on 7 August 1942, by seven officers and 100 men from the 1st Independent Belgian Brigade under the command of Captain Georges Danloy. As Belgium had surrendered in 1940, the Belgian forces serving with the Allies risked facing charges of treason on their return; the charges were only annulled in 1948.van der Bijl, p.8