This article is about World Wide Commando Units . For Details of United Kingdom Commando Units and History,
see
British Commandos.
In military science, the term commando can refer to an individual, a
military unit, or a raiding style of military operation. In some contexts, "commando" means elite light infantry or special forces. Commando units have a variety
of specialist capabilities which enable them to conduct these kind of operations, most notable a broad range of deployment skills
which often include parachuting, airborne rappelling or
fast-roping, or amphibious landings.
In the military forces of some Commonwealth countries, there is a distinction
between commando units, which specialise in offensive or assault tasks, and other special forces units, which specialise in:
counter-terrorism and/or; reconnaissance and
sabotage missions behind enemy lines.
Originally "a commando" was a type of military unit. In many languages, "commando" or "kommando" means "command", in the sense of a military unit.
History
South Africa
The word commando originated in the Portuguese language, in which it means
simply "command". The modern sense of the word stems from the Dutch/Afrikaans kommando, which was derived from the Portuguese word, as a result of contact between
Afrikaaner and Portuguese settlers in Africa. After the Dutch Cape
Colony was established in 1652, a system known as Commando Law was created. This compelled
settlers, known as Free Burgers, who had been released from their indentures with the Dutch East India Company, to equip
themselves with a horse and a firearm, in exchange for the right to a piece of agricultural land. When required, a mounted
militia force known as a kommando would be formed, to defend the colony. As the European
population at the Cape increased it was no longer practical to make every Burger comply with the Commando Law and a voluntary
militia system was introduced.
In conflicts with southern African peoples (such as the Xhosa and the Zulu during and after the Great
Trek), Afrikaner communities and farmsteads formed self-equipped, mounted commandos
among themselves.
In the final phase of the Second Boer War, 75,000 Afrikaners occupied the attention
of the 450,000-strong British Empire forces. Because of the numerical imbalance, the commandos adopted guerrilla or
raiding tactics, to minimise their casualties and prolong the war. These tactics gave commando its modern sense of
specialised raiding forces.
World War II
Europe and the Mediterranean
Germany
In December 1939, following the success of German infiltration and sabotage operations
in the Polish campaign, the German Office for Foreign
and Counter-Intelligence (OKW Amt Ausland/Abwehr) formed the Brandenburger
Regiment (known officially as the 800th Special Purpose Training and Construction Company). The Brandenburgers conducted a
mixture of covert and conventional operations but became increasingly involved in ordinary infantry actions and were eventually
converted to a Panzer-Grenadier Division, suffering heavy losses in Russia. Otto Skorzeny (most famed for his rescue of Benito Mussolini)
conducted many special operations for Adolf Hitler, but no Commando organization was
developed from this, and Skorzeny essentially remained a Waffen-SS
Sturmbannführer (Major).
Italy
Italy's most renowned commando unit of World War II was Decima Flottiglia
MAS ("10th Assault Vehicle Flotilla") which, from mid-1940, were responsible for the sinking and damage of a
considerable tonnage of Allied ships in the Mediterranean. After the surrender of Italy in 1943, those fighting with Germany
retained the original name, and those fighting with the Allies dubbed themselves the Mariassalto.
United Kingdom
-
In 1940, the British Army also formed "independent companies". These units were reformed as battalion sized
"commandos", thereby reviving the word. It was intended that the British Army
Commandos would be small, highly mobile raiding and reconnaissance forces. Commandos were not intended to remain in field
operations for more than 36 hours and carried all they needed. Army Commandos were all volunteers selected from existing soldiers
still in Britain.
The Royal Navy also controlled Royal Navy Beach
Parties, based on teams formed to control the evacuation of Dunkirk in
1940.[1] These were later known simply as RN Commandos, and
they did not see action until they successfully fought for control of the landing beaches (as in the disastrous Dieppe Raid of August 19, 1942). The RN
Commandos, including Commando "W" from the Royal Canadian
Navy, saw action on D-Day.
The British military intelligence organization Special Operations
Executive (SOE) also formed commando units from British personnel and Europeans from German-occupied countries. Perhaps
the best-known SOE unit was Norwegian Independent Company 1, which —
among other operations — damaged the Norwegian heavy water facility in
Norway, in 1941. Heavy water was the nuclear moderator
Germany was using at the time (the Allies took a different approach with the Manhattan
project).
In 1942, the British Royal Navy's nine Royal Marines infantry battalions were
reorganized as commandos, numbered from 40 to 48. They joined the British Army Commandos in combined Commando Brigades. The Royal
Marine Commandos, unlike the Army Commandos, were retained after the end of the war.
United States
In mid-1942 the US Army formed the Rangers, in Northern Ireland, under
Bill Darby. The Rangers were designed along the similar lines to the British Army
commandos, who supervised their training. The first sizeable Ranger action took place in August 1942 at the Dieppe Raid, where 50
Rangers were dispersed among the British Commandos. The first full Ranger action took place during the invasion of North West
Africa (Operation Torch) in November 1942. The Rangers distinguished themselves during
the D-Day invasion at Normandy.
Canada
A joint Canadian-American Commando unit, the 1st
Special Service Force, nicknamed the Devil's Brigade, was formed in 1942 under the
command of Colonel Robert Frederick. The unit initially saw service in the Pacific, in August 1943 at Kiska in the Aleutians campaign. However most of its operations
occurred during the Italian campaign and in southern France. Its most
famous raid, which was documented in the film Devil's Brigade, was the battle of Monte
la Difensa. In 1945, the unit was disbanded; the Canadian members were sent to the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion as
replacements, and the American members were sent to either the 101st Airborne
Division or the 82nd Airborne Division as
replacements.
The Pacific and Asia
Following the British example, the Australian Army formed commando units, known as
Australian independent companies in the early stages of World War II. They first
saw action in early 1942 during the Japanese assault on New Ireland, and at the
Timorese campaign. The 2/1st Independent Company was wiped out on
New Ireland, but on Timor, the 2/2nd Ind Coy formed
the heart of an Allied force which engaged Japanese forces in a guerrilla campaign. The Japanese commander on the island drew parallels with the Boer War, and decided
that it would take a numerical advantage of 10:1 in order to defeat the Allies. The campaign occupied the attention of an entire
Japanese division for almost a year. The independent companies were later renamed commando squadrons, and they saw widespread
action in the South West Pacific Area, especially in
New Guinea and Borneo.
During 1941, the United States Marine Corps formed commando battalions,
inspired by both the British commandos and the tactics used by Chinese
Communist forces, from whom they acquired the war cry "gung-ho". The USMC commandos were known collectively as Marine Raiders.
On orders from President Franklin D. Roosevelt through a proposal from OSS Director Colonel William J. Donovan and the former
Commander of the United States Marine Detachment Major Evans F Carlson, directed the formation of what would become The Marine
Raiders. Initially this unit was to be called Marine Commandos and they were to be the counterpart to the British Commandos. The
name Marine Commandos met with much controversy within the Marine Corps leading Commandant Thomas J. Holcomb to state, "the term
'Marine' is sufficient to indicate a man ready for duty at any time, and the injection of a special name, such as 'Commando,'
would be undesirable and superfluous." President Roosevelt's son James Roosevelt served with The Marine Raiders The Raiders
initially saw action at the Battle of Tulagi and the
Battle of Makin, as well as the Battle of
Guadalcanal, the Battle of Empress Augusta Bay, and other parts of
the Pacific Ocean Areas. In February 1944 the four Raider
battalions were converted to regular marine units.
Z Force, an Australian-British-New Zealand military intelligence commando unit, formed by the Australian Services Reconnaissance Department, also carried out many raiding and reconnaissance
operations in the South West Pacific theatre, most notably Operation Jaywick, in which
they destroyed tonnes of Japanese shipping at Singapore Harbour. An attempt to replicate this
success, with Operation Rimau, resulted in the death of almost all those involved.
However, Z Force and other SRD units continued operations until the war's end.
In 1944-45, Japanese Teishin Shudan ("Raiding Group") and Giretsu ("heroic") detachments made airborne assaults on Allied airfields in the Philippines, Marianas and Okinawa. The attacking forces varied in size from a few paratroopers to operations involving several
companies. Due to the balance of forces concerned, these raids achieved little in the way of damage or casualties, and resulted
in the destruction of the Japanese units concerned. Considering that there were no plans to extract these forces, and the
reluctance to surrender by Japanese personnel during that era, they are often seen in the same light as kamikaze pilots of 1944-45.
After 1945
Weapons of the modern commando
Jaubert are clearly visible
Members of Tactical Assault Group East during exercises at Holsworthy Barracks.
United Kingdom
The UK now maintains one brigade of Commandos (3 Commando Brigade) as part of the
Royal Marines; this includes three Royal Marines Commandos (roughly of battalion size), one
Army Royal Artillery Commando Regiment, one Army Royal Engineers Commando Regiment, and a Commando Logistic Regiment consisting of Royal Marines and Royal Navy personnel.
1 The Rifles is due to join the Brigade on 1 April
2008.[2]
Canada
Canadian commando forces were disbanded and recreated at various times in the post-war years, and by 1979, there were three
Units, with No 3 Commando established as an airborne unit. This resulted in a ceiling of about 750 members in all ranks,
organized into three smaller company-sized commandos. The three infantry commandos took shape around the three regimental
affiliations: No 1 Commando with the Royal 22e Régiment, No 2 Commando with
Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, and No 3
Commando with The Royal Canadian Regiment. The Canadian Airborne Regiment
was disbanded after the torture and murder of Shidane Arone, a Somalia civilian, in 1993, and other allegations of wrongdoing within the Regiment. Later, parliamentary
investigations would question why such an elite commando unit was sent on a peacekeeping mission. (The Canadian Joint Task Force Two, or JTF2, is also sometimes referred to as a
"commando" unit, but it is technically a specialist counter-terrorist unit.)
Australia
In Australia, the Army's commando squadrons were disbanded at the end of the war. In 1954,
two Citizens Military Force (reserve) units, 1 and 2 Commando Companies, were
raised. A joint regimental structure for these, the 1st Commando
Regiment (1CDO) was formed in the 1980s, this included a previously independent 126 Signal Squadron (Special Forces).
During the 1990s, the Australian government perceived the need for a permanent commando capability; and the recently re-raised
4th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment began the process of
conversion fo a commando battalion in 1997, using a cadre of 1st Commando Regiment and Australian Special Air Service Regiment (SAS) instructors. 126 Signal Squadron
was reassigned to 4 RAR and 301 Signal Squadron re-raised to support 1st Cdo Regt. 1CDO and 4RAR soldiers must complete identical
training and selection courses, before being awarded the coveted "Green Beret". One company of 4th Battalion is responsible for
counter-terrorism operations and response in the eastern region of Australia and is officially known as Tactical Assault Group -
East (TAG-E). This company mirrors its sister unit (the original Tactical Assault Group) in the West (TAG-W), which is part of
the SAS. Commandos from 4RAR and 1CDO have recently been deployed to several countries including East Timor, the Solomon Islands, Iraq
and Afghanistan.
Other points
William B. Cushing, a daring young U.S.
Navy officer during the U.S. Civil War, was anachronistically called
"Lincoln's commando" by his biographers.
Trivia
The terms "going commando" or simply "commando" are often used in the United States,
Canada, Australia and Great Britain to refer to wearing no underwear under the trousers. The term originated with American
soldiers who preferred not to wear underwear in field conditions because of its tendency to retain sweat and the additional
laundry burden. The terms are analogous to the Scottish military term "regimental" referring to wearing no underwear under the
kilt.
See also
References
External links
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