The Commando Pocket Manual

1940-1945

The Commando Pocket Manual cover

The Commando Pocket Manual

1940-1945

£6.29

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Description

A fascinating insight into the training of the special service volunteer soldiers who formed the Commandos.

The Commandos were created by Winston Churchill in 1940 as a 'butcher and bolt' raiding unit to destroy vital targets in German occupied Europe. Recruits for this 'special service' were all volunteers, drawn from the British Army, and later from the Royal Marines and other Allied armies. Commando training was extremely demanding – men had to be physically fit and show initiative, mental toughness and adaptability.

The training courses were designed to cultivate these qualities and to simulate real battle experiences, which included the use of live ammunition. Commandos learned a diverse range of skills at dedicated training centres in the remote Scottish Highlands.

This pocket-book draws on authentic training manuals, lecture notes, course literature and other material from the commando schools to give a real insight into this highly specialised fighting unit – demonstrating how commandos were taught to live, fight and move on offensive operations, initially as raiding parties, and later as skilled assault infantry.

Sections of the book cover survival and fieldcraft skills; night operations; assaulting obstacles; use of equipment – such as the COPPS canoe for beach reconnaissance and sabotage; and weapons training, including the Thompson submachine gun, the Bren gun, and the famous emblem of the commandos – the Fairbairn-Sykes fighting knife.

Table of Contents

Introduction

1 Commando Training Instruction No. 1, 1940

2 Notes on Training of Commandos, 1941
Weapon Training: Bayonet

3 Offensive Demolitions: Lochailort Fieldcraft Course, 1941
Lecture 4: The Scope of Explosives

4 All-in Fighting, 1942
Chapter 3: Holds

5 Shooting to Live with the One-hand Gun, 1942
Chapter IV: Advanced Methods

6 Commando Training, 1942

7 Combined Operations Pamphlet No. 27
Hardening of Commando Troops for Warfare, 1944

8 Combined Operations Pamphlet No. 24: Cliff Assaults, 1945
Section 7 – Cliff Climbing Methods and Drills

9 Notes from Theatres of War No. 11
Destruction of a German Battery by No. 4 Commando
During the Dieppe Raid, 1943, Introduction and Parts 1–4

10 Small Arms Training: The Thompson Machine Carbine, 1942
Introduction and Lessons 1 & 2

Index

Product details

Published 01 Aug 2017
Format Ebook (PDF)
Edition 1st
Extent 128
ISBN 9781472830395
Imprint Osprey Publishing
Series General Military
Short code GNM
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

About the contributors

Author

Christopher Westhorp

Chris Westhorp is an experienced freelance editor,…

Resources

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