No4 Army Commando

 It was the dark days of 1940 when Britain’s fortunes were at their lowest following the fall of France and the evacuation from Dunkirk. Winston Churchill decided that an elite force should be formed called the Commandos for some form of limited action against the Nazis in the extended and vulnerable coastline of Europe. So there was an appeal which went out for men to volunteer and so No4 Commando was drawn from close on 100 different regiments. In July 1940 No4 Commando started training in Weymouth in Dorset. The Commando did not have barracks and always had to find billets in the town they were stationed in.

IT HAD TO BE TOUGH

The main training took place at Achnacarry and it was tough. Speed marches were developed in full kit including a large backpack – 7 miles in less than 70 minutes; the marches went up to 20 miles in length each with its allotted time. New methods of fighting were developed – unarmed combat; close quarter fighting; use of the Commando dagger. Anyone who failed to measure up was ‘returned to unit.’ Two of No4 died off Arran being swept under the landing craft, one is buried in Troon cemetery. On the 13 October 1940 No4 boarded a train from Weymouth and on 15 October 1940 they joined the HMS Glengyle at the Clyde and went to Inverary for landing craft training. No4 had a special lesson drummed into them ‘out of the LCA and move up and across the beach never, never stop!’ This saved so many when you see the pictures from D-Day of people being pinned down and killed on the beaches. It was No4 who pioneered the basic skills in LCA landings.

No4 COME TO TROON

From Inverary they were roused at 0400hrs to march the 16 miles to Dalmally. It was a bucketing all day and their train was late. They arrived at Ayr at 2200hrs some finding billets while others had to use the grandstand at Ayr racecourse. So on the 10 November 1940 the Commando marched behind the pipe band of the Royal Scots Fusiliers from Ayr to Troon and this became their base until late 1942. Troon was the ideal base, the harbour where small boats could be moored; beaches for landings; the surrounding countryside for field craft and tactical training with ranges near at hand including an area near Dundonald. The people of Troon made the Commando most welcome as they were billeted there. It is estimated that between 28 and 33 of the Commando married Troon girls.

INTO ACTION

No4 had so many cancelled operations that they became known as the ‘Troon BEF,’ ‘BEF’ meaning back every fortnight. It was decided to do a raid on the Lofoten Islands in Norway to destroy herring and cod liver oil plants; enemy ships in the harbour; dispose of the German garrison; to kidnap Quislings. The Dutch ship LSI HMS Queen Emma took them to the Lofoten Islands and the landing at Svalvore on the 4 March 1941 was unopposed. The only casualty was Captain Cook who shot himself in the foot with his own revolver. The Commandos destroyed 11 fish and oil factories; labs; storage tanks holding 800,000 gallons; 10 German ships were sunk by RN / Commando action; Captured 215 Germans and 10 Quislings; brought back 315 loyal Norwegian volunteers to Britain; an unknown number of German sailors were killed. The most important find on the raid was technical equipment and documents which helped in the struggle to break the German Enigma code.

Two troops of No4 took part in a small successful raid on Boulogne France.

Dieppe was a disaster for No3 Commando and the Canadians. The raid was a success for No4 and Mellineaux’s report records this “I am convinced that the success of the operation carried out by No4 Commando was due, in a very large measure, to sound and intensive preliminary training for the job in hand and to the determined leadership of their officers.” Major James Dunning of the No4 in his book the ‘Fighting Fourth’ commented – “The courageous and resolve manner in which all ranks carried out their allotted tasks No4  Commandos action on the 19 August 1942 at Varengeville has surely earned them a place in history books rightfully under the heading of classic operations of battle.” So much so that it is still studied today by Commandos and SAS. 23 of No4 were killed or missing and a further 6 seriously wounded. The Daily Mirror headlines after the raid were “Big Hun Losses in the 9-hr Dieppe battle,” it then gave an account of No4 Commandos part in the raid. On the 5 September 1942 in Barassie Street School (Troon Primary) No4 paraded for the first time in their Green Beret and the were given a congratulatory message from King George VI.

Training for D-Day started and in Christmas 1942 and the new year of 1943 saw No4 move from Troon to Winchester then to Falmouth. D-Day training complete they moved to a marshalling area in Southampton. No4 now with two troops of French Commando landed on D-Day 6 June 1944 at Ouistreham in France. They fought up to 26 August 1944. On the 6 September three months after they landed they came back to Southampton.

From Southampton No4 moved to Den Hann in Belgium to start training for the landings in Flushing. This was one of the most important battles in the war, yet forgotten, as the Allies were running out of supplies and could not get supplies up the Scheldt to Antwerp because of the German guns on Walcheren. The British and French Commandos were joined by a troop of Dutch Commandos. They moved to Berskens and across the Scheldt to Flushing on the 1 November 1944. Another successful raid.

They stayed in Holland doing small raids and coastal defence. They were relieved and moved back to Middelburg and on 30 March 1945 moved to Bergen-op-Zoom (some of No4 are buried in Bergen-op-Zoom). No4 were further honoured with their French Comrades when they marched as a unit alone in Paris to the Arc de Triomphe where Philippe Kieffer and Robert Dawson laid a wreath on the Unknown Soldier’s tomb. Robert Dawson wrote “I doubt if any other British regiment had been honoured in this way.”

No4 then went to Recklinghausen in Germany to be part of the occupation force. Late in 1945 the Army Commando were disbanded, many newspapers described this as a “shameful decision.”

We will remember the Fighting Fourth.