Word: commandos
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...moon was up, dawn was a good hour away, the surf was deep. A Navy-borne British Commando eased up to the coast of northern France. From the dunes between Boulogne and Le Touquet, where vacationing Britons used to loll, Nazi searchlights fingered the Channel. But none found the Commando's barges until the last man in shorts, woolen cap and blackened face had waded ashore...
...Commando leader, 29-year-old Major K. R. S. Trevor, sent his men probing for information about Nazi defenses in that likely invasion sector. Commando machine guns and anti-tank guns, brought ashore in parts and quickly assembled, silenced a German pillbox. Rattled Nazis fired at each other. Nazi tracers lanced out toward the barges and naval-escort vessels, waiting offshore. The British spotted two German patrol vessels, sank one and set another blazing. Some members of the Commando kept up a covering fire from the beach; others slashed the German barbed wire, knifed, shot and clubbed German sentries. Farther...
Above all, Commandomen must learn to kill. They prefer to kill quietly. A favorite Commando weapon is a long, straight knife, both edges sharpened razor-keen, carried in a trouser sheath. Some have metal kneecaps, fitted with metal spikes, to be driven into enemy crotches and spines. They can devise their own daggers, clubs, knives. They know the uses of spiked brass knuckles. All must know a Commando equivalent of jiujitsu. Fiercely, without quarter, they battle each other in practice combat, often break each other's bones: a few nights before the St. Nazaire raid one officer...
...Commando training has had a profound effect on the whole British Army. Now, in effect, every British soldier gets the elements of Commando schooling. Even in the old Guards regiments, parade-ground precision has given way to training for actual battle. The U.S. has also profited. U.S. Marines studied Commando methods, found them akin to what the Marines were already doing. Amphibious troops now being trained in the U.S. Army will have the benefit of Commando experience...
Under him is another officer (name secret) who attends to the actual Commando details. Lord Louis has the larger, harder job of coordinating Army, Navy, Air Force action in the precisely planned and timed Commando raids. In fact, exclusive emphasis upon the Commandos exasperates him; they are. he knows, the heart and center of his organization, but he would like to see the Navy and Air Force get more credit...