Australian commandos
Today, the Australian Army possesses a number of units that perform more conventional direct-action type commando roles, as well as counter-terrorism response, long-range patrolling, and clandestine deep-penetration operations.
The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) also raised commando units during the war, employing them mainly in the role of beach parties and underwater clearance teams.
Late in 1940, the British government sent a military mission to Australia, headed by Lieutenant-Colonel J.C Mawhood, to investigate the possibility of establishing a number of such units within the Australian Army.
[2] The British proposed the establishment of independent companies that would receive special training in order to take part in combined operations and various other tasks, including "...raids, demolitions, sabotage, subversion and organising civil resistance".
[Note 1] By the end of the war the 2/2nd Commando Squadron could "...claim to have spent longer in contact with the enemy than any other unit of the Australian Army"[9] and indeed their success was later used as a model of SAS training.
Indeed, the 2/6th Independent Company arguably fought one of the most remarkable small-unit actions of the war when it captured and held the village of Kaiapit and after the Battle of Buna–Gona where it served alongside the Americans, it was singled out for rare praise from General Douglas MacArthur.
[10] As the three Second Australian Imperial Force (AIF) divisions' armoured reconnaissance regiments were considered to be unsuited to jungle terrain, having been raised for service originally in the Middle East and North Africa, their cavalry squadrons were disbanded.
[11] As a part of this re-organisation, the following regiments were formed: In the last year of the war, the eleven[Note 3] commando squadrons fought in Borneo, New Guinea and Bougainville.
[12] With the outbreak of war in the Pacific, two multi-national combined forces commando units were formed as part of the Allied Intelligence Bureau (AIB), attached to its Special Operations Australia (SOA) branch.
Members of the unit distinguished themselves in a number of daring clandestine raiding operations often using Australian built Folding kayaks (Folboats) to penetrate enemy areas.
During Operation Jaywick, members of the unit posed as an Asian fishing boat crew in order to infiltrate Singapore Harbour, where it successfully mined and destroyed seven Japanese ships, amounting to 35,000 tons, in September 1943.
[16] In 1955, following a liaison visit to Malaya by Lieutenant-General Sir Henry Wells, the need to preserve the skills possessed by the Second World War units was realised as it became clearer that there was a role for Australian special forces within the Southeast Asian region.
As a result, 1 Commando Regiment (1 Cdo Regt) was formed at Randwick, New South Wales to oversee the two reserve companies, although 2 Coy remained in Melbourne.
