List of Commando raids on the Atlantic Wall

Luxembourg The Netherlands Belgium France Britain 1941–1943 1944–1945 Germany Strategic campaigns Commando raids were made by the Western Allies during much of the Second World War against the Atlantic Wall.

The raids were conducted by the armed forces of Britain, the Commonwealth and a small number of men from the occupied territories serving with No.

The raids ended in mid-1944 on the orders of Major-General Robert Laycock, the chief of Combined Operations Headquarters.

He suggested that they were no longer as effective and only resulted in the Germans strengthening their beach defences, which could be detrimental to Allied plans.

Prime Minister Winston Churchill called for a force to be assembled and equipped to inflict casualties on the Germans and bolster British morale.

Churchill told the joint Chiefs of Staff to propose measures for an offensive against German-occupied Europe, and stated, "they must be prepared with specially trained troops of the hunter class who can develop a reign of terror down the enemy coast.

They were being formed into brigades of assault infantry to spearhead the future Allied landing operations.

[12] A shortage of volunteers and the need to provide replacements for casualties forced the disbandment of these three commando units by the end of 1943.

The man initially selected as the commander was Admiral of the Fleet Sir Roger Keyes, a veteran of the Gallipoli Campaign and the Zeebrugge Raid in World War I.

[6] The final Commander of Combined Operations was Major General Robert Laycock, who took over from Mountbatten in October 1943.