Formed in 1940 in Northern Ireland, they carried out a number of small-scale raids in Norway and France between 1941 and 1943 before being disbanded and its personnel dispersed to other commando units.

[4] The man initially selected as the overall commander of the force was Admiral Sir Roger Keyes himself a veteran of the landings at Galipoli and the Zeebrugge raid in the First World War.

The course in the Scottish Highlands concentrated on fitness, speed marches, weapons training, map reading, climbing, small boat operations and demolitions both by day and by night.

[9] Formed on 5 August 1940 at Crumlin[10] after gathering in Belfast and Derry in Northern Ireland, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel S. Harrison, the unit, although technically a part of the Special Service Brigade under Brigadier Joseph (Charles) Haydon,[11] largely remained independent of it and carried out small scale raiding and sabotage operations.

[10] Training was conducted at various locations in Northern Ireland, including at Aldergrove Airport, where the commandos carried out a mock attack.

In early 1941 they were billeted for a brief time at Warsash before undertaking combined operations training at Inverary, Scotland.

Embarking on an assault landing craft, they were towed to a position 2 miles (3.2 km) from the mouth of the Slack River by a Motor Launch.

Although no prisoners were taken, the raid was partially successful and the commandos were ashore for approximately an hour before returning to their landing craft and heading back to Britain.

[15] Under Harrison's command, they landed at Reine and after the garrison surrendered, the commandos stayed on the island for two days to carry out demolitions work, destroying two German wireless stations before withdrawing.

[22] In addition to this, the losses suffered by the commando units serving in North Africa and Italy needed to be replaced.