[3] 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.

6 Commando becoming a company-sized element in the 5th Special Service Battalion under Lieutenant Colonel Timothy Fetherstonhaugh, based at Helensburgh in Scotland.

In the end, however, they spent only half an hour ashore and failed to make contact with the defenders before re-embarking on their landing craft.

[16] Due to heavy German U-boat and aerial activity in the Mediterranean the main shipping route to India at the time was around the Cape and there were concerns following the advance of the Japanese throughout southeast Asia, that if the Japanese were able to capture the port at Antsirane and the anchorage in Diego Suarez bay then they would be able to disrupt the sea lanes of communication between Britain and the subcontinent.

[17] As a result, on 5 May 1942, an amphibious force consisting of three infantry brigade-groups with naval and air support undertook Operation Ironclad.

5 Commando, numbering some 365 men under the command of Lieutenant Colonel W. Sanguinetti, was attached to the 29th Brigade and landing ahead of the main force near Courrier and Ambarata Bays on the northern tip of the island and roughly 11 miles (18 km) to the west of Diego Suarez, they carried out a raid on a French coastal artillery battery.

[20] Landing at the base of a 50 feet (15 m) cliff, which they then proceeded to scale, they achieved complete surprise over the French officers and colonial troops manning the two guns.

At dawn they were counter-attacked by a platoon-sized element of French colonial troops against which the commandos carried out a bayonet charge, targeting the non-commissioned officers leading the attack and after they had been killed the remaining defenders laid down their weapons and surrendered.

[20] As part of these operations the commandos marched 18 miles (29 km) from where they had landed at Courrier Bay across the isthmus that separated the Cap D'Ambre from the larger land mass to the south, and moved to Cap Diego where they carried out mopping up operations and were briefly engaged with a French Foreign Legion troop and in the battle that followed about 50 legionnaires were wounded.

[20] On 8 May 1942, following an amphibious assault by Royal Marines which were landed from the destroyer HMS Anthony, Antsirane fell and the anchorage captured; the Vichy French forces, however, continued to resist, and having withdrawn to the south, a prolonged land campaign began, although hostilities remained at relative low-intensity level, consisting mainly of delaying tactics on the part of the French.

As the defending French colonial forces opened up on the landing craft with four machine guns, the support vessels fired on the shore in an effort to provide cover to the assaulting troops, which took a number of casualties as they stormed the quayside.

[20] Once ashore, the commandos took control of the local post office, severing communications with Tannanarive, before storming the Governor's Residence and raising the Union Jack.

[20] Although in the end they were involved in only limited combat, the experience that the commandos gained from this proved valuable later on when they were deployed to the Far East to fight against the Japanese.

[18] By 1943 the commando concept had evolved from the original purpose of small-scale raiding and a re-organisation was undertaken in which the units were organised into formed brigades with administrative, transport and other support elements being inserted into the formations, which became part the divisional-sized Special Service Group headquarters under the command of Major General Robert Sturges.

44 (Royal Marine) Commando, arrived in Bombay, India on 19 December 1943 where they became part of Mountbatten's South East Asia Command, which had been set up earlier in the year.

[22][24][Note 5] They moved by rail from Bombay to Poona where they took up residence at Kedgaon and undertook amphibious landing practice at the Combined Training Centre that had been established at Lake Kharakvasla.

[10] They arrived there on 5 March, by which time the British and Indian units in Burma had managed to stop the Japanese counter-offensive and had themselves resumed offensive operations.

5 Commando carried out patrols throughout the peninsula as the enemy were cleared from the area, before they were withdrawn back to the beachhead for a couple of days rest.

After this the brigade captured the village of Kantha as a preliminary move on Kangow,[30] across a number of waterways on the mainland, where Christison had decided that he wanted to cut the Japanese line of withdrawal.

The terrain was difficult with no roads and consisting of mangrove swamps and rice paddies that prevented tanks or artillery coming ashore initially.

1 Commando, and over the course of the next week or so they and the rest of the brigade were involved in heavy fighting around Hill 170 and the surrounding areas, before finally being relieved on 1 February 1945.

5 Commando was placed under the operational command of the 51st Indian Brigade and took part in a number of attacks around positions known as Milford and Pinner, before participating in the final stages of No.