3 Commando under the command of Lieutenant Colonel John Durnford-Slater,[Note 1] and 100 men of No.11 Independent Company under Major Ronnie Tod.

[2] In addition to this the island of Guernsey started a process of fortification at high expense and involving diverting resources from other fronts, it could be described as one of the most successful raids of the war.

[4] The preliminary operations would be undertaken to gather necessary intelligence prior to a raid by 140 men which would land on the island of Guernsey and attack the airfield with the purpose of destroying aircraft and buildings, as well as capturing or killing members of the garrison.

3 Commando, under Lieutenant Colonel John Durnford-Slater, had only just been raised, having completed its recruitment on 5 July, and had not yet begun training, while No.

[5] During the planning stage, Durnford-Slater went to London where he worked out most of the details with David Niven, who was then serving as a staff officer in the Combined Operations Headquarters.

[8][9] Three days later he was picked up and based on the information that he provided it was determined that the garrison on Guernsey consisted of 469 soldiers, concentrated mainly around St. Peter Port and although there were machine gun posts all along the coast, they were sited in a manner that meant that it would take about twenty minutes between an alarm being raised for reinforcements to be dispatched.

[11] After the details were worked out, final battle preparations were undertaken in the gymnasium at the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth where some of the cadets helped the commandos with loading magazines and helping prepare the Bren guns and Thompson sub-machine guns that had been brought down from London specifically for the operation.

One of the boat's two occupants, a soldier, was presumed drowned at the time, although later it was reported that he actually managed to get ashore and was subsequently captured.

Also some of the tasks that had been assigned were impractical or had not been rehearsed—the wire intended for use as a road block was too heavy to carry from the beach—and intelligence relating to German dispositions upon the island was at best outdated or completely wrong.

[23] Largely this was the result of the haste with which the operation had been conceived and then put together, but it was also indicative of the embryonic status of the raiding and commandos concept.

Churchill was said to have been furious regarding the "comical" way in which the operation was undertaken,[24] and it has been alleged that for some months the whole Commando concept was "in jeopardy" with authorities considering their disbandment,[25] although this did not eventuate.

To this end formalised training schemes and schools were established and Churchill sought to invigorate the concept by replacing General Bourne, who had previously been the Director of Combined Operations, with Admiral Sir Roger Keyes.