COMMANDO WAY

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 163, 13 July 1942, Page 3

COMMANDO WAY

REALISTIC EXERCISES

Large Scale Operations In

Britain

United Press Association.—Copyright,

LONDON, July 12. A beach landing exercise on a large I scale, lasting four days, is vividly described by an agency correspondent who took part in it. "Operations were conducted in the new commando way—which must raise the hopes of those who await a second front," he says. "The ordnance detachment with which I am lying among the sand dunes had started off 24 hours before from the training camp, where weeks of strenuous preliminary training had brought it to a pitch where every man was ready to tackle the real thing. We began late in the evening with a forced march of 12 miles. By midnight we had swung out and lay silent, miles from the coastline, lost in the night haze. "Zero hour was 3.30 a.m. We were due to land—after the first assault troops had cleared the beaches—at 4.40* a.m. Crouching toward the bows were pioneers with picks, shovels and lamps strapped to their kits, ordnance in front with their fingers on the safety catches of automatic rifles.

"We grounded nearly 200 yards off the dry shore. A second later an officer was in the water up to his armpits, and the rest tumbled after him. The water was ice cold and running high. Hot Reception on Beach "Hardly had the first few men run clear up the dry sand when they flattened as a mine blasted the sand. Higher up the ground suddenly sprayed live machine-gun bullets. For a brief minute we lay soaked and sand-clogged as an exit through the mines from the landing point was being found. Then, crouching and at the double, we made for it in a long, swift line. "Behind, up the beach, protection units were swinging their guns toward temporary sites to cover the landing of lorries with stores. We pushed ahead to find the site of our first dump on what was new and dangerous ground. The officers in charge went ahead to reconnoitre. A mile and a half inland they found the spot they wanted, to which, strung out and with covered flanks, we proceeded. "Far behind us our stores were being driven up beach tracks hastily laid by the Royal Engineers.

"The Royal Army Ordnance Corps has been declared a combatant unit. As a result of the exercise we were able to make a beach landing in enemy territory, work right up to the front, supply stores and defend ourselves."