TOUGH BUT NOT TOUGHS

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 95, 16 January 1943, Page 5

TOUGH BUT NOT TOUGHS

Britain’s Commandos TRAINING METHODS DESCRIBED

(By Telegraph.—Press As-su. —Copyright.) (Special Correspondent.)

LONDON, January 14.

Somewhere in one of the wildest, most rugged parts of Scotland is a military camp. At the entrance is a row of grimly realistic mock graves marked with rough, wooden crosses inscribed: “These men died by their own stupidity. Watch your fieldcraft." With this for an introduction, you enter, fully’aware that the men training there are not assembled for fun. They are commando soldiers, officially known as special service troops, and at this camp are trained not only British, but Americans, Canadians, Poles and Fighting French. If there is one thing that the commandos dislike, it is the idea that they are a gang of cut-throats. They are tough, but no toughs pride themselves upon discipline and smartness in parade and standard drill. They train six and a half days a week, from dawn to dusk, under active service conditions and, with a background of snowcovered Scottish mountains, they do it stripped to the waist before donning battle kit for exercises. These include storming a battery on a height, restaglug the Dieppe raid, and landing from barges while live bullets churn up the water. They raid a castle representing gun emplacements, scaling up the walls on ropes. They learn to cross rivers by using ropes, traverse forests by ropes strung from tree to tree, and also street-fighting and house-fighting. Their commanding officer, commenting on the commandos, said: “It Is fantastic to suppose that they are a gang of low villains who cut throats for sixpence. They should be chivalrous, discreet, security-minded, tough, smart and well-disciplined. We get 20 per cent, failures, but the men we train ertn be relied on to do anything. The officers arc very carefully selected and train in the ranks with the men they will ultimately command. They are closely watched, for we want natural leaders.” Confidence the Keynote. “The keynote of commando training is confidence. We aim to give the men confidence in their bodies, their weapons, comrades and. officers. They are taught to be confident and self-reliant and physically perfect—these things and the right spirit are what count, not the so-called blood courses.” Big, muscular men are not necessarily accepted, nor are tough, ready-for-any-things who are spoiling for a fight, for the pub-brawler type is not wanted. It is not true that commandos receive more pay than other soldiers, but they are given a living allowance computed from what the Army spends daily on lodging and feeding any soldier. With it the commandos must find lodging and feed themselves, but they do not receive this allowance when not billeted nor when on operations. They are kept at a high state of physical fitness, but ease otf/if there is a tendency to become stale. They need not give up smoking and drinking to keep fit, but if they arc not lit or do not come up to standard they are R.T.U.’d —■ returned to the unit from which they volunteered, which is looked on as a disgrace.

The commandos’ training includes a thorough knowledge of every weapon. They must be first-class shots, become accustomed to ships for combined operations work and also help the sailors, be able to handle boats and canoes, and swim. They must be able to live off the country, cook and butcher meat, bivouac, mountaineer, cross obstacles with minimum equipment, learn unarmed combat and use land and sea explosives. It is an interesting fact that saluting and the desire to salute are regarded as an essential feature of the commandos’ discipline. They have no time for sloppiness. for sloppy-mindedness may result in their not passing out even from the training camp, where the live ammunition is used while they are exercising. Unless their mental discipline is good they may for ever stay at. the camp’s entrance, as a warning to others. More will he heard of the commandos as the war continues. It is an interesting fact that the commandos, who were formed soon after Dunkirk, when Britain faced the Axis alone, are now passing on their spirit and training to nil the Allies. 'The spirit of Dunkirk will live as long as the war.