Oddball
12-13-2005, 09:55 AM
http://www.journal.forces.gc.ca/engraph/Vol6/no3/08-History1_e.asp
Strength Born From Weakness: the Establishment of the Raiding Concept and the British Commandos
by Colonel Bernd Horn
http://www.journal.forces.gc.ca/engraph/Vol6/no1/images/print_pdf_e.gif (http://www.journal.forces.gc.ca/engraph/Vol6/no3/PDF/08-History1_e.pdf)
Introduction
The waves crashed noisily onto the beach as the German sentry pulled up his collar to ward off the chill that blew off the English Channel. He hunched his shoulders involuntarily inside his heavy wool greatcoat as he trudged along the beach on the way back to the patrol house. He suddenly stopped, his sixth sense warning him of danger, but as he turned into the icy, cold wind he saw nothing, and heard only the relentless swells hammering the French coastline. He picked up his pace and began to think of the warmth he would soon enjoy, when he realized, too late, that he was not alone. Before, he could turn or unsling his rifle, his head was violently jerked to one side as the cold steel of a fighting knife was thrust into his carotid artery. The body of the lifeless sentry was gently lowered to the ground by a phantom-like figure. Suddenly, as if on cue, more figures emerged from the shadows, clutching sub-machine guns and demolitions. The commandos had arrived once more to visit death and destruction on Hitler’s occupied territories.
This obscure drama passed into history without notice or fanfare. It was just another tragic act in a chaotic world. However, it was the living embodiment of Winston Churchill’s vision. “There comes from the sea,” he proclaimed in the dark early days of the war, “a hand of steel that plucks the German sentries from their posts.”1 (http://www.journal.forces.gc.ca/engraph/Vol6/no3/08-History1_e.asp#note1) As dramatic and inspiring as the Prime Minister’s words were, they were not delivered from a position of strength. Rather, they were born from weakness.
The speed and violence of the German invasion of Europe in the spring of 1940 caught the British and the French, still stuck in their Great War mentality, totally by surprise. The military subjugation of western Europe took just 46 days, but it was decided in only ten. The last available members of the British Expeditionary Forces in France were evacuated from the beaches of Dunkirk on the night of 2 June 1940. Significantly, the desperate withdrawal resulted in the loss of virtually all their heavy equipment, weapons and transport. Britain now braced for what appeared to be the inevitable conclusion to the German master plan – the invasion of England...
Strength Born From Weakness: the Establishment of the Raiding Concept and the British Commandos
by Colonel Bernd Horn
http://www.journal.forces.gc.ca/engraph/Vol6/no1/images/print_pdf_e.gif (http://www.journal.forces.gc.ca/engraph/Vol6/no3/PDF/08-History1_e.pdf)
Introduction
The waves crashed noisily onto the beach as the German sentry pulled up his collar to ward off the chill that blew off the English Channel. He hunched his shoulders involuntarily inside his heavy wool greatcoat as he trudged along the beach on the way back to the patrol house. He suddenly stopped, his sixth sense warning him of danger, but as he turned into the icy, cold wind he saw nothing, and heard only the relentless swells hammering the French coastline. He picked up his pace and began to think of the warmth he would soon enjoy, when he realized, too late, that he was not alone. Before, he could turn or unsling his rifle, his head was violently jerked to one side as the cold steel of a fighting knife was thrust into his carotid artery. The body of the lifeless sentry was gently lowered to the ground by a phantom-like figure. Suddenly, as if on cue, more figures emerged from the shadows, clutching sub-machine guns and demolitions. The commandos had arrived once more to visit death and destruction on Hitler’s occupied territories.
This obscure drama passed into history without notice or fanfare. It was just another tragic act in a chaotic world. However, it was the living embodiment of Winston Churchill’s vision. “There comes from the sea,” he proclaimed in the dark early days of the war, “a hand of steel that plucks the German sentries from their posts.”1 (http://www.journal.forces.gc.ca/engraph/Vol6/no3/08-History1_e.asp#note1) As dramatic and inspiring as the Prime Minister’s words were, they were not delivered from a position of strength. Rather, they were born from weakness.
The speed and violence of the German invasion of Europe in the spring of 1940 caught the British and the French, still stuck in their Great War mentality, totally by surprise. The military subjugation of western Europe took just 46 days, but it was decided in only ten. The last available members of the British Expeditionary Forces in France were evacuated from the beaches of Dunkirk on the night of 2 June 1940. Significantly, the desperate withdrawal resulted in the loss of virtually all their heavy equipment, weapons and transport. Britain now braced for what appeared to be the inevitable conclusion to the German master plan – the invasion of England...