My interest is in 44 RM Commando who seem to have had five rifle troops, ABCD and X plus S troop (heavy weapons) and also HQ troop. 45 RM Commando had ABCD and F rifle troop 47 RM Commando had AB and XYZ rifle troop Is there any significance in these letters? Is there anywhere I can search for the composition, structure and weapons used? Did the Far East Commandos (eg 44 RM) differ from the European Theatre Commandos? Finally, why would 44 Commando be renumbered as 40 Commando in 1947 when 40 Commando (European one) was disbanded immediately after the War? Seems very unfair - look on the 40 RM Commando today and all you see are references to Dieppe! Being a skeptic, maybe this answers my question - the British love a glorious failure.
Just found this in a piece about 48RM Commando "The Commando was organised along War Establishment lines, conforming to those Commandos already raised by the Army and Royal Marines. This consisted of the Commando Headquarters, Signal Section, Administrative Section, five fighting troops (A, B, X, Y and Z) - named after the big gun turrets on capital ships - and a Heavy Weapons Troop (S Troop). The nominal strength of a fighting troop was three officers and sixty-five other ranks. Each troop contained two sections, each further divided into two sub­sections. The Heavy Weapon Troop had two officers and forty other ranks, armed with two Vickers machine-guns and two 3-inch mortars. These weapons were doubled in number after the landings in June." "June landings" were D Day.
I think the numbering of the troops goes back to the tradition of RM Gunners manning turrets in warships - a naval expert will no doubt be along to explain the numbering system for gun turrets and how it carried over to the RM Cdo troops
I produced the above table by adding up the individual arms. I think it must be pretty close to the establisment size since a Commando in 1943 was supposed to have 460 men and a rifle troop 65 OR and 3 Officers. All the Rifles(Enfields) were replaced by Garands in 1944 and I think the Army Commandos in the Far East had made this switchover even earlier (see Thread on Garands). There was a re-organisation in May 1945. Rifle Troops were reduced to four (War Dept instruction) - D Troop was abolished and marines spread out amonst the other Troops. The 44RM CO also disbanded Y Troop adn spread these amongst the other Troops. Y Troop seems to have been composed of B Echelon type troops and is never mentioned in any raids/patrols etc and I guess was left behind at base? Re-organisation brought the numbers down to about 350 but 44RM had shrunk to that size already through combat losses. At one point they had Z Troop, about 55 men, but this was for training up 45RM Commando and these men were released after training.
The Americans pusblished information on SAS and Commandos for their own training, not exclusively RM commandos, published 9 August 1942: SAS Britishs Commandos Manual Special Series No. 1 - 1942
Thanks Wills that is excellent and has extended my understanding. A couple of questions about the abbreviations in my table above - What does MOA stand for? What is DR Section?
I have used two websites. 'Bayonet Strength'. An old site still available. Has details of Commando organisation 1943/44. The other I downloaded some weeks ago but cant find now. Some combination of these words or similar. Tables of military organisation. Transcripts of the War Establishment Table for September 1944. DR Section is Despatch Rider Section. The MOAs are officer's orderlies but the actual letters are new to me. Mike
Thanks yet again. Seems there was flexibility to adopt the structure, weapons, and equipment to meet the needs of the task and the environment - no Piats needed here! Thought you might like these snippets from 44RM war diary.