Canadian Navy SEAL's In The Second World War.

Canadian Navy Beach Commandos "W" Received special Infantry training. The Commandos were set up to create and maintain
order on Normandy's Juno Beach during the landings. Since it was uncertain what kind of German resistance the Canadians would
encounter on Juno Beach they trained for all conceivable "contingencies" to prepare defenses or countermeasures to protection
against chemical warfare and clearing obstacles to driving Sherman tanks! However, their main Purpose was to keep the traffic of
men, machines and supplies++ flowing through the beachhead area.

http://www.friends-amis.org/pdf/FS27_RCN_Beach_Commando_W.pdf

W COMMANDO - CANADA'S BEACH COMMANDOS



Personnel of W-1 Party, Royal Canadian Navy Beach Commando "W", demonstrating how to
disarm an opponent attacking with a knife, H.M.S. ARMADILLO, a training establishment at
Ardentinny, Scotland, February 1944.





Lieutenant Dudley Rayburn, Beachmaster, W-2 Party, Royal Canadian Navy Beach Commando "W",
at H.M.S. ARMADILLO, a training establishment at Ardentinny, Scotland, February 1944.





Able Seaman Douglas F. Trewin, W-2 Party, Royal Canadian Navy Beach Commando "W",
points out a German sign warning of mines in the Juno sector of the Normandy beachhead,
France, 20 July 1944.




Personnel of Royal Canadian Navy Beach Commando "W" landing on Mike Beach,
Juno sector of the Normandy beachhead, France, 8 July 1944.




Personnel of W-2 Party, Royal Canadian Navy Beach Commando "W" outside a German
fortification in the Juno sector of the Normandy beachhead, France, 20 July 1944.

(Front row, L-R): Able Seamen A.F. Watt, Douglas Kennedy, R.V. Barnes, E.G. Woodall, D.F. Trewin,
A.H. Petty, Ordinary Seaman A.E. Morris, Able Seaman J.B. White. (Rear row, L-R): Leading Seamen W.R. Murphy,
J.P. Adams, Able Seaman, J.F. Roy, Petty Officer D.E. McIntyre, Lieutenant A.D. Rayburn, Able Seamen W.F. Cronkhite,
Dan Kroshewsky, J.D. Ross, R.C. Nelson.


Source For Pictures: Canadian National Archive/ DND.

.

 

Very good. Thank you sir.

 

From another forum whose link I can't get to work:

http://*******.com/archive/index.php/t-5640.html

The thread begins with:

"I am undertaking a project for one of out Legion Veterans (Art Petty, Royal Canadian Navy) who served with Combined Operations in the Second World War. We are just setting Art up with a computer, no small feat at 84 years of age - but it is progressing. I hope that in a month or so he will be able to join us here on-line.
....In the process of looking for information, I came a across a very good web site that is dedicated to this topic which is located here

WW2 Combined Operations (WW2 Combined Operations)"

and continues:

"As per the web site that I had mentioned, Art says that the ONLY CANADIAN unit in the COMBINED OPERATIONS was "W COMMANDO". Art says they were also known as "RCN BC" (Royal Canadian Navy Beach Commandos).

This was the unit Art served with, he recognized the pictures:

W COMMANDO - CANADA'S BEACH COMMANDOS (W COMMANDO - CANADA'S BEACH COMMANDOS)

Art was an "Able Body Seaman" in the W unit and his number was #V54299. His full name is Arthur Henry Petty, if anyone else knows of others in that unit that are searching for past friends."

"The pictures and the book came from Art at Branch 136 of the Royal Canadian Legion here in Milton (Ontario, Canada). I now have permission to reproduce the book in digital format, which will follow in the next few weeks - I am waiting for a copy to arrive to disassemble for scanning.

Art's details are as follows:

Name: Arthur Henry Petty
Service No.: V.54229
Service: Royal Canadian Navy, Beach Commando W2
Force: Combined Operations

http://i581.photobucket.com/albums/s...Crop_Small.jpg

For those not familiar with the Combined Operations group (as they call themselves the "Commandos") there is a comprehensive web site here:

WW2 Combined Operations (WW2 Combined Operations)

There are not too many Canadian "Beach Commandos" around so I have been extracting all that I can from Art Petty. As it turns out, his "boss" Lt. Eric "Skip" Finley wrote a large book on the W Commandos and I have secured the agreement of his estate (his wife is still alive) to digitize the book so it is available for all to read. The master document is on its way to Milton now and so the book should be digitized within the month.

I have created a page on my TelNic server with links to all the current documents, photographs, and other material. I will keep that updated with new information as it is received. The documents on the Google site are all PDF format. Copies of the pictures are also now posted in JPEG format on the Photobucket site. All of these are linked from here:

combinedops.laughton.tel (combinedops.laughton.tel)

If there are other COMBINED OPS out there, particularly from Canada, I would be pleased to hear from you!!"

combinedops.laughton.tel

"I am undertaking a project for one of out Legion Veterans (Art Petty, Royal Canadian Navy) who served with Combined Operations in the Second World War. We are just setting Art up with a computer, no small feat at 84 years of age - but it is progressing. I hope that in a month or so he will be able to join us here on-line.
....In the process of looking for information, I came a across a very good web site that is dedicated to this topic which is located here

WW2 Combined Operations (WW2 Combined Operations)"

and continues:

"As per the web site that I had mentioned, Art says that the ONLY CANADIAN unit in the COMBINED OPERATIONS was "W COMMANDO". Art says they were also known as "RCN BC" (Royal Canadian Navy Beach Commandos).

This was the unit Art served with, he recognized the pictures:

W COMMANDO - CANADA'S BEACH COMMANDOS (W COMMANDO - CANADA'S BEACH COMMANDOS)

Art was an "Able Body Seaman" in the W unit and his number was #V54299. His full name is Arthur Henry Petty, if anyone else knows of others in that unit that are searching for past friends."

"The pictures and the book came from Art at Branch 136 of the Royal Canadian Legion here in Milton (Ontario, Canada). I now have permission to reproduce the book in digital format, which will follow in the next few weeks - I am waiting for a copy to arrive to disassemble for scanning.

Art's details are as follows:

Name: Arthur Henry Petty
Service No.: V.54229
Service: Royal Canadian Navy, Beach Commando W2
Force: Combined Operations

http://i581.photobucket.com/albums/s...Crop_Small.jpg

For those not familiar with the Combined Operations group (as they call themselves the "Commandos") there is a comprehensive web site here:

WW2 Combined Operations (WW2 Combined Operations)

There are not too many Canadian "Beach Commandos" around so I have been extracting all that I can from Art Petty. As it turns out, his "boss" Lt. Eric "Skip" Finley wrote a large book on the W Commandos and I have secured the agreement of his estate (his wife is still alive) to digitize the book so it is available for all to read. The master document is on its way to Milton now and so the book should be digitized within the month.

I have created a page on my TelNic server with links to all the current documents, photographs, and other material. I will keep that updated with new information as it is received. The documents on the Google site are all PDF format. Copies of the pictures are also now posted in JPEG format on the Photobucket site. All of these are linked from here:

combinedops.laughton.tel (combinedops.laughton.tel)

If there are other COMBINED OPS out there, particularly from Canada, I would be pleased to hear from you!!"

combinedops.laughton.tel

 

Clearly some of the Canadians in the lower picture (post #1) were wearing US style steel pots, and the others were wearing the British type of helmet, but slightly modified. The flange around the rim doesn't seem as pronounced as other British helmets. Anyone with some input into the matter would be appreciated.

 

I noticed that right away as well, I'm under the impression that those modified helmets were handcrafted by the looks of the rim of the helmet, it doesn't look to be some simple cut job, but rather deliberate forming in the factory. I wonder what the particular advantages of the flange being reduced is, as I understand that it was prized among the commonwealth for helping cope with sunlight in the same manner as a baseball cap.

 

From what I've read concerning the development of combat helmets in WW1, the British contention was that the flared rim (or flange) was to protect the wearer of air-bursts. And in WW2, their paras helmets were without that flange for obvious reasons, but everyone else got the original style helmets that we are all so familiar with. Maybe it was a prototype that they were testing out or something like that.

 

As time went on the "tin-hat" evolved from that MkI of WW1 and trench warfare into a number of Marks, up to IV (I think) and if I'm not mistaken that was called the "turtle" or something. The Paras and Commandos had variations of the theme, and here is a pretty interesting site with the different types.

Goto:

British Helmets and Other Equipment in World War II

It is on another forum, but pretty good photos and drawings.

 

Was it a mixed Canadian-American because i think i see a American............

 

If you look on that link I supplied Mark you will see a couple of Brit helmets which resemble the GI version quite closely. Especially their Airborne/paras and glider troops.

 

Did they land with the attack waves on D-day or they weren't met for combat?

 

Thanks for the very informative post w/link Clint. Much obliged.

 

Good Day....My Dad was Daniel Kroshewsky....Lieutenant Dudley Rayburn's body guard....Thanks for keeping part of my memory of him alive....although the war destroyed him as a man...he did his best as a Dad....and I think of him every day and miss him so much, I sure wish things could have been different, he became a very bad alcoholic trying to forget the people he killed and what he saw......I just wanted to say thank you......Daniel Kroshewsky Jr.

 

After my Dad served in the Canadian Seals, his image is above, Daniel Kroshewsky, when the war ended he went to the USA and joined the 82nd Airborne, and was honorably discharged, he loved America, and was a very proud volunteer, I still have his pins and badge, thank you for whoever posted the AA Airborne Badge.....Daniel Kroshewsky Jr.

 

I fail to understand why there's reference to these men as SEALs.

A Canuck Commando is a Commando (or maybe in more modern parlance JTF or CSOR (?) ).
Nothing wrong with being a Commando, an honourable enough term. Accurate, and with a fine history, so why use SEALs?

Should we now refer to the SBS as SEALs? Or SEALs as Kampfschwimmers?
I think I might just start calling the RAF the USAAF, just for the hell of it, etc. etc.

I'll crawl back under my semantic rock again, but will say one more time - I don't get it.

~A