Commando Channel 4

Any members see the first one hour programme regarding the setting up of the Commando unit on Channel four (C4) at 1900 hours tonight?

Some interesting items were raised regarding training etc

many clips of vets telling their stories, one concered a man who had been involved in a raid in Norway and had sought shelter in a house. It was Boxing day and he and his mates eat the food found on the table as they hadn't eaten for 24 hours. This man then found a small silver box (about matchbox size) that contained pieces of paper each bearing snippets from the Bible. The man took the box and kept it with him throughout WW2 as a good luck charm. The C4 film unit was with him when he very emotionaly returned to the house and gave it back to one of the family members who had actualy been a child hiding in the cellar when the raids took place.

More next week........Set that video.

Regards Graham.

 

I didn’t find it breathtaking the first time it was shown and nothing’s changed I’m afraid. It’s two biggest faults (and they are big) is (1) they edited it to oblivion for the sake of entertainment at the expense of accuracy, and (2) they make no attempt to cover something like 85% of the Commando story to give one of the 4 programmes to the Parachute Regiment and another to the SAS. Both of these organisations were spawned by the Commandos but evolved their own way.

In tonight’s programme they implied the first raid was on the Channel islands by 30 volunteers, there were others but they failed to land. This was the second raid, the first was on the French mainland, the ’30 volunteers’ were actually part of the formed No.3 Commando and the ‘others’ who failed to land were the first Commandos formed being No.11 Commando/Independent Company. If they mentioned that they’d have to explain exactly who was formed when and who the Independent Companies were. They showed a foreigner in the Commandos but failed to mention that the significant body of non nationals in the Commandos were No.10 (IA) Commando which was too early to mention now as they weren’t formed until 1942. Also, they showed the new Commandos going off to be trained at Achnacarry. Some were but not until 1942 as Achnacarry wasn’t set-up until then. Originally each Commando unit, from 1940, was responsible for training their men. The training centre set-up in 1940 was at Inveraray by Combined Operations, which the Commandos used, among others – so what’s 2 years? Also, originally there was no set uniform, flashes or headwear - i.e. no green beret.

One episode is on St. Nazaire. Its worth watching all episodes but you won’t pass a GCSE with them. The programme project was initially started by quite a serious producer with apparent serious intentions. The pace slowed and appeared to be shelved to some extent, then started up again with a new woman in charge. In the view of the people the makers were consulting with, she had little appreciation of the subject and her new brief appeared different to the original one.

No.9