Commando

Ballantine's Illustrated History of World War II / the Violent Century: Weapons Book #7

by Peter Young

Softcover book

Genres: History, World War II

160 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1969

About the author

Brigadier Peter Young, DSO, MC & 2 bars was a British soldier & WWII veteran. He served with the Commandos during that war, ultimately commanding a Brigade. After the war, he commanded a regiment on secondment to the Jordanian Arab Legion. After his retirement from the army, he became a lecturer at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, and eventually also a well-respected author of books on Military History, particularly with reference to the Second World War, the English Civil War & the Napoleonic Wars.

Reviews

[Lloyd Lietz]

Good very short history concentrating on the first two and a half years of the war when the Commandos were the only ground forces in contact with the Germans on the European Atlantic coast.

[Martin Koenigsberg]

It took me a while. The story here is of the British Commandos in WWII- the pre D-Day raiding force created in response to Churchill and England's burning desire to get back in the fight after the ignominy of Dunkirk. The Author, Brigadier Peter Young, seems to have a quote from every key person on every op. as he tell the story of the training in Scotland, the close liaison with the Royal Navy , and the early simple smash and grab raids along the Coast of "Festung Europa" He's got a breezy line of respect for every officer mentioned- and a seemingly encyclopedic memory for the myriad of small ops that led up to the brilliance of the St. Nazaire raid and the failure at Dieppe. Like so many others in the Ballantine's Illustrated History of World War II series, this book too is peppered with great b/w pics, maps, diagrams, line drawings and particularly the regimental photos of all officers who participated. This one is a gripping tale that I devoured in a single flight (BA LHR-DIA if you are asking) and found almost as moving as a memoir or a well written regimental history.

Then - about halfway through the book- I twigged on it. Brigadier Peter Young rose from a young Regimental veteran of Dunkirk, early recruit to the Commandos, Selected Commando Officer, to eventually finish the war as the Brigadier of the Commando Brigade!! He was in on the creation, training, op planning, and execution of some or all of the Raids he's describing. Most of the quotes he gives were probably remembered from the Officers mess over Whiskey Sherry, and Port- or from meetings with other ranks in Pubs! There simply could not be a better voice to take the reader through the Commando raiding era than Peter Young. He writes with the dry humour of the classic British Memoir/History and it's a very readable package.

With a few adult themes and some minor graphic passages, this is a book best read by the Junior Reader over 11/12 years of age. For the Gamer/Modeler/Military Enthusiast this book is a boon. The gamer gets an inside look at all the raids the Commandos carried out before the invasions of Europe- great maps and diagrams that will help with Scenario/Game/Campaign development. The Modeler gets a tonne of Build and diorama ideas- both Commando and Naval, as well as good shots from many of the actual raids. The Military Enthusiast gets a high level regimental history from one of the real movers and shakers in the Commando Brigade- a really great document of the time written by one of the creators of the concept. Its a compelling bundle- and cracking good read.

[Craig]

First off I do appreciate that this was written by someone who was a commando and one who was involved in a few of the raids that he went over in this book so it was cool to see his perspective. The fault in that is that it was limited. This stuck to the raids from the formation to the commandos and ends at Dieppe which he notes was the end of raids of that type but then goes off in the epilogue about how commandos were deployed for the last 2-1/2 years of the war. Why didn't he go over that in this book about their roles evolved and only limit it to the raids? It's not like he was fighting for word count as there were full page portraits of different commanders and leaders. I think digging deeper into the training and the weapons the commandos used would have been a good approach as well as this was a "weapons" book and the only weapon giving a spec page was the sten gun (which was cool to have but I wanted more). Ultimately I was disappointed with having the usual weapons approach as this was more a play-by-play of the early raids by British and Canadian commandos and dealt with how those unfolded and rarely talked about the planning beforehand. Not that I didn't like that (I didn't hate the book) but it seemed the wrong fit for a weapons book.

[Julio The Fox]

British commandos were Winston Churchill's dream team. Commando warfare is based on secrecy, strong, intrepid men, and swift strikes by a puny force against an enemy without bothering about the rules of war. Most World War II commando missions failed to inflict much physical damage on the Germans, be it a raid on Rommel's headquarters in North Africa or the disastrous landing by Canadian commandos at Dieppe in occupied France a year before D-Day, but they supplied the Allies with quintessential information on German troop strength, defense capabilities and how alert the Nazis would be in confronting future Allied landings. In this kind of warfare large casualties are to be expected as the price for ultimate victory.

[robert]

Great little well illustrated book on the British commando unit. A steal at $1 back in 1969. Very detailed info on the combat operations of various commando units. Good info about the tactics of small units.