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previous: Chapter 19 This webpage reproduces a chapter of Combined Operations by Hilary St. George Saunders published by The Macmillan Company New York, 1943 The text is in the public domain. This page has been carefully proofread and I believe it to be free of errors. If you find a mistake though, please let me know!

 p153  20. To the Day of Assault

The first troops of this war to carry out a combined operation against the enemy were borne in eight motor boats. Those who went with the expedition to North Africa, with which this story closes, sailed in convoys numbering hundreds of ships. Such is the measure of the growth of Combined Operations in the past 30 months, and the end has not yet been reached — perhaps not even the end of the beginning.

It is seldom wise to dwell on achievements, especially in time of war when the future must always be of greater moment than the past. Yet the old truism that the future is a function of the past is never more apposite than when applied to combined operations. They can only be successfully conducted by trained men, sailors, and soldiers and airmen; and the more experience those men acquire, the higher becomes the standard of their training.

Modern war his little use for amateurs; impatience and improvisation seldom win battles. It was dogged months of training under instructors who knew from experience what were the hazards and opportunities of attack which produced Alexander's phalanx, Caesar's legions, Cromwell's Ironsides, French's "Old Contemptibles," Montgomery's Eighth Army. None know this better than those who engage in combined operations, for theirs is the hardest problem of war, and in this war it has become three-dimensional. Troops, even veterans, are useless unless the Navy can put them ashore at the chosen place and at the right time, and both may fail if there is no air cover above them.

It is the principal function of the Combined Operations Command to help to make it possible for the greatest number of trained officers and men to land successfully on the enemy's coasts and thereafter to destroy him. It is on the problem of the landing and the maintenance in the early stages of the force once landed that it is concentrating. To this end no energy, no effort is spared. Each operation, or, to put it another way, every experiment in attack, is most carefully planned by staff officers, many of whom subsequently take part in it. The report of every  p154 Force Commander submitted after the conclusion of an operation contains a section on the lessons learnt. This is in accordance with an old and sound tradition, begun in the 18th century, for it must not be forgotten that the combined operations of this war are the direct descendants of the "conjunct expeditions" of the past.

"The bellows was forgot at Lorient . . . there was no planks for mounting a battery at Placentia . . . the smoke carried was just adequate . . . from the remaining boxes two detonators were missing . . . it is recommended that a stock of self-heating soup be carried . . . it is suggested that the possibility of fitting a gun turret abaft the engine room should be investigated . . ." Observations such as these, picked at random, are to be found in reports from 1759 to 1942. They show how meticulously every detail of an operation is recorded for future study.

The first steps to solve the problem of invading Europe were taken two and a half years ago, when a force to carry out raids on the enemy was raised; but raiding is not an end in itself, only the means to the ultimate end — invasion and occupation. These raids are, however, of great value. They may be described as the most essential part of the programme of training; but, apart from this aspect, their effect on the enemy must be considered. The fear they engender in the hearts of the Germans is to be measured by the severity of the treatment accorded by them to the prisoners taken. The Germans have always been poor psychologists.

"To Win Bright Honour"

These "Red Indian" raids, to use the contemptuous phrase by which Goebbels seeks to belittle them — though a closer acquaintance with the works of Fenimore Cooper might show him that Red Indians were stealthy, fierce and implacable — are keeping the German garrisons on the long stretch of occupied coasts in a state of nervous tension. At any moment "a steel hand" may reach out from the sea to pluck a sentry or the garrison of a lookout post into the night and the unknown. The raids compel the German High Command to disperse a considerable number of troops, badly needed elsewhere, along the western coasts of Europe; the morale of these troops is undermined, the will to resist of the enslaved peoples strengthened. Any raid may be the spearhead of an invasion or a diversion from the real point of attack. The enemy can never be quite sure.

The men who carry them out come from many formations, but the  p155 nucleus is to be found in the Combined Operations Command. Few in numbers to begin with, they are now a considerable force. This force includes the officers and ratings who man its great diversity of craft, ranging from the ocean-going landing ship to its pendent child, the landing craft. There are Naval Beach Commandos, Military Commandos, and Royal Marines. Most of the Allies have Commando troops. There are Royal Air Force Servi­cing Commandos, whose work on the airfields of Egypt and French North Africa is an earnest of what is to come. There are other Special Troops with special tasks whose exploits must, for the present, remain a secret. This is the force whose officers and men have trained, worked and fought side by side, and with many other formations and units, for the better part of three years. The value of the experience they have gained in the conduct of combined operations is hard to exaggerate. No large-scale attack on the continent of Europe could be successfully mounted without this experience.

Not only do they carry out raids, they also engage in larger operations — the assault on Dieppe is an example — with other formations of the United Kingdom, Dominion and Allied Armies, trained on the same lines as themselves at the Combined Training Centres.

The number of those in all Services who took, or are taking part in combined operations has steadily grown. Already six Victoria Crosses and 381 other decorations have been won by them and 481 officers and men of all three Services have been mentioned in despatches.

The tradition of combined operations, which began in the reign of Elizabeth, is rapidly reaching its fullest manifestation in the reign of George VI. Men of the Commandos still go out in the night-time with darkened faces,

but they are not alone. With them now is the great array of the United Nations, turned from defence towards attack. Their trained and gathered strength, of which the display in French North Africa was but a prelude, a dress rehearsal, is preparing for the day of the assault. When it dawns, the victory will be achieved by applying the principles learned in a long series of combined operations, of which that assault will be the last and greatest.

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