PICKED TROOPS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 November 1941, Page 5

PICKED TROOPS

BRITISH “COMMANDOS”

FORMIDABLE FIGHTING FORCES.

TRAINED FOR RAIDING OPERATIONS.

(British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, November (I

A description of British “commandos”—a formation of picked troops —is now available in London. Only trained soldiers in the highest physical category may volunteer for commando. The standard is so exacting that, as many as 95 per cent, have been rejected. They become dead shots with all small arms and masters of the fighting knife, can march TO miles a day and live on the country. They are’expefts in explosives and stalking fieldcraft. They are well-fitted as raiding parties or might be called on to establish a brigade for an invading army.

In field exorcises' they have been known to move through a division without being seen. They can also take part in combined operations with the Navy and R.A.F. as self-contained units trained to the limit of human endurance.

A swift dash by sea to a solitary cove, a sudden attack in the night on a vital position, or plant—such is the type of operation for Which commandos have been trained. The Lofoten raid was largely the work of a commando, which came in from the sea behind the enemy’s positions. Swift landing craft have been devised and much hard work has beer: accomplished in perfecting 'details of cooperation with the Navy, in combined operations. «