Philip Wild

Hi All,

I?m afraid I don?t have much solid information on my grandad at the moment, but while I wait for my uncle to sort out official records - which might take ages - I?m wondering whether anyone can help me build a picture of which unit he may have been in, if he was a commando.

First up, he refused to talk about any of this after the war, so very few people know anything about what he did, not even close family or his sons, but for some reason told me a bit when I was about 10.

He was in the navy then joined an unknown unit and trained in Scotland. He was trained to kayak and blow up bridges in kayaks, which I know he practiced in bideford.

He told me he landed on Gold beach on D-Day behind the main invasion and said something about being there to defuse mines. My uncle thinks he was trained to swim and direct landing craft in, but I don?t think this happened?

He told me a story about needing to pee and going in a corner in a trench and two Germans walked around the corner... he was terrified until he realised they had been captured and were being escorted!

Later that day he was injured by shrapnel and shipped back home. I?m sure he told me he dived into a slit trench as they were being strafed by aircraft. I?m not sure there was much Luftwaffe activity on the day so I might have misremembered that point or it might help narrow it down.

I don?t think given his kayak training he was in 47 commando that landed on Gold Beach, seeing they were to take a town, but he may have been in one of the J, G, T or Q beach commando units, but I can?t find a great detail on them.

Does any of this sound familiar to anyone and are you able to narrow down which unit he?d have been in?

Any help would be very much appreciated.

Sounds like he was in a Landing craft obstruction clearance unit who trained at Appledore on the north coast of Devon and Fremington camp near Barnstaple. Look at combined operations website as well. I believe these were specialists who went ashore to clear obstacles that would have prevented any landings.

Thanks Craig, that?s interesting and useful. It gives me something to look into.

North Devon makes sense as I have a picture of him on a sandy beach looking happy so it must be training.

I?ll attach it when I can resize it.

Here are a couple of pictures of him

Hi Tim,

Well, the photos answer your question, your granddad was not a RM Commando or an Army Commando - he was definitely a Royal Navy Commando.

These boy were actually the first onto the beaches and would mark the way and the routes etc. for the assault troops coming behind them ...

See this link for a brief description of their role and title.

http://www.commandoveterans.org/RoyalNavalBeachCommandoMemo

You/ your family can apply to the MoD for a copy of your grandfather's service record - the MoD is the only custodian of WWII service records so please don't get suckered in by other ON-Line genealogy sites which make spurious claims of holding all military records... They don't and it will cost you a lot of money to find that out!

If you do want to apply to MoD, I can point you in the right direction...

Nic

Tim,

I hope that Rick Smallman will pick up on this thread as his father was a RN Commando and he has researched them in depth and is far more knowledgeable than I am on the subject...

However, here are two very good book about the RN Commandos - well worth reading for background information of the RN Cdo Units and for more individual of each Unit...

Beachhead Assault by David Lee. The Story of the Royal Naval Commandos in WW2. Foreword by Tony Parsons. Published By Greenhill Books in October 2004.

The Beachhead Commandos by a Cecil Hampshire. Published by William Kimber & Co Ltd in 1983

Nick

Hi Tim

We have a few photos in our RNBC gallery. Worth browsing as well as some are not identified. I will post those two photos in the gallery soon with a credit to yourself.

http://gallery.commandoveterans.org/cdoGallery/v/units/rn+cdos/

If you have a higher resolution copy of the group photo can you email me it (address below).

Nic and Pete, thanks so much. Every day is a school day; I didn't know there were different types of commandos!

This information is fantastic and will help me find out what they got up to.

Tim

Tim, your photos are now in the RN Beach Commando gallery. Can you confirm your own surname is that of your Grandfather so as I can update the credit.

http://gallery.commandoveterans.org/cdoGallery/v/units/rn+cdos/

Pete wrote:Tim, your photos are now in the RN Beach Commando gallery. Can you confirm your own surname is that of your Grandfather so as I can update the credit.

http://gallery.commandoveterans.org/cdoGallery/v/units/rn+cdos/

Thanks Pete. Yes, my surname is Wild.