Messages posted by: Belly

Not a commando topic as such, but does anybody know what, if anything, is the connection of the 503 Field Company of Royal Engineers and Combined Operations?

I recently bought a grouping (papers and medals) for a Corporal Lawton 2006427 and with it is a painted wooden plaque which has a Combined Ops tombstone badge painted in the middle of it?

A trawl round the internet hasn?t turned up much.

Thanks
Paul

I recently had the pleasure to meet up with Des Rochford of 1 Troop, 2 Commando, and he sold me a handful of (modern reprints) of original photos taken by him and a chap called, Zwet. Here are some of the photos taken during the battle of Lake Comacchio.

In Des? words, Zwet was apparently a Cossack, from Palestine who was half Jewish and half Russian. He stood on a mine at the end of the battle and had both his legs blown off, he had the presence of mind to put two tourniquets on his two stumps so he didn?t bleed to death. He survived the war and went round for the rest of his life on two tin legs (rather like Douglas Bader). Every ten years he used to come back to Britain to Roehampton to get a new pair of tin legs.

The photographs and information is all courtesy of Des, I would welcome any info and verification of the above.

Geoff please add to the galleries as appropriate. More to come soon.

Enjoy
Paul

Ordering a replacement Death Certificate is a simple enough process and can be done online (although I haven't done it for a while):
http://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/

Good luck!
Paul

Great List!

To add to the trades, Des Rochford of No. 2 was a farmer on Lundy Island

Paul

Apologies if you have seen this, but this website has some good transcripts of Commando War Diaries covering the Normandy campaign June ? September 1944:

http://www.pegasusarchive.org/normandy/war.htm

Units covered include:

1st Special Service Brigade
Brigade Headquarters
No.3 Commando
No.4 Commando
No.6 Commando
No.45 (Royal Marine) Commando
Signal Troop

4th Special Service Brigade
Brigade Headquarters
No.41 (Royal Marine) Commando
No.46 (Royal Marine) Commando
No.47 (Royal Marine) Commando
No.48 (Royal Marine) Commando

If anyone can point to a transcript for No 2 Commando covering the period 1943-1945 I would really appreciate it

Thanks
Paul

Inspired by this great photo of the No.2 Commando boxing team July 1942:
http://www.commandoveterans.org/cdoGallery/v/units/2/boxing+team+1942.JPG.html

For a bit of fun, I decided to reproduce the T-shirts they?re wearing. I quickly knocked up some artwork and sent it off to streetshirts.co.uk (other T-shirt printers are available) for a one off print. See results attached, along with the artwork should anybody else wish to get one made!

Enjoy
Paul

yeah, the commandos will be replaced by American troops!!

Not before time!! :D

Thank for sharing, this is an extremely moving (and personal) insight.

Thanks Pete

Great link, finding stuff in the NA is never particularly intuitive!

Cheers
Paul

Pete

Do you have the WO number for the No. 2 War Diary at the National Archives?

cheers
Paul

Just saw a nice 5 minute feature by Dan Snow on Johnny Ramensky on the one show. Might be worth a quick watch on the Iplayer.

Eric also featured in the Channel 4 'Commando' series, I was only watching him on Wednsday. See seperate thread for links to the programme:
http://www.commandoveterans.org/cdoForum/posts/list/2966.page

Such a shame, another great man
Rest in peace

You?re absolutely right Pete

All the resources on here (not just No. 2 Commando) are absolutely second to none, I explore the site a lot but I still keep constantly keep finding new seems of information.

The only down side is though, I can?t take it on holiday!!

Cheers
Paul

I think I already know the answer, but is there a book that just covers No. 2 Commando's exploits in full?

thanks
Paul