The Channel of Invasion by Mike Williams

Author:Mike Williams
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, War, History
ISBN: 9781854186980
Publisher: Thorogood Publishing Ltd
Published: 2009-07-01T00:00:00+00:00

Eight

Beach reconnaissance

By both instinct and training, sailors have a high respect for unfamiliar and uncharted coastal waters. Naturally occurring hazards such as submerged rocks, seabed contours and unknown tides and currents, represent formidable navigational challenges to those operating at sea. These difficulties and dangers are increased dramatically by the presence of enemy onshore coastal defences, underwater obstacles, mines and the threats posed by regular inshore patrols. This is especially the case where there may be limited opportunities or options for manoeuvre by the attacking or invading naval forces.

A costly example of this had occurred four years earlier, in 1940, when more than half of the Allied naval vessels lost in Norwegian waters foundered on submerged rocks, shoals and sandbanks - and not directly as the result of enemy action.

First-hand experience of such hazards - and hence the need for thorough surveillance and reconnaissance prior to undertaking a raid or invasion - had led to Lt Commander Nigel Clogstoun-Willmott’s setting up of a Pilotage Training School in the west of Scotland.

His attempts to survey the coastal waters and beaches of Rhodes through a submarine periscope during operations in Greek waters, had convinced him of the severe limitations of such reconnaissance methods. Together with Captain Roger Courtney of the SBS (Special Boat Section), Clogstoun-Willmott began to establish the Combined Operations Pilotage Parties and develop their systematic training.

A man of great personal drive and commitment, Clogstoun- Willmott had assembled an impressive tutorial staff of navigators and hydrographers, as well as specialists capable of giving professional instruction in canoeing techniques, rock climbing, weapons handling and beach reconnaissance. He drove his students and his instructors but, above all, he drove himself.

Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten, as Chief of Combined Operations, had given his full enthusiastic support to Clogstoun-Willmott - and also to the establishment of several other Commando Training Centres close by including HMS Armadillo at Ardentinny, HMS Dundonald at Troon, and CTC Inverary. Such bases possessed the advantage of being in comparatively remote areas and offered ideal coastal waters for realistic training in inshore reconnaissance and beach assault. Like the main Commando Training Centre further north at Achnacarry Castle, these locations also offered ideal terrain for battle training inland, as well as on the beaches.

By early 1944, COPP training had become both rigorous and sophisticated, based upon techniques of direct observation and the detailed analysis of acquired data on obstacle locations, tides, currents and samples of sand and gravel taken methodically from beaches and shorelines.

Tall, slim, impeccably turned out and meticulous in his approach to his role, Lt Commander Clogstoun-Willmott, together with several of his instructors, met the party from Tresco as they arrived by RN lorry in the late afternoon. With Tremayne were Fischer, Simmonds, Quilghini and their First Lieutenants, including Willoughby-Brown.

After Clogstoun-Willmott’s welcome and endless cups of fresh hot tea, Lieutenant Graham Cole, RNVR, one of the School’s training officers, led the Tresco officers to the ship’s stores to collect their khaki battledress work uniforms, rank insignia, commando-sole boots, bergens and other operational kit.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.