Send in the British Commandos for a water-borne assault!
The Commandos – drawn from volunteers from within the United Kingdoms armed forces, the Special Service Brigade would swell to 30 individual units and 4 assault brigades. They carried out operations in all theatres, including Norway, the Channel Islands, the Mediterranean, France, Germany and Burma, and later inspired the formation of elite spearhead units such as the US Rangers.
One such SSB Royal Marine unit was detailed to carry out amphibious assaults, taking the fight to the Germans! This approach was exemplified in the operation to destroy the shipping in the port of Bordeaux. Starting from their submarine drop off 10 miles from the coast, 10 men paddled their camouflaged cockleshells through horrendous conditions 60 miles upstream to the port. Paddling by night and resting by day, just four of these ‘Cockleshell Heroes’ made it through to place their limpet mines and then attempt to make their daring escape!
In this set you get:
2x Cockle MkII canoes
4x RM Commandos with paddles
4x RM Commandos on foot weapons drawn
Commando Amphibious Assault
A typical commando scenario could be the Bruneval raid- send your Royal Marines into capture a German emplacement on the cliff tops!
And for an extra level of challenge why not try the night fight rules with a free download here:
In this set you get:
2x Cockle MkII canoe
4x RM Commandos with paddles
4x RM Commandos on foot weapons drawn
2x Sets of 1 Sandbag Emplacement
1x German Heer MG42
Royal Marine Commando 2000pt Troop
Of course the cockleshell raiders were just the prelude to major attacks, so with the Warlord summer campaign just around the corner its time to prepare your spearhead assault force! Check out next week’s articles for a full army list, scenarios and more!
In this set you get:
2x sets of 25 plastic Commandos
1x Commando Characters
1x Commando Vickers K LMG
1x Commando Vickers HMG
1x Commando 3″ Mortar
2x LVT-4 ‘Buffalo’ Amtrac
1x Centaur CS
plus the Commando Amphibious Assault set:
2x Cockle MkII canoe
4x RM Commandos with paddles
4x RM Commandos on foot weapons drawn
2x Sets of 1 Sandbag Emplacement
1x German Heer MG42
Dan Hewitson
Tom Mecredy
Craig Nixon