Commando Country
Last updated: 14/02/2007 - 12:13
How the Highlands were used in WWII to train a new breed of soldier.
Scotland’s key role in forming Britain’s famous Commando forces is to be revealed in an exciting new exhibition at the National War Museum of Scotland at Edinburgh Castle - part of the National Museums of Scotland.
Pictured (right): Kay Adie at the National War Museum Scotland. © National Museums Scotland.
Commando Country looks at how remote properties in the Scottish highlands were transformed during the Second World War into special training centres to teach new tactics such as sabotage, close combat and outdoor survival.
In June 1940, retreating British forces were evacuated from Norway and France and Britain was faced with the real possibility of an imminent invasion from sea and air. To keep fighting the enemy in occupied Europe, Winston Churchill ordered that special troops should be trained for raids and sabotage behind enemy lines. These ground-breaking and often brutal methods were taught at the first school of irregular warfare on the shores of Lochailort - near Fort William - where the mountain terrain, sea lochs and challenging weather of the highlands offered perfect conditions for training. This centre became the blueprint for all others put in place throughout the conflict.
Training Methods
Commando Country highlights the tough training methods carried out at these schools by a select team of instructors including polar explorers, mountaineers, colonial policemen and ghillies from highland sporting estates. It examines the equipment they used, the clothing they wore and the exceptional bravery of those who went on to take part in daring raids and missions.
Pictured (left): Commandos training at Lochailort, 1941, in preparation for the St Nazaire Raid (detail). (c) The Hon. IDW Chant-Sempill.
The centres included the Commando Basic Training Centre at Achnacarry, near Fort William, where the training was legendary for its toughness; a special winter training school at Braemar, which taught mountaineering skills, skiing and survival, and a special centre for Norwegian Commandos in the Cairngorms.
Stuart Allan, Senior Curator of Military History at the National War Museum of Scotland, said: “Commando Country shows how the Scottish highlands offered the perfect landscape to prepare men for utterly ruthless and uncompromising warfare. From their distinctive weapons and equipment through to first-hand accounts and personal photographs, the exhibition reveals the demanding reality of training for the deadly missions that followed.”
The exhibition also looks at the schools set up to train the Special Operations Executive (SOE), officers who carried out the highly dangerous work of supporting and organising resistance movements in enemy-occupied countries. The SOE schools were situated in the Arisaig and Morar area of the west highlands.
Pictured (right): The Highland Fieldcraft Training Centre used Command methods to prepare young soldiers for officer training. (c) National Museums of Scotland.
Items on display in the exhibition include a visitors’ book from a hotel near the Special Training Centre at Lochailort, featuring the signature of film star David Niven, who trained there as a special service volunteer; a fighting knife designed by close-combat instructors Captain WF Fairburn and Eric Sykes, which became a symbol of the Commandos; and the renowned green beret, awarded to each Commando at the climax of their training course at Achnacarry.
Scott's Expedition
Also on show will be a jersey worn by George Murray Levick, a member of Captain Scott’s famous expedition to the South Pole in 1910-1913, who lectured at Lochailort, and a flag from a German headquarters captured by No. 9 Commando in Italy in 1944, signed and decorated with Commando insignia by the men who captured it.
Commando Country reveals the vivid memories of those who took part in the training, through sketches, letters and extracts from memoirs. Major R.F. Hall describes his first encounter with close-combat instructors Fairbairn and Sykes: “..suddenly at the top of the stairs appeared a couple of dear old gentlemen (we later discovered one was 56 and the other 58). Both wearing spectacles, both dressed in battledress...They walked to the top of the stairs, fell, tumbling, tumbling down the stairs and ended up at the bottom, in the battle crouch position, with a handgun in one hand and a fighting knife in the other – a shattering experience for all of us.”
This is not the largest exhibit you'll ever see - the 'Commando Country' display itself is small but perfectly formed, amounting to one large case displaying artefacts from the training and operations carried out by Britain's first commando brigade and a short-ish but fascinating documentary - this is a small but perfectly formed addition to the Musuem's collection. Probably the secret nature of the commado training has reduced the scale of this exhibit - as well as the amount of time that has passed but this is nevertheless well worth seeking out if you're in Edinburgh Castle - even if you've seen the museum itself before.
The documentary incidentally would make a very worthwhile part of any future DVD the National War Museum of Scotland might think about putting out in the same vein as the Imperial War Museum's recent collections of excellent documentaries and archive film looking at various little-known aspects of the Second World War.
Pictured (left): The Commando Memorial at Spean Bridge, Fort William (detail).
The following links might be useful for further reading:
AdmissionThis exhibition is free with admission to Edinburgh Castle. Castle admission prices are currently Adult £11.00, Child £4.50, Concessions £8.50. National War Museum of Scotland. Monday to Sunday 9.45am to 5.45pm (April to Oct); 9.45am to 4.45pm (Nov to March)
For more places of interest to visit while in the Scottish capital visit the City of Edinburgh Museums and Galleries website - which details all of the galleries, museums and monuments managed and owned by the City of Edinburgh Council.
Commando Country is ongoing at Edinburgh Castle until 25 February (2008).
PSP Ltd is not responsible for the contents of external websites.
More information available in Arts & Culture, United Kingdom