Text extracted from opening pages of book: COMBINED OPERATIONS The Official Story of the COMMANDOS WITH A FOREWORD BY Vice-Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten Chief of Combined Operations 1943 NEW YORK THE MACMILLAN COMPANY Copyright, 1943, By The Controller of His Britannic Majesty’s Stationery Office AIX RIGHTS RESERVED PRINTED AND BOUND IN THE U. S. A. BY KINGSPORT PRESS, INC., KINGSPORT, TENN. FOREWORD London, April n ( by Cable) This record contains some account of combined operations in general, and of the exploits of the Command which bears that name. The term Combined Operations is vague and does not convey more than a general meaning; but their scope is definite and precise. A com bined operation is a landing operation in which, owing to actual or expected opposition, it is essential that the fighting services take part together, in order to strike the enemy with the maximum effect, at the chosen point and at the chosen moment. To help the services to do this a Combined Operations Command was formed, whose primary function is to train officers and men of the Royal Navy and the Royal Marines, the Army and the Royal Air Force in the conduct of amphibious war fare. It is also the task of this Command to plan and execute all kinds oi raids, small or large. Amphibious operations are a complex form of warfare. On the ma terial side they entail technical study, the production of new machines of war, special types of assault craft, both large and small, and the use of these and other new devices. On the human side they demand the creation of sailor-soldiers, soldier-sailors, and airmen-soldiers, who musi cooperate with imaginative understanding of each other’s methods and problems. TheCombined Operations Command is concerned with both of these aspects and with many others. The Command has its own forces, of which the Commandos and landing-craft crews form a part. But many other units pass through it! combined training centres: not only British and Dominion, but also United States troops and those of our other allies the Fighting French Norwegians, Czechs, Poles, Dutch, and Belgians. United States Naval Marine, Army, and Air Corps officers form part of the Combined Oper ations headquarters, and United States Rangers operate side by side wit! British Commandos. . We cannot win this war by bombing and blockade alone: it can b