page_title: No. 6 Commando
section_title: Formation
hierarchical_section_title: No. 6 Commando / History / Formation
caption_attribution_description: English: Captain Gerald C S Montanaro of 101 Troop, Special Service Brigade, leads one of his men during combined operations training in the presence of the King at Inverary in Scotland, 9 October 1941. The officer is carrying a Luger pistol with drum magazine.
context_page_description: No. 6 Commando was a battalion-sized British Army commando unit of the Second World War. Although it was raised to conduct small-scale raids and harass garrisons along the coast of German-occupied France, it was mainly employed as a highly trained infantry assault unit.
  Formed in July 1940, No. 6 Commando's first involvement in operations came in late 1941 when it contributed small forces to raids in Norway. In April 1942 the whole unit was scheduled to take part in Operation Myrmidon, in France, but this raid was eventually cancelled. As a result, the first full-scale operation that No. 6 Commando took part in was Operation Torch, the Allied landings in Algeria in November 1942. Later, it joined the advance into Tunisia in 1943. On 6 June 1944, it participated in the D-Day landings in France as part of Operation Overlord, coming ashore with the 1st Special Service Brigade which was tasked with linking up with the troops from the 6th Airborne Division on the eastern flank of Sword.
  Following this, No.
context_section_description: In early June 1940 following the lightning advance of the Germans through France and the subsequent Dunkirk evacuation, the British prime minister, Winston Churchill, realised the need for Britain to maintain some form of offensive action and directed his chief staff officer and military adviser, General Hastings Ismay, to begin organising a force which could conduct raids along the coast of German-occupied Europe. Shortly after this, even before the concept had been fully developed, the War Office put out a request for volunteers among the troops in Britain to join a force they would be known as the Commandos. At this stage it was decided to create 12 commando units, each with an establishment of roughly 500 men.
  No. 6 Commando was one of the units formed at this time. Raised at Scarborough on 26 July 1940, it was placed under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Timothy Fetherstonhaugh, who was a Territorial officer holding the substantive rank of captain in the Queen’s Royal Regiment. Initially, the unit's personnel were mainly drawn from the British Army's Western Command although later personnel were drawn from all commands and branches of the army. Garrison duties were undertaken at Romney Marsh and Brightlingsea, before the unit moved to Milford Haven where they undertook amphibious training. Around this time, the commando adopted the Scottish Tam o'Shanter as their official headdress.
  In October, when the commandos were reorganised into "Special Service" battalions underneath the overarching Special Service Brigade, No. 6 Commando was amalgamated with No. 5 Commando and became a company-sized element in the 5th Special Service Battalion under Fetherstonhaugh's command and based at Helensburgh in Scotland. In March 1941, following a reversal in War Office thinking, the battalion was broken up again into its constituent parts and No. 6 Commando was reorganised as a battalion equivalent unit, albeit with six troops instead of the original 10.
caption: Men from 101 Troop, No. 6 Commando train around Inveray, Scotland, October 1941
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