No . 11 ( Scottish ) Commando No . 11 ( Scottish ) Commando was a battalion - sized commando unit of the British Army during the Second World War . Formed in Scotland members of No . 11 ( Scottish ) Commando adopted the Tam o ' shanter as their official headress . No . 11 ( Scottish ) Commando was sent to the Mediterranean as ' C ' Battalion Layforce . It took part in operations in Syria and then garrison duties in Cyprus . Its final raid was Operation Flipper the attempt to capture the German commander Erwin Rommel . After the failure of this raid the Commando was disbanded . Background . The commandos were formed in 1940 , by the order of Winston Churchill the British Prime Minister . He called for specially trained troops that would " develop a reign of terror down the enemy coast " . At first they were a small force of volunteers who carried out small raids against enemy occupied territory , but by 1943 their role had changed into lightly equipped assault Infantry which specialised in spearheading amphibious landings . The man initially selected as the overall commander of the force was Admiral Sir Roger Keyes himself a veteran of the landings at Gallipoli and the Zeebrugge raid in the First World War . Keyes resigned in October 1941 and was replaced by Admiral Louis Mountbatten . By the autumn of 1940 more than 2 , 000 men had volunteered for Commando training , and what became known as the Special Service Brigade was formed into 12 units called Commandos . Each Commando would number around 450 men commanded by a Lieutenant Colonel . They were sub divided into Troops of 75 men and further divided into 15 man sections . Commandos were all volunteers seconded from other British Army regiments and retained their own cap badge s and remained on their regimental roll for pay . All volunteers went through the six week intensive commando course at Achnacarry . The course in the Scottish Highlands concentrated on fitness , speed marches , weapons training , map reading , climbing , small boat operations and demolitions both by day and by night . By 1943 the Commandos had moved away from small raiding operations and had been formed in Brigade s of assault infantry to spearhead future Allied landing operations . Three units were left un - brigaded to carry out smaller scale raids . History . Formed in June 1940 from volunteers from Scottish regiments under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Richard Pedder , in February 1941 it became part of Layforce and adopted the designation of ' C ' Battalion . Deploying to the Middle East they were sent to Cyprus to garrison the island before being sent to Syria where they participated in Operation Exporter . After suffering heavy casualties during the fighting against the Vichy French to secure a crossing over the Litani River , the unit returned to Cyprus before it was disbanded along with the rest of Layforce . Afterwards many of its men were transferred to Middle East Commando , where they formed No . 3 Troop under Lieutenant Colonel Geoffrey Keyes . In November 1941 , these men carried out a raid on Beda Littoria , in Libya as part of Operation Flipper , with the purpose of capturing Erwin Rommel in his headquarters . The raid was ultimately unsuccessful and Keyes was killed in a fire fight at Sidi Rafa and only a handful of the men managed to escape back to British lines . For his part in the raid , Keyes received the Victoria Cross posthumously . After this raid the Commando role was changing and No . 11 Commando along with Layforce was disbanded , due mainly to a shortage of manpower . Battle honours . The following Battle honour s were awarded to the British Commandos during the Second World War .