No . 7 Commando No . 7 Commando was a unit of the British Commandos and part of the British Army during the Second World War . The Commando was formed in August 1940 in the United Kingdom No . 7 Commando was transferred to the Middle East as part of Layforce . Committed to the Battle of Crete it suffered heavy casualties , after which it 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 Galipoli 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 . In 1943 the commando formation was also standardised , into a small headquarters , five fighting Troops , a Heavy Weapons troop and a signals platoon . The fighting Troops consisted of 65 all ranks divided into two 30 man sections which in turn were divided into three ten man sub sections . The Heavy Weapons Troop was made up of 3 inch Mortar and Vickers machine gun teams . History . No . 7 Commando was formed in Felixstowe in July 1940 and in December 1940 were sent to Scotland for boat training . They were then re - designated 3rd Special Service Battalion on 24 October 1941 and sent to the Middle East . On arrival in Alexandria they were assigned to Layforce as ' A ' Battalion . Their first planned operation was the invasion of Rhodes which was later cancelled . This was followed by the raid on Bardia on 19 April 1941 . They were next sent to take part in the battle of Crete , assisting in the evacuation of the Allied forces . Opposed by a larger German force most of the men of the Commando were taken prisoner . After Crete the Commando was disbanded and its personnel sent to other commando units in the theatre or returned to their previous units . Battle honours . The following Battle honour s were awarded to the British Commandos during the Second World War .