WW2: Ten Poignant Stories (9)

1944 Here dead lie we because we did not choose

To live and shame the land from which we sprung

Life to be sure is nothing much to lose

But young men think it is and we were young

Above is part of an inscription in stone found today in the naval cemetery on the island of Vis. Vis is situated in the Adriatic Sea off the coast of Croatia (formerly Yugoslavia). Details concerning the Allied campaign to occupy Vis in 1944 - with the essential support of Commando units - can be found in The Green Beret and at Wikipedia.

The Green Beret: The Story of the Commandos by Hilary St. George Saunders was first published in October, 1949 and republished 13 times in the next five years. The book is filled with information about the creation of Commandos and their many raids and contributions to Allied victory in World War II.

Below are a few excerpts from St. George Saunders' book that illustrate the travails of raiding and war through the eyes of the Commando.

Rolling Through the Darkness

The last of these small operations in which men of
No. 10 Commando were engaged ended in tragedy.

Captain Trepel, with six other ranks, left Great Yarmouth
to reconnoitre the coast of Holland north of Schevingen.

They duly left the motor torpedo boat in the dory, landed,
and presently flares were seen and shouting heard.
After that, silence. In June 1945 six bodies, all identified,
were found buried nearby. Five had died of exposure, the
sixth by drowning. How they met their fate is not known.
Such were these small raids... 

[No. 4 Commando, Group 1, running up to land]

   By this means the Chiefs of Staff,
   responsible in the last resort for the
   conduct of the war, were able to obtain
   the information necessary to perfect
   their plans and thus to prepare for the
   moment when the Allies would set
   foot upon the shores of Normandy to
   begin the last and greatest battle of all.

   The red-tabbed, gold-braided chiefs
   at the side of a thick-set man in a
   short black coat, with a large cigar,
   were at one end of the scale;
   
   at the other were men of all nations,
   the Allied and the enemy, with black
   painted faces, in dark sweaters and soiled
   battledress, rolling through the darkness
   in cockleshell boats, groping their way
   up grim cliffs, across uncharted minefields
   and through thickets of barbed wire, or
   seeking out, thigh deep in uneasy seas,
   half-hidden obstacles and sinister devices.
   Both were necessary for victory.
   Together they achieved it. 

pages 221 and 222

WW2: Ten Poignant Stories (8)

Photo from The Green Beret by GH