The name commando has been applied to a variety of Australian special forces and light infantry units. In military science, the term commando can refer to an individual, a military unit or a raiding style of military operation. ... For other uses of the term, see Special forces (disambiguation). ... Traditionally light infantry (or skirmishers) were soldiers whose job was to provide a skirmishing screen ahead of the main body of infantry, harassing and delaying the enemy advance. ...

World War II

2/1 IC

2/2 IC

2/3 IC

2/4 IC

2/5 IC

2/6 IC

2/7 IC

2/8 IC

2/6 CavCdo

2/7 CavCdo

Sergeant Leonard G. Siffleet of M Special Unit being beheaded by a Japanese soldier, Yasuno Chikao on 24 October 1943 is an example of the danger men from the unit faced whilst engaged in reconnaissance behind the Japanese lines. From the Australian War Memorial collection.

2/9 CavCdo

All branches of the military contributed to the first Australian commando units, which were formed during World War II. The Australian Army's Independent Companies were formed from 1941 and were modelled on the British Army Commandos (and were re-designated Commando Squadrons a few years later). The Independent Companies were initially trained at the 7th Infantry Training Centre at Wilson's Promontory, Victoria. Of those who trained the first Australian commandos were renowned British commandoes Mike Calvert and F. Spencer Chapman. Image File history File links 2nd1stcdoWWII.jpg‎ This is the Australian Army WWII Unit Colour Patch of the 2/1 Independent Company - Commando. ... Image File history File links 2nd1stcdoWWII.jpg‎ This is the Australian Army WWII Unit Colour Patch of the 2/1 Independent Company - Commando. ... Image File history File links SecondsecondcdoWWII.jpg‎ This is the Australian Army WWII unit colour patch of the 2/2 Independent Company - Commando It is a logo able to be used in low res. ... Image File history File links SecondsecondcdoWWII.jpg‎ This is the Australian Army WWII unit colour patch of the 2/2 Independent Company - Commando It is a logo able to be used in low res. ... Image File history File links SecondthirdcdoWWII.jpg‎ This is the Australian Army Unit Colour Patch of 2nd/3rd Independent Company - Commando This is a logo of an organization, item, or event, and is protected by copyright and/or trademark. ... Image File history File links SecondthirdcdoWWII.jpg‎ This is the Australian Army Unit Colour Patch of 2nd/3rd Independent Company - Commando This is a logo of an organization, item, or event, and is protected by copyright and/or trademark. ... Image File history File links SecondfourthcdoWWII.jpg‎ This is the Australian Army Unit Colour Patch of 2nd/4th Independent Company - Commando This is a logo of an organization, item, or event, and is protected by copyright and/or trademark. ... Image File history File links SecondfourthcdoWWII.jpg‎ This is the Australian Army Unit Colour Patch of 2nd/4th Independent Company - Commando This is a logo of an organization, item, or event, and is protected by copyright and/or trademark. ... Image File history File links SecondfifthcdoWWII.jpg‎ This is the Australian Army Unit Colour Patch of the 2nd/5th Independent Company - Commando This is a logo of an organization, item, or event, and is protected by copyright and/or trademark. ... Image File history File links SecondfifthcdoWWII.jpg‎ This is the Australian Army Unit Colour Patch of the 2nd/5th Independent Company - Commando This is a logo of an organization, item, or event, and is protected by copyright and/or trademark. ... Image File history File links SecondsixthcdoWWII.jpg‎ This is the Australian Army Unit Colour Patch of the 2nd/6th Independent Company - Commando This is a logo of an organization, item, or event, and is protected by copyright and/or trademark. ... Image File history File links SecondsixthcdoWWII.jpg‎ This is the Australian Army Unit Colour Patch of the 2nd/6th Independent Company - Commando This is a logo of an organization, item, or event, and is protected by copyright and/or trademark. ... Image File history File links SecondseventhcdoWWII.jpg‎ This is the Australian Army Unit Colour Patch of the 2nd/7th Independent Company - Commando This is a logo of an organization, item, or event, and is protected by copyright and/or trademark. ... Image File history File links SecondseventhcdoWWII.jpg‎ This is the Australian Army Unit Colour Patch of the 2nd/7th Independent Company - Commando This is a logo of an organization, item, or event, and is protected by copyright and/or trademark. ... Image File history File links SecondeighthcdoWWII.jpg‎ This is the Australian Army Unit Colour Patch of the 2nd/8th Independent Company - Commando self created This is a logo of an organization, item, or event, and is protected by copyright and/or trademark. ... Image File history File links SecondeighthcdoWWII.jpg‎ This is the Australian Army Unit Colour Patch of the 2nd/8th Independent Company - Commando self created This is a logo of an organization, item, or event, and is protected by copyright and/or trademark. ... Image File history File links 2nd6thcavcdoregtWWII.jpg‎ This is the Australian Army Unit Colour Patch of the 2nd/6th Cavalry Commando Regiment self created digital image This is a logo of an organization, item, or event, and is protected by copyright and/or trademark. ... Image File history File links 2nd6thcavcdoregtWWII.jpg‎ This is the Australian Army Unit Colour Patch of the 2nd/6th Cavalry Commando Regiment self created digital image This is a logo of an organization, item, or event, and is protected by copyright and/or trademark. ... Image File history File links 2nd7thcavcdoregtWWII.jpg‎ This is the Australian Army Unit Colour Patch of the 2nd/7th Cavalry Commando Regiment self created digital image This is a logo of an organization, item, or event, and is protected by copyright and/or trademark. ... Image File history File links 2nd7thcavcdoregtWWII.jpg‎ This is the Australian Army Unit Colour Patch of the 2nd/7th Cavalry Commando Regiment self created digital image This is a logo of an organization, item, or event, and is protected by copyright and/or trademark. ... Image File history File linksMetadata LeonardGSiffleet. ... Image File history File linksMetadata LeonardGSiffleet. ... Image File history File links 2nd9thcavcdoregtWWII.jpg‎ This is the Australian Army WWII Unit Colour Patch of the 2nd/9th Cavalry Commando Regiment This file was self made This is a logo of an organization, item, or event, and is protected by copyright and/or trademark. ... Image File history File links 2nd9thcavcdoregtWWII.jpg‎ This is the Australian Army WWII Unit Colour Patch of the 2nd/9th Cavalry Commando Regiment This file was self made This is a logo of an organization, item, or event, and is protected by copyright and/or trademark. ... Combatants Major Allied powers: United Kingdom Soviet Union United States Republic of China and others Major Axis powers: Nazi Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Harry Truman Chiang Kai-Shek Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tojo Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead... The Australian Army is Australias military land force. ... A company is a military unit, typically consisting of 100-200 soldiers. ... This article is about the year. ... The British Commandos were first formed by the Army in June 1940 during World War II as a well-armed but unregimented raider force employing unconventional and irregular tactics to assault, disrupt and reconnoitre the enemy in mainland Europe and Scandinavia. ... Wilsons Promontory, commonly known as Wilsons Prom, is a national park in the Gippsland region of Victoria (Australia), 157 km southeast of Melbourne. ... Motto: Peace and Prosperity Other Australian states and territories Capital Melbourne Governor HE Mr John Landy Premier Steve Bracks (ALP) Area 237,629 km² (6th)  - Land 227,416 km²  - Water 10,213 km² (4. ... Michael Calvert, DSO and bar, was a British soldier involved in special operations in World War 2. ... // Frederick Spencer Chapman was born in London on 10 May 1907. ...

The Independent Companies

During World War II, from October 1941 onwards, eight new independent companies were formed as part of the Second Australian Imperial Force (AIF). They were:

• 2/1 Independent Company (raised Oct 1941), also known as "1st Independent Company"
• 2/2 Independent Company (raised Oct 1941) and later renamed 2/2 Commando Squadron AIF (after withdrawing from Timor).
• 2/3 Independent Company (raised Oct 1941)
• 2/4 Independent Company
• 2/5 Independent Company (raised March 1942)
• 2/6 Independent Company
• 2/8 Independent Company

In 1943, the Australian Army reorganised its six frontline divisions as light infantry Jungle Divisions. As the three Second Australian Imperial Force (AIF) divisions' armoured reconnaissance regiments were not suited to jungle terrain, their cavalry squadrons were disbanded with the regimental headquarters being used to command the independent companies (which were redesignated as Cavalry Commando Squadrons and later to "Commando Squadrons") which were attached to the divisions during operations in New Guinea and Borneo. Traditionally light infantry (or skirmishers) were soldiers whose job was to provide a skirmishing screen ahead of the main body of infantry, harassing and delaying the enemy advance. ... The Jungle Division was an military organisation adopted by the Australian Army during the Second World War. ... The Second Australian Imperial Force (2nd AIF) was the name given to the volunteer units of the Australian Army in World War II. The 2nd AIF was formed, from 1939 onwards, to fight overseas: most army units were Militia (reserve) units and under Australian law at the time, Militia troops... Armoured units made a relatively small, but highly important, contribution to Australia’s war effort. ... Borneo (left) and Sulawesi. ...

• 2/6th Cavalry Commando Regiment - 2/7, 2/9 and 2/10 Commando Squadrons
• 2/7th Cavalry Commando Regiment - 2/3, 2/5 and 2/6 Commando Squadrons
• 2/9th Cavalry Commando Regiment - 2/4, 2/11 and 2/12 Commando Squadrons

The first commando unit to see action was the unfortunate 2/1st Independent Company (2/1 Ind Coy), the members of which were all killed while defending the island of New Ireland (part of the Australian territory of New Guinea), from Japanese marines in early 1942. The 2/2nd Ind Coy, however, had great success during the Timor campaign of 1942-43, by conducting guerilla warfare and occupying the attention of an entire Imperial Japanese Army division for almost twelve months. 2/2 Coy was later redesignated as 2/2 Commando Squadron and was one of only two of the original Independent Companies to remain operating independently, outside a regimental structure (the other was 2/8 Commando Squadron). By the end of the war "2/2 Commando Squadron could claim to have spent longer in contact with the enemy than any other unit of the Australian Army" (Grant 2005) . Other squadrons served in other parts of New Guinea and the Dutch East Indies. The most well-known 6th Division in the Australian Army was a unit in the Second Australian Imperial Force (2nd AIF) during World War II. (The 6th Division name was previously used for a short-lived World War I unit, formed from First Australian Imperial Force troops in England, in... The 7th Division of the Australian Army was formed to serve in World War II, as part of the Second Australian Imperial Force. ... The 9th Division of the Australian Army was formed to serve in World War II, as part of the Second Australian Imperial Force (AIF). ... The Battle of Rabaul, around the main town of Rabaul on the island of New Britain, in early February 1942, represented a strategically-significant defeat of Allied forces by Japan, in the Pacific campaign of World War II. Following the capture of Rabaul, Japanese forces turned it into a major... The Japanese Special Naval Landing Forces (SNLF), (海軍陸戦隊 Tokubetsu Rikusentai) were the marine troops of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) and was only part of the IJN Land Forces. ... Year 1942 (MCMXLII) was a common year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1942 calendar). ... The Battle of Timor (1942–43) occurred on the island of Timor, in the Pacific theatre of World War II. It involved forces from the Empire of Japan, which invaded on February 20, 1942, on one side and Allied personnel, predominantly from Australia and the Netherlands, on the other. ... The Imperial Japanese Army (: 大日本帝國陸軍 Shinjitai: 大日本帝国陸軍 Dai-Nippon Teikoku Rikugun) was the official ground based armed force of Japan from 1867 to 1945 when it was Imperial Japan. ... The Dutch East Indies, or Netherlands East Indies, (Dutch: Nederlands-Indië) was the name of the colonies set up by the Dutch East India Company, which came under administration of the Netherlands during the 19th century (see Indonesia). ...

Special Units

After the beginning of the Pacific War, Special Operations Australia (SOA), a branch of the Allied Intelligence Bureau also formed two multinational, combined forces commando units: M Special Unit (primarily a coastwatching unit) and the more famous Z Special Unit (also known as Z Force), for Allied covert operations in the South West Pacific Area. Combatants Republic of China U.S.A. (from 1941) U.K. (from 1941) Australia (1941) Netherlands (1941) New Zealand (1941) Canada (1941) U.S.S.R. (from 1945) Empire of Japan Commanders Chiang Kai-shek, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, Josef Stalin (from 1945) Hideki Tojo The Pacific War was... Special Operations Australia (SOA) was an Australian intelligence and special operations agency of World War II. General Thomas Blamey authorised the formation of SOA in March 1942, SOA was originally organised and run by British Major G. Egerton Mott. ... The Allied Intelligence Bureau (AIB) was a joint United States, Australian, Dutch and British intelligence and special operations agency of World War II. The AIB was responsible for operating parties of spies and commandos behind Japanese lines in order to collect intelligence and conduct guerrilla warfare against Japanese forces in... M Special Unit, was a joint Australian, New Zealand and British reconnaissance unit, which saw action against the Empire of Japan during World War II. Unlike its counterpart, the Z Special Unit, the M Special Unit role was to gather intelligence by sending small teams behind enemy lines via... Captain Martin Clemens, Australian Coastwatcher on Guadalcanal, rendered services to Allied forces during the battle for the island (August, 1942-February, 1943). ... Z Special Unit, usually known as Z Force was a joint Australian, New Zealand and British commando unit, which saw action against the Empire of Japan during World War II. Z Special Unit carried out 284 covert operations in the Pacific. ... The Allies of World War II were the countries officially opposed to the Axis Powers during the Second World War. ... South West Pacific Area (SWPA) was the name given to one of the four major Allied commands in the Pacific theatre of World War II, during 1942-45. ...

Z Force distinguished itself in Operation Jaywick, in which the unit posed as an Asian fishing boat crew, to infiltrate Singapore Harbour, where it mined and destroyed four Japanese ships, amounting to 39,000 tons, in September 1943. However, in 1945 the similar but larger Operation Rimau, which also targeted shipping at Singapore Harbour, resulted in the loss of all 23 personnel involved. Operation Jaywick was one of the most daring and celebrated special operations undertaken in World War II. In September 1943, eleven Australian and four British army and navy personnel raided Japanese shipping in Singapore harbour, sinking seven ships and, against great odds, made it back to Australia. ... Polish wz. ... 1943 (MCMXLIII) was a common year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1943 calendar). ... 1945 (MCMVL) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1945 calendar). ... Operation Rimau was a attack on Japanese shipping at Singapore Harbour, carried out by the Allied commando unit Z Force, during World War Two. ...

Later in the war the Royal Australian Navy also formed commando units (also known as beach parties) to go ashore with the first waves of major amphibious assaults, to signpost the beaches and carry out other naval tasks. These were known as RAN Commandos, and they took part in the Borneo campaign (1945). The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) is the naval branch of the Australian Defence Force. ... Amphibious Assault began when 17-year-old, former Kittie guitarist, Fallon Bowman was on a plane from Ontario to New Jersey, skimming through a Tom Clancy novel when she came upon the term amphibious assault. ... The Borneo campaign of 1945 was the last major Allied campaign in the South West Pacific Area, during World War II. In a series of amphibious assaults between May 1 and July 21, the Australian I Corps, under General Leslie Morshead, attacked Japanese forces occupying the island. ...

Post-WW2

After the war, the existing commando units were disbanded. However, during the 1950s the need to preserve the skills possessed by the WW2 units was realised. Two reserve commando companies were raised: 2 Commando Company (2 Cdo Coy) in February 1955 and 1 Commando Company (1 Cdo Coy) in June 1955. 1955 (MCMLV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

From 1957, some members of these companies went on to assist and/or join the new Australian Special Air Service Regiment (SASR), when it was raised. However the commando units retained a separate identity, with a greater emphasis on raiding and other offensive operations, rather than the long range reconnaissance and patrol role which is the classic function of SAS units. 1957 (MCMLVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Special Air Service Regiment (SASR) is a Special Forces regiment modelled on the original British SAS and also drawing on the traditions of the Australian World War II Z Special Force commando unit, as well as the Independent Companies which were active in the South Pacific during the same...

In February 1981, it was decided to unite the commando companies with a headquarters unit and link them with Special Operations Headquarters (SOHQ). 1 Commando Regiment (1 Cdo Regt) was formed. 1st Commando Regiment is a mixed regular and reservist commando regiment of the Australian Army. ...

In 1996, it was decided to convert 4th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (4 RAR) from a light infantry battalion to a commando unit. 4RAR was renamed 4 RAR (Cdo). The 4th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment or 4 RAR (Cdo), is one of the battalions of the Royal Australian Regiment and is one of three combat capable groups within the Australian Special Operations Command (the other two being the SASR and 1st Commando Regiment). ... Traditionally light infantry (or skirmishers) were soldiers whose job was to provide a skirmishing screen ahead of the main body of infantry, harassing and delaying the enemy advance. ...

In May 2003, Special Operations Command (Australia) was established as the administrative and operational headquarters for all of Australia's special forces and commando units. SOCOMD Badge Wyvern with Acies Acuta Soldiers from Special Operations Command during a demonstration held for the Media in May 2003 The Special Operations Command (SOC) is the newest branch of the Australian Defence Force (ADF). ...

References

• Brigadier Mac Grant (Retired). "Reserve Commandos inherit a remarkable legacy" Defence reserves yearbook 2004-2005: 24-30

External links

• Speech by Australian Governor General
• speech by Chief of Army

Official Australian Army webpages

• Australian Army, "History of 1 Commando Regiment".
• Russell Parkin, 2002 "A Capability of First Resort: Amphibious Operations and Australian Defence Policy, 1901–2001" (Australian Army)

Unofficial Australian Army webpages

• AusSpecialForces.com, "SF and Defence Community and news".