with the emphasis on conventional forces to take over the raiding role it was not surprising that Crerar wrote on June 4, 1942, “The opportunity to land on enemy shores may not long be denied us.” He added,
The training of detachments, units and formations of the Canadian Corps, with this end in view has already proceeded some distance.… It is the intention that it shall be carried through to the stage when every formation of the Corps is thoroughly capable of taking full part in operations involving the landing on beaches in enemy occupation, and the rapid seizure and development of “bridgeheads.”
He ended his missive with a revealing, “There must be no need for the Canadian Corps to call upon outside, and special ‘Commando’ units for assistance in initial beach-landing operation.”[38]
The new Canadian approach was a polar opposite to the original intent. Viking Force had been intended as a hard-hitting group of specially trained raiders whose job was to inflict damage on the enemy in limited operations using surprise as a major element and then employing their skills to withdraw before enemy had time to recover. Diluted among the battalions in 4 and 6 Brigades during the ill-fated Dieppe raid on August 19, 1942, the original Viking Force commandos were never given the opportunity to do the job they had been trained for. In the aftermath of the disastrous raid, no effort was made to resurrect Viking Force.[39]
However, the Dieppe raid did lead to the establishment of another SOF-like Canadian organization, namely the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) Beach Commandos. Their genesis stemmed from the Dieppe raid, where Royal Naval (RN) Beach Parties (“C,” “D,” and “H”) were responsible for disembarking troops and vehicles from assault landing craft, organizing and supervising suitable “beach” areas, and loading serviceable vessels at the time of withdrawal. Of the two hundred navy personnel assigned to the Beach Parties during the Dieppe raid, sixty-three became casualties. As a result, all three RN Beach Parties had to be totally reconstituted. Not surprisingly, soon after Dieppe the Admiralty decided to change the Combined Operations Beach Party Branch name to “Naval Commandos.” Accordingly, the Admiralty directed that twenty Beach commandos would be required for the invasion of Occupied Europe (i.e., two each for three assault divisions, one per assault brigade, with 100 percent spare in reserve).[40]
The RCN soon created its own capability and in late 1943 established RCN Beach Commando “W.” This unit was modelled upon its Royal Navy counterpart and comprised of eighty-four RCN Volunteer Reserve men (i.e., twelve officers and seventy-two ratings (enlisted personnel). The Naval Beach Commando was described as “a unit especially trained in the control and handling of landing craft on the beaches …[and] is designed to handle landing ships, craft, and barges of an assault brigade group and the further ships, craft and barges landed on the same beaches.”[41] Beach Commandos were also responsible for neutralizing beach obstacles, mines, and booby traps.
RCN Beach Commando “W” was assigned to Force “J” on Juno Beach during the Normandy invasion on June 6, 1944, and served with valour and distinction. Canadian newspapers quickly trumpeted the role of the Beach Commandos and described them as the “leather tough Canadians” and “tough, scrappy and self-reliant .”[42] Beach Commando “W” was disbanded at the end of August 1944.
Canada’s SOF legacy in World War II did not end with the Dieppe raid. One month prior to the disastrous assault, another SOF-like organization that fits into the legacy of Canada’s CANSOF community was created, namely the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion (1 Cdn Para Bn). Although contemporary airborne units are not considered SOF, 1 Cdn Para Bn, like many of the early airborne organizations that sprang up early in World War II, meets many of the SOF criteria. The paratroopers were specially selected, specially trained, and given special missions behind enemy lines. They possessed an indomitable spirit that defied any challenge. In fact, the selection rate for 1 Cdn Para Bn in its infancy was only 30 percent.[43]
At its creation, the army’s generals, as well as the media at large, were clear on the type of individual and organization they were creating. Robert Taylor, a reporter for the Toronto Daily Star, described the volunteers as “action-hungry and impatient to fill their role as the sharp, hardened tip of the Canadian army’s ‘dagger pointed at the heart of Berlin.’”[44]
Senior military officers described the new Canadian paratroopers as “super-soldiers” and newspapers, with unanimity, invariably described the parachute volunteers as “hard as nails” representing the toughest and smartest soldiers in the Canadian Army.[45]
One journalist wrote, “They are good, possibly great soldiers, hard, keen, fast-thinking and eager for battle,” while another asserted that they were “Canada’s most daring and rugged soldiers … daring because they’ll be training as paratroops: rugged because paratroops do the toughest jobs in hornet nests behind enemy lines.”[46] Others painted a picture of virtual supermen. One writer invited his readers to “Picture men with muscles of iron dropping in parachutes, hanging precariously from slender ropes, braced for any kind of action … these toughest men who ever wore khaki.”[47] Another simply explained that “your Canadian paratrooper is an utterly fearless, level[-]thinking, calculating killer possessive of all the qualities of a delayed-action time bomb.”[48]
But it had not always been that way. Initially, the senior generals had rejected the need for Canadian paratroops, citing a lack of role and purpose for such specialized troops in the Canadian context. However, by the spring of 1942, both the British and Americans fully embraced the concept of airborne forces. And, as the tide of the war began to swing in favour of the Allies, the focus quickly swung from defence to offence. And nothing embodied raw, offensive, aggressive action more than paratroopers. Very quickly, airborne troops became a defining component of a modern army. Not to be left out, senior Canadian military commanders quickly reversed their earlier reservations and recommended the establishment of a parachute battalion to J.L. Ralston, the minister of National Defence (MND). The minister readily agreed and on July 1, 1942, the Canadian War Cabinet Committee approved the formation of a parachute unit, namely 1 Cdn Para Bn.
The unit’s training was in many ways innovative for the time and exceeded the challenges faced by other combat troops. Greater demands were placed on the individual soldier for leadership, weapon handling, and navigation. Orders for exercises and later operations were always given to all ranks, so that regardless of the circumstances of a parachute drop everyone had an understanding of the mission and so would be able to execute the necessary tasks whether or not officers or senior non-commissioned officers (NCOs) were present. As such, the unit placed an exorbitant emphasis on courage, physical fitness, tenacity, and particularly on individual initiative.
With no domestic defence role in Canada, the unit was offered up to the commander of Home Forces in England. The British quickly accepted the offer and the government announced in March 1943 that 1 Cdn Para Bn would be attached to the 3rd Parachute Brigade, as part of the 6th Airborne Division. For the remainder of the war the battalion fought as part of a British formation. It established a remarkable record. The battalion never failed to complete an assigned mission, nor did it ever lose or surrender an objective once taken. The Canadian paratroopers were among the first Allied soldiers to land in occupied Europe, the only Canadians who participated in the “Battle of the Bulge” in the Ardennes, and by the end of the war, they had advanced deeper into Germany than any other Canadian unit. Unquestionably, the paratroopers of the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion, at great cost and personal sacrifice, pioneered a new innovative form of warfare and demonstrated agility of thought and action, as well as an unrivalled warfare spirit in their daring assaults behind enemy lines. They were disbanded on September 30, 1945, at Niagara-on -the-Lake .
Interestingly, in July 1942, at the same time as 1 Cdn Para Bn was established, the Canadian War Cabinet authorized a second “parachute” unit, designated the 2nd Canadian Parachute Battalion (2 Cdn Para Bn). The name of this unit was misleading, however. It was not a parachute battalion at all, but rather a commando unit. The designation was assigned
