Normandy Special Forces Recce (dates tbc)

The intention is to run a three day Normandy Recce in April 2027, concentrating wholly upon the 1st and 4th Special Service Brigades.  US Rangers, SOE, SAS and French Resistance actions would be subject of a future GBG recce.

This would focus upon the landings of all of these units and their subsequent actions during the Normandy Campaign, prior to the ‘Pursuit to the Seine’.  Some of these units are particularly well known and have been partly explored in previous Guild Recces.

By studying both Special Service Brigades as a whole we can take the opportunity to consider the contribution of each Commando unit within a wider context.

I have suggested the weekend 9-11 April 2027 (deliberately avoiding Easter Sunday, March 28th.)  Accommodation would most likely be in Bayeux.

For those less familiar, the Brigades’ orders of battle were as follows:

• 1st Special Service Brigade: 3 Commando (Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Young), 4 Commando (Lieutenant Colonel Robert Dawson), 6 Commando  (Lieutenant Colonel Derek Mills-Roberts), 45 Royal Marine Commando (Lieutenant Colonel William Gray), 10 Inter Allied Commando, (French), (Comandant Philippe Kieffer)
• 4th Special Service Brigade: 41 Royal Marine Commando (Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Malcolm Gray), 46 Royal Marine Commando (Lieutenant Colonel Campbell Richard Hardy), 47 Royal Marine  Commando (Lieutenant Colonel Cecil Farndale Phillips), 48 Royal Marine Commando (Lieutenant Colonel James Louis Moulton)