Editing No. 4 Commando (section)

==Background==
{{Main|British Commandos}}
The British Commandos were organised for [[Special Service Brigade|special service]] in June 1940. After the [[Dunkirk evacuation]], the [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom]], [[Winston Churchill]], called for a force to be assembled and equipped to inflict casualties on the Germans and bolster British morale. Churchill told the joint Chiefs of Staff to propose measures for an offensive against [[German-occupied Europe]], and stated, "they must be prepared with specially trained troops of the hunter class who can develop a reign of terror down the enemy coast." One [[Staff (military)|staff officer]], [[Lieutenant colonel (United Kingdom)|Lieutenant Colonel]] [[Dudley Clarke]], had already submitted such a proposal to [[General (United Kingdom)|General]] [[John Dill|Sir John Dill]], the [[Chief of the General Staff (United Kingdom)|Chief of the Imperial General Staff]] (CIGS). Dill, aware of Churchill's intentions, approved Clarke's proposal and on 23 June 1940, the first commando raid took place.<ref name=has47>{{harvnb|Haskew|2007|pp=47–48}}</ref>

The request for volunteers for special service was initially restricted to serving Army soldiers within certain formations still in Britain, and from men of the disbanding divisional [[Independent Companies]] originally raised from [[Army Reserve (United Kingdom)|Territorial Army]] (TA) divisions who had served in the [[Norwegian Campaign]].{{#tag:ref|The 10 independent companies were raised from volunteers in second line Territorial Army divisions in April 1940. They were intended for [[guerrilla]] style operations in Norway following the German invasion. Each of the 10 companies initially consisted of 21 officers and 268 [[Other ranks (UK)|other ranks]].<ref>{{harvnb|Moreman|2006|p=13}}</ref>|group=nb}}

By November 1940, more than 2,000 men had volunteered and were organised into four battalions in a [[Special Service Brigade]], under the command of [[Brigadier (United Kingdom)|Brigadier]] [[J. C. Haydon]].<ref>{{harvnb|Joslen|1990|p=454}}</ref> The Brigade quickly expanded to 12 battalions, which were renamed commandos. Each commando had a lieutenant colonel as the [[commanding officer]] (CO) and numbered around 450 men (divided into 75 man [[troop]]s that were further divided into 15 man [[Section (military unit)|sections]]).<ref name=haw48>{{harvnb|Haskew|2007|p=48}}</ref> Technically these men were only on secondment to the commandos; they retained their regimental cap badges and remained on the regimental roll for pay.<ref name=mo12>{{harvnb|Moreman|2006|p=12}}</ref> The new force of commandos came under the operational control of the [[Combined Operations Headquarters]].<ref>{{harvnb|Chappell|1996|p=6}}</ref>