OPERATION "AMBASSADOR"

Briefing: Reports have reached British Military Intelligence from French underground sources confirming massive German troop movements into the coastal regions. However, all Allied attempts to obtain detailed information on the new enemy divisional positions and zones of occupation have been …

CCGA

Briefing: Reports have reached British Military Intelligence from French underground sources confirming massive German troop movements into the coastal regions. However, all Allied attempts to obtain detailed information on the new enemy divisional positions and zones of occupation have been costly failures. It has proved impossible for the Wehrmacht to fortify every mile of occupied coast as yet. Taking advantage of this reality, a last major effort to obtain information on enemy dispositions has been mounted. Over the course of the next few weeks, a series of small-scale commando raids will strike the French coastline. The object of these raids will not be destruction of enemy installations, but rather the capture of enemy officers and soldiers, and their return to England for interrogation by the SIS. In this manner, by the use of methods subtle and unsubtle, it is believed the information required by the High Command can be had. But first, prisoners must be taken. Your Commando has been assigned a stretch of the French coast near Omanville and ordered to mount such a raid, using the minimum force necessary for success. The tactical details of the landing, attack and withdrawal of the raiding party have been left to the Commando CO; the only specific order: "to bring as many Nazi bastards back as possible."

Omanville, France

The Commandos formed during the Second World War, following an order from the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in June 1940 for a force that could carry out raids against German occupied Europe. Churchill stated in a minute to General Ismay on 6 June 1940: "Enterprises must be prepared, with specially-trained troops of the hunter class, who can develop a reign of terror down these coasts, first of all on the "butcher and bolt" policy..." Commandos were all volunteers for special service and originally came from the British Army but volunteers would eventually come from all branches of the United Kingdom's armed forces and foreign volunteers from countries occupied by the Germans. These volunteers formed over 30 individual units and four assault brigades. The commandos would serve in all the theatres of war from the Arctic Circle, to Europe, the Middle East and the Pacific. Their operations ranged from small groups of men landing from the sea or by parachute to a brigade of assault troops spearheading the Allied invasions of Europe and Asia.

Wikipedia: British Commando operations during the Second World War

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