The raid was a stunning success but it caused Berlin to retaliate harshly.
Key Point: The raid cost little, but caused much damage. Hitler was furious.
They came out of the sea, out of the darkness, and they brought death, terror, and destruction with them. Leaving behind towering pyres of oily smoke, they were gone before their foe could react. Every German soldier would hear about these raiders and remember them. They would fear the name Commando.
The Special Service Brigade, formal designation of the Commando forces, attracted quite a collection of daring, aggressive officers, a few of them a bit on the eccentric side, but all ready to take on any job that would get them into the war. An example was Second Lt. Peter Young, a young officer of the Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment.
Unlike the Great War, there would be no December truce between Allied and German forces in 1941
19 December 2020 • 7:00pm
Allied soldiers escort away German prisoners, who surrendered after a successful British commando operation code-named Operation Archery, at German military bases on Vaagsoy and Maaloy, in Norway, December 27, 1941.
Credit: AP
This time there was no football played between the trenches amid the carnage of war.
This time there were sniper bullets and artillery shells raining from the skies and sea as an intense battle raged during the season of peace and goodwill.
Unlike Christmas 1914, which saw British and German troops briefly lay down their arms for an impromptu ceasefire football match in no-man’s land, the last days of December 1941 witnessed a fierce, but relatively unknown battle between the Allies and German forces.