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Article highlights

• The birth of the Royal Marines Commandos

• From RM Brigades to RM Commandos

• The raid on Walcheren, 1944

• The Boom Patrol Detachment, the Cockleshell Heroes

• Detachment 385

Detachment 385

Detachment 385 formed in Havant, Hampshire from volunteers from the Corps in April and May 1944.

The detachment came to form part of the larger SOG (Small Operations Group) that coordinated small scale raiding parties in South East Asia Command.

Lieutenant Colonel H G 'Blondie' Haslar, of Cockleshell Heroes fame, trained the seven officers who flew out to Ceylon.

In turn, those officers then trained the rest of the detachment resulting in a strength of 112 all ranks.

The detachment mounted 16 operations for the purpose of reconnaissance, deception and the landing of forces in the Far East between late February and mid August 1945.

By June 1945 the SOG had already mounted as many as 174 operations. After the war, the detachment disbanded, but many joined the SBS (Special Boat Section).

Detachment 385 inflating a dinghy on the tail of a Catalina Flying Boar aircraft, July 1945. (RMM)

Above is a picture of Detachment 385 inflating a dinghy, which they would deploy from a Catalina aircraft.

Constant practice enabled the crew to offload and equip the dinghy for use in their many clandestine missions in the Far East. The Detachment used this particular method for the operations ‘Declare’ and ‘Subtract’.

During these missions Commandos had to place hidden drums of stores for the use of personnel from crashed or disabled aircraft on locations in the Malacca Straits.

Only Operation Subtract was successful in its objective. Operation Declare failed due to poor landing conditions near the sight planned for the dump.