British No. 45 Commando
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45 (RM) Commando is a battalion sized formation of the British Royal Marines. The title is often abbreviated as 45 Cdo and is pronounced ‘four five Commando’.
45 Cdo are in essence highly trained infantry equipped for a wide range of operational tasks, all members having passed the Commando course at the Commando Training Centre Royal Marines, entitling them to wear the Commando's green beret. They regularly deploy overseas in a variety of theatres varying from tropical rain forest through arid desert to mountains and the cold of the arctic circle.
They are currently based at Royal Marines Condor in Arbroath, Scotland, UK and are one of three Commando Units that provide the fighting capability of 3 Commando Brigade. The others being 42 Commando and 40 Commando*.
45 Commando was the first UK formation to specialise in the mountain and arctic warfare role during the early 1970s and deployed to Norway on NATO’s northern flank most years until the end of the Cold War.
History
No.45 (RM) Commando officially came into being on 1st August 1943 after the reforming of 5 Royal Marines Battalion. These Royal Marines transitioned to the Commando role as a unit and thus initially bypassed the volunteer and selection process undertaken by Army Commandos who were recruited individually from various units. Like most Commando soldiers the men had to complete the Commando Basic Training Course at Achnacarry, Scotland.
No.45 Cdo first saw major active service as part of 1 Special Service Brigade in Operation Overlord, the D-Day Normandy landings, and thereafter in the advance through Europe into Germany.
With the disbanding of the Army Commandos on 25th October, 1945, and the reduction of the RM Commandos to three units, No.45 left for Hong Kong on 31st January 1946 to join Nos.42 and 44 RM Commandos in 3 Commando Brigade, relieving the amalgamated Nos.1 and 5 Army Commandos who were then disbanded.
- Post war, the whole of the veteran 2 Commando Brigade [Nos.2, 9, 40 (RM) and 43 (RM)] were disbanded. In order to keep a symbolic 2 Brigade representation in the one remaining Brigade (3 Cdo. Bdo.), as Nos.42 (RM) and 44 (RM) were both of 3 Commando Brigade, No.44 (RM) was retitled No.40 (RM).
List of 45's active service [incomplete]
- Normandy Invasion, D-Day, Operation Overlord
- Advace Through france and low countries to Germany
- Palestine
- Suez Crisis(45 performed the first ever, operational helicopter assault in 1956)
- Malayan Emergency
- Aden
- Cyprus
- Northern Ireland - various tours
- Falklands War, Operation Corporate
- Kosovo
- Northern Iraq - humanitarian assistance to Kurds
- Afghanistan - Op Jacana
- Iraq