Where folding-boat teams emphasised a covert approach, 62 Commando's Small Scale Raiding Force used high-speed boats for larger attacks. Operations Postmaster, Barricade, Riot, Acquaint, and Basalt show the breadth of its work. Basalt was later linked to the background of Hitler's Commando Order after German prisoners were found shot with their hands tied. In this account, they had tried to escape, exposing the grim prisoner-control problem faced by a small raiding party. Every guard assigned to prisoners reduced the strength available for the raid, while limited boat capacity prevented the force from bringing many more men. The force also worked with SOE before disbandment, and its remaining elements joined other special-operations units under George Jellicoe. The wartime SBS consequently inherited both clandestine folding-boat practice and a heavier boat-raiding tradition.
Chapter · 28:13-33:29
62 Commando and the small-scale raiding force
62 Commando used fast boats for larger raids such as Postmaster and Basalt before its surviving elements helped form Jellicoe's later maritime force.