The innocuous Boom Patrol hides a special-operations unit

The Royal Marines Boom Patrol Detachment trained men to take kayaks from submarines and attack ships with limpet mines. Its ordinary-sounding name concealed capabilities that a simple list of military units would not reveal. The detachment trained with fast boats as well as kayaks and became one of the organizations absorbed into the Special Boat Service. A boom-patrol role also supplied a plausible reason to request weapons, diving equipment, mines and boats. Few records survive, so the scale of its operations remains uncertain. Heavy activity in the Greek islands is considered likely, but the available record does not establish a complete operational history.