RCN Beach Commando "W"

W Commando were Canada's Beachhead Commandos. They were specially trained to create and maintain order on Normandy's Juno Beach during the D-Day landings. What would confront them was uncertain, so they were broadly trained, including protection against chemical warfare, clearing obstacles with explosives and driving Sherman tanks.

However, their main task was to keep the traffic of men, machines and supplies flowing through the beach area without delay. If the supply chain to the advancing Allied armies was interrupted, it would provide the Germans with an opportunity to mount a counter attack.

Members of W Commando were volunteers from the Royal Canadian Navy. In August of 1943, they were assigned overseas duty to HMS Armadillo on Loch Long in the Clyde estuary of Scotland. W Commando comprised 3 sub-units, W 1, W 2 and W 3, each with 25 ratings / leading seamen and 3 officers all under the combined leadership of an Assistant Beach Master and a Commanding Beach Master.

The Commando would remain on the landing beach until the supply chain was better served through the Mulberry Harbours or functioning captured ports.

Source: Combined Operations Website - https://www.combinedops.com/W%20Commando.htm

RCN Beach Commando W - E.G. Finley and Edward Storey

Personnel of W-2 Party, Royal Canadian Navy Beach Commando "W" outside a German fortification in the Juno sector of the Normandy beachhead, France, 20 July 1944.

(Front row, L-R): Able Seamen A.F. Watt, Douglas Kennedy, R.V. Barnes, E.G. Woodall,
D.F. Trewin, A.H. Petty, Ordinary Seaman A.E. Morris, Able Seaman J.B. White.
(Rear row, L-R): Leading Seamen W.R. Murphy, J.P. Adams, Able Seaman, J.F. Roy, Petty Officer D.E. McIntyre, Lieutenant A.D. Rayburn, Able Seamen W.F. Cronkhite, Dan Kroshewsky, J.D. Ross, R.C. Nelson.

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