Background
After the British Expeditionary Force had been evacuated from Dunkirk in 1940, Prime Minister Winston Churchill called for a force to be assembled and equipped to inflict casualties on the Germans and bolster British morale. Churchill told the joint Chiefs of Staff to propose measures for an offensive against German-occupied Europe, and stated: "They must be prepared with specially trained troops of the hunter class who can develop a reign of terror down the enemy coast." One staff officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Dudley Clarke, had already submitted such a proposal to General Sir John Dill, the Chief of the Imperial General Staff. Dill, aware of Churchill's intentions, approved Clarke's proposal. Three weeks later the first commando raid took place. The raiders failed to gather any intelligence or damage any German equipment; their only success was in killing two German sentries.
No. 2 Commando was a commando unit of the British Army during the Second World War. The original No. 2 Commando, unlike the other commando units, was formed from volunteers from across the United Kingdom and was always intended to be a parachute unit. On 22 June 1940, No. 2 Commando was turned over to parachute duties, and, on 21 November, was re-designated as the 11th Special Air Service Battalion and eventually 1st Parachute Battalion. The first No. 2 Commando did not carry out any operations before being turned over to parachute duties. After its re-designation as the 11th Special Air Service Battalion, a second No. 2 Commando was formed. This new No. 2 Commando was under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Augustus Charles Newman, Their first action was when two Troops supported No. 3 Commando in the Vaagso raid in December 1941. This was followed by the St Nazaire Raid in March 1942. The next action involving men of No. 2 Commando was Operation Musketoon. The objective was to destroy the Glomfjord power plant at Glomfjord, south of Narvik, which supplied an aluminium plant in the area.
The Glomfjord power plant was built in 1918, at the end of Glomfjord. It is located on a plateau that drops straight down to the sea. The plant comprised three buildings: the longest was the machinery hall; the middle building housed the control room and offices; and the last building was three-storeyed and known as the apparatus house. It was a hydroelectric power plant supplied by two water pipes coming down the mountain from inland lakes. Apart from the aluminum factory, the power plant also supplied power to local villages.
Read more about this topic: Operation Musketoon
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