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I just got a British Commando Platoon and a Weapons Platoon to add to my 3rd Division Canadian force. I'm trying to find historical info on the role of commandos in Canadian forces, however, and other than the Canadian participation in the 1st Special Service Force (the Devil's Brigade) I can't find any info on Canadian commando forces. I know they can be fielded as a support platoon in a Canadian Rifle Company (Market Garden) but does this count as a British or Canadian platoon? Would the Canadian National special rules apply to them? Should I paint the commandos in British standard or Canadian uniform colours?

Even more confusing is the Commando (Beaches) force from Overlord, which can be fielded as part of a Canadian 3rd force. Could this be fielded as a fully Canadian force, or should it count as a British force? Any guidance would be appreciated!

I watched Devil's Brigade recently, and know that it's represented in FoW, but as an American force (US748)! Boo! Hiss!

I found some additional information. It looks like British Commando units were organized under the Royal Navy, and while Canadians participated, only one troop, troop W, was all Canadian.

Royal Navy Commandos in World War II

So in FoW I'm thinking the Commando units should be painted with standard uniforms. It also looks like a Commando (Beaches) company would use the standard British rules, but any Canadian support companies would use their own rules (no British bulldog, re-roll for pinning and bailouts, German mission tactics) just like they have their own motivation and experience levels.

I think to further consider that commandos don't use regular British rules - they lose bulldog but have 'hearts and minds' etc.

I don't know about their history but judging as commandos have specific rules to show their training I would stick with those. As for uniform colour - your models your choice

 Reaver83 wrote:
As for uniform colour - your models your choice

Agreed - but I think I'll go with the standard British uniform colour rather than the stronger green Canadian one. Both for variety and to further distinguish them from the rest of my force.

http://www.combinedops.com/W%20Commando.htm

W Commando were a specially trained unit to sort out order on the beach. Their job was to create and maintain order on the beach to help with the advance and flow of traffic durjng the initial fighting, a major, and overlooked job. Their main task wasto maintain the passage of supplies and troops through tthe beach.

They were naval personnel, not Canadian Army.

They were not a commando unit in the sense of 1st Special Service Brigade or the Royal Marines or Army Commandos.

Big P wrote:
http://www.combinedops.com/W%20Commando.htm

W Commando were a specially trained unit to sort out order on the beach. Their job was to create and maintain order on the beach to help with the advance and flow of traffic durjng the initial fighting, a major, and overlooked job. Their main task wasto maintain the passage of supplies and troops through tthe beach.

They were naval personnel, not Canadian Army.

They were not a commando unit in the sense of 1st Special Service Brigade or the Royal Marines or Army Commandos.

Thanks for that link - very interesting! One gets these snippets of information from scattered webpages but it's great to finally get some details on what actually went on.

I believe that Canadian volunteers served among the Commando units, I think there were certainly some in No. 4 Commando, and I believe Kieffer had some Canadians in his company on D-Day as they had a number of French speaking Canadians with them.

I know that No 10 Inter Allied Comando had Canadians, but they disbanded early on and went to other units. Let me check the books at home...

What about the Dogs and Devils? http://www.flamesofwar.com/hobby.aspx?art_id=1920
They may not be British Commandos,but they are the North American version.

They werent at D Day though.