This may not mean much on a bushcraft issue but as a point to note the 'Commandos' that were in the two gliders that crashed on Op Freshman - the first failed attempt to get troops in to sabotage the Heavy Water Plant - were not commandos at all. They were in fact Royal Engineers from 9 Field Company (Airborne), at that time part of the newly forming 1st Airborne Division later to be almost destroyed at Arnhem. I discussed this with Ray Mears last year when I was on the Fundamental Bushcraft but he was adamant that they were commandos since that was how they were described in the contemporary documents, of course for security at the time this was the case but the facts are as I stated - if anybody is interested I can supply the names of the men concerned. The 9th Coy were reformed after Arnhem and formed part of the allied relieving forces in Norway in 1945 where they exhumed those bodies that were found and reinterred them in a war grave with full military honours.
If you would like to see one of the heavy water generating cells taken from the hydro plant a Vermork as well as some of the artifacts recovered from the op Freshman mission then visit the Royal Engineers Museum in Chatham Kent. If you want to, let me know you are coming and if I'm free I'll show you round as I do voluntary work for the Museum.
)
