COMMANDO MEN

Live, fight and die, in the cross fire of D Day, through the bleak winter of Holland and burning hell of Germany.

How will you die today?

An Epic Mini Series or Movie!

EPISODE 1 - HUNTING THE LEOPARDS

Walter and Lenny are best friends.

17 years old and volunteers during the Liverpool blitz they survive an ammunition ship exploding in the docks, they see a newly Wedded couple decapitated and decide it is time to take the fight back to the enemy.

Everyone's motivation is different, Derek imagines joining the Navy and when his card says Royal Marines he is unsure, his Father reminds him, you go where you are needed son, the hard part will be telling your Mum!

He turns out to be one of the finest Commando Snipers of the War.

EPISIDOE 2 - THE TIP OF THE DAGGER

The Commanding Officer and RSM will mold our Royal Marines into Commandos.

Training side by side with their men, and leading by example, neither will make it past the first day of battle.

There first challenge is to make it through the rigorous Commando Training Centre in Scotland their instructors are as infamous as their methods.

Officers and men face the same hardships and have the same pride in receiving their Green Berets.

Commandos_cross_a_river_on_a_'toggle_bridge'_under_simulated_artillery_fire_at_the_Command

EPISODE 3 - BUTCHER AND BOLT

How do you prepare young men for war, some have not started to shave, some are still virgins.

Walter meets his first American, and she is a tall blond Texan.

They box, play football, and learn of their mission.

Then after an inspirational briefing from the enigmatic Lord Lovat a passing photographer asks the men to pose all together for the very last time.

Then we hear the trucks.

RSM

Come on men, look sharp, we are off to war!

Z427-A Troop 45 RM Commando at Southampton before setting off for France-seated right LCpl

EPISODE 5 - MARCH TO THE BRIDGES

Mustered by a hunting horn and carrying rubber boats and bicycles they advance through French villages to the bridges.

Here the Paras have landed over night in a Coupe de Main, green and red berets welcome each other with jest and teasing.

PARA

Late as usual then Royal we've done the hard work for you So needn't have got your feet wet

FRANK

I see you crashed your little Aeroplanes again, arent you suppose to use parachutes?

PARA

You wont be needing your little boats now we have a bridge or two for you. Just don't forget to pay the toll!

FRANK

You paid it here boys. We paid it on the beach

The next few days are intense, as the tempo builds, as the young Marines, many too brave, are bloodied but begin to hone their skills and learn their craft.

EPISODE 4 - INTO THE FIRE

The landing craft that will take them to war are flimsy, wooden affairs.

SCOUSE

Where are the real boats, I thought these were just training craft?

We see the mighty flotilla in Southampton and follow their rough crossing of the English Channel, with songs and rum and exploding soup.

Off shore we see the battleships bombarding the coast as our matchwood boats approach the beach.

All hell breaks loose as our small flotilla is smashed by German guns and our boys slip on blood as they struggle to get clear of the landing craft, over broken ramps and often into deep water struggling onto an equally dangerous beach, too many won't all make the first 12 minutes let alone the next 11 months.

EPISODE 6 - THE THIN GREEN AND RED LINE

The German counter attacks are ferocious.

It is time to take the fight back to the enemy, but at what cost?

LORD LOVAT

What is the butchers bill Dolly?

DOLLY GRAY

Nearly 50% Sir

LORD LOVAT

1 in every 2 men, for 6 days fighting!?

DOLLY GRAY

Yes. 6 days fighting

(he whispers almost to himself)

or 6 days dying?

1944-07 Orne Bridgehead Patrol Sniper.PNG

EPISODE 7 - THE DEVILS CAULDRON

Expecting to remain ashore for only a few days the men of our Commando spend over a 3 months in the line.

They dig in, deep! Get shelled, conduct raid’s, snipe, and swim on the beach.

They learn to fight at close quarters, yards from an offensive enemy who attack with ruthless vigor.

Even here there are moments of humour, humanity and understanding, interspersed with moments of violent death.

Minutes before the end we cry as we lose our best friend. Maybe he should not have been here at all, he should have stayed with his Grandmother.

EPISODE 8 - VC AT THE WINDMILL

They were expecting to go to the jungles of the Far East, instead they are thrown into the bleakest winter and the ice and snow of Holland.

Eric Harden, the Medic who has looked after his fellows like his own children will not see young men left wounded on the battle field to die on the freezing ground.

He returns three times under fire to ensure they live, but he does not, his Victoria Cross is guaranteed for his family by a slight of hand from his grateful Commanding Officer.

EPISODE 10 - A TOUCH FINISH

As the men go through a devastated Germany they see the smoke from the camps, the roads full of refugees but still the Nazi’s cling on.

There is conflict as the Command tries to decide whether to recognise the white flags, who will miss a few more SS, a couple of German cottages, maybe they are better off dead.

The last man to die a veteran is killed accidentally by a very young face, just a few days from the end of the war and is buried next to another veteran and the last German they will see killed.

45 Commando at Drevenack, Germany, March 1945.jpg

EPILOGUE

Roberts can no longer manage life alone with his demons, and in his last moments we finally we understand he was not a awful man, he just did some awful things.

Walter stands on the beach, behind him the shadows of the past, ahead of him a memorial service and those that are left.

They move into the café bar at the top of the beach.

BRYAN SAMAIN

'We ALSO remember those that made the next dawn;
But not todays, without them all, none of us would be here now'

As we leave them they sing their favourite song, the memory of a smoky pub 44 years ago.

A sea of poppies drift from a Falklands era landing craft and wash up on the beach.

The chorus of ‘Goodbye Dolly Gray’ fades as we leave them to remember.

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COMMANDO MEN

Fiction from Fact a novel by Si Biggs