As seen at The Living Museum 2005
‘Tough tactics’ began in 1940 after Dunkirk, with the Army undertaking ‘hardening training’. It was clear to the soldiers that they would have to be tougher and more robust to defeat Nazi Germany. The Army had to get fit and this was achieved by instructors from the Army Physical Training Staff (APTS).
In concert with ‘toughening training’ was a concept of striking back at the enemy, an idea conceived by Lt Col Dudley Clark RA – the Military Assistant to the Chief of the Imperial General Staff (CIGS). Winston Churchill agreed with the concept of Commandos and a raid was approved – the first raiding party was from No 11 Independent Company – the target, Boulogne.
In June 1940, this was the first example of the British striking back against the Germans,and Commando-training commenced at Achnacarry in Scotland. APTS instructors were involved with the training from the start, which consisted of resistance-type exercises using military items such as dummy shells, ammo boxes and logs, before they progressed onto marches and close combat. Log exercises encouraged and developed robustness, muscular strength and team work; the log became a regular piece of PT equipment.
Later, when Churchill decreed that a Parachute Force was to be formed, ten APTS instructors, together with 15 RAF PT instructors, set up parachute training at Ringway Airport near Manchester.
After Operation Colossus – the first-ever airborne operation – an Airborne Forces Battle Camp was established at Hardwick Hall, where APTC Instructors conducted physical or hardening training.
In July 1940, the Special Operations Executive (SOE) was formed, primarily to assist and organise resistance movements in Occupied Europe to strike back at the enemy. Potential SOE agents were selected after attending pre-training schools, when they completed a Commando course and learned silent killing techniques. These techniques were originated by Capt Sykes and Capt Fairbairn and used in conjunction with the Commando knife, which they designed. SOE agents also attended parachute training as part of a course Ringway and maintained their fitness under APTC instructors at various specialist training schools.
On September 16 1940, the APTS became the APTC – a combatant Corps, in recognition of its role in making the Army ‘fighting fit and fit to fight”. In the Western Desert, troops used a ‘small book’ called Tough Tactics, which gave instructors guidance on how to get troops fit, to cross obstacles and to engage in close combat. Capt David Stirling, an officer in the Scots Guards who was serving with No 8 Commando as part of ‘Layforce’, set up the Raiding Force, which was to become the Special Air Service. APTC instructors specialising in parachute training and physical training served in the unit and accompanied them on many operations behind enemy lines. General Auchinleck endorsed the concept of physical training to make his soldiers harder and more robust, to make them battle winners. He wrote:
“The Germans are taught to be tough and forced to be tough by their rulers. The Japanese are even tougher by nature than the Germans and their training is tougher still. They do things every day which our Army before this war would never have dreamed of asking itself to do. This small book is meant to help us – all of us – to make and keep ourselves tough, so that man for man we shall be better than the Hun or the Jap, in strength and in courage. If there are two ways you can take, take the hard one, NOT the easy one.”
Tough Tactics was used by the Army throughout the war and formed an essential part of the preparation before the many successful battles in the Western Desert, the Italian Campaign, D-Day, NW Europe and Burma. Tough Tactics became an effective weapon for the soldiers who achieved victory over Nazi Germany and Japan in 1945.
- Tough Tactics Video
