Green beret

The green beret was the official headdress of the British Commandos of the Second World War. It is still worn by members of the Royal Marines after passing the Commando Course and personnel from other units of the Royal Navy, Army and RAF who serve within 3 Commando Brigade and who have passed the All Arms Commando Course.

For other uses, see Green beret (disambiguation).
For other units that wear green berets, see Military beret.

There are certain other military organizations which also wear the green beret because they have regimental or unit histories that have a connection with the British Commandos of the Second World War. These include the Australian, French and Dutch commandos. It is the norm in the armed forces of the Commonwealth Nations, where most regiments wear headdresss and cap badges which reflect regimental history and traditions.

Origins

Initially those who joined the British Commandos kept their parent regimental headdress and cap badges. In 1941, No. 1 Commando had no fewer than 79 different cap badges and many different forms of headdress.[1] "Thus a motley collection of caps, Tam o' Shanters, bonnets, forage caps, caps 'fore and aft', berets, peaked KD caps, etc., appeared on the Commando parades," says Captain Oakley, "the forest being a veritable RSM’s nightmare!"[2]

No. 2 Commando and No. 9 Commando faced with the same problem had adopted the Tam o' Shanter, but, as a traditional Scottish headdress, this was not considered suitable for what was a British unit. After some discussion it was agreed that if No. 1 Commando was to adopt a uniformed headdress then the beret, which had been worn by the Tank Regiment since the First World War (and had recently been adopted by the Parachute Regiment), would meet the requirements: it had no British regional affinity, it was difficult to wear improperly, and it could be easily stowed away without damage (when for example tin hats were in use).[2]

Having decided on the headdress, the next question to be resolved was the colour. The shoulder insignia of No. 1 Commando had been designed by the Richmond Herald at the College of Arms. It incorporated three colours in its design of a green salamander going through fire: red, yellow and green. Green was chosen as the most suitable.[2] A Scottish firm of tam-o-shanter makers in Irvine (Ayrshire) was chosen to design and manufacture the beret.[3]

Once the design was agreed, Brigadier Robert Laycock was approached by No. 1 Commando to seek his permission to wear it. He had been pondering on what the commandos should use for their headdress, and welcomed the green beret as a chance to introduce it as standard for all commando formations, with No. 1 Commando being the first to don them.[2]

The proposal that the commandos should start wearing green beret as their official headdress was submitted to the Chief of Combined Operations and forwarded by Lord Mountbatten to the Under-Secretary of State for War. Approval was granted and in October 1942 the first green berets were issued to the Royal Marines.[1]

Australian commandos

Australian Commando berets are known as being "Sherwood Green" in colour. The corps badge on the beret is a black background and a gold combat dagger with the motto "Foras Admonitio" meaning "Without Warning" across the dagger.[4] The green beret is only awarded to a soldier upon becoming qualified as a Commando in either of the below regiments.

Belgian paracommandos

Consisting of two battalions within the light brigade, only the 2nd Commando Battalion inherited the green beret along with other traditions from the 4th Troop of No.10 Commando.[5] These paracommandos are the only "green berets" that are no longer a special operations force, but are considered to be elite. However, the Belgian special forces usually only recruits from paracommandos.

Dutch commandos

The Special Forces of the Netherlands consist mainly of the KCT (Korps Commando Troepen). Their motto is "Nunc aut Nunquam" which is Latin for "Now or Never". The roots of the KCT go back to World War II. Under the name No. 2 (Dutch) Troop, the first Dutch commandos were trained in Achnacarry, Scotland, as part of No. 10 (Inter-Allied) Commando. The unit was formed on March 22, 1942, the birthday of the present KCT.

Members of the Royal Netherlands Marine Corps also receive upon completion of the Commando Course a green beret, but with the gold anchor on a red background.

French commandos
Commandos Marine beret
Main article: FORFUSCO

The Commandos Marine are an elite special operations unit of the French Navy. Formed from Fusiliers Marins during the Second World War in Britain, they wear the same green berets, pulled right, as the British Commandos. They are called bérets verts (green berets).

Portuguese Army Paratroopers
Main article: Portuguese Paratroopers

The Portuguese Paratroopers (Portuguese: Tropas Paraquedistas) are an elite infantry assault force, representing the bulk of the airborne forces of Portugal. They were created in 1956 as part of the Portuguese Air Force, being transferred to the Portuguese Army in 1993. Presently, most of the Paratroopers are part of the Portuguese Rapid Reaction Brigade which comprises all 3 special forces troops.

The Portuguese Paratroopers were usually nicknamed "Paras" or "Green Berets" (Boinas Verdes).

Portuguese Army Special Operations Troops (Rangers)
Main article: Special Operations Troops Centre

The Centro de Tropas de Operações Especiais (Special Operations Troops Centre), heir of the historical traditions of Regimento de Infantaria 9 (9th Infantry Regiment), was created on 16 April 1960 to form units specialised in counter-guerrilla operations, psychological operations, and mountaineering. These special, light-infantry units were called Caçadores Especiais (Special Hunters; the regular army light-infantry units were just called Hunters) and were the first units in the Portuguese Army to wear a beret (brown) and camouflage. They were elite units, with highly motivated, hand-picked personnel, whose instructors had taken courses on counter-insurgency and counter-guerrilla operations in France, Algeria, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Spain. When the Portuguese Colonial War began in 1961, there were already four companies of Special Hunters in Angola. Early in the fighting, the Caçadores Especiais received updated 7,62 mm NATO small arms such as the Espingarda m/961 (Heckler & Koch G3) and the FN/German G1 FAL rifle (known as the m/962); the FAL was a favored weapon of the Caçadores Especiais due to its lighter weight and better practical accuracy compared to the m/961 G3. The 4th Company Caçadores Especiais in particular was a very active one (their website contains many photos and detailed mission chronology, [1]). Still, by the end of 1961, the Special Hunters had been disbanded: some of their training was incorporated into the instruction of the regular army Hunter companies, and the brown beret and camouflage spread to the whole Army. The CTOE remained, now tasked with giving their courses to officers and NCOs, and to form commando troops.

After the creation of the special operations unit in 1981, the CTOE ceased to be just an instruction facility but also served as the HQ for the new Portuguese special operations unit. The unit members wear a grass green beret and are the heir of the Special Hunters: the beret badge includes a hunting horn — a symbol of the Special Hunters; and the unit is known as Rangers because the first instructors of the Special Hunters completed the Ranger Course and adapted the characteristics of that training to the Special Operations Course. The unit has operated in Bosnia and Herzegovina, East-Timor, Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq.

Royal Marine Commandos
Royal Marine (2012)

In the United Kingdom all Royal Marines who have passed the Commando Course wear the green beret. Personnel from the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force volunteering for service with 3 Commando Brigade undertake the All Arms Commando Course, completion of which allows individuals to wear the headdress. Commando-qualified Royal Marines always wear the green beret, with the Globe and Laurel cap badge and commando-qualified personnel from other armed services wear the beret, with their own cap badge, when serving with commando units unless otherwise authorised.[6] The Special Boat Service (SBS) also wear the green Commando beret but with their own cap badge consisting of a sword with two blue waved lines with the words "by strength and guile"

The Commando Badge of a Fairbairn-Sykes [7] fighting knife on a triangular patch/badge is worn on the sleeve in perpetuity by all those who have passed the course.[8]

United States Army Special Forces
Main article: United States Army Special Forces
U.S. Army Special Forces soldiers wearing their green berets.
Special Forces soldiers prepare for a combat diving training operation on a US Naval ship near Okinawa, Japan in 1956, wearing green berets prior to their approved wear in 1961.

In the U.S. armed forces, the green beret may be worn only by soldiers awarded the Special Forces Tab, signifying they have been qualified as Special Forces (SF) soldiers. The Special Forces beret is officially designated "beret, man's, wool, rifle green, army shade 297".

U.S. Special Forces wear the green beret as a distinction of excellence and uniqueness within the Army.

The 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne) had many OSS World War II veterans in their ranks when it was formed in 1952. They began to unofficially wear a berets of varying colour while training. The color green became favored because it was reminiscent of the World War II British Commando-type beret.[9] The 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne) deployed to Bad Tolz, Germany in September 1953. The remaining cadre at Fort Bragg formed the 77th Special Forces Group. Members of the 77th SFG began searching through their collections of berets and settled on the Rifle Green colour of the British Rifle Regiments (as opposed to the Lovat Green of the Commandos) from Captain Mike de la Pena's collection. Captain Frank Dallas had the new beret designed and produced in small numbers for the members of the Special Forces.[10]

Their new headdress was first worn at a retirement parade at Fort Bragg on 12 June 1955 for Lieutenant General Joseph P. Cleland, the now-former commander of the XVIII Airborne Corps. Onlookers thought that the commandos were a foreign delegation from NATO.[11]

In 1956 General Paul D. Adams, the post commander at Fort Bragg, banned its wear, even though it was worn surreptitiously when deployed overseas. This was reversed on 25 September 1961 by Department of the Army Message 578636, which designated the green beret as the exclusive headdress of the Army Special Forces.[9]

When visiting the Special Forces at Fort Bragg on 12 October 1961, President John F. Kennedy asked Brigadier General William P. Yarborough to make sure that the men under his command wore green berets for the visit. Later that day, Kennedy sent a memorandum which included the line: "I am sure that the green beret will be a mark of distinction in the trying times ahead".[12] By America's entry into the Vietnam War, the green beret had become a symbol of excellence throughout the US Army. On April 11, 1962 in a White House memorandum to the United States Army, President Kennedy reiterated his view: "The green beret is a symbol of excellence, a badge of courage, a mark of distinction in the fight for freedom".[12] To no avail, both Yarborough and Edson Raff had previously petitioned the Pentagon to allow wearing of the green beret. The President, however, did not fail them.[12]

In addition to being the headdress of the United States Army Special Forces, "Green Berets" is also a well known nickname of the organization.

Notes
  1. RM staff.
  2. Oakley.
  3. There is a dependency in the sources. The Royal Marines Museum write "tam-oshanter makers in Irvine (Ayrshire)" while Oakley writes "Luckily there was a factory close by at Ardrossan specialising in the manufacture of Scottish bonnets, etc." (RM staff, Oakley)
  4. waggers (24 February 2012). "Beret". 4 RAR Associations of Australia. Archived from the original on 24 February 2012.
  5. "Composante Terre". Belgian Defence (in French). Retrieved 22 August 2017.
  6. "DEFENCE SUPPLY CHAIN MANUAL JSP 336 (3rd Edition)". Part 3, Pamphlet 15 Section 5: Headdress. Archived from the original on 2007-06-11.CS1 maint: others (link)
  7. The Fairbairn-Sykes Commando Dagger by Leroy Thompson and Knives of War: An International Guide to Military Knives from World War I to the Present by Gordon Hughes, Barry Jenkins, and Robert A. Buerlein
  8. JSP 336 3rd EDITION, VOLUME 12, PART 3 – CLOTHING, PAMPHLET NO 15 – BADGES, EMBELLISHMENTS AND HEADDRESS, ANNEX B Archived 2007-06-09 at the Wayback Machine
  9. "A Short History of the Use of Berets in the U.S. Army". Archived from the original on 24 June 2001.
  10. "History: Special Forces Green Beret". Special Forces Search Engine. Archived from the original on 10 March 2007. Retrieved 8 March 2007.
  11. P.32, "Inside the Green Berets" by Charles Simpson III
  12. LeFavor, Paul (2013). US Army Special Forces Small Unit Tactics Handbook. Blacksmith Publishing. p. 90. ISBN 978-0-9895513-0-4.
gollark: As I probably said earlier, would anyone be up for a collaborative challenge to produce the longest possible (no-constraints) lineage?
gollark: Wow!
gollark: Ah, one of those things where you decide to assign some dragons to an arbitrary group and then they suddenly become valuable.
gollark: Notathuwed?
gollark: The terra cannot be stopped. The terra has infiltrated all dragons.

References
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