While the Battle of Britain raged and a German invasion was feared in the sunny, tense summer of 1940, Prime Minister Winston Churchill took time to create an organization that would exemplify his offensive spirit, his love of gadgets and innovations, and his use of cronies. That July, he set up the Combined Operations Command to develop seaborne hit-and-run raids on Nazi installations in occupied Europe and to press forward with research on “all forms of technical equipment and special craft.” The first fruit borne of the new headquarters were the all-volunteer British Commando brigades, which soon gave rise to the U.S. Rangers.
Combined Operations also was responsible for the early development of two of the most effective devices of World War II—the prefabricated concrete Mulberry harbors and PLUTO fuel pipelines set up to supply the Allied armies in the June 6, 1944, Normandy invasion. They were ranked along with the foremost British military inventions, such as tanks, aircraft carriers, radar, jet engines, and penicillin. Other more bizarre projects, however, failed to materialize.
Churchill appointed retired Admiral Sir Roger Keyes, a World War I hero, to head Combined Operations. He rapidly organized a number of Commando raids, but most were hampered by poor intelligence and planning.
Admiral Keyes antagonized fellow military leaders and insisted on direct access to Churchill, so he was booted out in October 1941 and replaced by the handsome, dashing Lord Louis Mountbatten, a Royal Navy captain, radio specialist, and cousin of King George VI.
