We were delighted to welcome Woody’s dad, Major Paul Renshaw Royal Marines (rtd), who came to talk to Year 5 about ‘The Commandos’ and his eleven years as an officer.
He set the scene by telling the children how and why Winston Churchill formed the Commandos in June 1940 and gave some detailed information about classic commando raids in WW2 and Hitler’s response in 1942.
The children were wide-eyed hearing about the Commando Tests which soldiers and officers have to fulfil today, which are pretty much unchanged since 1940. Major Renshaw showed us photos of him completing these tests, the heavy bergen he had to carry on all exercises and missions and the Spean Bridge model and Fairbairn-Sykes fighting knife he was presented with upon returning to civilian life.
