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Military
Operations at Inverailort in 1940
A
talk by Major Hall.
Inverailort
Castle was used to train Special Forces during the Second World
War
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A Brief Summary of Major Halls talk on August 13th 2001 at the Glenuig
Hall
A background of men and events was recounted which led to the realisation
that there was a vital need for specially trained people if the tide was
to be turned against the Germans. In June 1940 General Ironside authorised
the use of Inverailort as the centre of special training of guerrilla
tactics. The whole of the peninsula was sealed off by Lord Lovatt and
access largely denied by the general public for the duration. By July
1940 the Special Operations Executive was set up at Inverailort
its headquarters were eventually moved to Arisaig House.
At the time that Major Hall was sent to Inverailort, around thirty officers,
thirty NCOs and ancillary staff of 300 were stationed there to support
the on-going three weeks of drop-dead training.
Men from all over the U.K. and all walks of life, military and civilian,
with potential and special talent were selected for this particular specialist
training in survival, armed and unarmed combat, demolition and field craft.
If at any point during the three weeks a test was failed, the man was
sent away back to his previous occupation. Among people involved in the
training were: Colonel Brain Mayfield of the Scots Guards; A/C/I Spencer
Chapman; the Seaforths; Lord Lovatts Scouts; Mad
Mike Calvert RE; the navy was represented by Commander Geoffrey Congreve
(at which point it was known as HMS Lochailort); and RMS John Royle. However
the outstanding figures involved were Dan Fairbairn and Bill Sykes whose
particular specialities were unarmed combat and silent killing.
Major Hall along with a Sergeant Davidson was sent by his regiment to
Inverailort. His introduction to the three weeks of intensive training
started as the train he was travelling in was halted suddenly, throwing
men and baggage to the floor as it approached Lochailort under fire. His
introduction to Fairbairn and Sykes at the Castle was to see what seemed
to a young man of around 22, two old men (then about 56 58
years old) tumble down stairs to arrive in the attack position in front
of the waiting new trainees at the bottom of the stairs . Course lectures
were given in Nissen huts on the islands in the River Ailort, which had
to be reached by wading the river. This meant that lectures were sat out
in soaked boots and clothing anything up to chest high. They were taught
living off the land, how to keep clean and healthy living rough, ( maintenance
of personal hygiene being a necessity), stalking anything, navigation,
night work, explosives, booby traps, demolition and silent killing. Everything
was taught by example, psychology was not considered. A glen by Glen Shian
was used for sniping practise and is still called Snipers Valley today.
Once a week everyone had to run up An Stac and back. At one point Major
Hall and his fellow trainees were taken over to the far side of Morvern
and had to get back to Lochailort at night in a certain time over land.
(Loch Shiel is in the way!) Another exercise was the taking of Portree
on Skye. Exercises were conducted under live fire, everyone was trained
to be 100% efficient and to know that they would be better than any opposition.
The Geneva convention was totally ignored. If it was said that a certain
tactic wasnt cricket: the reply was that Hitler didnt play
cricket. The big house became unique in the world as a centre for the
training in tactics of irregular warfare.
Trainees lived in huts in the grounds of the castle (only
called Inverailort Castle at that point on, before it was just known as
the big house), but were allowed to eat meals indoors. Mrs Cameron Head
despite having her home taken over by the military, became mother and
friend to all. Major Hall remembers chiefly feeling exhausted and hungry,
but mainly exhausted. The training was deliberately intense and exact,
one either succeeded totally or was failed and thrown out. He went on
to describe in relative gruesome detail various methods of silent killing,
further described in a short video which has never been generally released.
(A 'D Notice' still applies).
In answering a question, Major Hall was unaware of any fatalities during
the time he was there.

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