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Layforce was a light military force which officially consisted of three United Kingdom raised Special Service Battalions (each of two Special Service Companies) together with a small HQ and signals element and a specialist section equipped with a form of canoe, known as a 'folbot'. Each of the battalions, derived from troops of Nos. 3, 4, 7, 8, and 11 Commandos were known, amongst themselves as 7, 8 and 11 Commando. On arrival in the Middle East in February 1941 a fourth battalion, formed from the locally raised Commando was added. For clarity, cover and security reasons (As well as antipathy towards the term and idea of Commando) GHQ, MEF designated them collectively as Layforce and the battalions were titled 'A', 'B', 'C' and 'D' Battalions, although they continued to refer to themselves by their Commando titles and continued to be organised by Company and Commando Troop. The entire force, whose designation was constructed, in normal British style, after part of its commander's name; Colonel Robert Laycock was assigned to the newly forming 6 Division as the second of its brigade size elements training for amphibious operations against Italian targets. Laycock held the rank of a full Colonel on the staff because his command was not, formally and organisationally, a full brigade with all its supporting elements, although, strength-wise it actually was equivalent.

Their first raid, by elements of the force, was made on April 20 on the port of Bardia; although little damage was caused, Rommel's command hastily recalled a brigade sized force from the front to contain it, in the mistaken belief it was a landing in force by 6 Division. The Commandos were then used to help defend the island of Crete, and covered the eventual evacuation, with the exception of No.11 Commando, who were reinforcing Cyprus.

Following Operation Exporter, the British invasion of Syria on June 8, 1941, No.11 Commando were sent to lead the crossing of the Litani River in Palestine, fighting against troops of the French Vichy Régime. An action in which it sustained casualties disproportionate to the ends in view and as the result of its committal to action after being landed in the wrong place and advancing over ground which was unknown, not subject to prior reconnaissance and in clear view of opposing heavy artillery and deployed machine-guns.

After Layforce (and No.8 Commando) were disbanded on August 1, 1941, David Stirling, a Scots Guards officer who had volunteered for Commando service, remained convinced of the need for Special Forces units in the Middle East theatre. He managed to convince then new Commander-in-Chief General Claude Auchinleck to let him form a new Special Forces unit, subsequently given the deliberately misleadingly name "L Detachment, Special Air Service Brigade" to enforce an existing deception scheme (Operation Abeam) of a parachute brigade existing in North Africa as part of the much larger, but also only notional, 'A' Force. (Which the enemy where invited to discover that the expansion of this title was 'Airborne'.) The majority of the initial recruits to the SAS came from the Commando trained men of the disbanded Layforce.

• Combined Operations at Bardia, North Africa