"Keys" WO 373_19_Keyes

Special Service Brigade Division Corps

Army Form W.3121 Date Recommendation passed forward

Schedule No Unit Middle East Commandos. (To be left blank)

Army No. and Rank (WS/Major T/Lieutenant Colonel)

Name G.C.T. Keyes, M.C. (Royal Scots Greys.)

Christian names must be stated) Geoffrey Graves Tasker

Recommended by - Lt. Col. R.E. Laycock

Action for which commended (Date and place of action must be stated)

Lt. Col. Geoffrey Keyes, Royal Scots Greys, commanded a detachment of a force which landed from Submarines some 250 miles behind the enemy lines to attack Headquarters, Base Installations and Communications.

The original plan, formulated several weeks in advance at 8 Army Headquarters, included orders for attacks on various separate objectives. Although the whole operation was considered to be of a somewhat desperate nature it was obvious that certain tasks were more dangerous than others. Colonel Keyes, who was present at all the meetings and assisted in the planning, deliberately selected [for] himself from the outset the command of the detachment detailed to attack what was undoubtedly the most hazardous of these objectives: - the residence and Headquarters of the General Officer Commanding the German forces in North Africa.

(When the plan was submitted to me as Commander of the Middle East Commandos, in which capacity I may be regarded as having some experience of this type of warfare, I gave it as my considered opinion that the chances of being