The Combined Operations Training Centre, also known as No.1 Combined Training Centre, Inveraray was a military installation on the banks of

Loch Fyne Loch Fyne ( gd, Loch Fìne, ; meaning "Loch of the Vine/Wine"), is a sea loch off the Firth of Clyde and forms part of the coast of the Cowal peninsula. Located on the west coast of Argyll and Bute, Scotland. It extends inland from the Sound o ...

near

Inveraray Inveraray ( or ; gd, Inbhir Aora meaning "mouth of the Aray") is a town in Argyll and Bute, Scotland. It is on the western shore of Loch Fyne, near its head, and on the A83 road. It is a former royal burgh, the traditional county town of Arg ...

in Scotland.

History

The Royal Navy during the Second World War A30137

The centre was established in October 1940. Each of the services had a presence at the centre, the army in the form of training staff specialising in the military engineering required for

amphibious landing Amphibious warfare is a type of offensive military operation that today uses naval ships to project ground and air power onto a hostile or potentially hostile shore at a designated landing beach. Through history the operations were conducted ...

s, the Navy in the form of HMS ''Quebec'', a unit which trained staff in the use and maintenance of landing craft for such techniques and the air force in the form of RAF officers who could call on air support from No. 516 Squadron for training in such techniques. Around a quarter of a million troops trained at the centre prior to the

D-Day landings The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as D ...

. Some 30 senior officers, each with a staff vehicle and radio also took part in a top secret deception exercise to convince the Germans that a major sea assault was being prepared but could not be launched until at least September 1944. The centre closed in June 1946 and the site is now occupied by a caravan park.

Commandants

Commandants were as follows: *1940–1942 Vice Admiral

Theodore Hallett Vice Admiral Sir Theodore John Hallett KBE CB (10 January 1878 – 16 December 1956) was a Royal Navy officer who became Commander-in-Chief, Coast of Scotland. Naval career Hallett joined the Royal Navy as a midshipman in 1894. He was promote ...

*1943–1945 Major-General Sir John Laurie

References

{{reflist Installations of the British Army