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No. 4 Commando

No. 4 Commando was a battalion-sized British Army commando unit, formed in 1940 early in the Second World War. Although it was raised to conduct small-scale raids and harass garrisons along the coast of German occupied France, it was mainly employed as a highly trained infantry assault unit.

The unit's first operation was the successful raid on the Lofoten Islands on 4 March 1941. The next two planned operations were both cancelled and it was not until 22 April 1942 that No. 4 Commando took part in another raid, Operation Abercrombie, a raid on the French coastal town of Hardelot. On 22 August 1942, No. 4 was one of three commando units selected for the Dieppe raid. Under the command of Lord Lovat, No. 4 Commando landed on the right flank of the main landings and successfully silenced a German gun battery. This was the only complete success of the operation, which was eventually aborted, after less than 10 hours, following heavy losses.

As part of the 1st Special Service Brigade, No. 4 Commando took part in the Normandy Landings in June 1944. Landing on Sword beach 30 minutes before the rest of the brigade, their first objectives were to capture a strong point and gun battery in Ouistreham. After the commandos eliminated these positions they rejoined the brigade, reinforcing the 6th Airborne Division at the Orne bridges. Before the invasion the brigade had been informed that they would stay in France for only a few days. The commando remained there for a further 82 days, protecting the beachhead's left flank. During that period, No. 4 Commando endured over 50 per cent casualties. Finally withdrawn to Britain in September 1944, they were reassigned to the 4th Special Service Brigade for the assault on Walcheren island. At the end of the war No. 4 Commando became part of the occupation force in Germany, but together with all other army commando units were disbanded in 1946.

Background
The British Commandos were organised for special service in June 1940. After the Dunkirk evacuation, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Winston Churchill, called for a force to be assembled and equipped to inflict casualties on the Germans and bolster British morale. Churchill told the joint Chiefs of Staff to propose measures for an offensive against German-occupied Europe, and stated, "they must be prepared with specially trained troops of the hunter class who can develop a reign of terror down the enemy coast." One staff officer, Lieutenant Colonel Dudley Clarke, had already submitted such a proposal to General Sir John Dill, the Chief of the Imperial General Staff (CIGS). Dill, aware of Churchill's intentions, approved Clarke's proposal and on 23 June 1940, the first commando raid took place.

The request for volunteers for special service was initially restricted to serving Army soldiers within certain formations still in Britain, and from men of the disbanding divisional Independent Companies originally raised from Territorial Army (TA) divisions who had served in the Norwegian Campaign.

By November 1940, more than 2,000 men had volunteered and were organised into four battalions in a Special Service Brigade, under the command of Brigadier J. C. Haydon. The Brigade quickly expanded to 12 battalions, which were renamed commandos. Each commando had a lieutenant colonel as the commanding officer (CO) and numbered around 450 men (divided into 75 man troops that were further divided into 15 man sections). Technically these men were only on secondment to the commandos; they retained their regimental cap badges and remained on the regimental roll for pay. The new force of commandos came under the operational control of the Combined Operations Headquarters.

Formation
No. 4 Commando was formed in Weymouth on 21 July 1940, when the first intake of 500 volunteers arrived. The unique nature of the commandos immediately became apparent when every man was held responsible for finding his own quarters. As commandos were expected to be fighting troops, they had no administrative personnel, such as clerks and cooks for example. To assist them with living 'off camp', with no cook house all ranks were given a daily allowance and a ration card, the allowance being 67 pence for officers and of 34 pence for other ranks. This arrangement meant that commandos lived on civilian rations, while the rest of the armed forces had the more plentiful military scale of rations.

Lieutenant Colonel C.P.D Legard, 5RIDG and the Regimental Sergeant Major W. Morris held their first parade on 22 July 1940, at Weymouth Pavilion. The volunteers were informed of the intended role for the commandos and that training would be "tough and demanding and any who could not measure up to the standard required would be returned to their parent unit without any leave of appeal".

Training started immediately and concentrated on physical fitness, weapons training, movement across country including cliff climbing, obstacle crossing and raiding operations. Weapons training was limited by the lack of anything other than the personal weapons (rifles and pistols) that each man had brought with him. Machine guns or anything heavier were not available at the time. In August 1940, some officers and non-commissioned officers (NCO) were sent to Achnacarry in the Scottish Highlands on a commando course. These men were then responsible for teaching the rest of the unit.

No. 4 Commando remained at Weymouth until 13 October 1940, when it boarded trains for Scotland. Arriving on the River Clyde at 06:00 the next day, they were sent on board HMS Glengyle, an Infantry landing ship. Glengyle sailed on 18 October for Inveraray, to conduct training for the first time with Assault Landing Craft. The move to Scotland became permanent and No. 4 Commando were based at Ayr.

While all this was going on, a decision was made to concentrate the commandos and Independent Companies into five large 1,000 man battalions, each of two companies. No. 4 Commando was renamed the No. 1 Company of the 3rd Special Service Battalion, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Dudley Lister. No. 2 Company was formed by the re-designation of No. 7 Commando. This new formation proved to be too large and unwieldy in practice. Within three months, the Special Service Battalions were disbanded and the original commando units reformed but on a smaller scale with six troops instead of the original ten. Each troop would comprise three officers and 62 other ranks; this number was set so each troop would fit into two Assault Landing Craft. The new formation also meant that two complete Commando units could be carried in the 'Glen' type landing ship and one unit in the 'Dutch' type landing ship.

Lofoten Islands
On 20 February 1941, No. 4 Commando were informed they would be going to Troon in Scotland for an exercise. The next day the unit boarded HMS Queen Emma, but on 22 February 1941, after they anchored at Scapa Flow, their real objective was divulged. Together with No. 3 Commando they were to conduct Operation Claymore, a raid on the Lofoten Islands. Claymore's main objective was to stop the manufacture of fish oil and its exportation to Germany, where it was used in making explosives.

Extra training commenced on board ship, including how the men were to get to their boat stations to disembark. Each troop also rehearsed its own part in the mission. Lectures were given in escape and evasion and troop commanders and NCO's were given small silk maps of Norway to help with any escape attempt. Another item of escape equipment issued was a pair of trouser fly buttons that, when placed one on top of the other, became a small compass.

Claymore took place on 4 March 1941. The Germans were caught unprepared and the landings were unopposed. Within an hour No. 4 Commando had taken all its objectives. The raid was a success: 11 fish oil factories and storage tanks were destroyed, 10 ships sunk, 225 prisoners taken with an unknown number of German sailors killed on the sunken ships. An added bonus were the 315 Norwegian volunteers brought back to join the Free Norwegian Forces.

Operation Puma
After returning from Norway, training started for Operation Puma, the occupation of the Canary Islands. The operation was planned following intelligence that Spain was going to join the war on the side of the Axis forces. The intention was to prevent Germany using the islands as a U-boat base. The force assembled included five commando units, an army brigade, two Royal Marine brigades and supporting arms. Training for Operation Puma culminated in landing exercises in the Hebrides from the Landing Ship, Infantry HMS Royal Scotsman. The operation was renamed Operation Pilgrim and after a number of delays was put on hold by the Chiefs-of-Staff. On 13 September a token force including a troop from No. 4 Commando was dispatched to West Africa. The troop was based in Sierra Leone and Nigeria until returning to Britain in February 1942, after the cancellation of the operation. While this was happening a new second in command (2IC) was appointed, Major Charles Vaughan, and a Captain Lord Lovat joined the unit as the training officer. Lovat had been attached to the Lofoten raid as an observer and had applied for a posting to the commandos.

Operation Bludgeon
In February 1942, A, B and C Troops were dispatched to the Outer Hebrides under the command of Captain Lord Lovat for extra training. Returning to Troon in March, they were immediately sent to Dartmouth, Devon where they embarked on HMS Prins Albert. Once on board they were informed about Operation Bludgeon and started mission training. The objective of this raid was a large building that was a short distance inland from the Dutch coast, and that was used by senior German officers. For the duration of the operation B Troop were issued with flamethrowers to set the building on fire. After several days training, the commandos moved around the coast and anchored in the Thames waiting for the order to go. The operation was eventually cancelled, due to the increased German E-Boat activity in the area of the landing.

St Nazaire
The St Nazaire raid had the objective of destroying the Normandie dry dock, which would prevent its use by any large German warship if that had been damaged or in need of repair. The majority of land force for the raid was supplied by No. 2 Commando, led by Lieutenant Colonel Newman. However the Special Service Brigade headquarters, used the raid to provide experience for their other units and 92 men were drawn from, No's 1, 3, 4, 5, 9 and 12 Commandos to go on the raid. The No. 4 Commando contingent was 12 other ranks commanded by Lieutenant H Pennington. They had all previously served in the Royal Engineers and left under the impression they were going on a Harbour Demolition Course. After their training at Cardiff and Southampton Docks only six of the 12 were selected to go on the raid. Three of the six including Lieutenant Pennington were killed before they were able to land, when their Motor Launch was engaged by the German coastal defence batteries. The other men who had not been selected for the raid were returned to No. 4 Commando.

Operation Abercrombie

Operation Abercrombie was a raid on the French coastal town of Hardelot. Only B and C Troops supported by detachments from the Royal Engineers and the Carleton and York Regiment of Canada participated. The raid was under the overall command of Lord Lovat, with the objective of capturing prisoners and causing as much damage as possible. For this raid they were going to try a different system to cross the channel. Instead of using Infantry Landing Ships to cross the Channel they would be taken across on Motor Gun Boats towing Assault Landing Craft (LCA). The combined force left Dover on 19 April 1942. En route, one LCA sank with the loss of two commandos who were manning a Bren gun in the bow. The raid was called off and they returned to Dover. A replacement LCA was obtained and they returned to France on 21 April. This time the crossing was uneventful and the commandos made a successful landing. However, the two commando troops were discovered cutting the barbed wire beach obstacles and German machine guns opened fire. The raiders did carry out a reconnaissance of the area but were unable to capture any prisoners. The commandos returned without loss, but one man was wounded in the leg. The smaller Canadian detachment was unable to locate the target beach and returned to Britain. After the raid there was another change in command. Lieutenant Colonel Lister left to form No. 10 (Inter-Allied) Commando and Major Vaughan became the temporary commanding officer. Vaughan left shortly afterwards to take over command of the Commando Depot at Achnacarry and was succeeded by Lord Lovat with Major Derek Mills-Roberts becoming the 2IC.

Dieppe Raid

Originally conceived in April 1942, "Operation Rutter" was to conduct a major division-sized raid on a German held port of Dieppe on the French channel coast and to hold it for the duration of at least two tides. They would effect the greatest amount of destruction of enemy facilities and defences before withdrawing. The original plan was approved by the Chiefs of Staff in May 1942. This plan included two parachute landings behind the artillery batteries on either side of the main landing beaches. The parachute operation was later cancelled and instead No. 3, No. 4 and the newly formed 'A' (Royal Marine) Commando were to land by sea and attack the artillery batteries and the harbour. The Dieppe Raid was a major operation planned by Admiral Lord Mountbatten and Combined Operations Headquarters. The attacking force consisted of around 6,000 troops. The Royal Navy supplied 237 ships and landing craft, and the Royal Air Force 74 squadrons of aircraft, of which 66 were fighter squadrons.

Landing on the eastern flank No. 3 Commando would assault the Goebbels artillery battery, while No. 4 Commando would be responsible for the Hess battery on the western flank. The Hess battery consisted of six 150 mm guns in a concrete emplacement 1100 yd inland from the coastal cliffs. The emplacement was surrounded by two rows of barbed wire, and protected by several machine gun posts. A nearby anti-aircraft tower could also defend against a ground attack on the guns. The commandos were responsible for their own planning and selected two landing beaches codenamed Orange one and two. Orange One at Varengeville was overlooked by a chalk cliff but had two gullies leading to the top of the cliff. Before the war there were steps down to the beach. But these had been removed and the gullies filled with barbed wire and other obstacles. The second beach Orange Two was at Quiberville 1.5 mi further west at the mouth of the River Saane. This offered access to the top of the cliffs but was covered by two machine gun pillboxes and barbed wire and it was further away from their target. Intelligence had estimated that the strength of the battery was between 120–175 men, supported by two infantry companies stationed nearby.

The plan was for four troops (A, B, C and F), headquarters and attached specialists, to be divided into two groups. Group one under the command of Major Mills-Roberts would land at Orange One and consisted of C Troop, a section from A Troop, the mortar detachment and some of the specialists. They would scale the cliffs and form a fire base in the woods in front of the battery to support the assault. Group two commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Lovat would land at Orange Two and take out the beach defences. B and F Troops would then advance move along the river and assault the battery from the rear. The rest of A Troop would be the reserve, positioned between the two beaches. After the attack Group two would withdraw through Group one and be picked up by the waiting LCAs on Orange One beach.

No. 4 Commando made the crossing to Dieppe on board HMS Prins Albert. The crossing was uneventful and at 04:50 just before daybreak Group one landed unopposed. Using two Bangalore torpedoes to blow a hole in the barbed wire, they managed to scale the cliffs. As they approached the battery at 05:45 it opened fire on the main landing force coming ashore at Dieppe. This was 30 minutes before Group one was expected to be in a position but Mills-Roberts responded by speeding up the advance to get their guns into action sooner. Once in position they opened fire on the battery with their mortars, Bren machine guns and sniper rifles. One of the mortar bombs landed inside the battery and exploded the stored charges, putting the guns out of action.

Group two had an opposed landing being greeted by machine gun fire from the two pillboxes guarding the beach. Leaving a section from A Troop to deal with them the rest of the Group ran the 1.5 mi to the rear of the battery, bypassing German infantry positions on the way. The A Troop section having finished off the pillboxes, set out for Orange one beach, ambushing a German patrol en route. While this was happening Lovat and the other two troops, were preparing to assault the battery from different directions. The men from B Troop approached from behind the anti-aircraft tower, as they could still see some Germans moving about on it, they detached three men to deal with them. At the same time they stumbled across and captured a machine gun post. At 06:15 the assault started, F Troop discovered a group of Germans forming up to put in their own assault on the fire base. Charging into them they were dispersed without loss to the commandos. The troop continued their advance, moving between some buildings and an orchard, when they were themselves caught in the open by heavy gun fire. Two men in the lead the troop commander Captain Pettiward and Lieutenant McDonald were killed while Troop Sergeant Major Stockdale was wounded. It was during this action that the already wounded Captain Porteous, acting as the liaison officer between the two groups was awarded the Victoria Cross. The two Groups were in position, when a pre arranged strafing attack by the Royal Air Force commenced, this signalled an increasing in the rate of fire from Group one. At 06:30 a very flare fired by Lovat signalled the start of the assault. Group one ceased firing and B and F Troops charged the battery with bayonets fixed. The objective for B Troop was the battery buildings, while F Troop targeted the guns. Captain Porteous now commanding F Troop was wounded again, this time in the thigh but urged his men on. He was shot for the third time and passed out just as the guns were captured. Demolition experts from F Troop destroyed the guns with pre-formed charges while B Troop searched the battery buildings for intelligence materials. Carrying their wounded with them and escorting prisoners both troops withdrew through the fire base. Still in contact with the Germans both groups of commandos made it to Orange One beach and at 08:15 were taken off by the LCAs. They crossed the channel without incident arriving at Newhaven docks at 17:45 the same day.

For their part in the raid Lovat was awarded the Distinguished Service Order and Mills-Roberts the Military Cross. The cost to the Commando was at first thought to be 23 dead but six were only severely wounded and were eventually reported to be prisoners of war. No. 4 Commandos' assault on the battery was the only successful part of the whole operation. The War Office claimed it as "a classic example of the use of well trained infantry...and a thoroughness in planning, training and execution", and in February 1943 issued an infantry training pamphlet "in order that all may benefit from the story of a stimulating achievement".

Between Dieppe and Normandy
After Dieppe the headquarters staff changed again. Lovat was promoted to brigadier and given command of the 1st Special Service Brigade. Mills-Roberts was promoted and sent to North Africa to take over command of No. 6 Commando. They were replaced by Robert Dawson as the CO and Ronald Menday as 2IC. Other changes included moving to a new base in Falmouth and the formation of a heavy weapons troop in each commando. The new troop with mortar and Vickers machine gun sections provided the heavy weapons needed for their new role as assault infantry. By now the Commandos had started to move away from smaller raiding operations. They were formed into units intended to spearhead future Allied landing operations. To assist in this they were given the organic fire support weapons, that had been absent when they were a raiding force.

In June 1943, 10 months after the Dieppe raid, No. 4 Commando started a new round of training. The program included mountain warfare training at the Commando Snow and Mountain Warfare Training Centre in Scotland. The emphasis here was on fighting and living in the mountains and instruction in how to train a partisan force. Afterwards they moved to another new base in Sussex. Instead of occupying one town, the troops spread out. A and B Troops were billeted at Seaford, C and D Troops at Newhaven and E and F Troops at Lewes. Training was now almost non stop and a number of large scale landing exercises, using the new Landing Craft Infantry took place. In February 1944, while the rest of No. 4 continued to practice day and night assault landings and live firing exercises. C Troop was sent to qualify as parachutists at the parachute training centre RAF Ringway. The ranks of No. 4 Commando swelled in April 1944 with the arrival of two French troops from No. 10 (Inter-Allied) Commando. Other new arrivals were the Lee–Enfield No. 4 rifle, which replaced the old SMLE rifles and the Vickers K machine gun, issued two per troop to provide fire support. To learn the characteristics of these new weapons, the commandos spent days on the rifle ranges learning how to handle them.

Normandy
Brigadier Lord Lovat, in command of the 1st Special Service Brigade, issued orders for the brigade's forthcoming role in the landings.

"The Intention. The 6th Airborne Division and 1st Special Service Brigade would be responsible for holding the left flank of the Allied bridgehead of the invasion of Normandy."

The method. The Commando Brigade, consisting of No.s 3, 4 and 6 Army Commandos and No. 45 (Royal Marine) Commando, to land on the extreme flank of the Allied Forces on Queen beach (Sword) and cut inland to join forces with two brigades dropped inland by glider and parachute. No. 4 Commando to destroy a battery and the garrison in Ouistreham and then rejoin the Brigade. The rest of the Brigade, landing 30 minutes after No.4, to fight through enemy defences to reach and reinforce Brigades of the 6th Airborne Division, meeting astride the bridges spanning the River Orne and the Caen Canal. Glider Regiments of the Airlanding Brigade would arrive later the same evening descending in country cleared of the enemy.

On 25 May 1944, No. 4 Commando arrived in Southampton. They occupied a large marshalling area with tight security. Orders detailed their role in the invasion. "The two French troops would attack and destroy a strong point that dominated the beaches known as the Casino, followed by the five British fighting troops, supported by the heavy weapons troop, who were to push on further into the town to destroy a coastal battery." The German defenders in the area came from the 1st Battalion, 736th Infantry Regiment part of the 716th Infantry Division. They were responsible for the Casino strong point with its 7.5 cm and 5.0 cm guns, the coastal battery with its six 15.5 cm guns and ten machine guns posts, stretching from the Orne canal along the seafront to Queen beach at La Breche, where the commando would be landing.

The six British troops on board the Infantry Landing Ships, HMS Princess Astrid and HMS Maid of Orleans and the two French troops on LCIs 523 and 527 left the Solent on 5 June 1944. When out at sea they were informed that the invasion was going to be in Normandy and more specifically Ouistreham. For the landing each man carried a rucksack weighing 80 lb containing extra ammunition, for the Brens, mortars, Vickers K guns and PIATs. This was on top of their own personal weapon and ammunition. Unusually each man chose whether to would wear a steel helmet or the Commando green beret. No. 4 Commando were in the second wave and landed behind the initial assault battalion, from the East Yorkshire Regiment, part of the 3rd Infantry Division. Captain Porteous described how their dead and wounded were "just swilling around in the water." Captain McDougal later wrote, "as we were coming ashore the assault troops were committing suicide by trying to dig in on the beach. In passing I kicked the nearest man telling him to keep going. The man was dead. So was the man next to him and a third was seriously wounded by machine gun fire." The Commandos followed their drills and cleared the beach as quickly as possible. Once clear they headed for their assembly area, which was also the commando medical post. Leaving their rucksacks behind, they set off along the Lion sur Mer road towards their objectives.

Lieutenant Colonel Dawson had decided that the two French troops should take the lead into Ouistreham, followed by the six British troops. The French were unopposed apart from some mortar rounds and machine gun fire as they neared their objective. No. 1 French Troop occupied houses at the front and sides of the Casino strong point. An assault to capture the Casino was driven back. While this was going on the other French troop, No. 8, approached the Casino from the rear. Taking up firing positions they too started to engage the strong point but their fire had almost no effect. The French commander Capitaine de frégate Philippe Kieffer was just about to order an all out assault by both troops, when reports that British amphibious tanks were in Ouistreham reached him. Sending a guide to bring one forward, the tank arrived in front of the Casino and proceeded to destroy the German gun emplacements. Within 30 minutes of the tanks' arrival, all the strong point guns were silenced and No. 1 Troop had assaulted and captured the objective. With its capture the French Commandos were now in control of the western suburbs of Ouistreham.

The rest of No. 4 Commando was moving along the Lion sur Mer road towards their objective the gun battery. The battery was located at the extreme left of the landing beaches. The Orne canal formed its northern boundary and the Casino strong point was to the south. It was surrounded by barbed wire and had three machine gun posts. Two of the posts faced where the canal joined the sea and the third faced up the canal towards the port. To the west of the battery were the houses of the town and the port area of Ouistreham. The order of march was: C Troop to deal with any opposition en route, D Troop who were to force an entrance into the battery, A Troop to  provide covering fire for the assaulting troops. In the assault E Troop would take the left hand guns, and F Troop the right. Bringing up the rear was the headquarters and the heavy weapons troop. The heavy weapons troop set up a fire base to support both the French and British attacks if needed. Progress along the road was rapid with only intermittent artillery fire slowing them down. As they advanced, a tank from the 13th/18th Royal Hussars joined them, just in time to engage German snipers who had started shooting at E and F Troops.

As C Troop reached the forming up point for the assault it met heavy machine gun fire from the gun battery. A Troop bypassed them to occupy houses to cover the assault. The next to arrive was D Troop, which had a special ladder to cross the anti-tank ditch around the battery. Realising that the man carrying the ladder had been killed crossing the beach and the ladder left behind, they looked for another way to cross. They discovered wooden planks bridging the gap that the defenders used to access the town. D Troop crossed and captured the machine gun posts around the battery. With the machine guns taken, E and F Troops began their assault. The attack was successful but they discovered the guns were only wooden dummies made from telegraph poles. The real guns had been removed three days previously and positioned further inland.

Having captured its objectives, No. 4 Commando reformed and set out to join the rest of the brigade, about 6 mi away. Lieutenant Colonel Dawson was wounded during the fighting and Major Menday temporarily took command. The march inland to the Orne bridges was uneventful and upon arrival No. 4 Commando dug in on a ridge of high ground to the east of the River Orne towards Sallenelles. Their new position was 2 mi towards Sallenelles beside the Hauger château. Not long after they arrived and started digging in, the gliders of the 6th Airlanding Brigade began landing to their rear.

Orne bridgehead
Expecting a Germans counterattack, protective trenches were completed by nightfall. The first night 6/7 June was uneventful and "stand to" was 04:30, but there were still no signs of a German attack. During the day there was some sniping in the morning and in the afternoon E and F Troop were subjected to a mortar barrage. By now the trenches were complete with overhead protection and arranged to give an all-round defence. In the French troops' area some activity was observed and Menday, still in command, suspected an attack from the direction of Sallenelles. Nothing come of that but in the evening of 7 June, some dive bombers strafed the brigade position. By the end of the second day there was still no signs of the expected German ground attack. That night was also uneventful but just after stand to on 8 June, German infantry were observed advancing through the woods to their front. Holding fire until the last minute, the Germans were beaten back but A Troop found themselves surrounded on three sides and forced to withdraw. That night the Germans attacked again, this time targeting C Troop, but were again driven back. Shortly thereafter a group from No. 45 (Royal Marine) Commando arrived and reported that the Germans had broken through and were on the road behind No. 4 Commando. Captain Porteous and D Troop moved down the road to deal with them. Outnumbered two to one D Troop charged, killing some and forcing the rest to withdraw.

The next morning 10 June, from 09:30 to 10;00 the No. 4 Commandos position was subjected to heavy artillery and mortar bombardment. For the two hours before this, No. 6 Commando was heavily bombed, which was followed up by a ground assault that lasted until midday. Suspecting an attack on their own position No. 4 Commando stood to. The  attack did not materialise until 17:00, when massed German infantry were observed forming up in front of F Troop. At the same time an artillery Forward Observation Officer arrived from brigade, he contacted the 25 pounder guns attached to the 6th Airborne Division and requested 12 rounds of rapid fire. The rounds landed on target and another 12 were called for, breaking the German attack. The British artillery was not alone—since digging in, the Commandos had been on the receiving end of artillery and mortars which was steadily taking its toll in casualties. E Troop for example were now under the command of a section sergeant and had only 20 men left from a complement of 65.

Elsewhere the Germans were attacking A, C and the French troops. C Troop had ambushed the Germans, moving forward to attack and then fought off a second attack. The attack on the French position was supported by a tank, which they only managed to knock out with a PIAT after it had got behind them. In both these attacks the commandos were involved in hand-to-hand combat to keep the Germans from overrunning their positions. From 11 June the German pressure on the commando line lessened. They were still subject to artillery and mortar fire but there were no more infantry attempts to dislodge them. In the days since landing No. 4 Commando had taken 50 per cent casualties. Before the landings 1st Special Service brigade had been informed they would be withdrawn in a few days, after the Allies had broken out from the beachhead. Problems capturing Caen meant the commandos and airborne division had to remain to secure the left flank along the line of the Orne. They did not get relieved for 82 days, during which they not only held the left flank but on 18 August started their own break out. With No. 4 Commando leading the first village liberated was Bavent followed by Beaumont en Auge. Breuzville was entered over the night of 25/26 August and Boulleville the following day. Here they remained until 6 September when the brigade was withdrawn and sent back to Britain, for 14 days leave.

Walcheren

On their return from leave, No, 4 Commando had been made back up to full strength with casualty replacements. The commando were informed they would be joining the 4th Special Service Brigade to replace No. 46 (Royal Marine) Commando. Arriving in Belgium they discovered that the brigade was already well into training for Operation Infatuate. This was an assault landing on the island of Walcheren to open the sea route into Antwerp. The city had already been liberated but the northern bank of the Scheldt was still in German hands, enabling them to sink shipping trying to use the port. The First Canadian Army would attack across the causeway from the east. In support of them 4th Special Service Brigade would carry out an assault from the sea. The majority of the brigade would land at Westkapelle, No. 4 Commandos objective was further south at Flushing, with the 155th (South Scottish) Brigade landing behind them.

In preparation for the landing orders were issued to ensure everyone was fit and to concentrate on weapons firing and street fighting. The two French troops were still under command and just for this operation No. 4 Commando took command of a section from the Dutch Troop, No. 10 (Inter-Allied) Commando, and groups from the Special Boat Section (SBS), Royal Engineers and the Royal Artillery to call for artillery fire support. For some reason the old method of calling troops by letters of the alphabet was dropped and the troops were now numbered. The No.1 to No.4 Troops were British and No.s 5 and 6 French. The heavy weapons troop was No. 4 Troop. The final plan for the assault was for the SBS and a section from No. 1 Troop, to go first and reconnoitre a suitable landing point. Following them, the rest of No.1, No. 2 Troop and commando headquarters would secure the beachhead. They would then be joined by the remaining troops, passing through the beachhead and into the town. No.1 Troop would secure the left flank and No. 2 Troop the right.

The operation to liberate the island started at 04:45 1 November 1944, when No. 4 Commando left Breskens by LCAs for their objective the town of Flushing. On their way in and 60 minutes before they were expected to land a heavy artillery bombardment started. By 05:45 the SBS group landed beside the Oranje Molen windmill. They cleared the mines, other obstacles and dealt with the German guards without firing a shot. Then they marked the landing spot for the rest of the commando, No. 1 and No.2 Troops were the next to land. They extended the beachhead and captured machine gun posts and heavy gun emplacements. Another weapon captured was a 50 mm anti-aircraft gun which supported the other troops when they moved into the town. The final wave landed at 06:30, but had to contend with heavy and accurate fire. One LCA carrying the heavy weapons troop was sunk containing most of their weapons and equipment. Once on the island No. 3 and No.5 Troop moved into the town held by the large numbers of Germans defending the area. No. 6 Troop captured the post office and 50 prisoners. In the afternoon No. 1 Troop was released to support No. 3 and together they advanced again before nightfall. No. 4 Commando had by then secured most of the old town and their flanks were secure.

The advance continued the next day. No. 5 Troop, unable to use the streets, advanced by mouse-holing - blowing holes in house walls with ready-made charges every man carried. No. 6 Troop had dug in and controlled the area between the old and new towns, which allowed the 155th (South Scottish) Brigade which was following up to bypass them. By that afternoon No. 4 Commando controlled the town.

On 3 November the commandos gave control of Flushing to the 52nd (Lowland) Infantry Division and prepared to move by sea to support the rest of the brigade at Westkapelle. Before they could disembark, weather conditions deteriorated and they were forced to march around the coast to reach brigade headquarters at Zoutelande. Lack of supplies curtailed their involvement in the battle for the next two days. Supplies eventually caught up with them and on 6 November they prepared to continue. By now intelligence from Dutch residents and prisoners had revealed that the remaining Germans were holed up in the wooded area between Domburg and Vrouwenpolder.

At 04:45, 7 November No. 4 Commando were ready to start their assault, with No. 3 Troop on the left, the two French troops in the middle and No. 2 Troop on the right. The commandos moved forward, winning a number of small skirmishes, when at 08:15 three German officers appeared and offered the surrender of all the remaining German forces in the area. Lieutenant Colonel Dawson met with the German commander and a formal surrender was agreed and 900 prisoners were taken. Other Germans surrendered to some of the Royal Marine commandos at the same time. In the whole operation No. 4 Commando had suffered 13 dead, 21 wounded versus about 200 German dead and the capture of 1,200 prisoners and large amounts of weapons and equipment. The total casualties for 4th Special Service Brigade were 103 dead, 68 missing and 325 wounded.

Disbandment
No. 4 Commando remained at Walcheren until 14 November 1944, then moved to De Haan, Belgium, to rest and re-equip. They then moved to Blankenberge in Belgium where reinforcements arrived to bring them back up to full strength. They returned to Walcheren to defend the northern coastal areas. Of particular concern was the island of Schouwen-Duiveland, with an estimated garrison of 5,000 men and artillery. The objective was "to prevent enemy infiltration and sabotage". Lieutenant Colonel Dawson allocated stretches of the coast to each troop and taking the offensive to the enemy, started a programme of raids on Schouwen-Duiveland. At this stage of the war these raids were generally successful. Most patrols brought back prisoners and inflicted casualties on the German defenders. One raid was supposed to meet a party from the Dutch resistance that landed without being discovered, but was then disturbed by a German patrol who first fled rather than putting up any resistance. The commandos later learned that this Dutch resistance group had been captured by the German patrol and all its members were hanged the next morning.

In March 1945, No. 4 Commando was relieved by No. 47 (Royal Marine) Commando and moved to Middelburg and stayed at Bergen-Op-Zoom by April. While responsible for the security of the immediate area, they conducted small raids from the sea against South Holland. Germany surrendered on 8 May 1945. On the No. 4 Commando front the two French troops crossed the channel to Schouwen and Lieutenant Colonel Dawson accepted the unconditional surrender of all German forces in the region. Within days of the surrender No. 4 Commando moved to Recklinghausen in Germany as part of the occupation forces. In Recklinghausen part of their duties were to provide the guard force for a civilian internment camp. The camp housed several thousand German civilians who were not prisoners of war. Inmates included those with no identification and those known to have served in concentration camps. The two French troops returned to French control and were demobilised. Other men were posted to No.s 3 and 6 Commandos in Britain, who were preparing for a move to the Far East to continue the fight in the Burma campaign. By June 1945 the strength of No. 4 Commando had been reduced to 188 all ranks. During a visit in October 1945, Lieutenant General Robert Sturges informed them that the War Office had decided to disband all army commandos. Those not due to be demobilised would be returned to their parent regiment or corps. No. 4 Commando was formally disbanded in January 1946.

Battle honours
In the British Army battle honours are awarded to regiments that have seen active service in a significant engagement or campaign, generally (although not always) one with a victorious outcome. The following battle honours were awarded to the British Commandos for service in the Second World War (** indicates where No. 4 Commando were present).

 * Adriatic
 * Alethangyaw
 * Aller
 * Anzio
 * Argenta Gap
 * Burma 1943–45
 * Crete
 * Dieppe **
 * Dives Crossing **
 * Djebel Choucha
 * Flushing **
 * Greece 1944–45
 * Italy 1943–45
 * Kangaw
 * Landing at Porto San Venere
 * Landing in Sicily
 * Leese
 * Litani
 * Madagascar
 * Middle East 1941, 1942, 1944
 * Monte Ornito
 * Myebon
 * Normandy Landing **
 * North Africa 1941–43
 * North-West Europe 1942, 1944–1945 **
 * Norway 1941 **
 * Pursuit to Messina
 * Rhine
 * St. Nazaire **
 * Salerno
 * Sedjenane 1
 * Sicily 1943
 * Steamroller Farm
 * Syria 1941
 * Termoli
 * Vaagso
 * Valli di Comacchio
 * Westkapelle **

title: No. 4 Commando


text:
David O'Doherty

David Nicholas O'Doherty (born 18 December 1975) is an Irish comedian, author, musician, actor and playwright and son of renowned jazz pianist Jim Doherty. His stand-up has won many international awards, including the if.comedy award in 2008 and Best International Comedian at the 2014 Sydney Comedy Festival.

He attended Trinity College Dublin, where his comedy career began. "I spent a lot of my time introducing things", he says, "concerts and bands, that sort of thing". "I remember my brother once bet me I couldn't get the word 'spaghetti' into an introduction for a piano recital in the Edmund Burke so I stood-up and said 'my brother has bet me I can't say the word spaghetti' and I got a laugh."

O'Doherty has written several books, written two plays and released three comedy CDs. His latest book for children, Danger Is Everywhere, illustrated by Chris Judge has been selected for the UNESCO Dublin, City of Literature Citywide Reading Campaign. In 2015 it was published in 10 languages around the world.

He regards himself as "a failed jazz musician, scrambling about for something else to do with his life".

Early life
O'Doherty's father is pianist Jim O'Doherty. His grandfather was Kevin O'Doherty, an Irish hurdles champion, and his great-grandfather was Séamus O'Doherty, a head of the Irish Republican Brotherhood. He is the youngest of three children and has an older brother and sister who are seven and eight years older than him, respectively.

He studied philosophy at Trinity College Dublin, where he was a member of the Jazz Society and a fake Breakdancing Society.

Comedic career
O'Doherty worked in a bicycle shop and in telemarketing and temping before he made his first stage appearance at Dublin's Comedy Cellar in 1998. His first full show was The Story of the Boy Who Saved Comedy which received a nomination for Perrier Best Newcomer when it was performed at Edinburgh Fringe. In 2006, he was nominated for an if.comedy award for his Edinburgh show, David O'Doherty Is My Name. O'Doherty has performed at festivals across the world in locations that include Adelaide, Melbourne, Montreal, New York City and Wellington NZ, Moscow and Iceland. As a support act he first toured Ireland with Tommy Tiernan, the United Kingdom with Rich Hall and the United States with Demetri Martin. he has since returned to those places with his own tours. He has often worked with Flight of the Conchords.

in 2006 and 2008 he performed as part of the Honourable Men of Art at the Edinburgh Fringe, along with Daniel Kitson, John Oliver, Andy Zaltzman and Alun Cochrane.

In August 2008, O'Doherty won the If.comedy award at the Edinburgh Fringe for his show Let's Comedy, which featured "a relationship in text messages, tunes played on a 3ft electronic keyboard, and a badger attack". He was presented with the 2008 Intelligent Finance Comedy Award and a cheque for £8,000 (€10,000) by the previous winner Brendon Burns and the Australian author and television presenter Clive James.

He has returned to the Edinburgh Fringe every year since with a new show, that he has toured around the world for much of the following year.

His first CD Giggle Me Timbers (Jokes Ahoy) was recorded at his bedsit flat in front of 35 people. O'Doherty's second CD release called Let's David O'Doherty was recorded at Whelan's in Dublin and released in December 2009. His third CD We Are Not The Champions was recorded in the same venue and was released in 2012.

Awards and nominations for stand-up comedy
O'Doherty has been decorated with numerous awards for his achievements in comedy. In 1999, he won the Channel 4 So You Think You're Funny Comedy Competition at the Edinburgh Fringe and was also a finalist in the BBC New Comedy Awards in the same year. He has received the accolade of Hot Press Irish Comedian of the Year in 2003 and 2010. In 2000, he was nominated for Perrier Best Newcomer Award for his show, David O'Doherty: The Boy Who Saved Comedy followed in 2006 by a nomination for The if.comeddie award for his show, David O'Doherty is My Name  He eventually won the if.comedy Award (formerly the Perrier Award) in 2008 for Let's Comedy.

In 2009 O'Doherty was made honorary president of The Monumental Brass Society, after a particularly well received routine on brass rubbing at the previous year's Edinburgh Fringe. St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, is his favourite place for brass rubbing. He was also nominated for the Barry Award at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival in 2006 and in 2014 received the award for Best International Comedian at the Sydney Comedy Festival.

 * 1999 || Edinburgh Fringe || Channel 4 So You Think You're Funny Comedy Competition winner || Won
 * 1999 || || BBC New Comedy Awards || 2nd
 * 2000 || || Perrier Best Newcomer Award || Nominated
 * 2003 || || Hot Press Irish Comedian of the Year || Won
 * 2006 || David O'Doherty is My Name || If.comedy award || Nominated
 * 2006 || David O'Doherty is My Name || Barry Award at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival || Nominated
 * 2008 || Let's Comedy || If.comedy award || Won
 * 2014 || David O’Doherty Will Try To Fix Everything || Best International Comedian Sydney Comedy Festival Awards || Won
 * 2006 || David O'Doherty is My Name || If.comedy award || Nominated
 * 2006 || David O'Doherty is My Name || Barry Award at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival || Nominated
 * 2008 || Let's Comedy || If.comedy award || Won
 * 2014 || David O’Doherty Will Try To Fix Everything || Best International Comedian Sydney Comedy Festival Awards || Won
 * 2008 || Let's Comedy || If.comedy award || Won
 * 2014 || David O’Doherty Will Try To Fix Everything || Best International Comedian Sydney Comedy Festival Awards || Won
 * 2014 || David O’Doherty Will Try To Fix Everything || Best International Comedian Sydney Comedy Festival Awards || Won
 * 2014 || David O’Doherty Will Try To Fix Everything || Best International Comedian Sydney Comedy Festival Awards || Won

Style
O'Doherty combines his comedic performance with tunes played on his miniature electronic keyboard. He describes his style of comedy in his song "FAQ for the DOD" as "very low energy musical whimsy" – or "VLEMWy", for short.

Television career
O'Doherty appears regularly on BBC and Channel 4 TV shows including QI, 8 Out of 10 Cats, Never Mind the Buzzcocks and Would I Lie to You?.

In June 2012 he became the first Irish comedian to have their own Comedy Central Presents episode on American television.

In May 2007, O'Doherty's first TV series, The Modest Adventures of David O'Doherty, began airing on RTÉ Two. The six-part series was directed by John Carney, following the completion of his Academy Award-winning film Once. The premise of each episode was to have the comedian attempt to achieve a goal which he set for himself. The show features O'Doherty, his neighbour Bryan, and his friend Maeve Higgins. A running gag in the show is a reference to road racing cyclist Stephen Roche.

Radio appearances
O'Doherty appeared on The Jon Richardson Show on BBC 6 Music on 23 November 2008 and on 8 November 2009.

He is a regular panelist on David Mitchell's Radio 4 series The Unbelievable Truth.

Literary career
O'Doherty has written widely for newspapers and magazines and also has two plays, two books and a radio series to his name. His debut book was a children's book entitled Ronan Long Gets It Wrong, written in 2001. It was illustrated by David Roberts and published by Mammoth Storybooks. His first play is entitled Saddled and was written with Bryan Quinn. It was claimed as "the world's first theatrical production to feature live repair of audience members' bicycles". In 2008, he and fellow Irish comedian Maeve Higgins performed I Can't Sleep, a play recommended for children aged 5–8. This was O'Doherty's first play for children. The play, which involved the audience entering the theatre to find both performers asleep in separate beds, was performed in both Dublin and Edinburgh.

He has also written a series for RTÉ Radio about bee detectives with his brother Mark, entitled The Bees of Manulla. O'Doherty released a book detailing 100 false facts about pandas called 100 Facts About Pandas. He followed this up with 100 Facts About Sharks which is 100 false facts about sharks. In 2014 he and illustrator, Chris Judge, released a children's book, Danger Is Everywhere: A Handbook for Avoiding Danger.

Personal life
O'Doherty is an avid cyclist and owned, as of 2021, 14 bicycles. He has mentioned that he owns more.

Filmography
In 2008, O'Doherty starred alongside comedian Dylan Moran, Keith Allen and Neil Jordan in A Film with Me in It, a cinematic release written by and starring his brother Mark Doherty.

Discography
O'Doherty has also released five live audio albums, Giggle Me Timbers (or Jokes Ahoy!), recorded in front of 35 people in his studio apartment and Let's David O'Doherty (2009), We Are Not The Champions (2012) and You Only Live (2015) recorded at Whelan's in Dublin. Live in His Own Car During A Pandemic was recorded in his car in June 2020.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: David O'Doherty


text:
Arla

Arla may refer to:
 * Arla (moth), a genus of moth
 * Arkansas Library Association
 * Arla, Greece, a village
 * Ärla, a village in south-eastern Sweden
 * Arla Foods, a large Scandinavian producer of dairy products
 * Arla (Finland), a subsidiary of Arla Foods
 * Arla Foods UK, a subsidiary of Arla Foods
 * ARLA, Armée révolutionnaire de libération de l'Azawad (French), Revolutionary Liberation Army of Azawad
 * Association of Residential Letting Agents in the UK

title: Arla


text:
George Brown, Baron George-Brown

George Alfred George-Brown, Baron George-Brown, (Brown; 2 September 1914 – 2 June 1985), was a British Labour Party politician who was Deputy Leader of the Labour Party from 1960 to 1970 and held several Cabinet roles under Prime Minister Harold Wilson, including Foreign Secretary and First Secretary of State.

After leaving school at the age of 15, Brown began work as a clerk, before joining the Transport and General Workers' Union. He rose quickly through the union ranks as an organiser, and shortly before the 1945 election he was chosen as the Labour Party candidate for the seat of Belper. He defeated the Conservative incumbent and went on to hold the seat until his own defeat at the 1970 election. He briefly served in the Attlee government as Minister of Works in 1951. After Labour lost office he was appointed to the Shadow Cabinet, and came to be regarded as a leader of the trade-union-supporting faction on the right of the Labour Party. Following the sudden death of Aneurin Bevan in 1960, Brown was successful in the election to replace him as Deputy Leader of the Labour Party.

Three years later, following the sudden death of Hugh Gaitskell, Brown became Acting Leader of the Labour Party, and consequently was briefly Leader of the Opposition. He stood in the election to gain the role permanently, but was beaten by Harold Wilson; one factor in his defeat was concern from colleagues about the impact of his well-known alcoholism, an affliction that remained with him through his life. Following Labour's victory at the 1964 election, Wilson appointed Brown as First Secretary of State, making him the next-most senior member of the Cabinet, and appointed him to the new position of Secretary of State for Economic Affairs, in an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to curtail the power of HM Treasury.

Two months after Labour's landslide victory at the snap 1966 election, Wilson moved Brown to the role of Foreign Secretary, a job he had always coveted. Despite this, Brown continued to struggle with his alcoholism, and after several arguments with Wilson in 1968, the two agreed that Brown would resign. Brown lost his seat of Belper in 1970, and shortly thereafter was elevated to the House of Lords; he insisted, having always been known simply as "George Brown", that upon taking his peerage in November 1970 he would combine his first name and surname to create his title, Baron George-Brown, of Jevington in the County of Sussex.

Early life
Brown was the eldest of four children born to George Brown and Rosina Harriett (née Mason), at Flat 22, I Block, Peabody Buildings, Duke Street, Lambeth, in the flat of his maternal grandmother, Ann Martha Mason, widow of a Scottish asphalter; the flat was in a working-class housing estate built by the Peabody Trust, a housing charity. Soon after the birth, his family left and moved to the Peabody Trust block at Peabody Square, Blackfriars Road, Southwark, near Waterloo station. His father, of a family long settled in The Borough, but who believed themselves to have Irish origins, had worked in his earlier years as a grocer's packer, then as a lorry and van driver (for Lyons, later for the Evening Standard), and served in the First World War as a chauffeur to senior British Army officers; he later became a fur salesman. A staunch trade unionist, he eventually served as a member of the executive council of the Transport and General Workers' Union, and was later employed as a full-time official. Aspersions were thus cast on his son's 'working-class credentials' in light of what were perceived to be (however inaccurately given his English, Scottish and Irish forebears) his 'East End commercial middle-class Jewish' roots.

Brown attended Gray Street Elementary School in Blackfriars where he did well enough to pass an entrance examination to the West Square Central School, a junior grammar school and now part of a conservation area. Brown had already adopted his parents' left-wing views and later claimed to have delivered leaflets for the Labour Party in the 1922 general election when he was eight years old.

The school wanted Brown to stay on beyond the age of 15, but he decided to leave to earn his living and help his parents financially. He started work as a junior clerk in the ledger department of a City firm, but was made redundant after pressing his fellow clerks to join a trade union. From 1932, he worked as a fur salesman for the John Lewis Partnership, dropping his Cockney accent to appeal to society customers. Brown earned a great deal on commission. During this time, Brown continued his education through London County Council evening schools and the Workers' Educational Association. The poverty of his upbringing led Brown in later life to resent those who had a more privileged background and a university education.

Trade union organiser
Shortly after his marriage on 27 April 1937 to Sophie Levene, daughter of Solomon Levene, a bookbinder, Brown was employed as a ledger clerk with the Transport and General Workers Union, and appointed District Organiser for Watford the next year. By now Brown was active within the Labour Party and the Labour League of Youth. He ran as a moderate candidate for the Chairmanship but at the 1937 Labour Party conference he was defeated by a left-wing candidate, Ted Willis, later a writer for television. At the 1939 Party conference Brown made his mark by a strong speech demanding the expulsion of Stafford Cripps for his advocacy of a Popular Front. For the rest of Cripps's life he refused to speak to Brown.

After the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939, Brown volunteered for the Royal Air Force but Ernest Bevin, the Minister of Labour, kept Brown and other trade union officials in their civilian jobs. Bevin was one of the Labour leaders brought into the wartime coalition government. Brown himself served as a temporary civil servant in the Ministry of Agriculture from 1940 onwards.

Member of Parliament
As a TGWU official, Brown was an attractive candidate to Labour constituencies seeking a candidate, as the TGWU would sponsor him and pay election expenses. He was selected for Belper, a mixed constituency near Derby which was one of Labour's principal target seats. In the 1945 general election, Brown gained the seat from the Conservatives with a majority of 8,881. He was invited as one of a dozen 'Young Victors' to a private dinner given by Hugh Dalton on 30 July 1945 who was talent-spotting and networking. Brown was immediately chosen to be a Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) by George Isaacs, who had followed the promoted Bevin as Minister of Labour, but his time with Isaacs was brief.

Brown was both adept at understanding political issues and how to communicate them, and convivial and generally popular within the Parliamentary Labour Party (save among the left-wing faction, whom he attacked as 'long-haired intellectuals'). He briefly worked as PPS for Chancellor of the Exchequer Hugh Dalton from April 1947, at a time when the economic situation of Britain had barely improved and the Chancellor needed the maximum political support. Brown launched an unsuccessful plot to have Clement Attlee replaced as Prime Minister by Ernest Bevin, although without consulting Bevin who did not approve.

Ministerial office
Attlee, despite knowing all about Brown's plot to depose him, swiftly appointed Brown as Joint Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries. The Prime Minister had decided that it would be best if Brown were kept busy. At the Ministry of Agriculture, Brown worked to pass the Agriculture Act 1947 which provided price support to farmers and also to provide more arable land and ease shortages of machinery and foodstuffs. Government policy aimed at increasing food production so that rationing in the United Kingdom could be lifted but progress was slow; Attlee grew to appreciate his talent. When his mentor Bevin died in April 1951, Brown was appointed Minister of Works in the Cabinet reshuffle – at the head of a Ministry but not in the Cabinet. Brown inherited a long-running struggle by the Government to have the Tower of London open to tourists on Sunday and managed to solve it by outsmarting the Constable of the Tower in negotiations.

Election of 1951
Brown ceased to be a minister when Labour lost the 1951 general election at the end of October. Like other Labour ex-ministers, Brown found himself forced to rely on an inadequate parliamentary salary; this led him to consider a return to being a trade union official. However, in 1953 he was hired as a consultant by the Mirror Group newspapers, enabling him to stay in politics.

Brown was a partisan participant in the Labour Party's internecine struggles in the early 1950s, opposing the Bevanite campaign. His natural campaigning ability became well-known, as did his tendency to be rude to those with whom he had disagreements. Shortly after the 1955 general election, Brown was elected to the Shadow cabinet for the first time; from that December, when his friend Hugh Gaitskell became Leader of the Labour Party, Brown found it easier to win promotion. Brown had a private but widely publicised shouting-match with Soviet leaders Nikita Khrushchev and Nikolai Bulganin when he was part of a Labour Party delegation invited to dine with them on their British visit in April 1956. In October that year, he lost the election for Treasurer of the Labour Party to Aneurin Bevan by 3,029,000 to 2,755,000 votes.

Deputy leadership
When Bevan died in July 1960, the Deputy Leadership of the Labour Party became vacant at a time when the Labour Party was severely divided over Clause IV of the party constitution. Brown was encouraged to stand as the candidate of the Gaitskellite right; the other candidates were left-winger Frederick Lee and the moderate but insufficiently senior James Callaghan. Brown was elected, beating Lee by 146 votes to 83 when Callaghan had been eliminated. Gaitskell as Leader and Brown as Deputy Leader were not viewed by most of the Labour left as a balanced ticket, and Brown was challenged for the job in both 1961, by Barbara Castle, and 1962, by Harold Wilson. Part of his job was to improve Labour's by-election campaigning, and he was successful in winning several, such as that at Middlesbrough West.

Gaitskell's sudden death in January 1963 made Brown's challenge for the party leadership inevitable. However, he mishandled the opening of his campaign. At the first Shadow Cabinet meeting after Gaitskell's death, Brown and his leadership rival Harold Wilson agreed to a clean fight. Wilson, who was accused by the right of undermining party unity, then informed the press that each agreed to serve under the other, which countered his reputation for plotting; Brown repudiated any such agreement, laying himself open to that accusation.

Personal problems
Many on the right of the Labour Party, including Anthony Crosland and Denis Healey, supported James Callaghan for the leadership. They were opposed to Wilson's being elected leader, but they had good reason not to trust Brown. Partly this was because of private knowledge of his excessive drinking, which exacerbated his rude and aggressive style of politics and originated the Private Eye euphemism for intoxication, "tired and emotional". Crosland called the leadership election "A choice between a crook (Wilson) and a drunk (Brown)." Many Labour MPs who were prepared to accept Brown as deputy leader were unhappy with the idea of his being in charge, and Wilson was easily elected. His colleague Roy Jenkins says that he was:
 * unenthusiastically but firmly for Brown....Brown was certainly not a tepid character. He had great qualities both of intellect and personality, although they were balanced by appalling faults. He drank too much, particularly for his not very strong head....And he confounded the trouble by being also capable of violent switches of mood, even when sober. On the big issues, he was almost invariably right and pursued his conviction with persistent courage.

The mainstream press had not publicised his drinking, but it later became apparent when Brown was invited on Associated-Rediffusion television to pay tribute to John F. Kennedy after his assassination (Brown was probably the closest Labour politician to Kennedy). Brown had come from a dinner in Shoreditch where he had already drunk a great deal, and drank more while preparing to go on air – having a row with actor Eli Wallach which became physical. When Brown went on air, millions of viewers saw him interpret a fair question as an accusation of his having overstated his closeness, then give a morose and slurred tribute from which it was apparent he was intoxicated. Brown had to issue a public apology.

Brown bitterly resented his leadership defeat, which came only weeks after he had defeated Wilson for the deputy leadership. He disappeared for five days after the result was declared, using an assumed name to book a flight to Glasgow; the newspapers were full of stories about the vanishing politician. When he returned he demanded of Wilson that he be appointed Shadow Foreign Secretary, which Wilson refused.

He retained the deputy leadership and despite his personal differences, played an important part in advising Wilson about Labour's campaign strategy in the 1964 general election. It was decided that Wilson would make only a limited number of major campaign speeches outside London, while Brown would tour the country speaking in all the marginal seats (his main theme was predicting an imminent economic crisis). Brown later calculated that he had made 100 speeches. In one he made a gaffe by suggesting that the mortgage interest rate could be cut to 3%; the Conservative Chancellor of the Exchequer Reginald Maudling was quick to capitalise on this and ask how much it would cost.

Department of Economic Affairs
Labour won the election with a small parliamentary majority in 1964. As previously arranged with Wilson, Brown was appointed to the newly created Department of Economic Affairs and Deputy Prime Minister in October 1964 through which they both hoped to institute long-term economic planning and remove some of the power of the Treasury.

Immediately on taking office Brown was told that the budget deficit for the coming year was forecast at £800 million, double what the Labour Party had predicted as the worst possible figure before the election. The leading economic ministers were presented with three options, including devaluation of the pound sterling, to meet the crisis. They decided on a temporary surcharge on imported goods. However, over the next few months Brown was persuaded by his deputy Anthony Crosland that ruling out devaluation had been a mistake. The pound continued to be under pressure in 1965 and Brown struggled over a 12-hour meeting at the Trades Union Congress to persuade the unions to accept a tougher prices and incomes policy, to which he was personally opposed.

The most important function of the DEA was to prepare a 'National Plan' for the economy. Brown became personally identified with the project, which helped increase enthusiasm for it among officials and the Labour Party, while also interesting the press. After nearly a year's work the Plan was unveiled on 16 September 1965, pledging to cover "all aspects of the country's development for the next five years". The Plan called for a 25% growth in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) from 1964 to 1970, which worked out at 3.8% annually. There were 39 specific actions listed, although many were criticised as vague.

July measures
Following the 1966 general election at which Labour won re-election with a parliamentary majority of 96, the government was hit by a severe financial crisis. The question of devaluation was raised again in a more pressing way, with Brown now strongly supporting it, but Harold Wilson was firmly opposed, preferring a set of deflationary measures including spending cuts and interest rate rises. Brown believed that these measures would damage the economy. Chancellor of the Exchequer James Callaghan found himself in the middle, as he opposed devaluation but felt that without prompt action it was inevitable. Wilson tried to keep Brown on board, even offering to make him Chancellor should Callaghan resign, but Brown stood firm. When the Cabinet voted by 17–6 against devaluation, Brown sent a letter of resignation.

Wilson craftily sent the letter back to Brown so that he could deny having received it, and then sent George Wigg to try to talk Brown out of it. This did not prevent the news reaching the public; Wigg then changed his position and told Brown that Wilson would accept his resignation. Bizarrely this convinced Brown to stay and he accepted all of Wilson's terms for staying in the government in a late night meeting before announcing his "un-resignation" to the press in Downing Street.

Move to Foreign Office
Brown was reshuffled to become Foreign Secretary in August 1966, a job he coveted. He was considered by some of his Cabinet colleagues not to have 'precisely the right temperament for the Foreign Office'. This decision had implications for the government's stance on the European Economic Community as Brown had always favoured entry. Wilson had been sceptical, but not opposed outright, to joining but Brown persuaded him and the rest of the Labour Party to support an application. In May 1967 it was announced that Britain had made its second application to join. Like the first, it was vetoed by Charles de Gaulle.

Brown's drinking became more pronounced as he became depressed by his loss of face in July 1966. His reaction to his depression was to launch vituperative attacks, for example at the son of newspaper proprietor Cecil King in October 1967. In 1968, he publicly insulted the wife of the British ambassador to France, Sir Patrick Reilly, at a dinner party at the French embassy in London, and later ended the ambassador's career over personal differences. After Wilson was told of the incident with King, Brown came round and told Wilson that he had just had a terrible row with his wife and could not continue in Government. More and more people were becoming aware of Brown's alcoholism, and Private Eye magazine managed to hint at the scandal with a parody of a memo titled "Brown: F.O. Acts". The memo gave translations into various languages for the words tired, overwrought, expansive, overworked, colourful and emotional, and coined the phrase "tired and emotional" as a euphemism for 'drunk'. A number of anecdotes recounting stories of his drunkenness circulated. The most well known was that, while drunk attending a formal function in Peru, he supposedly asked the Archbishop of Lima to dance with him, mistaking the Archbishop for a woman and not realising that the Peruvian national anthem was being played. The story is likely to be untrue as Brown did not visit South America during his term.

Brown, indeed, once boasted that "Many members of parliament drink and womanise – now, I've never womanised"; which was almost certainly true. There was never a whisper about his sex-life during his career.

Resignation
Despite devaluation in November 1967, the pound came again under severe pressure in March 1968. When Wilson wanted to declare an emergency bank holiday to give breathing space, he attempted to contact his Foreign Secretary. Brown could not be found and his staff reported his condition as "only 'so-so' when last seen", and so Wilson convened a special meeting of the Privy Council without him. Brown was incensed that Wilson had not tried further to contact him, and got together with other ministers who had not been informed to face down Wilson at a meeting in the early hours of the morning. Brown, who appeared very drunk, incoherently shouted at Wilson, who was almost as angry and stood up for himself. At the end of the meeting Brown stormed out.

It was unclear whether he had resigned but Brown did nothing the next day to apologise. At six o'clock that evening he sent a letter which said "I think it better that we should part company" but did not mention "resignation". Wilson decided to reply by accepting Brown's resignation but also sent a message saying that Brown had half an hour to say whether the letter had been misinterpreted. Brown did not act on this and so left the government, but not in the blaze of glory for which he had hoped.

In Cabinet papers released in 1999 it was clear that Wilson was in turmoil over Brown's resignation in 1968: seventeen drafts of his reply were written before finally accepting his resignation.

Defeat
Brown's constituency of Belper had undergone considerable development since he had been elected. Most of the new housing was for middle class areas near Derby and contained mostly Conservative voters. Although a Boundary Commission report in 1969 recommended the abolition of the seat, the Government decided to postpone the changes and Brown was obliged to stand in a seat which was shifting away from his party. Added to this problem, he remained deputy leader of the Labour Party and toured the country making speeches for other Labour candidates during the 1970 general election. His Conservative opponent Geoffrey Stewart-Smith had spent the last four years nursing the Parliamentary constituency. Brown lost his seat by more than 2,000 votes.

In Brown's speech shortly after the result, he said that he would "lend" his constituency to the Conservatives.

Life peerage
Brown swiftly decided not to try to regain his seat and received a life peerage in the Dissolution Honours List. When the award was announced, Brown told the press, "As I understand it, I have to pick a title – but I hope to everybody, I will simply remain George Brown." This foreshadowed a long dispute over the wording of the title. Brown wished to be "Lord George Brown," but Garter King of Arms argued that peerage titles traditionally included only surnames, not forenames. Brown had no sympathy with the objection, and noted that there had been counter-examples such as Lord Ritchie-Calder and Lord Francis-Williams. Also Field Marshal Sir Alan Brooke became Viscount Alanbrooke. Eventually, Garter King of Arms gave way on condition that Brown simultaneously change his surname to George-Brown, so finally his title ended as Baron George-Brown, of Jevington in the County of Sussex. In 1971, he published his memoirs, entitled In My Way. On hearing the title Harold Wilson supposedly commented that it was very appropriate, because that was just where he had always found George Brown over the years. He found work at the textile company Courtaulds, and later worked for Commercial Credit (Holdings) and British Northrop.

On 2 March 1976, George-Brown announced that he was leaving the Labour Party in protest at government legislation which strengthened the closed shop. This announcement was overshadowed when he collapsed and fell into a gutter, having to be helped out by newspaper reporters, which was presumed to be a result of his drinking. The Times the next day printed the opinion that "Lord George-Brown drunk is a better man than the Prime Minister sober."

George-Brown was invited to deliver the 1978 Marlow (Scotland) Lecture to the Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland. He chose the subject "Britain's future: the significance of the European dimension".

George-Brown became the president of the Social Democratic Alliance in January 1981, and was a signatory to an advertisement in The Guardian on 5 February in support of the Limehouse Declaration. However, he did not announce his membership of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) for another four years. By that point, his reputation had so declined that Bill Rodgers, who had been Brown's Parliamentary Private Secretary at the Department of the Secretary of State for Economic Affairs (DEA) and the Foreign Office, described him as "an embarrassment rather than an asset to his old friends who founded the SDP." His brother Ron, who had been a Labour MP since 1964, had also joined the party.

In 1978, George-Brown hired a young Canadian woman, Kathy Mason, as his personal secretary, and she worked for him until the spring of 1980. At that time, before returning to Canada, Mason trained the newly hired Maggie Haimes, then aged 31, to fill her position. Two years later, on 24 December 1982, after 45 years of marriage, Brown walked out on his wife and set up home with Haimes. He did not, however, change his 1969 will which gave his estate to Lady George-Brown.

Death
As his health deteriorated, George-Brown, an Anglo-Catholic Anglican was received into the Roman Catholic faith. Suffering from cirrhosis of the liver, he died following a stroke on 2 June 1985 at Duchy Hospital in Truro, Cornwall. He was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium in London, and his ashes buried under a rose bush in the crematorium gardens. He was survived by his wife, Sophie, Lady George-Brown (née Levene) (1911–1990), daughters, Frieda and Pat, and mistress, Margaret "Maggie" Haimes.

title: George Brown, Baron George-Brown


text:
Ummagumma

Ummagumma is the fourth album by English rock band Pink Floyd. It is a double album and was released on 7 November 1969 by Harvest Records. The first disc consists of live recordings from concerts at Mothers Club in Birmingham and the College of Commerce in Manchester that contained part of their normal set list of the time, while the second contains solo compositions by each member of the band recorded at EMI Studios (now Abbey Road Studios). The artwork was designed by regular Pink Floyd collaborators Hipgnosis and features a number of pictures of the band combined to give a Droste effect. It was the last album cover to feature the band.

Although Ummagumma was well received at the time of release, and was a top five hit in the UK album charts, it has since been looked upon unfavourably by critics and by the band, who have expressed lukewarm opinions about it in interviews. The album has been reissued on CD several times, along with the rest of their catalogue.

Title
The album's title supposedly comes from Cambridge slang for sex, commonly used by Pink Floyd friend and occasional roadie, Iain "Emo" Moore, who would say, "I'm going back to the house for some ummagumma". According to Moore, he made up the term himself. Drummer Nick Mason later said the album was titled "because it sounded interesting and nice."

Background

The original idea behind the live album was to feature fan favourites that would subsequently be dropped from the set. Although the sleeve notes say that the live material was recorded in June 1969, the live album of Ummagumma was recorded live at Mothers Club in Birmingham on 27 April 1969 and the following week at Manchester College of Commerce on 2 May as part of The Man and The Journey Tour. Keyboardist Richard Wright later said the recording of "A Saucerful of Secrets" was a composite from both gigs. A show at Bromley Technical College on 26 April was also recorded but not used. The band had also recorded a live version of "Interstellar Overdrive" (from The Piper at the Gates of Dawn) intended for placement on side one of the live album, and "Embryo", which was recorded in the studio before it was decided that the band members each come up with their own material.

The studio album was recorded in stages between September 1968 and July 1969. The structure came as a result of Wright wanting to make "real music", where the four group members (in order: Wright, Roger Waters, David Gilmour and Mason) each had half an LP side to create a solo work without involvement from the others. Wright's contribution, "Sysyphus", was named after a character in Greek mythology, usually spelled "Sisyphus", and contained a combination of various keyboards, including piano and mellotron. Although initially enthusiastic about making a solo contribution, Wright later described it as "pretentious".

Waters' "Grantchester Meadows" was a more pastoral acoustic offering that referred back to his youth in the Cambridge suburbs. It originated from an instrumental piece that had been occasionally performed live and was usually played as an opening to concerts during 1969, with vocals. His other track, "Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving with a Pict", contained a variety of vocal and percussion effects treated at various speeds, both forwards and backwards, and was influenced by Ron Geesin, who would later collaborate with both Waters and Pink Floyd. The two tracks were bridged by the sound of a fly being swatted.

Gilmour has since stated he was apprehensive about creating a solo work, and admits he "went into a studio and started waffling about, tacking bits and pieces together", although part one of "The Narrow Way" had already been performed as "Baby Blue Shuffle in D Major" in a BBC radio session in December 1968. Gilmour said he "just bullshitted" through the piece. He asked Waters to write some lyrics for his compositions, but Waters refused to do so. The third part of the suite was briefly performed live in early 1969.

Mason's three-part "The Grand Vizier's Garden Party" featured his then wife, Lindy, playing uncredited flute on the first and third parts. The seven-minute second part incorporated percussion, tape effects and drum soloing. Although this track was not performed live, a similar drum solo, "Doing It", was incorporated into The Man live suite.

Packaging
The album was the first album by the band released on the Harvest label. The cover artwork shows a Droste effect featuring the group, with a picture hanging on the wall showing the same scene, except that the band members have switched positions, and this is then repeated two more times. On most older editions, in the very center of the Droste pattern is a tiny rendering of the band's previous LP A Saucerful of Secrets; newer editions depict the Droste pattern repeating indefinitely. The cover of the original LP varies between the British, United States, Canadian and Australian releases. The British version has the Gigi soundtrack album leaning against the wall immediately above the "Pink Floyd" letters. Storm Thorgerson explained that the album was introduced as a red herring to provoke debate, and that it has no intended meaning. On most copies of US and Canadian editions, the Gigi cover is airbrushed to a plain white sleeve, apparently because of copyright concerns, but the earliest US copies do show the Gigi cover, and it was restored for the US remastered CD edition. On the Australian edition, the Gigi cover is completely airbrushed, not even leaving a white square behind. The house used as the location for the front cover of the album is located in Great Shelford, near Cambridge.

On the rear cover, roadies Alan Styles (who also appears in "Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast") and Peter Watts are shown with the band's equipment laid out on a taxiway at London Biggin Hill Airport. This concept was proposed by Mason, with the intention of replicating the "exploded" drawings of military aircraft and their payloads, which were popular at the time. The inner gatefold art shows separate black-and-white photos of the band members. Gilmour is seen standing in front of the Elfin Oak. Original vinyl editions showed Waters with his first wife, Judy Trim, but she has been cropped out of the picture on most CD editions (with the original photo's caption "Roger Waters (and Jude)" accordingly changed to just "Roger Waters"). The uncropped picture was restored for the album's inclusion in the box set Oh, by the Way.

On the US and Canadian release there are additional titles of the four sections of the song "A Saucerful of Secrets". These titles did not appear on British editions, nor on any copies of the earlier album A Saucerful of Secrets.

Release history
Ummagumma was released in the UK and US on 7 and 8 November 1969, respectively. It reached number 5 on the UK albums chart and number 74 in the US, marking the first time the band reached the top 100 there. Similarly in Canada, it was their first appearance on the charts, reaching number 78. The album was certified gold in the US in February 1974 and platinum in March 1994. US versions of the cassette retained only "Astronomy Domine" from the live set and omitted the three other tracks. In 1987, the album was re-released on a two-CD set. A digitally remastered version was issued in 1994.

In 2009, to mark the 40th anniversary of the album's release, Thorgerson sold a limited number of autographed lithographs of the front cover.

In 2011, it was reissued featuring a remastered version with various other material. Although the 2011 re-release campaign Why Pink Floyd...? presented all fourteen albums newly remastered in 2011, only the studio disc of Ummagumma was remastered – the live disc is the previous 1994 version. Both the live and studio album were re-issued in 2016 with Pink Floyd Records label.

Reception
On release, Ummagumma received favourable reviews. International Times was particularly positive about the live album, with the reviewer describing it as "probably one of the best live recordings I have ever heard". Stylus Magazine was very positive towards the album, saying the live album was "as a visceral document of the early Floyd's proclivity for atmospheric, energetic jamming, there's nothing else like it" and that the studio one "somehow transcends its fractured construction to make a full album-length statement".

However, retrospective reviewers have given it mixed-to-negative ratings. Rolling Stone and MusicHound each awarded the album a score of 2.5 out of 5, while Paste, reviewing the 2011 re-release, described the album as "rock excess of the worst kind", although the writer praised the live version of "Careful with that Axe, Eugene". In his review for the Pink Floyd album Atom Heart Mother, Robert Christgau suggested that Ummagumma's "hypnotic melodies" made it "an admirable record to fall asleep to". Paul Stump, in his book The Music's All that Matters: A History of Progressive Rock, approved of the first disc for its "often involvingly spiritual live improvisation", while deriding most of the studio disc, going so far as to liken "Sysyphus" to "an excitable two-year-old let loose on the bass end of a piano keyboard". However, he praised both of Waters's solo contributions and the editing and splicing techniques used on "The Grand Vizier's Tea Party".

The band have since been dismissive and critical of the work. Recalling the album in later years, Waters said: "Ummagumma – what a disaster!", while in 1995, Gilmour described the album as "horrible". In a 1984 interview, Mason said: "I thought it was a very good and interesting little exercise, the whole business of everyone doing a bit. But I still feel really that that's quite a good example of the sum being greater than the parts ..." Later, he described it as "a failed experiment", adding that "the most significant thing is that we didn't do it again".

Dragonfly species
In December 2015 scientists named a newfound insect of the genus Umma – a damselfly – Umma gumma after the album.

Track listing
Live album

Studio album

Personnel
Pink Floyd
 * David Gilmour – lead guitar, vocals (live album); voices on "Several Species of Small Furry Animals..."; acoustic and electric guitars, bass guitar, keyboards, drums and vocals on "The Narrow Way"
 * Nick Mason – drums (live album); percussion, effects on "The Grand Vizier's Garden Party" parts 1 & 2
 * Roger Waters – bass guitar, vocals (live album); acoustic guitars and vocals on "Grantchester Meadows", voices on "Several Species of Small Furry Animals..."
 * Richard Wright – keyboards, vocals (live album); organ, piano, Mellotron and percussion on "Sysyphus"

Additional personnel
 * Lindy Mason – flutes on "The Grand Vizier's Garden Party" Parts 1 & 3 (uncredited)
 * Brian Humphries – engineering (live album)
 * Pink Floyd – production (live album)
 * Peter Mew – engineering (studio album)
 * Norman Smith – production (studio album)
 * Hipgnosis – sleeve design and photographs

title: Ummagumma


text:
Arla Foods

Arla Foods Group is a Danish-Swedish multinational co-operative based in Viby, Denmark. It is the fifth biggest dairy company in the world and the largest producer of dairy products in Scandinavia and United Kingdom.

Arla Foods was formed as the result of a merger between the Swedish dairy co-operative Arla and the Danish dairy company MD Foods on 17 April 2000. The name Arla derives from the same word as the English word 'early' and is an archaic Swedish term for 'early (in the morning)'.

Origins
In the 1880s, dairy farmers in Sweden and Denmark formed small co-operatives to invest in common dairy production facilities. The first dairy co-operative was established in Sweden at Stora Arla Gård in Västmanland in 1881 under the name of Arla Mejeriförening, and the first Danish cooperative dairy was established in Hjedding, outside Ølgod, Southern Jutland in 1882.

On 26 April 1915, dairy farmers in Stockholm and adjoining counties created Sweden's largest co-operative dairy organisation, Lantmännens mjölkförsäljningsförening (the Farmers' Milk Retail Association), which operated dairies as well as a chain of shops selling dairy products.

In 1927, the company registered the name Mjölkcentralen (The Milk Centre, shortened MC) and from the 1950s a growing number of cooperative dairies in other parts of Sweden began joining MC. In 1975, MC changed its name to Arla, a name previously used not only by Sweden's first co-operative dairy, but also by the largest dairy retailer in Gothenburg between 1909 and 1965.

By the end of the 20th century, Arla had a 65% market share in Sweden.

On 1 October 1970, Mejeriselskabet Danmark (MD) was established by four dairy companies and three individual dairies. In 1988, the company changed name to MD Foods. In 1992, MD Foods and Denmark's second largest dairy company, Kløver Mælk, signed a financially binding co-operation agreement, and in 1999, the two companies merged to become MD Foods, gaining 90% of the Danish milk production.

In April 2000, MD Foods merged with Swedish Arla and formed Arla Foods A.m.b.A with headquarters in Aarhus, Denmark, and became Arla Foods as it is known today.

Current operations
Arla Foods is the fourth largest dairy company in the world with respect to milk volume, seventh with respect to turnover. At the start of 2022, 8,492 farmers across Denmark, Sweden, Germany, the UK, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg owned the cooperative.

Arla Foods has many brands; several minor brands and four strategic brands. The major and strategic brands are: Arla, Lurpak, Puck and Castello cheeses that are sold worldwide. The Arla Brand is both a co-operative brand and a brand across all product categories. The Lurpak brand of butter and spreads is owned by the Danish Dairy Board, Puck is Arla brand equivalent in the MENA region, and Castello is a cheese brand including blue cheese and yellow cheeses.

Next to the four major brands, Arla also has a long-term strategic partnership with Starbucks to manufacture, distribute and market their RTD (ready to drink) coffee products for the EMEA region (Europe, the Middle East and Africa).

In 2011 Arla Foods incorporated Arla Foods Ingredients (AFI), a former division, as an independent subsidiary. The company develops and manufactures milk based ingredients, primarily functional and nutritional milk proteins, bioactive phospholipids, minerals, permeate and lactose for the food industry.

The head office is located in Denmark. Arla Foods Ingredients has one wholly owned production plant in Denmark, with joint venture production at facilities in Argentina and Germany. In March 2011, Arla Foods and DMK formed the joint venture company ArNoCo GmbH & Co. KG, to produce whey proteins for the food industry. In February 2018, Arla Foods announced its plans to invest £70 million in the UK, as part of its strategy to secure long-term opportunities for its farmers across Europe. In October 2019, Arla Foods has invested an estimated €50 million (US$55 million) in a cheese production site in Bahrain. By 2025, Arla expects to increase annual production in Bahrain to more than 100,000 tons under its Puck, Arla, Dano, Kraft and Private Label brands.

2006 boycott
Arla's sales were seriously affected by a two-month long boycott of Danish products in the Middle East in 2006. Anger among Muslims over satirical cartoons of Prophet Muhammad published in Denmark was the initial cause.

When the Danish government refused to condemn the cartoons or meet with eleven ambassadors from Muslim nations, a boycott of Danish products was organised, starting in Saudi Arabia and spreading across the Middle East. The Middle East is Arla's largest market outside of Europe.

On 3 February 2006, the company said that sales in the Middle East dried up completely, costing the company US$2 million a day. Soon after the boycott hit Arla's sales, the Danish government met with Muslim ambassadors and the newspaper issued an apology. Despite this, the boycott continued unabated for two months.

In March 2006, Arla took out full page advertising in Saudi Arabia, apologising for the cartoons and indicating Arla's respect for Islam in the country. This caused controversy in Denmark, where women's organisations and some politicians criticised Arla, and called on Danish women to boycott Arla's products in Denmark. In April 2006, the company said that its products were being placed back in shops in the Middle East.

Before the boycott, it supplied 50,000 shops in the area. It announced that many of its largest clients in Saudi Arabia would start selling its butter and cheese on 8 April 2006. At that time, Arla began sponsoring humanitarian causes in the Middle East to foster good public relations with the region.

Don’t Cancel the Cow campaign
In 2022, Arla launched an advertising campaign called Don't Cancel the Cow claiming the rise of veganism among young people was the reason the dairy industry's future is uncertain. The campaign targets young people over their concern about the environmental impact of cows milk.

Indonesia
In Indonesia, Arla is distributed by Indofood, Pandurasa Kharisma, & Prambanan Kencana as joint venture and import company.

Malaysia
In Malaysia, Arla is distributed by Lamsoon who also distribute Lion Corporation products.

China
In China, Arla is distributed by Mengniu.

Japan
In Japan, Arla was once distributed by Morinaga Milk Industry. However, it is now distributed by various small companies.

Korea
In Korea, Arla is distributed by Maeil Dairies.

Egypt
In Egypt, Arla is distributed by Juhayna.

West Africa
In West Africa, Arla is distributed by Tolaram Group who also distribute Indomie, Nestle, and Colgate.

United States
In US, Arla is distributed by Dairy Farmers of America who also distribute Fromageries Bel.

Germany
In Germany, Arla is distributed by DMK Group.

United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom, Arla is distributed by Volac who also distribute Nestle, First Milk and Wilmar.

title: Arla Foods