Forty-five members of X Troop participated in the D-Day landings at Normandy on 6 June 1944, of which 27 were killed, wounded or reported missing. Max Lewinsky was killed on a landing craft alongside fellow member Ernest Weinberger. Lewinsky’s young wife was pregnant back in Aberdyfi when he died. George Lane (born György Lányi in Upper Hungary, now mostly part of Slovakia) was a member of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) who was captured by the Germans in Occupied France. Incredibly, he managed to avoid detection as a Jewish refugee by putting on his best Welsh accent (which he had acquired after being billeted at Aberdyfi) while being questioned by German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel.

Eighteen X Troop commandos were commissioned during the course of the war, with four receiving battlefield commissions. One of them, Manfred Gans, was even able to reunite with his parents when he found them at Theresienstadt. Most X Troopers, however, were the only family members to survive the war. X Troop leader Hilton-Jones later recalled that “Despite many and serious difficulties, this band of ‘enemy alien’ volunteers earnt for itself a not unflattering reputation, the achievement of which was in no small measure due to the sincerity and wholeheartedness put into his service by every member of the troop. For them perhaps more than for any others it was a question of self-respect and self-justification.”

The troop was formally disbanded in September 1945, but many commandos remained in Germany to use their unique skills during the denazification process. Although there was some delay, the X Troopers were subsequently naturalised as British citizens, having been classified as ‘enemy aliens’ since 1939. Some members eventually returned to Wales; Konstantin Goldstern (AKA Robert Kenneth Garvin) lived there until his death in Ceredigion in 1981. In 1999, a memorial was erected in Aberdyfi commemorating their sacrifices, alongside a Commando Rose Bed. Over twenty veterans were able to attend the ceremony.