US commando having left instead of 2nd Engineers in recognition of fighting? (5,4)
I believe the answer is:
green belt
'recognition of fighting?' is the definition.
The definition suggests a singular noun which matches the answer.
'us commando having left instead of 2nd engineers' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'left' could be 'l' (common abbreviation) and 'l' is located in the answer.
'engineers' could be 're' (Royal Engineers) and 're' is located in the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
'in' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for green belt that I've seen before include "Martial artist" , "Undeveloped land surrounding a city" , "land embracing a community?" , "area of open land near town" , "Supposedly a no-go area for new building" .)