38 minute read
A Short History of the Royal Marines
from Commando 80
Military journalist and writer Ali Kefford provides a short history of the Royal Marines’ long and distinguished story from their first musket-carrying forebears in the First Dutch War over 350 years ago to today’s highly-trained elite forces combining renowned courage and bravery with the latest in agile military technology.
Today’s Royal Marines patrol in Cyre Precision combat clothing, equipped with night goggles and a C8 Colt Carbine Rifle or SA80. It’s a far cry from the khaki battledress and newlyminted green beret of World War II, when the very first Commandos began yomping the 18 miles from Achnacarry up Ben Nevis and back again in a day.
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And they’re unrecognisable when compared to the Marines going into their initial battle over 350 years ago, wearing yellow coats with red facings, sashes and stockings, and clutching a flintlock musket. Yet Commandos never forget their distinguished lineage; a sliver of that first uniform still survives to this day, with yellow forming one band of the Corps Colours.
Forerunners
The distant forerunner of today’s elite forces was formed at the outbreak of the Second Dutch War, when a regiment of 1,200 men was recruited to serve the ‘Navy Royal and Admiralty’. Named after the Lord High Admiral, who at the time was King Charles II’s brother James, The Duke of York and Albany’s Maritime Regiment of Foot was founded on October 28, 1664. As they were originally recruited from the Trained Bands of London, the Royal Marines are today one of the few regiments entitled to march through the City with Colours flying, drums beating and bayonets fixed.
Use of the iconic word ‘Marines’ is now commonplace, but its first mention was in 1672 in a letter penned by regiment member Captain Sylas Taylor following the Battle of Solebay.
Gibraltar
When the War of the Spanish Succession broke out in 1702, six Marine regiments were raised, most of which fought alongside 400 Dutch Marines to successfully seize Gibraltar.
The fortress on the Mediterranean rock had survived 11 previous attempts to capture it but succumbed to the bombardment and attack, forcing the Spanish Governor Diego de Salinas to reluctantly surrender. The only battle honour on the Royal Marines’ Colours is the one garnered for their triumph at Gibraltar, which they went on to successfully defend in the face of repeated Franco-Spanish assaults, until the siege ended in the New Year of 1705.
A commentator at the time observed how “the garrison did more than could be humanly expected and the Royal Marines gained immortal honour”.
Permanent Force
In 1755, 5,000 Marines were recruited to form three Divisions based at Chatham, Portsmouth and Plymouth. The historical practice of disbanding them between wars ended and they became a permanent fixture in the country’s military.
By 1758 numbers had been increased to a total of 14,845 in 100 companies and, three years later, the diminutive, grenadier cap-wearing Marines played a decisive role in the capture of Belle Isle, an island off the Brittany coast, as part of the Seven Years War. The French even sniffily conceded that ‘les petits grenadiers’ had been the enemy’s most impressive component. It is believed that the laurel leaf which forms part of today’s Corps insignia was awarded to honour their sheer grit that day.
Sketch of Gibraltar by an officer of Admiral Rooke’s fleet on August 1, 1704.
‘The Death of Nelson’ 1859-64, by Daniel Maclise
18th Century
Marines were present at a plethora of key moments in Britain’s 18th century history.
The opening shots of the American War of Independence were fired by a Marine battalion in Lexington on April 19, 1775.
They stood beside Captain Cook when he landed at Botany Bay in HMS Endeavour in April 1770.
And when the first British convicts were transported to Sydney Cove eight years later, they were accompanied by 21 officers and 192 men. Their commanding officer Major Robert Ross became the first Lieutenant Governor of New South Wales and then of Norfolk Island. Widely loathed, he eventually flounced home after failing to win a duel in December 1791.
At the height of the war with France at the end of the 18th century, Marine numbers reached 23,000 and they fought ferociously from frigates and sloops. The combination of this and their loyalty during the great naval mutinies of Spithead and the Nore in 1797 resulted in King George III directing on April 29, 1802 that the Corps should in future be known as the ‘Royal Marines’. New scarlet uniforms with blue facings were immediately ordered so that they could be worn in time to celebrate the King’s birthday on June 4. The men proudly paraded through Plymouth wearing them and a grand ball was thrown in their honour.
First Lord of the Admiralty Lord St Vincent wrote: “In obtaining for them the distinction of ‘Royal’ I but inefficiently did my duty.
“I never knew an appeal made to them for honour, courage or loyalty, that they did not more than realise my highest expectations.
“If ever the hour of real danger should come to England, they will be found the country’s sheet anchor.”
Trafalgar
October 21, 1805 is a date branded on the memory of every member of the Royal Navy as it saw Nelson trounce the French and Spanish fleets at the Battle of Trafalgar, off Spain. Over one tenth of the Corps were serving in the Admiral’s fleet at the time, fighting on deck and in the mastheads of his warships.
Royal Marine Second Lieutenant Roteley described the scene on HMS Victory as being “like a hailstorm of bullets passing over our heads on the poop, where we had 40 Marines with small arms.”
In the early afternoon Victory locked masts with the French ship Redoutable and Nelson was fatally shot. Royal Marine Sergeant James Secker caught the felled admiral and he and two seamen carried him below to die.
Despite this, Trafalgar remains the Royal Navy’s greatest triumph.
In 1827 King George IV decreed that the 110 battle honours the Royal Marines had amassed by then should be simply represented by a globe in their insignia, surrounded by the laurel wreath adopted in honour of the victory at the Battle of Belle Isle.
Crimea and the first VCs
During the Crimean War, sparked by Britain and France coming to the assistance of the beleaguered Ottoman Empire, the Royal Marines proved once again that they were utterly devoid of fear. November 1854 saw 300 troops under Captain Hopkins take part in the Battle of Inkerman. A party led by Sergeant Richards and Corporal John Prettyjohns successfully cleared some caves of snipers, only to realise they were running short of ammunition as they spotted more enemy sneaking up the hill towards them.
Sergeant Turner observed how “Prettyjohns, a strong West Countryman, said: ‘Look alive, my hearties, and collect all the stones handy, and pile them on the ridge in front of you.
‘When I grip the front man, you let go the biggest stones upon those fellows behind.”
‘As soon as the first man stood on the level, Prettyjohns gripped him and threw him over upon the men following, and a shower of stones from the others knocked the leaders over.
‘Away they went, tumbling one over the other, down the incline…’”
For this, Corporal Prettyjohns was awarded the Victoria Cross, the newlyintroduced highest honour for gallantry.
Two further Crimean Victoria Crosses followed.
Bombadier Thomas Wilkinson, 23, received his for replacing damaged defences in Sevastopol by adding cumbersome sandbags to advanced batteries whilst in a hail of bullets on June 7, 1855.
The Royal Marine Artillery’s Lieutenant George Dowell showed similar selfless valour.
The 24-year-old watched in horror as an explosion tore through a British cutter during fighting at the Fort of Viborg on July 13. With the help of three volunteers, he not only rescued the rocket boat’s crew but then towed her under Russian guns to safety.
All three men received their awards from Queen Victoria in Hyde Park in 1857.
That same year an Order in Council designated the infantry a ‘Light Corps’.
Thus, the two Corps became the Royal Marines Light Infantry, known as ‘Red Marines’ because of their scarlet tunics, and the Royal Marines Artillery, known as the ‘Blue Marines’.
The Boxer Rebellion
Members of the Royal Marines Legation Guard at Peking (now Beijing), China, photographed with foreign diplomats and civilians who were besieged in the British Legation in the summer of 1900. Photo courtesy of the Royal Marines Museum, Portsmouth.
At the end of May 1900, Boxers began threatening foreign diplomatic staff based in a compound next to the Imperial City walls in Peking, China. Britain and America both despatched an influx of Marines, but days after their arrival the German minister was murdered by his Chinese escort and the compound became under siege.
For the next 55 days, the Chinese lurked at its perimeter, burning buildings and taking pot shots. The 120-strong British and US fought fiercely side-byside, laying the foundations for a strong bond which has existed between the two forces ever since.
On June 24, Captain Lewis Halliday RMLI was shot while leading a section of 20 men against Boxer intruders. Despite being badly wounded, he engaged the enemy in hand-to-hand fighting, eventually successfully driving them off.
Halliday was awarded the Victoria Cross for his courage that day, whilst a CGM and five DCMs were also awarded to Royal Marine non-commissioned officers.
Captain Halliday RMLI VC
World War I
During World War I, the Royal Marines not only played an important role in the Somme and at Passchendaele, but also saw significant action on Gallipoli once Turkey had entered the war on the side of the Central Powers.
In order to protect naval ships bombarding the Dardanelles Strait, Marines were landed on the southernmost tip of the peninsula.
The Chatham and Portsmouth Battalions landed at Anzac beach, where they were joined two days later by the Deal and Nelson Battalions.
During the tough fighting that ensued Lance Corporal Walter Parker earned a Victoria Cross for an act of astounding bravery.
The 33-year-old volunteered to join a ten-strong party tasked with delivering supplies to stranded personnel. When they were attacked, he stayed on open ground treating the injured then, ignoring an order to return to the British trenches, sprinted 400 yards through open ground littered with bodies of the fallen while under concentrated fire.
Lt Alcock watched him race towards them: “There is no doubt whatsoever that Lance Corporal Parker knew, as soon as he started, that he was taking the greatest of risks possible, and that his one idea was to succour the wounded in the isolated trench.”
Parker was shot twice but spent the next three days treating the wounded, before being shot twice more guiding the men to safety.
Some 5,800 Royal Marines were present for Battle of Jutland, which took place on May 31, 1916, mostly manning turrets in the capital ships during the major naval engagement of the entire war. Battlecruiser HMS Lion was the flagship of Admiral Beatty and, when an 11-inch shell hit ‘Q’ turret, it blew open the roof and killed most of the gun’s crew.
Major Francis Harvey RMLI was badly injured when both his legs were blown off by the blast but spent the last few seconds of his life giving the order to flood the magazine to ensure the fire did not spread, ignite the tons of cordite below and blow up the entire warship.
His selfless actions may well have saved over 1,000 lives.
Winston Churchill later commented: “In the long, rough, glorious history of the Royal Marines there is no name and no deed which in its character and consequences ranks above this”.
Only one Victoria Cross was awarded to a Marine on the Western Front, to Major Frederick Lumsden RMA for action while commanding an Army battalion in France in 1917.
He led four artillery teams and a party of infantry to retrieve six captured guns dug-in 300 yards in front of their position. Lumsden went back and forth under relentless rifle, machine gun and shrapnel fire, impressing all who watched “by force of example and inspiring energy”.
He was killed on June 4, 1918, aged 45, at Blairville, Northern France, whilst in command of 14th Brigade RMA, after recently adding a third bar to his DSOs. He was appointed a CB in the King’s Birthday Honours for 1918 and was one of only seven British officers to be awarded the DSO four times during World War I.
Damage to Q turret of HMS Lion after the Battle of Jutland. Front armour plate has been removed.
Winston Churchill
Zeebrugge Raid
A final action of note during World War One was the audacious raid on Zeebrugge April 23, 1918.
Aimed at preventing U-boats based on the Bruges canals from putting to sea, the 4th Battalion Royal Marines trained for the mission at Deal for a fortnight before sailing on the moonlit night of April 22 in HMS Vindictive.
Vice Admiral Roger Keyes signalled ‘St George for England’, to which Vindictive’s captain replied: ‘May we give the dragon’s tail a damned good twist!’
The plan was to block the canal entrances with three obsolete cruisers, while Vindictive and two requisitioned Liverpool ferry boats delivered their storming parties.
Smoke was used to disguise their approach but, when the wind swept it away, the assault had to be carried out whilst feeling the full force of the enemy’s wrath.
The German guns particularly homed in on the foretop positions on Vindictive, where Marines were manning the guns. Sergeant Norman Finch RMA was among them and, despite all around him being killed or wounded – and being shot himself - he relentlessly carried on firing his Lewis gun.
Ashore Captain Edward Bamford RMLI, a recipient of a DSO in HMS Chester at the Battle of Jutland, led Portsmouth Company along the mole “displaying the greatest initiative in the command of his company and a complete disregard of danger”.
He successfully took the German strong point before assaulting the battery.
Two Victoria Crosses were awarded to the 4th Battalion following this action, which yielded heavy casualties.
Balloted for, they went to Bamford and Finch and, as a mark of respect, it was decreed that no future Royal Marine battalion would ever be numbered 4th again.
Captain Edward Bamford, VC, DSO
Sergeant Norman Finch VC, RMA
Left: HMS Vindictive’s damage after the Zeebrugge raid.
Above: The blocking ships at the mouth of the canal, HMS Thetis furthest from the camera, the Mole in the background.
World War II
The outbreak of World War II saw the Royal Marines swiftly generate a raft of capabilities and by the end of 1939 they had already seen action at sea, including at the Battle of the River Plate in the South Atlantic on December 13.
When Japan joined the war in December 1941, among their first naval attacks were the sinking of HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse.
A large proportion of the crews survived and any Marines joined forces with the 2nd Battalion Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders to fight together in the final stages before the fall of Singapore.
Those forced to surrender there spent the remainder of the war as Japanese prisoners-of-war and 40 Royal Marines perished as a result of the inhuman treatment they endured working on the infamous Burma ‘railway of death’. Over the centuries the Marines had deftly repeatedly recalibrated in the face of evolving warfare.
But it was now, during the maelstrom of another world war, that the Corps experienced a gear change which kickstarted their shift to the force they are today.
Commandos and the Green Beret
Wily Winston Churchill ordered the establishment of shock raiding forces within days of the fall of France, with General Sir John Dill and his military assistant Lieutenant Colonel Dudley Clarke charged with fleshing out the idea.
They drew on a concept developed by Christiaan De Wet, Commander General the Free State Army during the Boer War to create an agile force
Members of the Special Boat Section at the Osborne View Hotel, Hillhead, Hampshire, 1943
of highly-trained, well-equipped men capable of rocketing into a battle space and swiftly creating sufficient shock and awe to leave a foe reeling.
Soon the Commandos were born, with the Army forming its first unit in the summer of 1940.
There then followed the significant realisation that using sea soldiers for these missions would be a natural fit, given that they’d been honing the required skills of landing from warships for centuries.
Burning British tank landing vessel and damaged tank, Dieppe, August 1942
The Corps we know today began to emerge, with the first Royal Marines Commandos unit formed on February 14, 1942.
One of their initial significant raids took place at Dieppe on August 19, 1942. The Corps fought with great bravery and tenacity, albeit through no fault of those ordered on the Raid, it was a military disaster. The Raid lacked any well-defined overall strategic objective of great potential value. Dieppe was a very well-defended Channel Port and over half the overall attacking force was killed, wounded and/or captured.
Fittingly, though, the courage of the Commandos who fought at Dieppe continues to be remembered with the modern Marine Number Two dress uniform named after the operation’s leader, Scottish aristocrat Lord Lovat.
Early training was conducted at Achnacarry, in the Scottish Highlands.
It remains the visceral spiritual home of today’s Commandos.
Also prized is their Green Beret, first worn in October 1942.
No 1 Commando wore a flash on their arm depicting a green salamander going through fire, so the decision was taken to choose between the colours green, red and yellow. Green was deemed by far the most appropriate and was swiftly signed off by the Under-Secretary of State for War.
The blandly named Royal Marine Boom Patrol Detachment based at Eastney, Southsea, was a cover for a group of men who executed covert operations which required astounding levels of bravery.
Cockleshell Heroes
A forerunner of the Special Boat Service, its commanding officer was Acting Major Herbert “Blondie” Hasler.
On December 7, 1942 he launched a raid using hand-picked men on the Nazi-held port of Bordeaux, which went on to become the post-war hit film ‘The Cockleshell Heroes’.
Ten Royal Marines set out from submarine HMS Tuna to paddle 70 miles up the Gironde Estuary in two-man canvas kayaks. Operation Frankton required stealth and, with the constant threat of discovery, the coolest of heads.
Only two canoes made it to Bordeaux but the limpet mines they laid on enemy merchant ships exploded and badly damaged six of them. Hasler and kayak partner Marine Bill Sparks eventually made it home.
Sparks’ father was told that his son was missing-in-action so was naturally slackjawed in shock when he pitched up on the doorstep. Of the eight others, six were immediately executed on capture by the Nazis for being Special Forces, while two perished from hypothermia after their kayak capsized.
The losses were devastating but not in vain; the men had decisively proved just what Commandos were capable of.
Soon the Royal Marines had secured numbers 40 to 48 (RM) Commando.
Both 40 & 42 Commandos took part in the allied landings in Sicily on July 10, 1943 and the assault on Salerno on September 9.
It was also in 1943 that commander of the Special Service Brigade Lieutenant Colonel Bob Laycock decided that the evolving trend from lightning raids to longer stints in the theatre of war was significant.
Then the requirement for sufficient units for Operation Overlord led to Vice Admiral Lord Mountbatten suggesting that the Royal Marines should take on the entire Commando role.
When his ruminations became reality, the Army was incandescent.
Major General Sir Robert Laycock, Chief of Combined Operations, talking to Marine Commandos during an inspection shortly before D-Day
Royal Marines Commandos attached to 3rd Division move inland from Sword Beach on the Normandy coast, June 6, 1944.
D-Day
Laycock was proved right and it was Operation Overlord – the ambitious amphibious invasion of Europe – which saw the highly-trained Commandos make the leap from shock troops to a talented battlefield force.
Over 17,500 took part in the landings, with 41, 45, 47 and 48 involved in the initial assault on June 6, 1944.
46 Commando walked ashore on D+1, while 47 Commando marched ten miles beyond Allied lines to capture Port-enBessin following a fierce fire fight.
Crucially, all five Commandos then took part in subsequent operations through France, Belgium and Holland.
43 Commando was on the Italian mainland on April 3, 1945, when Corporal Tom Hunter led a determined assault on an enemy position near Lake Comacchio. In order to protect the troops advancing behind him, the 21-year-old grabbed a Bren gun and charged alone across 200 yards of open ground, attracting enemy fire from nearby houses and a canal bank.
Changing magazines as he ran, he cleared the houses, with six Germans surrendering to him and others fleeing.
Hunter then lay in open ground atop a pile of rubble and continued firing until his comrades reached safety, before being killed instantly with a shot to his head.
He was posthumously awarded the Corps’ only World War II Victoria Cross.
During 1st Special Service Brigade’s drive across Europe, 45 Commando was involved in a bitter battle in freezing weather at Montforterbeek on January 23, 1945. Medical orderly Lance Corporal Henry Harden RAMC was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross for repeatedly returning to injured troops while under a concentrated torrent of enemy bullets in an attempt to rescue them until he was, himself, mortally injured.
Some 3,983 Royal Marines out of a total of 74,000 who served during World War II valiantly gave their lives for their country.
Once peace was declared, the Corps’ numbers were reduced to 13,000.
They exclusively assumed the Commando role and specialised in amphibious warfare, while the Special Boat Company became an all-Royal Marines unit.
Post World War II
King George VI, who had succeeded to the title of Colonel-in-Chief on ascending the throne in 1937, had changed his title to Captain General.
To mark this, he dined with more than 300 Royal Marines Officers at the Savoy Hotel in London on December 21, 1949.
In May 1950, 3 Commando Brigade, HQ, 40, 42 and 45 Commando commenced a tour of duty in the long drawn-out Malayan Emergency, just at the time when violence was reaching its peak.
Chinese Communists based deep in the jungle were infiltrating Chinese and Malay villages, with their reign of terror involving arson and murder.
3 Commando Brigade conducted antiinsurgency warfare in support of the civil administration and police for two years.
During fierce jungle fighting, they killed 171 terrorists, captured more than 50, and garnered 40 gallantry awards.
On their return to Malta in May 1952, the unit received their first Colours from HRH The Duke of Edinburgh on Floriana Parade Ground, in Valetta.
Prince Philip, who was appointed Captain General of the Royal Marines the following year, said: “These Colours are a recognition of the devotion of the wartime Royal Marines Commandos and of the courage and bearing of the Brigade in all the trouble spots of the world since the war.”
The Duke of Edinburgh’s words were apt, indeed; the Royal Marines’ military globe-trotting during post-war years involved both testing combat and a steady trickle of casualties.
They played their part in Korea, Cyprus, Northern Ireland and Suez, where 40 and 42 Commando stormed the beaches of Port Said under cover of heavy naval bombardment on November 6, 1956, while the Fleet Air Arm strafed Egyptian positions. While the Defence White Paper of 1957 announced swingeing cuts in expenditure and manpower, it also saw the birth of the Commando Ship concept with the designation of HMS Bulwark and HMS Albion as amphibious specialists.
During the 1960s, the Commando role further matured during seven years in Aden and, when Army mutinies in the newly independent East African nations broke out, 45 Commando was airlifted ashore from light fleet carrier HMS Centaur, leaving the dissident military reeling from the swift precision of their helicopter operations.
Marines also spent nearly four years in Borneo after the Brunei revolt erupted on December 8, 1962. When the British Resident in Limbang, his wife and a dozen other hostages were seized by rebels, L Company 42 Commando, under Captain Jeremy Moore, launched a raid from Z craft on the river at dawn on December 12.
Darting through machine-gun fire, they swiftly despatched the rebels and – miraculously – rescued all the hostages alive.
HRH The Duke of Edinburgh
Northern Ireland
Between 1969 and 2004, Commandos carried out more than 40 Northern Ireland tours and were involved in Operation Motorman, when 22,000 British troops successfully cleared the ‘no-go’ areas of West Belfast and Londonderry.
This saturation of the Catholic districts of both cities forced the terrorists to relinquish control and allowed the security forces to move into a new phase of the campaign.
But the troubles spilled over onto the mainland too.
In 1981 Commandant General Royal Marines, Lieutenant General Sir Steuart Pringle sustained serious injuries when his car was blown up by a terrorist bomb outside his London home.
Then, on September 22, 1989, 11 musicians were murdered by a bomb planted at the Royal Marines School of Music at Deal.
It was a brutal, appalling act of terrorism.
The Operations Room of 40 Royal Marines Commando for Operation Motorman.
Royal Navy Westland Sea King takes off after transporting J Company, 42 Commando, Royal Marines from Port San Carlos to Darwin, May 28, 1982.
The Falklands Conflict
Before Argentina annexed the Falkland Islands in April 1982, the very existence of the Corps was under threat as the government weighed up implementing savage defence savings on the entire Royal Navy.
Retaking them, however, involved military action in which the Senior Service naturally excelled and the world watched in awe as the Commandos meticulously executed an amphibious assault, a 56-mile, boggy march across East Falkland and a tough final battle in foul weather on a challenging terrain.
Over 7,500 Commandos took part in the campaign in warships, as landing craft crews, fighting on the ground and as helicopter pilots.
The Argentine end-game took place in the mountains above the capital Port Stanley and 42 Commando retook Mount Harriet on the night of June 11 following a daring encircling movement to catch the enemy at the rear.
It proved a fierce showdown which lit up the dark with flares and tracer fire, and six Marines were awarded gallantry medals as a result.
45 Commando, meanwhile, completed a tricky flank attack, before thrusting along a narrow ridge to the twin peaks of the Two Sisters.
The troops were exhausted the next morning but they’d achieved all that had been asked of them.
While the First Gulf War was predominantly an Army and RAF operation, about ten per cent of the Corps were involved, and showed how they could quickly recalibrate between an aggressive fighting force and one adept at compassionate peacekeeping.
The New Millennial Wars
The Millennial Year underlined the agile role the Commandos play in British defence, with 78 per cent of them on operations, exercises or deployments in 30 different countries at one point.
Then, as the new century unfolded, much of the world suddenly found itself at war with terrorism following the devastating attacks on New York and Washington on September 11, 2001.
Soon Royal Marines on Exercise Saif Sareea 2 in Oman were redeployed and inserted into Kabul while the SBS, amongst many other operations, helped rescue a CIA agent from an Afghan prison revolt.
The Corps spearheaded the start of coalition forces’ military action in Iraq on March 20, 2003 when 40 Commando led a helicopter assault on the Al Faw Peninsula.
The first regular forces to land in Iraq, they swooped in with US Navy Seals to capture oil facilities before Saddam Hussein’s troops could blow them up.
42 Commando were airlifted in just north of 40 Commando’s position then entered Umm Qasr, before leading the ‘break-in’ battle to Basra.
40 Commando successfully fought a 20-hour battle against an Iraqi battalion before also entering Basra.
The Corps’ actions culminated in the capture of Saddam Hussein’s Palace there.
In 2005, the NATO allies decided to expand the remit of ISAF to cover the whole of Afghanistan and the province of Helmand was allocated to the United Kingdom.
Here, again, the Royal Marines’ skills as both combatants and peacekeepers made them a key operational asset during the brutal operations which followed over the next decade.
By Operation HERRICK 5, the decision was taken that 40 Commando should remain in Britain and take its turn in Afghanistan as a sub-unit of an Army Brigade in order to keep a Royal Marines’ unit in the UK for contingency tasks and their cherished amphibious skills alive.
New equipment gave the Commando Battle Group a significant fillip and the combination of Viking armoured vehicles, Javelin anti-tank missiles, as well as close support from Army Apache attack helicopters and Harrier jets – some flown by Royal Marines – meant they possessed a weighty punch.
As always, there were a plethora of examples of heart-thumping valour.
Lance Corporal Matthew Croucher RMR was serving with 40 Commando when he threw himself onto a Taliban tripwire grenade just before it detonated. His rucksack taking the bulk of the blast, he merely suffered a nosebleed and perforated ear drums.
Not only did Croucher save the life of a nearby seriously injured comrade who had sustained a chest wound, he then treated him until assistance arrived.
He was awarded the George Cross for his actions on February 9, 2008.
Marine Mark Williams, too, displayed the very finest traditions of the Corps on May 26, 2011.
Inexperienced and aged just 22-yearsold, he raced into open ground in an insurgent killing area to rescue Lance Corporal Harvey, dragged him over 30 metres behind a compound wall, delivered life-saving care then returned to the fray with such vehemence and accuracy that the enemy retreated.
Against a backdrop of the unyielding ebb and flow of demands on the Commandos since World War II, the Royal Navy’s Special Forces, formally renamed the Special Boat Service in 1987, has been secretly deploying their stealth and skill wherever needed.
Lance Corporal Matthew Croucher with his backpack, torn by the grenade
Be it spending three weeks hunkered down in the Falklands covertly hoovering up intelligence before the 1982 war or freeing 11 British soldiers kidnapped by Sierra Leone militia in 2000, they are always at the Chief of Defence Staff’s beck and call.
Despite their relatively small numbers, around half of all British Special Forces is comprised of Royal Navy Marines, with some serving in the SAS.
Today
Successive generations of Commando forefathers since 1664 would undoubtedly approve of the men who make up today’s Corps, and recognise their spirit, resilience and valour.
The Future Commando Force Marines now possess the very latest technology, ships, helicopters and weaponry.
They also still have the coveted green beret, proof that they’re amongst the one per cent of applicants to have survived the world’s toughest Commando course at CTCRM Lympstone, Devon. Receiving the ‘green lid’ on successfully completing it also signals their entry into a lifelong club and a fiercely protective brotherhood.
Commandos are cognisant that theirs is a proud steel thread of military excellence sewn right through the tapestry of British military action over the centuries.
Ferocious and unrelenting in battle.
‘Per Mare, Per Terram’.
The most decorated Royal Marine of current times
Since leaving the Marines in 2017, Matt has started working as a Paramedic Assistant.
WO1(RSM) Matthew Tomlinson CGC MC RM is unique among modern Royal Marines for having been awarded two major gallantry awards.
He received the Conspicuous Gallantry Cross for actions in Iraq while on secondment as a landing craft specialist with the United States Marine Corps.
When his Small Unit Riverine Craft came under fire, Tomlinson created the element of surprise by advancing and attacking, engaging the enemy in close quarter fighting whilst his men encircled the enemy. After again providing covering fire he called in air support to strike.
Tomlinson’s Military Cross was awarded after he ran to rescue Marines from a burning VIKING vehicle which had been blown up by an IED in Afghanistan.
He successfully brought the injured to safety though gunner Marine Jason Mackie was already dead when he found him.
Tomlinson finally left the Corps in 2017.
Matt with his family at Buckingham Palace receiving the Conspicuous Gallantry Cross
The Victoria Cross
The following Royal Marines have been awarded the highest British military honour for gallantry.
Corporal John Prettyjohns RM The Battle of Inkerman, November 5th, 1854 Led a section which successfully flushed out Russian snipers from caves and then pelted the enemy with stones.
Bombadier Thomas Wilkinson RMA The Siege of Sevastopol, June 7th, 1855 Repaired forward battery defences with sandbags while under heavy enemy fire.
Lieutenant George Dowell RMA Viborg, Baltic Sea, July 13th 1855 Rescued the crew of a stricken cutter and towed her to safety while under intense fire.
Captain Lewis Halliday RMLI The Siege of Peking, June 24th 1900 Led the way into some burning buildings under heavy fire, killing four enemy whilst injured himself.
Lance Corporal Walter Parker RMLI Gallipoli, April 30th 1915 Sprinted 400 yards under heavy fire to reach wounded personnel then treated them for three days alone. Major Francis Harvey RMLI (Posthumous) The Battle of Jutland, May 31st 1916 In the final seconds of his life he ordered a turret on HMS Lion to be flooded, preventing it from exploding.
Major Frederick Lumsden DSO RMA France, April 3rd 1917 Led a party to recover six enemy guns while under heavy gun and shrapnel fire.
Captain Edward Bamford DSO RMLI The Raid on Zeebrugge, April 23rd 1918 Showed a total disregard for danger while leading his company during an amphibious landing (by ballot).
Sergeant Norman Finch RMA The Raid on Zeebrugge, April 23rd 1918 Despite being severely wounded he maintained covering fire from the foretop of HMS Vindictive (by ballot).
Corporal Thomas Hunter RM (Posthumous) The Battle of Comacchio, April 3rd 1945 Charged across 200 yards of open ground to draw fire forcing enemy to surrender to him or flee.
FALKLANDS CONFLICT 40 YEARS ON
Royal Marines move off Mount Harriet during the mountain battles, June 11 1982.
FORMER ROYAL MARINE RECALLS BATTLE OF TWO SISTERS
Royal Marine Rupert van der Horst served as 2IC 45 Commando during the Falklands Conflict. Now a caseworker for SSAFA’s Wiltshire Branch, he recounts his experiences of landing in San Carlos Bay, and yomping across west Falkland in to battle at Two Sisters Mountain.
When news of the Argentinian invasion of the Falklands Islands broke, I was amongst the British Forces to be mobilised with 45 Commando soon heading south on board RFA Stromness, a Royal Fleet Auxiliary vessel. It took forever to get down there because they were still negotiating and the fleet got bigger and bigger. Finally, we got into our landing craft outside San Carlos Water on landing nets we had made from ropes. It was dark, we were carrying a lot; some people 100 pounds, 120 pounds or more... We suddenly saw firing - I think the SAS raiding Fanning Head. And we turned into San Carlos Water and, eventually, 45 Commando landed on the western side of Ajax Bay. We got out and deployed from there.
I stayed pretty close to the water near the old refrigeration plant, and we dug in, got ready, expected to be immediately fired on, bombed and all that. Nothing happened until later… I remember Argentine A-4 Skyhawk planes coming over my right shoulder, diving down towards our anchored ships and everyone on the ships firing at them. I watched ships being hit, burning and eventually exploding – and the crew of HMS Antelope being picked up by this brilliant Royal Marines’ Colour Sergeant in one of the four LCMs, the boats we’d landed in. When you go to war and you’re an officer, you’re very, very busy so you don’t actually have all that much time to think... ‘Oh I’m frightened,’ or, ‘Oh, I’m not frightened,’ or anything like that. So we dug in and shared a few jokes because Royal Marines do that.
It was 45 Commando who were called the Yompers and walked the whole way... 56 miles from San Carlos Bay to Port Stanley, carrying everything we needed for battle because there weren’t any helicopters. The Marines with machine guns and that sort of thing had appalling loads and even as Second-inCommand I had to carry mortar bombs. A lot of the men having put their packs on them when they were sitting down couldn’t actually get up. We then set off towards Port Stanley knowing that it would take a very long time. It started raining. It was very tussocky... they had these things called rock runs which were like rivers, but they’re rocks. We did have to cross one or two rivers so we got wet feet pretty quickly... It was Teal Inlet and Bluff Cove Peak where the Commanding Officer asked me to recce the route that the Commando would take to its forming up position for our attack on Two Sisters Mountain and I went off in an over-snow vehicle BV202 with a driver and two signalmen and sought out a route which wasn’t bad at all.
I just watched the attack start at night and you held your breath wondering when the Argentines were going to notice and fire back. In the end they did and I remember this criss-crossing 50-cal machine gun ammunition coming in and crossing between the assaulting troops and me. I just watched the attack start at night and you held your breath… What I had to do was lead some over-snow vehicles full of ammunition so that on reorganisation the Commando could quickly rearm itself. I had to deal with casualties. It was dark. I put some sort of light on my back... so that the driver of the leading over-snow vehicle could follow me. We walked into the machine gun fire and these antiaircraft shells and I was extremely busy finding the route between the rocks where three over-snow vehicles could go. I was met by the RSM of the Commando, who in war is strictly responsible for ammunition. He showed me where it had to be taken and we started unloading it. I could see the Marines who’d taken part in the assault looking absolutely exhausted. The scene was lit up by shellfire and machinegun fire - a French 155gun, medium artillery, firing at us. I don’t know if it was one or two.
I then had to think about casualties, which were quite a lot. Over the whole operation, the Commando had fourteen killed, but four here. So, I had to decide, what are we going to do with these guys? Well eventually a Scout pilot at night - and with shells coming over -took them to the hospital which had been set up back in the old refrigeration plant run by Surgeon Commander Rick Jolly.
Rupert van der Horst following the successful attack on the Argentinian positions at the Two Sisters.
I led the BV202s back down the mountain. By that time, we had picked up a few Argentine ration packs, and sat down and had breakfast...
We each had a tin of steak and I think a tiny bottle of whisky, which was, of course, naturally very well-received, and... they had cigarettes... finding these cigarettes, was, you know... life was superb at that moment.
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Congratulations
The UK Royal Marines and the Norwegian Armed Forces have a long and proud history of working together. Indeed, from Medieval times to the present day there has been a special bond between us, reflecting that, whilst separated by the North-Sea, our culture, thinking and operational understanding are very similar.
In honour of the 80th Anniversary of the Royal Marines assuming the Commando-tab, the Norwegian School of Winter Warfare and the NATO Centre of Excellence for Cold Weather Operations offer their congratulations and record their appreciation of our close relationship and cooperation.
Whether it has been on the plains of Great Britain, the Norwegian mountains or even when reenacting significant historical operations on the Norwegian Hardangervidda to destroy the Vemork heavy-water plant, our two nations have seen the benefits of working together.
Both during and after the Cold War we have seen the importance of naval infantry forces for our mutual defence – hence the importance of the Royal Marines to Norway.
The Norwegian School of Winter Warfare has run courses since 1927 for international and allied students, including Royal Marines, during which they experience the Norwegian winter and the challenges of operating in this environment.
The Royal Marines are irrefutably one of our closest partners with the experience and expertise that they themselves bring to our courses highly appreciated.
Of course, it is of utmost importance that Norway’s allies possess cold weather capabilities and that Norwegian forces are inter-operable with those of our closest allies.
Today, we are fortunate to have one UK RM (ML) embedded within our team here at Elverum in Norway – and his professionalism and dedication is testimony to the great and valuable cooperation between our respective forces.
The Arctic environment and challenging topography must be mastered, especially given the recent changes in the geo-political and strategic situation which brings this aspect of modern warfare more sharply in to focus.
We look forward to continuing our great cooperation, whether it be in Norway or Great Britain, and fullheartedly congratulate the Royal Marines Commandos on their 80th Anniversary.
www.coe-cwo.org
