80 years ago this month, 2 February 1945.
“Trainees in a wooded area with their faces painted with camouflage paint, wearing American fatigue caps and gaiters and Carrying American ‘Tommy’ guns, during training at the Royal Marines Eastern Warfare School at Brockenhurst, Hampshire where they learn jungle tactics for the Pacific War. Thickly wooded hills, with some live palms and bamboo, gave a good imitation jungle in which tropical bridging work, bivouacking, patrolling, sniping, and booby-trap lessons could be learned.”
Of note, the weather in Hampshire in February typically runs 40-50 degrees F.
IWM A 27308. Photograph by LT DC Oulds, Royal Navy official photographer
IWM A 27306. Photograph by LT DC Oulds, Royal Navy official photographer
IWM A 27307. Photograph by LT DC Oulds, Royal Navy official photographer
“These men are learning to give themselves all-round protection when forced to keep to a narrow track in the ‘English jungle’ at the Eastern Warfare School at Brockenhurst, Hampshire where they learn jungle tactics for the Pacific War.”
Brockenhurst, the largest village by population within the 140,000-acre New Forest in Hampshire, is about 15 miles from Southampton in southern England.
In early 1944, the forest served as the (somewhat secret) home for the 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division, the core of Allied Assault Force “G”, tasked with storming Gold Beach on D-Day, and once the Army moved out in June 1944, the Royal Navy moved in.
As elaborated by a local journal for the New Forest:
Carey’s Manor Hotel in the village was requisitioned for the Eastern Warfare School where Royal Marine trainees were taught basic jungle warfare tactics along the Lymington River and Roydon Woods in preparation for what they might encounter against the Japanese forces. Booby traps and ambushes in common use among the Japanese were reproduced in this area of the New Forest. They also learned how to take care of themselves and what to carry in the way of medical supplies in remote inhospitable locations
As further detailed in By Sea, By Land: The Authorised History of the Royal Marines by James D Ladd:
Apart from such schools for specialists as the Signals School at Saundersfoot (Pembrokeshire) and the MT School, the Corps also set up an Eastern Warfare School, Brockenhurst, where officers and senior NCOs did a 10-day course ‘on the special form of warfare . . . in the Far East Theatre.’ In addition, in the UK and abroad, there were “jungle warfare” schools.
The standards for “physical efficiency tests” as they were called, were also raised to the following: 10-mile march in 2¼ hours, before firing five rounds, three of which must be hits at 30 yds; leopard crawl 45 yds in a minute followed by pitching two out of three grenades into a 10 ft circle; running two miles on roads in 18 minutes; jumping a 9 ft ditch; and various climbing feats.
All these were aimed at making every Marine fit – not only those serving in Commandos – and for detachments in the Pacific Fleet: such applied physical training was a routine. This aimed at not only keeping men fit but also enabling them to pass these battle efficiency tests.
The School was staffed by a cadre of NCOs and officers drawn in part from the 3rd Special Service Brigade, which included a trio of three Royal Marine Commando units (No. 5 Cdo, No. 42 Cdo, and No. 44 Cdo). These men had been sent to India in November 1943 to fight in the Burma campaign and had picked up some tricks.
Lieut General T L Hunton, KCB, MVO, OBE, General Officer Commanding the Royal Marines, and Major General R A D Brooks, CMG, DSO, watching a demonstration of Japanese Booby traps by Capt Kenneth Pammenter, No.5 Cdo, [2nd from right] and Capt. Bennett, RM, at the Eastern Warfare School, Brockenhurst. IWM A 27300
In the end, the Royal Marines in the CBI and the Pacific were involved in the campaign to recapture Arakan, as well as staged for Operation Zipper– the planned amphibious operation to recapture the Malayan peninsula.
Finally, they reoccupied Hong Kong in September 1945, cheated out of seeing more jungle fighting by the A-bombs and the resulting Japanese capitulation.
There, things looked a lot different than in Hampshire.
“Royal Marine W E Sebly making the acquaintance of young and old Chinese folk after the re-occupation of Hong Kong, Sept 1945. IWM 30527
