Tag Archives: Royal Marines

Happy Birthday Bootnecks, and Devil Dogs

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The Royal Marines were founded on 28 October 1664, under Charles II, as the Duke of York and Albany’s Maritime Regiment of Foot. Some 5,820 strong (authorized) they are one of the most professional and pound-for-pound elite amphibious forces on the planet, despite the fact they have been in steady decline when it comes to sea lift for the past 40 years.

Happy 360th! Of note, the Admiralty got Henry Cavill to narrate the birthday recruiting ad, which is very motivational.

And in a show of support from their junior “brother corps” across the Atlantic, the USMC issued a congratulations message.

The Marines will celebrate their 249th on 10 November.

And, since you came this far, be sure to check out this great short doc from NATO showing off Marines at play in Norway, their home away from home since 1940. The Finns and Swedes joined in this year. 

Bootneck Ferret

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60 years ago this month.

Official caption: “September 1964, Sabah, the northeast Borneo territory of Malaysia. Royal Marines in action with the security forces repelling the infiltrating Indonesians from across the vast jungle border. A Royal Marines Daimler Ferret Scout car of 40 Commando patrols a jungle-fringed forward area of the Kalabankan River. The vehicle commander is Corporal B. Skinley.”

IWM (A 34858)

As anyone will tell you, the Royal Marines are light infantry, and typically don’t bring armor with them. Even in the Falklands, the four Scimitars and Scorpions that went along with 3 Commando were operated by a troop of the Household Cavalry. 

While the Royal Marines Armoured Support Group dates back to 1944– when it was founded to help give the Commandos some armor support for the Normandy landings in the form of a few Centaur and Sherman tanks — it had been disbanded by 1948 and only stood back up, under the 539 Assault Squadron, to operate Hägglunds Viking BvS 10s in 2005.

So where did the Ferret come from?

Note the Ferret’s name (“Sharquat”) recalls a 1918 battle between the British and the Ottomans during the Mesopotamian Campaign in the Great War, and several units present there (1/10 Gurkhas, Queen’s Royal Hussars, 114th Mahrattas, et. al ) still celebrate “Sharqat Day” in honor of the historic victory. The hull number, 38 BA 39 (62), would lead one to believe that the armored car is owned by the British Army.

For comparison, see this image of a Ferret Scout Car in use by the 1st King’s Dragoon Guards overlooking the Mantin Pass between Kuala Lumpur and Seremban during the Malayan Emergency (1948-1960):

IWM (D 88417)

As the 10th (Princess Mary’s Own) Gurkha Rifles– a Sharqat unit– had two battalions in Malaysia at the time, along with the Ferret-equipped QRIH, this leads to the likely conclusion that the Marines in the first image were just borrowing the wheels from the Army.

A favorite on the surplus military vehicle market, the FV 701 Ferret is simple to learn to drive and support and is forgiving in operation, which is no doubt a reason that it is still in service with like a dozen different countries around the world even though it has been out of production since 1971.

Puncho & Fifi

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Official caption: “Royal Marine J Crompton of Wigan, Lancashire, attached to the British East Indies Fleet, with Puncho, the Alsatian mascot of the Marine camp, attempt to camouflage themselves.”

Photo by Hales, G (Sub Lt), Admiralty Collection, IWM A 30104

The image was taken in Ceylon in early August 1945, at HMS Rajaliya, the Royal Navy air station located at the Puttalam airfield.

Note the Marine’s late-war Enfield No. 4 with its distinctive spike bayonet and the possibly locally-acquired slouch hat worn at a jaunty angle and fitted with a braided leather band rather than the traditional pugaree linen wrap.

The base was kind of unorthodox, with lots of local flavor. 

Rajaliya, set up 60 miles south of Colombo as a dispersal field in case of Japanese air raids that allowed easy overflow from visiting RN carriers, was home to the much loved “Puttalam Elephants” as depicted by a painting by Robert Taylor in the collection of the Fleet Air Arm Museum at Yeovilton.

The below shows an FAA crew at Puttalam employing their elephant “Fiffi’ to drag an F4U Corsair from No.1 Corsair squadron of the Naval Operational Training Unit, South East Asia Command (SEAC), back onto the Marston mat metal runway after it slid off a slippery surface and landed in the mud.

A lil Gustav in your eyes

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Somewhere in Aden, likely the Radfan mountains area, August 1963: “Royal Marines Demonstrate Army’s new anti-tank gun,” an early model Swedish-made FFV Ordnance Carl Gustav 84mm recoilless rifle.

45 Commando Marine Eric Pearson, of Salford, Manchester, prepares to fire the new anti-tank gun during trials at Little Aden. IWM A 34756.

In such an environment, “Charlie G” was sure to make a dust-up when fired, and you are gonna want some goggles.

Thus:

Marine Chris Pow, of Plymouth, firing the new anti-tank gun during trials at Little Aden. IWM A 34755

The 84s in the above images were the first crop of weapon adopted by the British as the “L14, Gun, 84mm, Infantry Anti Tank Weapon,” and later standardized with the improved M2 (L14A1) model after 1970.

It remained in service– seeing action in the Falklands– with the RM and British Army, especially the Paras, well into the 1990s when they were replaced by the more potent 94mm LAW 80 and subsequently the 150mm NLAW, disposable 84mm L1A1/A2 (AT4), and Javelin.

However, images have been seen of SAS downrange with the updated M3 Carl Gustav, showing that Charlie G still exists in some circles at least.

Codename Snake Eyes and Jungle Green

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Royal Marines exercise “Codename Snake Eyes” circa 1960 documentary– in Color!— by the Central Office of Information for the Admiralty. A great way to spend a half-hour. 

The exercise involves a combined-arms amphibious attack on a fictitious Mediterranean island nation that looks suspiciously like Cyprus, complete with an airfield and radar station.

It is jolly good stuff, complete with pipe smoking, beards, Denison smocks, a wet predawn paradrop from an RAF Boxcar by SBS frogmen, Fleet Air Arm Vampires launched from an RN carrier conducting rocket attacks to soften things up, dory-landed (and Enfield/Sterling-armed!) Royal Marines from 45 Commando leaping ashore from LCVPs to complete a rock face free climb, then reinforced by Wessex helicopter-delivered 40 Commando (“choppers may be useful but they have no natural dignity”), finished off by LCM-landed 42 Commando (who finally have some FN FALs/L1A1s) on the third wave after NGFS from gun-armed cruisers.

And that’s just in the first 10 minutes!

Enjoy.

For a less varnished but no less fascinating look at Royal Marines at the sharp end, check out “Jungle Green,” a 1964 BBC documentary following an isolated 25-man long-range patrol/listening post of 40 Commando and their two Iban trackers some 50 miles deep in the bush in Borneo during the very Vietnam-ish Konfrontasi, the Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation.

RM Endurance Course

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The Royal Marines and RM Reserve complete the same rigorous Commando tests carrying the same weight, and in the same times.

The Endurance course is two miles cross country through water, tunnels and submerged culverts followed by a 4 mile run back to camp. Uniform of the day are boots and utes with basic pack and SA80.

The Enfield is not a rubber duck, so you have to keep your weapon clean and optic intact because once they make it back to camp Marines must shoot and pass a marksmanship test with said rifle.

All in under 73 Minutes

To recap: 73 minutes for 2 miles cross country, 4 miles on road and 1 range shoot.

RM force protection unit goes AR

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It seems a sizable portion of the Royal Marines are ditching the long-maligned L85 (SA80) Enfield bullpup in favor of an AR-15/M16 platform that, in basic design at least, predated it by about 25 years.

American and Royal Marines prepare to enter a mock nuclear facility in the Scottish Highlands, testing the close-quarters combat techniques they shared during exercise Tartan Eagle 14, Sep. 18. The three-week exercise brought U.S. Marine Security Forces and Royal Marine Fleet Protection Group to deepen their relationships and operational capacity for the protection and safeguard of nuclear weapons. (USMC Photo: MSgt Chad McMeen)

American Marines and 43 Commando Royal Marines prepare to enter a mock nuclear facility in the Scottish Highlands, testing the close-quarters combat techniques they shared during exercise Tartan Eagle 14, Sep. 18. The three-week exercise brought U.S. Marine Security Forces and Royal Marine Fleet Protection Group to deepen their relationships and operational capacity for the protection and safeguard of nuclear weapons. (USMC Photo: MSgt Chad McMeen)

The unit that is making the switch, 43 Commando Fleet Protection Group, was orignially set up as the Comacchio Group back in the 1980s to keep Soviet Naval Infantry and Spetnsaz types off of the North Sea oil derricks and from poking around HM Naval Base Faslane, where the Queen keeps her only nukes (remember, the UK only has SLBMs, having retired its last strategic bombers with the Vulcans in 1984, and has no ICBMs hiding in the moors).

As noted by Janes, the group’s 790 members will switch to the Colt Canada C8 carbine with its standard 14.5-inch barrel, which they have used in small numbers for years designated as the L119 in British service (as witnessed in the above image).

The Royal Navy said this was a “one-off” purchase and was not a signal that the Royal Marines 3 Commando Brigade was going to be re-equipped with new weapon.

How the SBS Does Things

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A Fascinating insight of the mission by 12 men who would later become known as the “Cockleshell Heroes ” Presented by Paddy Ashdown former SBS man himself . Also highlights how SOE also conducted an operation against the same target but never  telling once of there objective to Combined Operations .

n 1942, Britain was struggling to fight back against Nazi Germany. Lacking the resources for a second front, Churchill encouraged innovative and daring new methods of combat. Enter stage left, Blondie Hasler. With a unit of twelve Royal Marine commandos, Major Blondie Hasler believed his ‘cockleshell’ canoe could be effectively used in clandestine attacks on the enemy. Their brief was to navigate the most heavily defended estuary in Europe, to dodge searchlights, machine-gun posts and armed river-patrol craft 70 miles downriver, and then to blow up enemy shipping in Bordeaux harbour. Lord Ashdown recreates parts of the raid and explains how this experience was used in preparing for one of the greatest land invasions in history, D-day.

“…..It is a tale of massive Whitehall cock-up”