| Royal Marines | |
|---|---|
Royal Marine Corps Crest |
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| Active | 1664 – Present |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Branch | Royal Navy |
| Type | Commando |
| Role | Amphibious warfare Special Forces support |
| Size | 6,840 Personnel 970 Volunteer Reserve Personnel |
| Part of | Naval Service |
| Garrison/HQ | COMUKAMPHIBFOR (Portsmouth) 40 Commando (Taunton) 42 Commando (Plymouth) 45 Commando (Arbroath) Fleet Protection Group (HMNB Clyde) Commando Logistic Regiment (Chivenor) 1 Assault Group (Poole) Commando Training Centre (Lympstone) |
| Nickname | Royal Booties Bootnecks The Corps |
| Motto | Per Mare, Per Terram ("By Sea, By Land") |
| Colors | Blue Gold Green Red Blue |
| March | Quick: "A Life on the Ocean Wave" Slow: "Preobrajensky" |
| Website | Royal Marines |
| Commanders | |
| Captain-General | HRH The Duke of Edinburgh, KG, KT, OM, GBE, AC, QSO, PC |
| Commandant-General | Major General Ed Davis |
| Insignia | |
| Commando flash | |
| Abbreviation | RM |
The Corps of Her Majesty's Royal Marines, commonly just referred to as the Royal Marines (RM), are the marine corps and amphibious infantry of the United Kingdom and, along with the Royal Navy and Royal Fleet Auxiliary, form the Naval Service.[1] They are also the United Kingdom's specialists in amphibious warfare, including the operation of landing craft; mountain warfare; and Arctic warfare. A core component of the country's Rapid Deployment Force, the 3 Commando Brigade is capable of operating independently and is highly trained as a commando force. It is trained to deploy quickly and fight in any terrain. The Royal Marines have the longest basic infantry training course of any NATO combat troops.
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The Royal Marines were formed as part of the Naval Service in 1755. However, it can trace its origins back as far as 28 October 1664 when at the grounds of the Honourable Artillery Company "the Duke of York and Albanys maritime regiment of foot" was first formed up, when English soldiers first went to sea to fight the Spanish and prevent them from reaching the fortress of Gibraltar.[2] The Royal Marines served throughout the Napoleonic Wars in every notable naval battle on-board the Royal Navy's ships and participated in multiple amphibious actions. The marines continued in their on-board function after the war, taking a prominent part in the navy's anti-piracy and anti-slavery actions. In 1855 they were newly designated as the Royal Marines Light Infantry, serving in the Crimean war in numerous amphibious raids on Russian forces. The Corps underwent a notable change after 1945 however, when the Royal Marines took on the main responsibility for the role and training of the British Commandos. The Royal Marines have an illustrious history, and since their creation in 1942 Royal Marines Commandos have engaged on active operations across the globe, every year, except 1968.[3] Notably they were the first ever military unit to perform an air assault insertion by helicopter, during the Suez Crisis in 1956.[4]
As of 2010 the Royal Marines have 6,840 active personnel.[5] In addition there are 970 reserve personnel of the RMR, giving a total of 7,810. This makes the Royal Marines the largest force of its type in the Europe, and it is the only European force capable of carrying out amphibious operations at brigade level. The Royal Marines are the second largest force of its type in NATO.
The Royal Marines are a maritime-focused, amphibious, highly specialised Light - medium force of commandos capable of deploying at short notice in support of the United Kingdom Government's military and diplomatic objectives overseas and are optimised for expeditionary warfare: operational situations requiring highly manoeuvreable, normally amphibious, forces. As the United Kingdom Armed Forces' specialists in cold weather warfare the Corps provide lead element expertise in the NATO Northern Flank and are optimised for high altitude operations, with jungle training still carried out when deployments allow.
In common with the other armed forces, the Royal Marines can provide resources for Military Aid to the Civil Community and Military Aid to the Civil Power operations and have done so.
The overall head of the Royal Marines is Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, in her role as Commander-in-Chief of the British Armed Forces.
The ceremonial head of the Royal Marines is the Captain General Royal Marines (equivalent to the Colonel-in-Chief of a British Army regiment). The current Captain-General is Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.
Full Command of the Royal Marines is vested in the Commander-in-Chief Fleet (CINCFLEET)[6] with the Commandant-General Royal Marines, a Major-General, embedded within the CINCFLEET staff as Commander UK Amphibious Force (COMUKAMPHIBFOR).
The operational capability of the Corps comprises a number of Battalion-plus sized units, of which three are designated as "Commandos":
With the exception of the Fleet Protection Group and Commando Logistic Regiment, which are each commanded by a full Colonel, each of these units is commanded by a Lieutenant-Colonel of the Royal Marines, who may have sub-specialised in a number of ways throughout his career.[8]
There is also a Mountain Leader Training Cadre based at Stonehouse Barracks, Plymouth.
Operational Command of the three Commandos and the Commando Logistics Regiment is delegated to 3 Commando Brigade Royal Marines, of which they are a part. Based at Stonehouse Barracks, the brigade exercises control as directed by either CINCFLEET or the Permanent Joint Headquarters. As the main combat formation of the Royal Marines, the brigade has its own organic capability to it in the field, 30 Commando Information Exploitation Group, a battalion sized formation providing information operations capabilities, life support and security for the Brigade Headquarters.
The independent elements of the Royal Marines are:[9]
The three Commandos are each organised into six companies, further organised into platoon-sized troops, as follows:[10]
In general a rifle company Marine will be a member of a four-man fire team, the building block of commando operations. A Royal Marine works with his team in the field and shares accommodation if living in barracks.
This structure is a recent development, formerly Commandos were structured similarly to British Army light Infantry Battalions.[11] During the restructuring of the United Kingdom's military services the Corps evolved from a Cold War focus on NATO's Northern Flank towards a more expeditionary posture.
Formerly known as the Amphibious Ready Group, the Amphibious Task Group (or ATG) is a mobile, balanced amphibious warfare force, based on a Commando Group and its supporting assets, that can be kept at high readiness to deploy into an area of operations. The ATG is normally based around specialist amphibious ships, most notably HMS Ocean, the largest ship in the British fleet. Ocean was designed and built to accommodate an embarked commando and its associated stores and equipment. The strategy of the ATG is to wait "beyond the horizon" and then deploy swiftly as directed by HM Government. The whole amphibious force is intended to be self-sustaining and capable of operating without host-nation support. The concept was successfully tested in operations in Sierra Leone.[12]
The Commando Helicopter Force forms part of the Fleet Air Arm. The force comprises four helicopter squadrons and is commanded by the Joint Helicopter Command.[13] It consists of both Royal Navy (RN) and Royal Marines personnel. RN personnel need not be commando trained. The Commando Helicopter Force is neither under the permanent control of 3 Commando Brigade nor that of the Commandant General Royal Marines but rather is allocated to support Royal Marines units as required. It uses both Sea King transport and Lynx Light lift helicopters to provide aviation support for the Royal Marines.
Royal Marines recruit training is the longest basic modern infantry training programme of any NATO combat troops.[14] The Royal Marines are the only part of the British Armed Forces where officers and other ranks are trained at the same location, the Commando Training Centre Royal Marines (CTCRM) at Lympstone, Devon. Much of the basic training is carried out on the rugged terrain of Dartmoor and Woodbury Common with a significant proportion taking place at night.
Initially all potential recruits are required to attend a series of entrance/aptitude tests and interviews at the Armed Forces Careers office (AFCO) to assess the suitability of all applicants. A series of physical assessments are also conducted including a hearing test, sight test and drug test in the form of a urine sample. As well as two 1.5 mile runs (2.4 km) the first to be completed within 12 minutes 30 seconds with 1 minute break before another 1.5 mile run to be completed at best effort but under 10 minutes 00 seconds, both set at a 2 degree incline on a running machine. For Potential Officers the times are 12 minutes 30 seconds and 10 minutes 30 seconds respectively.
Then, before beginning Royal Marines recruit training the potential recruit must attend a Potential Royal Marine Course (PRMC) or Potential Officer Course (POC) held at CTCRM. PRMC lasts three days and assesses physical ability and intellectual capacity to undertake the recruit training. Officer candidates must also undertake the Admiralty Interview Board.
Officers and Marines undergo the same training up to the commando tests, thereafter Marines go on to employment in a rifle company while Officers continue training. Officer candidates are required to meet higher standards in the Commando tests.
The first weeks of training are spent learning basic skills that will be used later. This includes much time spent on the parade ground and on the rifle ranges. The long history of the Royal Marines is also highlighted through a visit to the Royal Marines Museum in Southsea, Hampshire. Physical training at this stage emphasizes all-round physical strength, endurance and flexibility in order to develop the muscles necessary to carry the heavy equipment a marine will use in an operational unit. Key milestones include a gym passout at week 9 (not carried out with fighting order), a battle swimming test, and learning to do a "regain" (i.e. climb back onto a rope suspended over a water tank). Most of these tests are completed wearing fighting order of 32 lb (14.5 kg) of Personal Load Carrying Equipment. Individual fieldcraft skills are also taught at this basic stage.
The culmination of training is the Commando course. Following the Royal Marines taking on responsibility for the Commando role with the disbandment of the Army Commandos at the end of World War II, all Royal Marines, except those in the Royal Marines Band Service, complete the Commando course as part of their training (see below). Key aspects of the course include climbing and ropework techniques, patrolling and amphibious warfare operations.
This intense phase ends with a series of tests which have remained virtually unchanged since World War II. Again, these tests are done in full fighting order of 32 lb (14.5 kg) of equipment.
The Commando tests are taken on consecutive days and all four tests must be successfully completed within a seven day period; they include;
After the 30-mile (48 km) march, any who failed any of the tests may attempt to retake them up until the seven day window expires. If a recruit fails two or more of the tests, however, it is unlikely that a chance to re-attempt them will be offered.
Normally the seven to eight day schedule for the Commando Tests is as follows:
Completing the Commando course successfully entitles the recruit or officer to wear the green beret but does not mean that the Royal Marine has finished his training. That decision will be made by the troop or batch training team and will depend on the recruit's or young officer's overall performance. Furthermore, officer training still consists of many more months.
Training to be a Royal Marine takes 32 weeks. The last week is spent mainly on administration and preparing for the pass out parade. Recruits in their final week of training are known as the King's Squad and have their own section of the recruits' galley at Lympstone.
After basic and commando training, a Royal Marine Commando will normally join a unit of 3 Commando Brigade. There are three Royal Marines Commando infantry units in the Brigade: 40 Commando located at Norton Manor Camp near Taunton in Somerset, 42 Commando at Bickleigh Barracks, near Plymouth, Devon and 45 Commando at RM Condor, Arbroath on the coast of Angus.
Non-Royal Marine volunteers for Commando training undertake the All Arms Commando Course.
There is also a Reserve Commando Course run for members of the Royal Marines Reserve and Commando units of the Territorial Army.
Royal Marines after a period as a General Duties Rifleman may then go on to undertake specialist training in a variety of skills:
Commando Specialisations
Commando Officer specialisations
Training for these specialisations may be undertaken at CTCRM or in a joint environment, such as the Defence School of Transport at Leconfield, The School of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering (SEME) based at Bordon or the Defence College of Policing and Guarding.
Some marines are trained in military parachuting to allow flexibility of insertion methods for all force elements. Marines complete this training at RAF Brize Norton but are not required to undergo Pre-Parachute Selection Course (P-Company) training due to the arduous nature of the commando course they have already completed.
The Royal Marines operate a diverse range of vehicles, weapons and landing craft.[15]
The Royal Marines have a proud history and unique traditions. Their colours (flags) do not carry individual battle honours in the manner of the regiments of the British Army but rather the "globe itself" as the symbol of the Corps.
The badge of the Royal Marines is designed to commemorate the history of the Corps. The Lion and Crown denotes a Royal regiment. King George III conferred this honour in 1802 "in consideration of the very meritorious services of the Marines in the late war."
The "Great Globe itself" surrounded by laurels was chosen by King George IV as a symbol of the Marines' successes in every quarter of the world. The laurels are believed to honour the gallantry they displayed during the investment and capture of Belle Isle, off Lorient, in April–June 1761.
The word Gibraltar refers to the Siege of Gibraltar in 1704. It was awarded in 1827 by George IV as a special distinction for the services of four of the old Army Marine regiments (Queen's Own Marines, 1st Marines, 2nd Marines, 3rd Marines). All other honours gained by the Royal Marines are represented by the "Great Globe". As a consequence, there are no battle honours displayed on the colours of the four battalion-sized units in the corps.
When referring to individual Commandos: 45 Commando is referred to as "four-five" rather than "forty-five commando" as is 42 Commando, 40 Commando is "forty".
The only units which carry colours are 40 Commando, 42 Commando, 45 Commando, and the Fleet Protection Group (which is the custodian of the colours of 43 Commando).
The fouled anchor, incorporated into the emblem in 1747, is the badge of the Lord High Admiral and shows that the Corps is part of the Naval Service.
Per Mare Per Terram ("By Sea By Land"), the motto of the Marines, is believed to have been used for the first time in 1775.
The regimental quick march of the Corps is "A Life on the Ocean Wave", while the slow march is the march of the Preobrazhensky Regiment, awarded to the Corps by Admiral of the Fleet Earl Mountbatten of Burma on the occasion of the Corps's tercentenary in 1964. Lord Mountbatten was Life Colonel Commandant of the Royal Marines until his murder by the IRA in 1979.
Dress headgear is a white Wolseley pattern pith helmet surmounted by a ball, a distinction once standard for artillerymen. This derives from the part of the Corps that was once the Royal Marine Artillery.
The Royal Marines are one of six regiments allowed by the Lord Mayor of the City of London to march through the City as a regiment in full array. This dates to the charter of Charles II that allowed recruiting parties of the Admiral's Regiment of 1664 to enter the City with drums beating and colours flying.
Their nickname "Bootneck" derives its origins from the leather 'stock' worn round the neck inside the collar by soldiers (cf. Leatherneck).
For historical information regarding Marine uniforms, see History of the Royal Marines.
The modern Royal Marines retain a number of distinctive uniform items. These include the green "Lovat" service dress worn with the green beret, the dark blue parade dress worn with either the white Wolseley pattern helmet or white and red peaked cap, the scarlet and blue mess dress for officers and senior non-commissioned officers and the white hot-weather uniform of the Band Service.
As the descendant of the old Marine Regiments of the British Army, the Royal Marines used to have a position in the order of precedence of the Infantry; this was after the 49th Regiment of Foot, the final lineal descendant of which was the Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire Regiment. Therefore, the Royal Marines would have paraded after the RGBW. This is because the 49th Foot was the last Regiment raised prior to the formation of the Corps of Marines as part of the Royal Navy in 1755. In 2007, the RGBW was amalgamated into a large Regiment—this new Regiment is placed last in the order of precedence, as it is a regiment of rifles. However as a result of the new Army amalgamations the Royal Marines have now been removed from the Infantry order of precedence and will now always take post, as a constituent part of the Naval Service, at the head of the parade alongside the Navy, or alone if the Navy are not represented. Thus, if only the infantry is represented, the Royal Marines would parade before the Grenadier Guards, the senior infantry regiment in the Army.
| Preceded by As part of Naval Service, assumes precedence before all Army units |
Infantry order of precedence | Succeeded by Grenadier Guards |
Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders
Early connections date from Balaclava in the Crimean War and Lucknow during the Indian Mutiny, but the main association stems from World War II. In July 1940, after the fall of Dunkirk, the 5th Battalion, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders served with the Royal Marine Brigade for over a year. When HMS Prince of Wales and Repulse were sunk in December 1941, the Royal Marines survivors joined up with the remnants of the 2nd Battalion, in the defence of Singapore. They formed what became known as 'The Plymouth Argylls', after the association football team, since both ships were Plymouth manned. Most of the Highlanders and Marines who survived the bitter fighting were taken prisoner by the Japanese. The Royal Marines inter-unit rugby football trophy is the 'Argyll Bowl', presented to the Corps by the Regiment in 1941. A message of greetings is sent to the Regiment each year on their Regimental Day, 25 October, the anniversary of the Battle of Balaclava in 1854.
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| NATO rank code | Student Officer | OF-1 | OF-2 | OF-3 | OF-4 | OF-5 | OF-6 * |
OF-7 ** |
OF-8 *** |
OF-9 **** |
OF-10 ***** |
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| Royal Navy | Mid | SLt | Lt | Lt Cdr | Cdr | Capt | Cdre | RAdm | VAdm | Adm | Adm of the Fleet | ||
| Royal Marines | 2Lt | Lt | Capt | Maj | Lt Col | Col | Brig | Maj-Gen | Lt-Gen | Gen | |||
| Army | O Cdt | 2Lt | Lt | Capt | Maj | Lt Col | Col | Brig | Maj-Gen | Lt-Gen | Gen | FM | |
| Royal Air Force | OC / SO | APO / Plt Off | Fg Off | Flt Lt | Sqn Ldr | Wg Cdr | Gp Capt | Air Cdre | AVM | Air Mshl | Air Chf Mshl | MRAF | |
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