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Royal Marines History
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January

James Louis Moulton

James Louis Moulton was born on 3 June 1906, the son of J. D. Moulton. He was educated at Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Barnet, and...

Royal Marines History - January 2023

Once again many thanks for your continued support and interest in this monthly blog and the Royal Marines History Website. Visitor...

HM Queen Victoria's Body Escorted from Osborne House - Royal Marines Guard

On the evening of 22nd January HM Queen Victoria died at Osborne, Isle of Wight, and for a time the world seemed to stand still; it was...

Crossing the Garigliano River - 40 CDO Royal Marines

Force 2. (A.P. and X troops). [40 CDO RM War Diary] The day of 17th January was spent in the lying up area until 2015 hrs when the area...

Formation of 117th Infantry Brigade Royal Marines

Unit/ Formation: Royal Marines Location: UK Period/ Conflict: World War II Year: 1945 Date/s: 15th January - July 1945 The 117th Infantry...

Operations in the Transkei

Unit/ Formation: Royal Marines Location: Transkei Period/ Conflict: The Frontier Wars Year: 1878 Date/s: 13th January 1878 “After...

Raid on Myebon Peninsula - 42 Cdo RM

Unit/ Formation: 42 Cdo RM Location: Burma Period/ Conflict: World War II Year: 1945 Date/s: 12 January 1945 On 12th January 1945, the...

Capture of Fort Trincomalee by surprise

Unit/ Formation: His Majesty's Marine Forces Location: Sri Lanka Period/ Conflict: Fourth Anglo Dutch War Year: 1782 Date/s: 5 January...

Royal Marines Engineer Commando - Burma

Extract from ADM 202/30 re No 1 (RM) Engineer Commando 3 Troop RM Engineer Commando Report on Operations at AKYAB, MYEBON & KANGAW Period...

Sinking of HMS Formidable - 86 RMs lost

Unit/ Formation: Memorial Location: English Channel Period/ Conflict: World War I Year: 1915 Date/s: 1st January 1915 HMS Formidable was...

Royal Marines - Operations in Ukraine

Royal Marines Commandos supported "discreet operations" when deployed to Ukraine earlier this year, a former head of the Marines has...

Glider Bomb Attack off Anzio - Loss of HMS Spartan

Unit/ Formation: Memorial Location: Off Anzio Period/ Conflict: World War II Year: 1944 Date/s: 29th January 1944 Loss of AA Cruiser HMS...

Invasion of Guadeloupe (1810)

Unit/ Formation: Royal Marines Location: Guadeloupe Period/ Conflict: Napoleonic Wars Year: 1810 Date/s: 28 January and 6 February 1810...

“Sarie Marais” – The March Past of the Royal Marines Commandos

'Sarie Marais' was an old South African folk song often used by the Boer Commandos and quickly spread at home by soldiers coming back...

Operation Maude - Cutting Iraq's Communications Cable

Unit/ Formation: SBS Location: S of Baghdad Period/ Conflict: Operation Granby (Gulf War 1) Year: 1991 Date/s: 23 January 1991. Led by Lt...

Operation Shingle - Anzio Landings

Unit/ Formation: 43 Cdo RM Location: Italy Period/ Conflict: World War II Year: 1944 Date/s: 22 January 1944 The Battle of Anzio was a...

45 RM Commando Operations around the Meuse Jan 1945

On the 14th January 1945 45 Commando under Command of Brigadier D Mills-Roberts DSO MC Irish Guards embarked at Tilbury Docks for...

Sinking of HMS Viknor

Unit/ Formation: Memorial Location: West Coast of Ireland Period/ Conflict: World War I Year: 1915 Date/s: 13th January 1915 RMS Atrato...

Amphibious Assault and Capture of Chuenpi and Taikoktow

Unit/ Formation: Royal Marines Location: China Period/ Conflict: Opium Wars Year: 1841 Date/s: 7 January 1841 Chuenpi was one of the...

The First Fleet - Landing at Sydney Cove

Unit/ Formation: His Majesty's Marine Forces Location: Sydney Cove Period/ Conflict: 1700's Year: 1788 Date/s: 26th January 1788 Captain...

Fight for survival - The Stuka bombing of HMS Illustrious

The Royal Navy’s first armoured carrier had been active a mere six months when her design and construction was put to the ultimate test....

First to Land - Last to Leave - Withdrawal from Gallipoli

Unit/ Formation: Royal Marines Location: Cape Helles Period/ Conflict: World War I Year: 1916 Date/s: 9th January 1916 At about 1:40pm on...

L/Cpl HE Harden VC (RAMC) - attached to 45 (Royal Marine) Commando - 23rd January 1945 - Netherlands

Henry Eric Harden VC (23 February 1912 – 23 January 1945), 32 years old. Harden was a lance corporal in the Royal Army Medical Corps...

Royal Marines Camel Corps - Battle of Abu Klea

Unit/ Formation: Royal Marines Location: Sudan Period/ Conflict: Sudanese War Year: 1885 Date/s: 17th January 1885 Two of the Camel...

Submarine Canoe Insertion against the IRA

Operation Aweless Unit/ Formation: SBS Location: Northern Ireland Period/ Conflict: Northern Ireland Conflict Year: 1975 Date/s:...

Assault on the island of Kapelsche Veer

Unit/ Formation: 47 Cdo RM Location: The Netherlands Period/ Conflict: World War II Year: 1945 Date/s: 13th January 1945 Operation Horse...

Royal Marines & Royal Navy capture Salif in the Yemen 1917

Capture of Salif Unit/ Formation: Royal Marines Location: Salif Period/ Conflict: World War I Year: 1917 Date/s: 12th January...

The Battle of Blaauwberg - Cape Town 1806

The Battle of Blaauwberg also known as the Battle of Cape Town fought near Cape Town on Wednesday 8 January 1806, was a small but...

HMS Doris - Royal Marines in Intelligence Gathering and Demolition Raids in Syria

Commissioned in 1897, one of the nine-ship Eclipse class, Doris was a 5600-ton, 350-foot second-class protected cruiser, designed for...

The Royal Marines a Geo - History 1664 - Present - Amalgamation of the RMLI and RMA 1923

RM Barracks Forton and Eastney and the amalgamation of the Royal Marines Light Infantry and Royal Marines Artillery in 1923. The Royal...

April

Lake Commachio - Kangaroo Charge by C Troop

Unit/ Formation: 43 Cdo RM Location: Lake Commachio Period/ Conflict: World War II Year: 1945 Date/s: 02 April 1945 It was shortly before...

Force Primrose - Holding on at Åndalsnes

A force of Marines, some 700 strong, with an anti-aircraft battery, was given notice on the 13th April to embark for Norway, with the...

Royal Marines Burnout Gloster Gladiators on Frozen Lake Airstrip Norway

Unit/ Formation: Royal Marines Location: Norway Period/ Conflict: World War II Year: 1940 Date/s: 30 April 1940 Westcott and ourselves...

Battle of Gavrelle Windmill - highest number of Royal Marine causalities in a single day

Battle of Gavrelle Windmill Unit/ Formation: RMLI Location: France Period/ Conflict: World War I Year: 1917 Date/s: 28th to 29th April...

Y Beach Gallipoli - Cliff Assault

Y Beach was one of three allocated to 29th Division on 25th April 1915, and was the most northern landing site on Cape Helles. The beach...

Force Viper - Escape

Unit/ Formation: Royal Marines Location: Burma Period/ Conflict: World War II Year: 1943 Date/s: April 1943 Only 58 of the original 106...

Attack on Emmahaven

Unit/ Formation: RM Airmen Location: Padang Period/ Conflict: World War II Year: 1945 Date/s: 16th April 1945 An airstrike was made on...

1000'th Royal Marine killed in WW1

Unit/ Formation: Royal Marines Light Infantry Location: United Kingdom Period/ Conflict: World War I Year: 1915 Date/s: 14th April 1915...

Landings at Namsos - Royal Marines first ashore in Norway

Unit/ Formation: Royal Marines Location: Norway Period/ Conflict: World War II Year: 1940 Date/s: 14 - 16th April 1940 The first Allied...

Sinking of the German cruiser Königsberg

Unit/ Formation: RM Airmen Location: Bergan Period/ Conflict: World War II Year: Date/s: 10 April 1940 Captain R.T. Partridge, Royal...

Lt George Davies - Det 385

After Operation DEFRAUD in the Burmese jungle in 1945 the patrol leader, Major ER Breen, wrote in the debrief “I managed to collect a...

Royal Marines - Operations in Ukraine

Royal Marines Commandos supported "discreet operations" when deployed to Ukraine earlier this year, a former head of the Marines has...

Royal Marines History in April

Come and search April on the Royal Marines Geo Map and explore 57 Pins...at present the first from 1775, click the map to open and search...

SBS sail South on HMS Conqueror

In response to the invasion the British dispatched a Taskforce to recapture them under the codename Operation CORPORATE. Visibly the...

Soldiers of the Sea

The quick march 'Soldiers of the Sea' was composed by Vivian Dunn and written for HMS Bulwark, the Royal Navy's first Commando Carrier in...

In Our Own Words - 42 Commando in the Falklands War

Thirty eight former members of Lima Company Group, 42 Commando Royal Marines as well as four others having connections with Lima Company,...

Easter Sunday 1943 - Loss of 2 LCG's and 70 Marines off Wales

On Easter Sunday 1943 (25 April), gale force winds and wild seas were lashing at the coast. Close to land, among the giant breakers and...

Yangtse River Incident 1949

April-July 1949 HMS Amethyst sailed from Shanghai on 19th April to relieve HMS Consort at Nanking. Fired at on 20th at around 0900, 60...

The first Shots of the Revolutionary War - Lexington Green

Unit/ Formation: His Majesty's Marine Forces Location: North America Period/ Conflict: American Revolutionary War (1775–83) Year: Date/s:...

The Battle of San Juan

Unit/ Formation: Marine Regiments Location: San Juan Period/ Conflict: Year: 1797 Date/s: 17th April 1797 The Battle of San Juan was an...

Operation Valentine - Occupation of the Faroe Islands

Unit/ Formation: Royal Marines Location: Faroe Islands Period/ Conflict: World War II Year: 1940 Date/s: 13th April 1940 Occupation of...

Lancashire Landing Cemetery

Unit/ Formation: Memorial Location: Gallipoli peninsula Period/ Conflict: World War I Year: 1915 Date/s: April 1915 - January 1916 84...

HMS Hermes Sunk by Dive Bombers

After the raid on Colombo by the Japanese aircraft carriers on 5 April, known as the Easter Sunday Raid, Hermes and Vampire were sent to...

Sinking of the Cornwall & Dorsetshire 45 Royal Marines Lost

On 2 April, Cornwall and her half sister, Dorsetshire, were detached from the fleet, Dorsetshire to resume an interrupted refit and...

Major AJ Wright - Flying Shark Teeth

Seafire Mk.IIC, MB218/S-A, pilot Major AJ. Wright, RM, No. 809 NAS, HMS Unicorn, September 1943. MB218 was produced by Supermarine. It...

Boarding and Capture of 7 Merchants under the Spanish Guns

Blockade duties around Cadiz were still being carried out by the Royal Navy over two years since Trafalgar. The intention was the same as...

Major Frederick William Lumsden RMA - VC

Unit/ Formation: Victoria Cross Location: France Period/ Conflict: World War I Year: 1917 Date/s: 4 April 1917 Brigadier General...

539 ASRM - A Genesis

539 ASRM (Assault Squadron Royal Marines) now 539 Raiding Squadron is a unique unit, for those of us that were privileged to have served...

47 Commando - Final Operations in Holland

Unit/ Formation: 47 Cdo RM Location: The Netherlands Period/ Conflict: World War II Year: 1945 Date/s: 12 March - 7 April 1945 On the 12...

Captain Edward Banford RMLI - Victoria Cross - Zeebrugge

Unit/ Formation: Victoria Cross Location: Belgium Period/ Conflict: World War I Year: 1918 Date/s: 23 April 1918 Bamford was 30 years...

Corporal Thomas Peck Hunter RM - Victoria Cross

Unit/ Formation: Victoria Cross Location: Italy Period/ Conflict: World War II Year: 1945 Date/s: 9 April 1945 Hunter was 21 years old,...

42 Cdo run 2 COVID Testing Centres

Royal Marines have helped key workers in the South-West test for coronavirus as they ran two mobile centres. Personnel from 42 Commando...

Lance Corporal Parker RMLI VC - Gallipoli

Unit/ Formation: Victoria Cross Location: Gallipoli Period/ Conflict: World War I Year: 1915 Date/s: 30 April 1915 In April 1915, the...

Royal Marines in Gallipoli - 28 April 1915

Gallipoli - 28 April 1915 Royal Marines were involved in both the initial, unopposed, landings on the peninsula and the subsequent...

Battle of Gate Pā (Pukehinahina) - New Zealand

Unit/ Formation: Royal Marines Location: New Zealand Period/ Conflict: The New Zealand wars Year: 1864 Date/s: 29th April 1864 On 26...

Operation Paraquet - Recapture of South Georgia

Unit/ Formation: 42 Cdo RM Location: South Georgia Period/ Conflict: The Falklands War Year: 1982 Date/s: 25 April 1982 South Georgia ...

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