45 Commando

All you want to know about 45 Commando

45 Commando Royal Marines

Cap Badge of the Royal Marines
Active 1943-
Country United Kingdom
Branch Royal Navy
Type Marine Infantry
Role Commando
Size One battalion
Part of Naval Service
Garrison/HQ RM Condor, Arbroath
Motto Per Mare Per Terram (By Sea By Land) (Latin)
March Quick - A Life on the Ocean Wave
Slow - Preobrajensky
Commanders
Current
commander		 Lt Col J A J Morris RM
Captain-General HRH The Duke of Edinburgh (Captain-General, Royal Marines)
Insignia
Commando Flash

45 Commando Royal Marines is a battalion sized unit of the British Royal Marines and subordinate unit within 3 Commando Brigade Royal Marines, the principal Commando formation, under the Operational Command of Commander in Chief Fleet.

Roled as a Commando amphibious unit, 45 Cdo RM is capable of a wide range of operational tasks. Based at RM Condor,[1] their barracks in Arbroath, personnel regularly deploy outside the United Kingdom on operations or training. Whilst 3 Cdo Bde RM are the principal cold weather warfare formation, personnel are capable of operating in a variety of theatres including tropical jungle, desert or mountainous terrain. The Commando is a regular participant in the annual Brigade cold weather warfare exercise in Norway having been the first UK unit to specialise in the mountain and arctic warfare role during the early 1970s and deployed to Norway on NATO’s northern flank most years until the end of the Cold War.

All personnel have completed the Commando course at the Commando Training Centre at Lympstone in Devon, entitling them to wear the green beret, with attached personnel having completed the All Arms Commando Course.

The title is pronounced as "Four Five Commando"

Contents

History

5th RM Battalion

The 5th RM Battalion was originally raised for a brief period at the end of World War I (September 1918-February 1919), and was again raised on 2 April 1940 following mass mobilisation and the influx of “hostilities only” (HO) marines. The battalion was raised at Cowshot Camp in Brookwood (now part of the Pirbright Camp complex), being incorporated into 101 RM Bde, along with the 1st RM Battalion. Between August and October 1940 the battalion took part in operations in Dakar. On return until August 1943 the battalion conducted extensive training in Wales, Scotland, the Isle of Wight and Burley, where the battalion reformed as 45 RM Commando on 1 August 1943.

45 RM Commando

After reforming and retitling the unit transitioned to the Commando role as a formed unit, by-passing the individual volunteer and selection process undertaken by Army Commando candidates. Personnel undertook, and completed, the Commando Basic Training Course at Achnacarry, Scotland.

As part of 1 Special Service Brigade the Commando participated in Operation Overlord, the D-Day Normandy landings, going on to move through Europe into Germany, including Montforterbeek on 23 January 1945. The Commando returned to UK after a short period in Germany in June 1945.

Post-World War II reorganisation

Following the Second World War both 1 Cdo Bde (Nos 3, 4 and 6 Army Cdos and 45 RM Cdo) and 2 Cdo Bde (Nos 2 and 9 Army Cdos and 40 and 43 RM Cdos) disbanded leaving 3 Cdo Bde (then comprising 1 and 5 Army Cdos and 42 and 44 RM Cdos) in place in the far east. 3 Cdo Bde reorganised, disbanding 1 and 5 Army Cdos, and took on 45 RM Cdo, which joined the Bde in Hong Kong, from the UK, in January 1946. In order to preserve the heritage of a 2 Cdo Bde unit, as well as that of 1 Cdo Bde (45 RM Cdo), 44 RM Cdo was retitled 40 RM Cdo (which had been disbanded in UK in October 1945) and took on 40 RM Cdo’s colours, battle honours and traditions, albeit with 44 RM Cdo’s manpower. The three remaining commandos were restyled 40, 42 and 45 Commandos RM in March 1946.

1940s/1950s

The Commando was based in Hong Kong between January 1946 and May 1947, conducting internal security duties there as part of 3 Cdo Bde RM. Between May 1947 and December 1948 the Commando moved to Malta, during which time it deployed to Libya, Palestine, Suez and Jordan. The Commando returned to Hong Kong in December 1948 and from there deployed to Malaya between 1950 and 1952 taking part in operations during the Emergency. Between 1952 and 1959 the Commando was once again based in Malta, from where it took part in a number of tours of Cyprus as well as the Suez Crisis, conducting the first ever helicopter assault.

1960s

Between 1960 and 1967 the Commando was based in Aden, from where it conducted 10 operational tours in the Radfan during the Aden Emergency. The Commando also deployed briefly to Kuwait following an Iraqi threat to her Independence in 1961 and also to Tanganyika for internal security duties in 1964, returning to Aden after each deployment. The last elements of the Commando left Aden on 29 November 1967 to return to the UK for the first time since the end of World War II. They set up home in Stonehouse Barracks, Plymouth.

1970s/1980s

In 1970 the Commando began arctic training for the first time, taking on the role of the UK’s mountain and arctic warfare experts (joined later by the other Commandos). 45 Cdo RM deployed to Norway for the first of many winters in 1971, which coincided with a move of the unit from Stonehouse, Plymouth to the old Naval Air Station, RNAS Condor (now RM Condor) in Arbroath, Scotland, where the unit remains to this day. This period in the unit’s history is characterised by the alternation of Northern Ireland tours and winters in Norway, protecting NATO’s northern flank. The principal break in this routine came from the Falklands War in 1982.

Falklands War

Main article: Falklands War

Following the Argentinian invasion of 2 April 1982, 45 Cdo RM were recalled from leave and deployed to the Falklands immediately. Having landed at Red Beach, Ajax Bay on 21 May 1982, the men of 45 Cdo RM yomped across East Falkland, to take part in the Battle for Stanley, conducting a night attack on the Two Sisters feature over the 11/12 June 1982, during which the Commando lost 8 men killed and 17 wounded. The Argentinians surrendered on 14 June 1982.

1990s

The Commando deployed to Northern Iraq on Operation Haven at the end of the Gulf War, where it spent 2 months in the Zakho area, withdrawing at the end of June. In a mirror image of its 1961 deployment to Kuwait, the Commando returned on Operation Driver [1] in 1994 in support of Kuwait following some threatening troop movements by the Iraqis on their side of the border. In 1998 the Commando was redirected from an exercise in Belize to assist Nicaragua and Honduras following the devastation caused by Hurricane Mitch – Operation Tellar [2].

2000s

At the turn of the Millennium, the Commando was deployed to Kosovo under KFOR as part of 3 Cdo Bde RM on Operation Agricola IV. In 2002 the unit deployed to Afghanistan on Operation Jacana (known more universally by its US name Operation Anaconda), and also took part in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. More recently the Commando took part in Operation Herrick 5 in the Helmand province of Afghanistan.

Active service

List of 45 Commando's active service

Commanding Officers

As 5 RM Bn

  • 1940-1942 Lt Col H E Reading RM
  • 1942-1942 Lt Col S G Cutler RM (February - September)
  • 1942-1943 Lt Col K Hunt RM

As 45 RM Commando

  • 1943-1944 Lt Col N C Ries RM
  • 1944-1945 Lt Col W N Gray DSO RM
  • 1945-1945 Lt Col A L Blake MC RM (March - April)
  • 1945-1945 Lt Col W N Gray DSO RM (April - July)
  • 1945-1945 Lt Col I D De'ath DSO MBE RM (July - December)
  • 1945-1946 Lt Col R D Houghton MC RM

As 45 Commando RM

  • 1946-1948 Lt Col T M Gray DSO MC RM
  • 1948-1948 Lt Col E C E Palmer DSO RM (January - July)
  • 1948-1948 Lt Col P L Norcock RM (July - November)
  • 1948-1950 Lt Col N C Ries OBE RM
  • 1950-1952 Lt Col R C de M Leathes MVO OBE RM
  • 1952-1954 Lt Col F A Eustace OBE RM
  • 1954-1956 Lt Col N H Tailyour DSO RM
  • 1956-1956 Lt Col R D Crombie RM (November - December)
  • 1956-1957 Lt Col N H Tailour DSO RM
  • 1957-1958 Lt Col J Richards OBE RM
  • 1958-1958 Lt Col R D Crombie RM (July - September)
  • 1958-1960 Lt Col F C Barton RM
  • 1960-1962 Lt Col L G Marsh MC RM
  • 1962-1963 Lt Col N S E Maude RM
  • 1963-1964 Lt Col T M P Stevens MC RM
  • 1964-1966 Lt Col R J McGarel Goves RM
  • 1966-1967 Lt Col F C E Bye RM
  • 1967-1968 Lt Col J I H Owen OBE RM
  • 1968-1969 Lt Col J C C Richards RM
  • 1969-1971 Lt Col R J Ephraums OBE RM
  • 1971-1974 Lt Col Sir Steuart Pringle Bt RM
  • 1974-1976 Not known
  • 1976-1978 Lt Col John Grey RM
  • 1978-1981 Not known
  • 1981-1983 Lt Col John Whitehead RM
  • 1983-1985 Not known
  • 1985-1987 Lt Col Andrew Keeling RM
  • 1987-1989 Lt Col Simon Pack RM
  • ????-???? Lt Col J J Thompson RM
  • ????-1997 Not known
  • 1997-1999 Lt Col J H Thomas RM
  • 1999-2001 Lt Col Garry Robison RM
  • 2001-2003 Lt Col S T Chicken OBE RM
  • 2003-2004 Lt Col T Bevis RM
  • 2004-2006 Lt Col Nick Lindley RM
  • 2006-2007 Lt Col Duncan Dewar RM
  • 2007-2009 Lt Col J A J Morris RM


Coordinates: 56°34.821′N 2°37.745′W / 56.58035, -2.629083 (RM Condor)

References

  1. ^ Royal Marines Commando — Individual Unit Histories
v • d • e
British Commando Forces
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