The Royal Marines, also known as the Royal Marines Commandos, and officially as the Corps of Royal Marines, are the United Kingdom's amphibious special operations capable commando force, one of the five fighting arms of the Royal Navy, and provide a company strength unit to the Special Forces Support Group (SFSG). The Royal Marines trace their origins back to the formation of the "Duke of York and Albany's maritime regiment of Foot" on 28 October 1664, and the first Royal Marines Commando unit was formed at Deal in Kent on 14 February 1942 and designated "The Royal Marine Commando".
Portland Harbour is beside the Isle of Portland, Dorset, on the south coast of England. Construction of the harbour began in 1849; when completed in 1872, its 520-hectare (1,300-acre) surface area made it the largest human-made harbour in the world, and it remains one of the largest in the world today. It is naturally sheltered by Portland to the south, Chesil Beach to the west and mainland Dorset to the north. It consists of four breakwaters: two southern and two northern. These have a total length of 4.57 km (2.84 mi) and enclose approximately 1,000 ha of water.
HMS Fearless (L10) was a Royal Navy amphibious assault ship that served from 1965 until 2002. One of two Fearless-class landing platform docks, she was based in HMNB Portsmouth and saw service around the world over her 37-year life. She was the last steam-powered surface ship in the Royal Navy.
The Royal Marine Brigade and subsequent Royal Marine Division were amphibious warfare units formed by the British Royal Marines at the start of the Second World War.
Royal Naval Air Station Lee-on-Solent,, is a former Royal Naval Air Station located near Lee-on-the-Solent in Hampshire, approximately 4 miles (6.44 km) west of Portsmouth, on the coast of the Solent.
The Commander-in-Chief Fleet (CINCFLEET) was the admiral responsible for the operations of the ships, submarines and aircraft of the British Royal Navy from 1971 until April 2012. The post was subordinate to the First Sea Lord, the professional head of the Naval Service. In its last years, as the Navy shrank, more administrative responsibilities were added.
His Majesty's Naval Base, Portsmouth is one of three operating bases in the United Kingdom for the Royal Navy. Portsmouth Naval Base is part of the city of Portsmouth; it is located on the eastern shore of Portsmouth Harbour, north of the Solent and the Isle of Wight. For centuries it was officially known as HM Dockyard, Portsmouth: as a Royal Dockyard, Portsmouth functioned primarily as a state-owned facility for building, repairing and maintaining warships; for a time it was the largest industrial site in the world.
HMS Sultan is a stone frigate of the Royal Navy in Gosport, Hampshire, England. It is the primary engineering training establishment for the Royal Navy and home to the Network Rail Advanced Apprenticeship Scheme and the EDF Energy engineering maintenance apprenticeship.
700 Naval Air Squadron is a Maritime Unmanned Air System squadron in the Royal Navy’s Fleet Air Arm. Known as 700X Naval Air Squadron, where the 'X' is used to designate 'experimental', it is currently the Royal Navy's Remotely-piloted air systems (RPAS) or 'drone' expert unit.
846 Naval Air Squadron is a squadron of the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm.
848 Naval Air Squadron was a squadron of the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm. It operated the Westland Sea King HC.4 helicopter and previously provided advanced flying training to pilots for the other squadrons in the Commando Helicopter Force. The squadron was based at RNAS Yeovilton in Somerset and was decommissioned on 24 March 2016.
His Majesty's Naval Base, Devonport is one of three operating bases in the United Kingdom for the Royal Navy and is the sole nuclear repair and refuelling facility for the Royal Navy. The largest naval base in Western Europe, HMNB Devonport is located in Devonport, in the west of the city of Plymouth, England.
The history of the Royal Marines began on 28 October 1664 with the formation of the Duke of York and Albany's Maritime Regiment of Foot soon becoming known as the Admiral's Regiment. During the War of the Spanish Succession the most historic achievement of the Marines was the capture of the mole during the assault on Gibraltar in 1704. On 5 April 1755, His Majesty's Marine Forces, fifty Companies in three Divisions, headquartered at Portsmouth, Chatham and Plymouth, were formed by Order of Council under Admiralty control.
The Royal Marines Volunteer Cadet Corps (RMVCC) is part of the Royal Navy's Volunteer Cadet Corps. There are units (Divisions) in Arbroath, Chivenor, Gosport, Lympstone, Portsmouth, and Plymouth.
Coastal Forces was a division of the Royal Navy initially established during World War I, and then again in World War II under the command of Rear-Admiral, Coastal Forces. It remained active until the last minesweepers to wear the "HM Coastal Forces" cap tally were taken out of reserve in 1968. The division received more gallantry awards than any other branch of the Royal Navy during that period.
894 Naval Air Squadron was a Fleet Air Arm (FAA) naval air squadron of the United Kingdom’s Royal Navy (RN). Formed at RN Air Section Norfolk, Virginia, in August 1942, as a fighter squadron, in December, the squadron joined HMS Battler for the UK, eventually arriving at HMS Sparrowhawk, RNAS Hatston, in February, where it later joined HMS Illustrious in July. The squadron provided air cover for the Salerno landings in September 1943. It returned to HMS Dipper, RNAS Henstridge, in late October 1943 and became part of the 24th Naval Fighter Wing. The squadron boarded HMS Indefatigable in July, covering operations over Norway, including two attacks on the battleship Tirpitz.
The Volunteer Cadet Corps (VCC) is a national youth organisation managed by the United Kingdom's Royal Navy and sponsored by the UK's Ministry of Defence. The VCC comprises:
In 1989 the Royal Navy was under the direction of the Navy Department in the UK Ministry of Defence. It had two main commands, CINCFLEET and Naval Home Command.
The page contains the current Structure of the Corps of Royal Marines.
