At the outbreak of the Second Dutch War, a special regiment of 1,200 men was raised and trained for service. Known as the Duke of York and Albany’s Maritime Regiment of Foot, these famously loyal soldiers were the Royal Navy’s earliest form of raiding force.

Six Royal Marines regiments were raised for the War of Spanish Succession. They were among a brigade soldiers who successfully attacked Gibraltar, before holding its fortress under constant siege from the enemy. It has since been written that: “The garrison did more than could be humanly expected and the British Marines gained immortal honour.”

On October 21st, Lord Nelson defeated the combined French and Spanish troops off Cape Trafalgar. More than a tenth of his force were Royal Marines. One officer, Second Lieutenant Roteley, described the scene as being “like a hailstorm of bullets passing over our heads on the poop, where we had forty Marines with small arms.”

Turkey entered the war in 1915. The Gallipoli Campaign followed, with Royal Marines part of the force tasked with opening up the Dardanelles. Royal Marines detachments landed from two battleships, fighting in Europe and Asia simultaneously, before accomplishing their tasks and re-embarking.

St George’s Day, 1918. German U-boats were based in Bruges. To deny them access to the Channel, British Naval Forces launched a daring raid on Zeebrugge. A force of Royal Marines was landed onto the mile-long Zeebrugge Mole, destroying German gun batteries. That enabled three ships to be sunk, blocking the canal.

Commandos came into existence in 1942, on the orders of Winston Churchill as Britain tried to find new ways of achieving a greater effect from fewer resources. These highly trained personnel played a key role in the Arakan campaign, the Allied landings on Sicily and Operation OVERLORD in North West Europe.

Royal Marines were engaged in all phases of the Falklands campaign. In a final operation, M Coy Gp landed from a small task group to recover Southern Thule in the South Sandwich Islands. The professionalism and resilience of these Commandos were major factors in the success of this unique amphibious operation.

The British engagement in Afghanistan was the longest and most enduringly intense combat operation mounted by UK armed forces since the Korean War. The Corps was at the vanguard of what became a 13-year-long counter-insurgency campaign in Afghanistan.

40 Commando deployed to North West Iraq. After securing its initial targets, it advanced towards Basra, coming under repeated attack for three days before capturing Saddam Hussein’s palace. Within hours, Commandos were diffusing local tensions and distributing vital humanitarian aid.

Following Hurricane IRMA in September 2017, personnel from 3 Commando travelled to the Caribbean to take part in an international relief operation. More than 400 men and women deployed in the first 72 hours. They repaired 22 schools and five hospitals; and distributed 30 tons of food and 60,000 litres of water.