In the early days of naval warfare, there was no distinction between land-based and sea-based soldiers. Most naval battles were resolved by direct combat between the crews, either by firing missile weapons or by boarding. When battle threatened, soldiers would be embarked to fight on board. This remained the case in naval warfare right through to the early modern period. But, in time, as ships and naval combat became more sophisticated, boardings generated a requirement for soldiers specially trained to either lead or defend against such shipboard attacks.
of the first in which marines played a critical role. National Maritime Museum
The first organized marine corps was the Republic of Venice’s Fanti da Mar (Sea Infantry) Regiment, whose soldiers were trained and equipped to operate on the republic’s extensive fleet of galleys beginning in the early 13th century. The Spanish later emulated the Venetians with their Compañías Viejas del Mar (Old Sea Companies), formed in 1537, the progenitors of today’s Spanish Navy Marines. The value of such specialists was shown at the Battle of Lepanto in October 1571, when a smaller Christian fleet (most of which was supplied by Spain and Venice) defeated a much larger Ottoman one.
Under the newly restored Stuart kings, Britain’s navy in the late 17th century underwent a period of rapid reform and restructuring. What emerged was the modernized Royal Navy that proved so effective in the 18th and early 19th centuries. One of the Royal Navy’s key initiatives was to recruit a dedicated force of soldiers to serve on board ships.
In 1664, the Duke of York and Albany’s Maritime Regiment of Foot was formed. That original regiment was expanded in 1755 to 50 companies in three divisions, each based at a major naval base (Chatham, Portsmouth, and Plymouth), and was renamed His Majesty’s Marine Forces. Inevitably, this name was shortened to just “marines,” which is how the modern name arose. This is how they were known in Britain until 1802, when they formally became the Royal Marines.
Marines formed a significant proportion of a warship’s crew in the 19th century. A British 74-gun ship, for example, had a 650-man complement, of which just under a hundred Marines formed a detachment that enhanced the ship’s fighting power. In action at sea, Marine sharpshooters stationed in the rigging could fire down on the deck of an enemy, targeting key personnel such as the officers and helmsmen. Marines also took a leading role in boarding actions as a force trained to lead an attack onto an enemy’s decks or defend their ship against enemy boarders.
Marines were all volunteers, unlike many of the sailors. When not in action, they formed a disciplined reserve to support the ship’s officers. Marines acted as sentries and had a policing role at times of tension between officers and crew. They were deliberately kept apart from the sailors; messed separately from them; were dissuaded from fraternizing with them; and changed ships frequently to help maintain the separation. They slept at the aft-end of the lower deck, deliberately positioned between the crew and the officers’ accommodations. The consequences of not posting Marines to a warship was shown when HMS Bounty set out on her expedition to the South Seas. With no Marines to call on, Commanding Lieutenant William Bligh was left powerless when his senior officer led a mutiny against him.
Marines also were employed to raid an enemy coastline. Captain Lord Thomas Cochrane used the Marines allocated to his frigate HMS Imperieuse to considerable effect. In a seven-month cruise off the Spanish coast in 1808, he attacked and destroyed nine shore batteries, burned down six signal posts, destroyed several bridges, and helped a party of guerrillas capture the Castle of Mongat in a combined assault. On occasion, Marines were used to hold a strategic location, sometimes for long periods. When Marines from the Royal Navy’s Baltic Fleet seized the Danish island of Anholt in 1807, they occupied it until 1812, despite repeated attempts by the Danish Army to recapture it.
During the 19th century, improvements in naval gunnery increased the distance at which ships fought one another to far beyond the range of small arms, which robbed Marines of their traditional roles in combat as sharpshooters or boarders. The Royal Navy allocated some guns, traditionally those mounted nearest the stern, for the Marines to serve in combat. However, it was amphibious landings that became increasingly important, especially during colonial expansion. The ability to project military power from the sea onto land would come to dominate the role of maritime soldiers, particularly following World War I.
In no country was this more apparent than the United States. American Marines were first recruited to serve on the ships of the Continental Navy in 1775, although this unit was disbanded at the end of the Revolutionary War. Two decades later, Congress’s decision to expand the U.S. Navy with six new frigates generated a requirement for Marines to serve on them, and the U.S. Marine Corps came into existence on 11 July 1798. Initially, their role was much the same as their British equivalents, a mix of combat duties and helping maintain discipline, but as the 19th century progressed, their role began to evolve.
Increasingly, Marines served away from Navy ships, often as independent combat units spearheading amphibious assaults. They did this in a limited way in the Civil War, leading attacks on New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Later, during the Spanish-American War, Marines led U.S. forces ashore in the Philippines, Cuba, and Puerto Rico. This increasing detachment from their shipboard role reached its logical end point when Marines served in the trenches of World War I—far from both the sea and the U.S. Navy—as part of the American Expeditionary Forces under Army General John J. Pershing. By 1918, some in the U.S. military were arguing that the time had come to incorporate the Marine Corps into the Army.
But the Marine Corps was not ready to concede. During the interwar years, under the leadership of Commandant Major General John A. Lejeune, it found its modern identity. A World War I veteran, Lejeune learned from his experience in France that, to be effective, the Marine Corps would have to be reorganized and retrained—to be transformed from a collection of rifle units into a proper combined arms structure, with its own specialist units, such as artillery, signals, engineers, reconnaissance, etc.
But Lejeune also understood that, to maintain its independence, the Marine Corps had to provide something distinctive, and under his leadership Marines returned to their roots as amphibious warfare specialists. He correctly identified Imperial Japan as a likely threat, and he recognized that any future conflict with it would be fought at sea and require amphibious invasions. His initial work was carried forward by successive Commandants, ensuring the United States entered World War II with a well-trained and -equipped amphibious force ready to spearhead assaults across the Pacific.
During World War II, the Marine Corps expanded massively, becoming a force of almost half a million men and women. They were organized into six divisions, supported by five Marine air wings and even a parachute battalion. Its amphibious role in the war against Japan did not come without cost—nearly 87,000 Marines were casualties. Eighty-two were awarded the Medal of Honor.
After the end of the war, the U.S. Marine Corps was reduced in size, but to this day it remains by far the largest marine organization in the world. It has continued to serve through a number of conflicts, including Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf War, and the post-9/11 wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, but the Marine Corps has once again returned its attention to its amphibious capabilities. This is fortunate, for in a close parallel with the situation that confronted General Lejeune a hundred years ago, a military threat is again emerging on the far side of the Pacific Ocean.
