R.M.L.I.

At Dardanelles

The previous page was: "Royal Marines Pilots"

In february 1915, the Chatham and Plymouth battalions of the Royal Marine Light Infantry were sent to the Dardanelles to assist naval operations against the forts.

On March 4th the Plymouth battalion, landing at Sedd-al-Bahr and Kum Kale, successfully destroyed and silenced the heavy guns of the defence.

They made naval history by being the first battalion to operate simultaniously on two Continents.

The Navy's attack on the Dardanelles ended in failure, but there is more than one expert who holds the view that, had all the available men of the Brigade, been landed immediately after the bombardments, Achi Baba might have been held until the Army arrived.

Royal Marines Pilots

Gallipoli

In the great land attack on Gallipoli which followed the naval failure to force the Darnelles the Royal Marine Brigade, as part of the Royal Naval Division, fought heroically.

The Plymouth Battalion, landing at "Y" beach on April 25th, was the first to set foot on the peninsula, although by mistaken orders, they were re-embarked the next day after heavy casualties.

Three days later the Chatham and Portsmouth Battalions landed at Anzac and earned imperishable fame in repelling the fierce Turkish attack which began on April 30th.

1st V.C. Of The War Won By A Royal Marine

It was duringthe heat of the blistering inferno that Lance-Corporal Parker won the first V.C. of the war.

Volunteers were called for to take stores to the front trench, and Parker, who during the three previous days had shown the greatest courage under fire while in charge of stretcher bearers, at once came forward.

To reach the trench, volunteers had to cross an area of some four hundred yards wide. It was completely exposed and swept with heavy fire.

The urgent message from the trench had been received in the early hours of the morning; it was already daylight when the party set out on their grim task.

Parker alone succeeded in reaching the trench, all the others being either killed or seriously wounded. After his arrival he showed supreme courage in attending to the wounded and, although wounded himself, without personal consideration, helped remove them when the trench was finally evacuated.

The Brigade, fighting gallantly in the most desperate hardships which British troops have ever faced, remained on Gallipoli until the evacuation of the Peninsula in January 1916.

The Price Of The Decorations Was Too High

As the decorations which were showered upon them showed, their honour had been great, but their losses were grievous. Four battalions, which had begun at full strength, had been reduced to two very weak ones; four thousand men, inspite of reinforcements, had dwindled to little more than a thousand.

In a campaign which had been jeopadised from the start by muddling and indecision at home, the courage, tenacity and grim determination of the fighting men nearly turned predestined failure into a miraculous triumph.

The glory for each was the glory for all, and in that glory the Royal Marines shared to the full. The Plymouth Battalion had been first to land on those doom-ridden shores; its remnants were the last to leave a peninsula consecrated for ever by the Empire's manhood.

After Gallipoli To the Unappealing French Front

Following the grim period at Gallipoli, the Royal Naval Division was moved to France and organised on Army lines with three Brigades but Major-General Paris, R.M.A., remained in command, and the Brigades and their different Battalions were commanded at various times by R.M.L.I. officers.

Right up to the retreat of March 1918, there were always two purely Royal Marine Light Infantry battalions fed by recruits from the Depot. In addition most of the Divisional Units - the Engineers and the Train and Medical Units - were also Royal Marines, and the Machine Gun Battalion was composed of Marines and was commanded by a Royal Marine officer.

The Divisions went into line in France in July 1916, and took part in all the heavy fighting from that date until the end of the war.

They distinguished themselves particularly in the successful but costly attack on Beaumont Hamel in November 1916, in the battle of Arras and Arleux in April 1917, and in the second battle of Passchendaele in October and November 1917.

Then in March 1918, came the German attack on the Fifth Army and the desperately criticle retreat in which the Naval Division with its two R.M.L.I. Battalions fought the most stubborn rearguard actions, only falling back under orders as their flank became exposed.

These actions were of inestimable value, but the cost was appalling and the two Marine battalions were reduced to a single battalion. With the halting of the Germam advance, the worst was past.

The Marines, however, took part in the heavy battles which still had to be fought before the Germans finally collapsed, and were represented in the official entry into Mons after the Armistice by six officers and two hundred men of the R.M.L.I. Battalion.

H.M.S. Lion The Battle of Jutland

At Jutland, the greatest battle of the first world war, the Royal Marines were represented by ninety-three officers, thirty-nine warrant officers and five thousand seven hundred non-commissioned officers and men.

It was a victory, which was earned at high cost in men and ships, the Royal Marines performed with their customary courage, coolness and efficiency, winning one V.C., two D.S.O.s, one C.G.M. and eight D.S.M.s, in addition to many commendations for good service in action. Two of these awards deserve special mention.

Early in the battle, the roof of "Q" turret of H.M.S. Lion, the flagship of Admiral Beatty, was blown away. Major F.J.W. Harvey R.M.L.I., who was in charge of the turret, had both his legs shot off, but, although mortally wounded, he was able to give the order to flood "Q" magazine. It was at once obeyed.

Shortly afterwards there was a second explosion in the turret, and all the magazine and shell room parties were killed. But, as the magazine had already been flooded, the ship was saved.

There can have been few occasions when presence of mind and devotion to duty in such terrible circumstances can have averted so great a disaster, and for his heroic effort Major Harvey was awarded the Victoria Cross posthumously.

His gallantry won from Mr Churchill the now historic phrase: "In the long, rough, glorious history of the Royal Marines there is no name or deed which in its character or consequences ranks above this".

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H.M.S. Chester In The Same Battle

Of the twenty Royal Marines who manned one gun on each side of H.M.S. Chester, eight were killed and ten were wounded, but the two guns remained in action.

Captain Bamford, who though wounded, had shown not only courage but also great qualities of leadership, became the first Royal Marine officer to receive the D.S.O. for service afloat.

He was to win a still higher award at Zeebrugge on St. Georges Day 1918, the Victoria Cross.

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