The Royal Marine Brigade and subsequent Royal Marine Division were amphibious warfare formations created by the British Royal Marines at the start of the Second World War.
The composition of both formations was almost constantly in flux, with neither ever achieving their full establishment. Though neither saw action, they both played important roles in the development of amphibious warfare techniques and their constituent units went on to play important roles in the largest amphibious operation in history, Operation Neptune.
Recruitment and Training
As regular entry for a minimum of 12 years service as a professional Marine was continued throughout the war, and the Admiralty decided that only regulars and regular reservists could serve at sea, Hostilities Only conscripts found themselves almost exclusively manning the new land based Royal Marine units, including the Royal Marine Brigade and Division. Notwithstanding that these men were conscripts, most had expressed a preference for service in the Royal Marines on selection, sometimes as a second choice to serving in more highly qualified roles in the Royal Navy.
A new training camp, the Royal Marine Special Reserve Depot, Exton, was commissioned for basic training of these Special Reservists but was not ready to receive recruits till 22 February 1940. Basic training included kitting up, lectures, physical training, drill, basic small arms handling and the administration of many injections. Infantry skills were taught on posting to battalions, until the dedicated Royal Marine Infantry Training Centre (ITC) was opened at the neighbouring Dalditch Camp from 1 May 1941. This training included an assault course, advanced weapon training, range work and night firing. The final stage of the 17 week training course involved field-craft including cooking and survival, the last week of this being under canvas near the village of Ottery St Mary.
The Royal Marine Brigade
The Admiralty appointed Madden Committee of 1924 proposed that a brigade of 3,000 Marines should be based ashore to "provide a striking force ... immediately available for use under the direction of the Naval Commander-in-Chief for amphibious operations, such as raids on the enemy coastline and bases ..." Peace-time finances had prevented the formation of such a force, but in September 1939 it was decided to raise a brigade of three light infantry battalions with around 2,000 men to fulfill this role. had personally resisted suggestions from the War Office that the RM Division should be made up to a standard divisional establishment. He was concerned that if equipped as any other division it would lose its intended purpose, be removed from the Admiralty and deployed by the Army, as had been his personal experience when serving as a Major with the Royal Naval Division in the Great War. But agreements secured from the War Office to provide those supporting elements on attachment were never realised in practice.
The impasse was broken by Mountbatten, who engineered the dissolution of the division and the redeployment of its constituent units to Combined Operations as one of his last acts as Chief of Combined Operations. The RM Division was disbanded in August 1943: