NAVY NEWS, JULY 2008 17
● 10(LC)TrgSqn instructor Cpl Nick Hawkins runs young offi cers
through a capsize drill (and below)
Bottoms up
Poole Harbour. Normally it’s associated with weekend yachtsmen
and pleasure boaters. But not in one corner where the tramp-tramp
of heavy bootfalls is heard.
These men have been up since three this morning. They’ve done
a 12-mile speed-march carrying 70lb packs. They’ve watched the
dawn sun rise on the beach before clambering aboard boats to be
carried to an unknown shore. They’re being yelled at. And they’re
still grinning.
They are, of course, Royal Marines.
And here in Poole they are under the control of 1 Assault Group
Royal Marines – the experts in small boat operations for amphibious
operations.
The 60-or-so men stood in front of me in the bright sunshine
are all young officers under training at Lympstone. They’ve been
brought to Poole to start their induction into the defining distinction
of a Royal Marine from an Army soldier – attack from the water.
We all know the lines – Royal Marines are elite commando
soldiers, experts in amphibious warfare, the punch delivered from
ship to shore.
Well, these men are being brought up to speed fast in the basics
of amphibious and riverine ops.
● An Offshore Raiding Craft and LCVP operating in Poole harbour
Picture: LA(Phot) Lee Durant
It is the instructors of 10 Landing Craft Training Squadron who
are hammering the drills of survival into the aspiring officers before
them.
What’s a Royal
Day in, day out, rain or shine, they watch a stream of recruits and
young officers jump into the dark waters and struggle through the
vital boat drills that will save their lives.
This morning they are teaching capsize drills. In turn, each young
officer jumps into the dark waters, then pulls himself into the MIB
(medium inflatable boat) loosely moored on the waters.
Each man shouts his number, grabs the rope, then stands on the
inflated tube, pulling the boat back and over all their heads.
without marine?
Once their mouths are clear of the Poole waters, they shout their
numbers again, then pull themselves back on top of the upturned
boat, burdened by their water-logged wet kit.
Then grab the rope and stand upright once more, and flip the boat
back to its more usual direction.
Well, that’s the plan anyway.
One group struggles to tip the boat, despite repeated attempts,
much to their instructors’ mounting disdain.
HANDS up, everyone who
Boat-handling and soldiering on the water, it’s what
the Landing Craft SQ (specialist
I’ve been through this drill myself before. Admittedly in the
has seen Saving Private
qualification).
puts the marine into Royal Marine. And it falls to
Caribbean, wearing only light clothes, and without having done a
Ryan?
Capt Luke Davies RM of Boat
12-mile run. And it still took us a few attempts.
You’ll know if you have. You
1 Assault Group Royal Marines to train these skills Troop said: “This is the centre
My attempts at sympathy are dismissed. “The two men on the
don’t forget the opening sequence within the elite fighting force. Helen Craven finds
of gravity for landing craft in the
outside can tip this boat over on their own, if they just do it right,”
where Tom Hanks and his fellow
out more...
Royal Marine world.”
I’m told.
Rangers charge ashore from land-
Within the troop there are 38
And so, in the end, they do.
ing craft headlong into a hail of
boats of all types, from the rigid
The boat flips, one young man clinging limpet-like to the tube,
fire from German guns.
inflatable boats up through the
his instructor landing on his feet in the boat next to him with the
You don’t forget the thousands
slender Landing Craft (Vehicle
experienced poise of a surfer.
of men pouring onto land from
and Personnel) to the weighty
And their reward for this labour? Jump back in the water, swim to
the hundreds of landing craft off
Landing Craft (Utility) and
shore, run back onto the jetty, grab their guns, run back to the Hard,
the French shore.
training units include a Raiding then hurry up and wait to see what challenge will be fired at them
Of course, fighting has changed
Instruction Team, a LCVP sec- next on their long journey to that all-important green beret.
somewhat since the days of World
tion and a LCU section.
War 2.
He said: “When someone
No one is going to pretend that
comes into the landing crafting
a beach landing on such a scale
SQ, they’ve come from infantry
against such an embedded oppo-
skills, they come out from that
nent is likely to happen again.
background and have got to learn
Thankfully.
everything about waterways.
But beach landings, river
“It’s a steep learning curve after
attacks, amphibious operations
running around doing the dark
are still very much part of the
green stuff with a rifle.
day-to-day business of the Royal
“The two hardest parts for
Marine. And key to their defining
them are navigation and the rule
expertise as amphibious infantry.
of the road.
Admittedly their recent theatres
“It is complicated. They need
of operation haven’t involved a
to learn it word for word. Same
great deal of amphibious work,
as a navigator on a Type 42 or
particularly amid the land-
Albion.”
● Learning the basics of beach assault with 10(LC)TrgSqn
locked dust and mountains of
This is apparent when you see
Afghanistan.
it gives is a coherence throughout the end of the year. inside the classrooms where burly
But there’s still plenty of water
the capability, training the indi- “It creates a single footprint men sit, poring over charts and
out in the world and a need for
vidual throughout their career. where all the synergies of generat- marking navigation routes with
experts in both boat-handling and
This has got to be better for ing people and resources – train- pencil lines.
infantry-fighting.
them.” ing and deploying them – all come It’s a far cry from the handheld
Delivering the punch of the
1AGRM is currently located together in Plymouth,” said Col GPS that most boaters on the
Royal Marines from ship to
across three sites in the south- Foster. water employ. But it’s essential.
shore takes two main forms –
west: 10 Landing Craft Training The assault squadrons with- And why choose this SQ? “It
the helicopters of the Commando
Squadron (10(LC)TrgSqn) in in the large amphibious ships of was the Falklands for me. When
Helicopter Force and the boats of
Poole, 11 Amphibious Trials and Devonport are all parented by I was growing up I saw 90 blokes
the assault squadrons.
Training (11AT&T) at Instow, 1AGRM, which is responsible for going in on a Mk 9 LCU,” said
And ensuring that the coxswains
and within FOST at Devonport. the maintenance of standards and Sgt Maj ‘Higgy’ Higgins.
and landing craft specialists of the Later this year, 1AGRM practices of those ASRMs. Another temptation for the
Royal Marines stay sharp falls to will move its headquarters to It’s not just the men of the choice of landing craft specialisa-
1 Assault Group Royal Marines. Plymouth, moving closer to the ASRMs of Bulwark, Albion and tion is the opportunities that come
It is here that the core skills of large amphibious ships, 539 Ocean that are watched over by with it.
the Marines’ surface manoeuvre ASRM and their brethren at the instructors of 1AGRM, but Not just globally but profes-
by boat are fiercely nurtured. FOST. 539 ASRM within 3 Commando sionally, with a number of senior
Recent changes have brought And once the facilities are Brigade, as well as landing craft major and colonel posts on offer
1AGRM under the FOST banner, in place, the landing craft and detachments at Fleet Protection within the ship drafts and bat-
so the unit now brings a Marine instructors of 10(LC)TrgSqn will Group Royal Marines, British tle staffs of the amphibious task
through his individual specialisa- join them in Plymouth. Indian Ocean territories and 2 force.
tion and watches over his per- The allegiance with FOST has Raiding Troop Royal Marine Although Col Foster himself
formance within a group as part of also meant that the Royal Marines’ Reserves. does admit: “When I did my
the shipborne assault squadrons. infantry expertise will be fed into At 10(LC)TrgSqn in Poole sur- course in 1984 I was a pressed
Commanding Officer of the Royal Navy boat coxswains vival on the water is taught to man. I was told to do it.
1AGRM Col George Foster said: and board and search teams, with recruits, young officers and those “But I have never regretted it
“I think it’s a good change. What initial courses intended to start by Marines who have signed up for for a moment.”
Pictures: LA(Phot) Alex Cave
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