Taken at CTCRM Lympstone on the occasion of his Kings Squad Pass Out where, on completion, the Squad Officer gives the Command , “ Royal Marines, to your Duties, Quick March! “They March Off to the tune of Auld Lang Syne played by the Royal Marines Band. He is wearing his hard earned Green Beret and the White Lanyard only worn by The Kings Squad. He is stood in front of the Centre Commando Memorial. Salute!
Posted by PrichardDavid R L on Sun 13 Sep 2020 13:04:44 EDT
This Royal Marines Officer wears the Royal Navy Pilots’ Brevet (Wings) quite common as many qualified and flew from Aircraft Carriers. It is still a RM norm when they qualify, usually in Helicopters, but I read of one such who had qualified as a Hawker ‘Harrier’ Pilot and on secondment, in that Role, to the United States Marine Corps, quite recently.
Posted by PrichardDavid R L on Sun 13 Sep 2020 12:55:09 EDT
This is a very unusual photograph as Marine Connolly stands at attention with rifle at the slope and bayonet fixed but is in front of the Regimental Colours of 42 Commando RM. I have never seen this allowed before. He must have been well thought of.
Posted by PrichardDavid R L on Sun 13 Sep 2020 12:46:11 EDT
This Marine carrie the 7.62mm General Purpose Machine Gun (GPMG) which replaced the Bren Gun as a Section Support Weapon and used in the Light Role. It has the advantage of being belt-fed and can be used to lay down heavy immediate covering fire. It is fondly known as the ‘Gimpy’ It is also used in the Support Company in the Heavy Role as it can be
mounted on a solid Tripod and fitted with a heavier barrel. The ammunition comes as 4 in 1 Tracer.
Posted by PrichardDavid R L on Sun 13 Sep 2020 12:39:55 EDT
In Commando Training this was usually carried out on Jenny Cliff on the East side of Plymouth Sound with Instructors from the Mountain Leaders based in Stonehouse Barracks or CTCRM.
Posted by PrichardDavid R L on Sun 13 Sep 2020 05:13:33 EDT
This Acquaint starts with a walk through demonstrating the methods used followed by a full crack at it plus the run back to CTCRM.
Posted by PrichardDavid R L on Sat 12 Sep 2020 16:10:24 EDT
This is an Endurance Course Acquaint as evidenced by the fact that this is a demonstration by Royal Marines Instructors on the method used to negotiate the Water Tunnel with the personnel involved all RM and the Commando hopefuls watching technique used. A syndicate of three work together, one swimming, one pushing and the other pulling the swimmer through.The bearded guy is probably Royal Navy who has had permission to cease shaving, not as is popularly supposed, allowed to grow a beard!
Posted by PrichardDavid R L on Sat 12 Sep 2020 16:08:12 EDT
You can see the long wooden truncheon carried pushed inside the body armour worn, it was a nasty place to be for a British Marine!
Posted by PrichardDavid R L on Fri 11 Sep 2020 17:29:40 EDT
A perfect picture of the .303 inch Vickers Medium Machine Gun not long before it was withdrawn from Service. The cloth belt holding rounds has been fed into the gun by the No: 2 , the can containing water for barrel cooling linked by pipe to the barrel lies underneath with the gun fitted onto the very heavy tripod. The No: 2 is wearing ‘58 Pattern Webbing but has a ‘44 Pattern water bottle, carrier and mug which was a popular “proff” item as the bottle and mug were aluminium so, you could both brew a wet and drink it from the mug. Being aluminium you had to stick some black masking tape on the mug lip or end up with burnt real lips I still have mine!
Posted by PrichardDavid R L on Fri 11 Sep 2020 17:26:06 EDT
Close examination of the two Grenades next to right hand man shows that Fuses have not yet been inserted into a Grenade base, ie. No Teeth !
Posted by PrichardDavid R L on Fri 11 Sep 2020 16:21:23 EDT
This photo must have been taken quite early on as he is not wearing a Reserve (chest) packed Parachute.
Posted by PrichardDavid R L on Fri 11 Sep 2020 16:18:07 EDT
This is a ‘free’ climb and Marine Wellman is wearing heavily cleated J Army Pattern boots.
Posted by PrichardDavid R L on Fri 11 Sep 2020 16:16:06 EDT
This photo show the ‘new’ Combat Suits which came in. Plain drab green colour and being G1098 so could be exchanged one-for-one, most people preferred the Dennison Smock traditional Commando Dress.
Posted by PrichardDavid R L on Fri 11 Sep 2020 15:51:50 EDT
The string around the waists are Jack-Knife Lanyards which were issue items.
Posted by PrichardDavid R L on Thu 10 Sep 2020 09:49:00 EDT
