Marines
Marines, or naval infantry, are soldiers who specialise at operating in littoral zones, both on land and at sea. Historically, the main tasks undertaken by marines have included raiding ashore in support of naval objectives, and the boarding of vessels during combat or capture of prize ships. Marines also help maintain discipline and order aboard the ship (reflecting the pressed nature of the ship's company and the risk of mutiny). In most countries, marines are an integral part of that state's navy.
The exact term "marine" is not in many languages other than English. In French-speaking countries, two terms which could be translated as "marine", but do not translate exactly: troupes de marine (marine troops) and fusiliers-marins (marine riflemen) and fuzileiros navais in Portuguese (lit. 'Naval fusiliers'). The word marine means "navy" in many European languages such as Dutch, French, German, Italian and Norwegian.
Historical marine forces[edit]
Ancient Rome[edit]
The Roman Navy used regular infantry as marines. Naval personnel were trained for raiding and also provided the troops for at least two legions (I Adiutrix and II Adiutrix) for service on land. The various provincial fleets were usually provided with marines from the adjacent legions.
Australia[edit]
Several of the Colonial navies of Australia raised volunteer naval infantry and naval militia brigades in the second half of the 19th century. Following the Federation of Australia they were combined into the Commonwealth Naval Militia. With the formation of the Royal Australian Navy in 1911 they were renamed the Royal Australian Naval Brigade. At its peak in 1915 it numbered 2,817 officers and men. The Naval Brigade was disbanded in 1920 and volunteers were absorbed into the Royal Australian Naval Reserve.
Austrian/Austro-Hungarian Empire[edit]
Though overshadowed by its Prussian counterpart, the Marinier-Korps, as well as naval powers like the British, the French, the Spanish, and the Italians, Austria-Hungary maintained a small regiment of naval infantrymen dating back to Venetian times alongside the then Austrian Imperial Navy's “Corps of Sailors” (Matrosencorps). However, in 1868, as part of his naval reforms, then Commander Wilhelm von Tegetthoff abolished the Naval Infantry Regiment and the Naval Artillery Corps in favor of an enlarged and all-encompassing Matrosencorps as by that point, no marines had served aboard a ship for 10 years, and so from that point on, sailors not serving on active warships received infantry drills and took up naval infantry duties.[33]
Byzantine Empire[edit]
For several centuries, the Byzantine navy used the descendants of the Mardaites, who were settled in southern Anatolia and Greece, as marines and rowers for its ships. Emperor Basil I also established a separate marine regiment, 4,000 strong, for the central Imperial Fleet based at Constantinople. These were professional troops, and were counted among the elite tagmata. In the 1260s, when emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos rebuilt the navy, he recruited the Tzakones (settlers from Laconia) and the Gasmouloi (men of mixed Greek-Latin descent) as special marine troops. Despite the progressive decline and virtual disappearance of the navy, they remained active until the late Palaiologan period.
Sangkum era Kingdom of Cambodia/Khmer Republic[edit]
The Cambodian Marine Corps, or Corps de Fusiliers-Marins Khmères (CFMK), was founded in 1960 was initially the naval infantry unit of the 1st Kingdom of Cambodia of 1953–1970 under the Royal Khmer Navy of the Royal Khmer Armed Forces (FARK). After Lon Nol’s coup of 1970, FARK was reorganised to be Khmer National Armed Forces (FANK) and the naval infantry came under the jurisdiction of the Khmer National Navy (MNK).
The naval infantry took part in the Cambodian Civil War against the Khmer Rouge but was dissolved along with the rest of the Khmer National Armed Forces when the Khmer Republic were defeated and capitulated to the Khmer Rouge.
Qing China[edit]
The Qing dynasty‘s Beiyang Fleet of the Imperial Chinese Navy maintained a small naval infantry force which at its height reached the size of 300 marines.
The marines distinguished themselves visually by their red uniforms as opposed to the regular Beiyang Fleet’s Navy personnels who wear their white dress uniforms for the summer & autumn, and blue dress uniform for the winter & spring.
On top of their role as Naval Infantrymen, the Beiyang Fleet marines also took on the fleet's firefighting & military policing duties.
The marines saw action at the end of the year following the official end of the First Sino-Japanese War when they attempted to retake Nanbang Fort (南幫炮台) from Japanese forces after it was attacked on Christmas Day of 1895 by an attacking force of 30,000 Japanese with 6,000 Chinese defending the fort; which subsequently fell to Japanese forces on December 29, 1895. Being greatly outnumbered and lacking heavy weapons, the marines failed to dislodge the Japanese from the fort.[34]
