Thread: What is the point of the Marines?

Originally Posted by Kernow

First Official Reference to the Marines:

The first official notice relating to the Marines was in 1664, when an order was passed by the British Government calling for 1,200 soldiers to be recruited for service in the Fleet. From the beginning these men were intended to combine the roles of infantry and seaman, capable of fighting on both land and sea.

The term ‘Marine’ first appears in official documents in 1672 and further Marine regiments were raised in the following decades, but it was not until 1755 that they were all gathered together in a unified body. These troops were deployed aboard all British warships, providing both a safeguard against mutinous crews and an elite fighting unit in time of war.

Early History of The Royal Marines: Historical Origins of a Famous Fighting Unit

If I may contribute to the answer, but the question referred to Marines in general, and not just those referred to in English.
The oldest regular Marine regiment in Europe is that of the Royal Spanish Marines, but of course the oldest know are the Sea Peoples who invaded and for a time rules Ancient Egypt.

As part of a regular force structure the first Marines were serving in the Roman Republic I believe.

After them, the next 'marines' are the Vikings, and later Normans.

During the Crusades the Genoese and Venetians had Marines also.

The Ottoman Turks copied this service and had several regiments of Marines.

Then come the above mentioned Spanish, and later the British Marines that started out as a regular Army regiment posted aboard Royal Navy vessels. Since the sailors were already known as mariners, the newly assigned land blubbers were termed Marines.

The US Navy simply copied the service, by which time there were already Marines in most countries with a relatively large Navy or colonies that ships went to.

Some Marines fought quite a long way from the sea. Russian Imperial Marines were at the Battle of Borodino. The French Imperial Marines were also at several inland battles.

However, the question why is an interesting one.

Up until the Normans the role of "warrior from the sea" was only a raiding one. Romans were an exception in that Marines provided a ship-to-ship fighting force if they encountered pirates of enemy war ships of opportunity.
The Genoese and Venetian Marines were likewise employed to assist the crew in defending the ship against the pirates (mostly from North Africa), or to defend the crew if the ship was wreaked on some inhospitable shore.

About this time the Chinese Empire sent off a massive fleet towards Africa which included a small army onboard, but not sure if they were regarded in any way as "marines".

This is pretty much why the Spanish, and later Portuguese made the Marine service a regular one. Transporting the riches of the East (spice trade) made merchant vessels vulnerable to piracy in the archipelagos of South East Asia, the Arabian Sea (Persian Gulf) and all along the coast of Africa where they had to regularly anchor for supplies.

The Dutch, British and French Marines followed as the "northerners" tried to 'muscle in' on the Mediterranean trade of the Genoese and Venetians.
While the Turks were fairly respecting of the commercial trade, Mamlukes were not, and neither the Arabic populations of the Barbary Coast.

During the 16th to early 19th centuries there arose a naval tactic which in French became known as the abordage, and in English, boarding.
Boarding, as may be imagined was an attempt to close with, and take over an enemy ship through direct transfer to troops to its decks. Because this was an opportunity event, military ships begun to carry larger numbers of marines just for this type of action. This also proved to be useful during occasional mutinies.
However, with the big post-Napoleonic peace in Europe the practice was eventually abandoned when ships became steam powered and started to carry long range guns that precluded closing to quarters.

At this stage Marines acquired a new calling - colonial guards. When embarked, the Marine contingent was usually the most immediately available body of troops to respond to emergencies, such as evacuation and rescue of Europeans from natives misbehaving.

There was a small spurt of growth in the Marines world-wide when the Japanese created their naval infantry, and the Imperial German Marines were created to look after the short-lived German colonial empire.

The real growth in Marine Forces of course came with the Second World War.
However, their use was distinctly different from country to country. The British used theirs primarily for raiding and special operations, hence the Marine Commando of today.
The Red Navy formed many Naval Infantry units from surplus sailors, and these served on all fronts, but used extensively in both raiding, and offensive assault operations.
The USMC on the other hand was used primarily for large scale landing operations, despite formation of specifically raiding units.

So, as can be seen from the above, originally "marines" were intended for combat of opportunity, i.e. raiding either the enemy shipping, the counter-piracy tactics, or land-raiding/extraction missions. This is because usually they were small in numbers and limited in the resources to sustain them in combat.
The USMC is limited to 175,000 personnel, but not all of these are of course combat troops. I'd say that only about 90,000 would actually participate in combat of some sort if the entire Corps was committed, but if it came to that, it would probably mean a general engagement by the entire US DoD. As far as I know there is no mission profile for a USMC amphibious raid in the divisional strength, though an amphibious raid is one of the SOP mission profiles for say an MEU, so its not like the USMC has made a doctrinal break with the history of their service.