Whilst 3 Commando Brigade RM are the principal cold weather warfare formation, personnel are capable of operating in a variety of theatres including tropical jungle, desert or mountainous terrain.

3 were fired upon and scattered with the result that only two small parties managed to land, one was overwhelmed, but the other successfully engaged the Berneval battery for some hours before withdrawing.

4, under the command of Lord Lovat, carried out what was officially hailed as a 'classic operation of war' and completely destroyed the Hess Battery, successfully withdrawing and re-embarking with prisoners.

[9] In April 1952, British left-wing newspaper The Daily Worker (today known as the Morning Star) published a photograph depicting soldiers inside a 40 Commando base near Kuala Kangsar holding the severed head of a suspected pro-independence fighter belonging to the Malayan National Liberation Army (MNLA).

[10][9][11] An Admiralty spokesman subsequently claimed that the photographs were a forgery and a "communist trick", though Colonial Secretary Oliver Lyttelton later confirmed to Parliament that they were genuine.

[12] Lyttelton came to the defence of the Commando, noting that the decapitations had been conducted by an Iban headhunter from Borneo hired by the British army, and not the Marines themselves.

Over the next decade the Commando found itself deployed to Northern Ireland four times and also undertook an unexpected two-month tour in Cyprus after the 1974 invasion by the Turkish Army.

The Unit was subsequently split having two companies attached to the Welsh Guards, preparing to attack Port Stanley, when the Argentine surrender came.

Northern Ireland tours, Norway winter deployments and a major Asia-Pacific Exercise kept the Commando busy through the following years.

In 1998 a substantial part of the Commando deployed to the Congo to ensure the safe evacuation of UK nationals from Kinshasa City.

The group sailed through the Mediterranean Sea, after a brief stop at Cyprus, continuing through the Suez Canal bound for the Persian Gulf.

During Operation TELIC 1, the liberation of Iraq, on the night of 20 March 2003, 40 Commando RM, under the command of Lt Col G K Messenger DSO OBE, mounted an amphibious helicopter assault to seize key Iraqi oil infrastructure on the Al-Faw Peninsula.

[14] As the first conventional troops on the ground, the strategic significance of the operation was immense and, as the Divisional Main Effort, the assault was supported by a vast array of coalition firepower.

During the tour L-Cpl Matthew Croucher was awarded the George Cross for his action of jumping on a live grenade during a patrol.

Their efforts helped to reassure the affected communities, restore security, fix critical infrastructure and distribute humanitarian aid.