213 Junior Troop 50th Anniversary Reunion

Members of 213 Junior Troop who joined on 8 July 1975 are celebrating their 50th anniversary on 11 July 2025 at CTCRM for the King’s Squad Passing Out. It would be great to see all former members of the Troop there to celebrate this milestone. For more information, please email Rich Crawley By Clicking Here

Comacchio40 RM Commando’s Last Battle

by Philip Lloyd, Secretary 40 RM Cdo Association

This is the story of Marine Laurie Southall’s part in 40 Royal Marine Commando’s last battle in World War Two, in his own words, as told to Philip Lloyd over coffee on a quiet morning in Corfu. We were there on our return journey from Sarandë, in Albania, where Laurie had also fought with 40 RM Commando.

Mne Laurie Southall

‘I can’t remember our starting line; I think it was Ravenna. The next thing I remember was when we approached; there was water each side of this piece of land that you could walk on, sort of in between the two waters. We proceeded along there, I don’t know who the leading Troop was, I was in P Troop, and we came to a position where, I don’t know if someone had set a device off, but we found out that it was mined, so we all had to lie down there and wait for the Sappers to come through. They detected the position of the mines, made a clear path through and put the white tape down. We started to filter through, single file and moved further and further up until we got to where we had to split up, P Troop had to turn left, up this embankment, with water still on both sides of us and X Troop had to go on to take the Pumping Station. The incident had delayed us so that by the time we got to the junction where we split up it had broken daylight and we were sighted, so we lost the surprise and they started to hit us with everything. I don’t think they could get their 88mm guns depressed low enough to do any damage because the shells were landing in the water and every time you put your head up on the canal side there were snipers there, waiting and they hit you.