Is this the end for the Marines’ beach assaults?

IT is one of the most memorable speeches in military history, inspiring British soldiers to redouble their efforts against the Nazis in the Second World War.

But the commandos of the future will no longer – in Churchill’s words – ‘fight them on the beaches’ should the findings of a radical defence report be implemented.

A blueprint for amphibious warfare has warned that operations such as the D-Day landings in 1944 would cost too many lives in future conflicts.

Its author, a senior Royal Marines officer, has concluded the 360year- old corps should focus on storming enemy ships and destroying targets inland instead.

Brigadier Mark Totten’s controversial paper, published on Tuesday, comes amid deepening concerns over the elite force’s future, including the potential loss of amphibious landing ships HMS Albion and HMS Bulwark and a recruitment and retention crisis that has led to as many as 1,000 unfilled positions.

Last night, Major General Julian Thompson, who led 3 Commando Brigade during the Falklands War, described plans for an overhaul of the Royal Marines’ role as ‘ the beginning of the end’.

Brigadier Totten has suggested large-scale beach landings are too vulnerable to modern weapons systems such as drones, meaning the Royal Navy would have to devote too many resources to protect marines attacking a beach as well as once they were ashore.

He wrote in a Royal United Services Institute ( RUSI) publication: ‘ The risk facing amphibious forces, then, is that the value of amphibious insertion comes to be seen as being outweighed by its costs and risks.’

Basic commando training is already being overhauled – in a new initiative, recruits at the Royal Marines’ training depot must prove they can operate their own drones. Brigadier Totten, of the UK’s Future Commando Force – aimed to modernise how the Royal Marines works – set out how smaller groups of disembarked Marines should be distributed more widely inland and be ‘multifunctional’ in what they can achieve, including reconnaissance and offensive duites.

But the senior officer also warned this lifeline for the Royal Marines could be severed due to cash shortages and any resistance to a change of role.

He added: ‘Achieving the benefits that this paper describes is by no means certain – both in terms of the Ministry of Defence’s capacity to resource the transition, and the Royal Navy’s ability to implement a sufficiently rigorous and integrated programme of change.’

The House of Commons defence committee yesterday announced it intends to hold an evidence session into the likely retirement of the Royal Marines’ HMS Bulwark and HMS Albion.

Only six years ago, a parliamentary report said it would be ‘militarily illiterate’ to dispose of the ships – designed to transport the Royal Marines and their equipment ashore.

MP John Spellar, vice-chairman of the committee, said: ‘ The committee is deeply concerned by reports the Government is considering retiring [the ships], which would make successful amphibious landings very difficult.’

Earlier this week, Defence Secretary Grant Shapps was accused of asking top brass to ‘justify the existence’ of the corps after requesting a report into how their work is taken forward.

His request was called ‘extraordinary and dangerous’ by Admiral Lord West.

The MoD said of the Future Commando Force: ‘ It is using innovation and agility to respond to modern threats.’