The Korps Mariniers is the elite infantry component of the Royal Netherlands Navy. The unit is specialised in special operations, operating under highly extreme conditions and amphibious warfare. The Korps Mariniers are a rapid reaction force that can be deployed to any location in the world within maximum 48 hours. Their motto is Qua Patet Orbis (“As Far As The World Extends”).
Netherlands Marine Corps
Cuerpo de Marines de los Países Bajos
The Corps was founded on 10 December 1665 during the Second Anglo-Dutch War by the Prime Minister of the Dutch Republic, Johan de Witt, and Admiral Michiel de Ruyter as the Regiment de Marine. Its leader was Willem Joseph van Ghent. The Dutch had successfully used ordinary soldiers in ships at sea in the First Anglo-Dutch War. It was the fifth European Marine unit formed, being preceded by the Spain’s Infantería de Armada (1537), the Portuguese Marine Corps (1610), France’s Troupes de marine (1622), and the English Royal Marines (1664) but the first corps in history to be specialised in amphibious operations. Like Britain, the Netherlands has had several periods when its Marines were disbanded. The Netherlands itself was under French occupation or control from 1810 until 1813. A new Marine unit was raised on 20 March 1801 during the time of the Batavian Republic and on 14 August 1806 the Korps Koninklijke Grenadiers van de Marine was raised under King Louis Bonaparte. The modern Korps Mariniers dates from 1814, receiving its current name in 1817.
Königliche Niederländische Marineinfanterie
荷蘭皇家海軍陸戰隊
Nederlandse Korps Mariniers
In 1704, Netherlands Marines were part of a combined English-Dutch force under Prince George of Hesse-Darmstadt that captured Gibraltar and defended it successfully shortly afterwards. They would combine with the British again for the bombardment of Algiers in 1816.
The Korps Mariniers served in some of the operations of the Netherlands in the Dutch East Indies colony. The Netherlands took a slow approach to conquering the entire colony and operations consolidating their rule lasted from the 1850s until shortly before World War I. The battle honours from the Aceh War (1873–1913) and Bali date from this time.
Корпус морской пехоты Нидерландов
Corps des Marines Néerlandais
Korps Marinir Belanda
In World War II, a Korps Mariniers unit in Rotterdam preparing to ship out to the Dutch East Indies successfully defended the bridges across the Maas, preventing German paratroopers in the centre of the city from rendezvousing with conventional German infantry. The Germans ended the stalemate by bombing Rotterdam. The threat of an attack by marines caused its German captain to scuttle the Antilla in Aruba in 1940. When the surrender was declared and the Dutch soldiers came out of their positions, the German commander who was expecting a full battalion of men was stunned to see only a few Dutch Marines emerge in their black uniforms. He ordered his men to salute them out of respect for their bravery and determination and labeled them Zwarte duivels (The Black Devils). Some Mariniers later joined the Princess Irene Brigade to fight against the Germans. They distinguished themselves in combat near the Dutch city of Tilburg in the autumn of 1944.
Starting in 1943, the United States Marine Corps trained and equipped a new brigade, the Mariniersbrigade, of the Korps Mariniers at Camp Lejeune and Camp Davis in North Carolina in preparation for amphibious landings against the Japanese in the Dutch East Indies. The Japanese surrendered before such landings were needed, but the Mariniersbrigade, fully trained and equipped, left North Carolina in six transports in 1945 and fought against the Indonesians in their National Revolution for independence. It was part of the A Division, which was itself commanded by a Korps Mariniers officer. It was disbanded in 1949.
مشاة البحرية الملكية الهولندية
The Dutch kept Western New Guinea after the Indonesian National Revolution and the Korps Mariniers served there until 1962 when the colony in the course of the West New Guinea dispute was handed over to the United Nations Temporary Executive Authority.
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