Marines as part of USN crews

Hi all, were US Marines part of a USN ships crew in WW2, and if so, what was the smallest type of ship might they be serving on?

 

Hi Lou, thank you for this

Would there have been US Marines on board the gunboats deployed on the Yangtse river, China up to 1941, and would they have redeployed to the 4th Marine Regt, when the gunboats were withdrawn to the Philippines.

 

No Marines on the Yangtze gunboats except maybe as passengers, even then under orders and not assigned to the boat for duty. As Lou said, Marine detachments were only on capital ships, cruisers and up. I believe the 4th Marines were withdrawn, for the most part, before the gunboats, such as were, withdrawn. Embassy guards and a small detail were scooped up by the Japanese after December 7th, around 200 or so men.

 

The battleship Arizona at Pearl Harbor had 88 Marines in a crew of about 1400. My first ship, USS Albany, one of the last real cruisers in the Navy, had a Marine detachment of about 30.

Traditionally, warships' Marines were used for landing parties when there was a need for troops ashore, but I have not run across any examples of this in WWII - anyone?

The 1930s leading up to WWII saw the advent of specialized amphibious ships carrying regular Marine or Army combat units, ranging from converted destroyers (APDs) carrying about one company to attack transports which could accommodate a battalion landing team or equivalent. These carried specialized landing craft whereas battleships or cruisers would have to send Marines ashore in ordinary ships' boats.

p.s. in the days of sail, Marines could comprise up to 1/5 of a ship's crew.

 

I’ve read that there were two re-enforced companies of Marines ready to go ashore at Point Du Hoc during the Normandy invasion. They were in landing craft off the coast and were to land in the vicinity of where the Rangers were scaling the cliffs. In case of things going south for the Rangers, the Marines were to land and make a “demonstration” to cover the Rangers withdrawal if they were expelled from the beach. Of course this didn’t happen, much to the chagrin of the Marines and relief to the Army brass. The Marines in question were drawn from the assorted capital ships taking part in the invasion and not as a unit deployed to the ETO. Probably the detachment was filled out with Swabbies as well, not sure about that. I know that in the great movie “The Wind and the Lion” the Marine detachment that went ashore to seize the palace was heavily supplemented by sailors. The Marine Corps uses the combat scenes of the movie in training courses according to IMDb.

 

During Operation Dragoon, I believe, the Marine detachments from the cruisers Philadelphia and Augusta went ashore at Marseilles and accept the surrender of German units located on the islands off shore.

 

Even fictionalized, that's a good illustration of the classic use of fleet Marines in the days before Amphibious Ready Groups, Marine Expeditionary Units, or dedicated amphibious ships. If a situation required intervention to protect US interests, whatever warships were on station could put a force ashore, or a naval force could be assembled with an organic ground combat component.

 

That was a fantastic movie.