I found this about US Marines in Europe on another site
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On 15 July 1941, the Marine Corps established its first embassy detachment at London, England. It was commanded by Major Walter I. Jordan. Initial strength was approximately 60 officers and men, but this was doubled in size by December 1941 with the arrival of a second echelon from Marine Barracks, Washing ton, D.C.
The detachment was billeted in the American Embassy Annex at 20 Grosvenor Square. Initially, the duties of the detachment were primarily security and messenger service for the embassy. However, with the arrival of Admiral Harold R. Stark as Commander, Naval Forces, Europe (ComNavEu) on 17 March 1942, there was a realignment of duties to focus more upon the naval headquarters and less upon the embassy.
Major Jordan was succeeded by Captain Thomas J. Myers in October 1942. At that time the detachment was in activated and its personnel transferred to Rosneath, Scotland, to establish a Marine Barracks at the U.S. Navy Operating Base at that location. The detachment was re-established in London on 21 January 1943, and resumed its original designation and duties. Myers was replaced by First Lieutenant Alan Doubleday, who served until August 1944. He, in turn, was succeeded by Captain Harry W. Edwards, who remained in that post until April 1946, at which time the unit was given a new designation as the Marine Detachment, U.S. Naval Forces, Europe.
The detachment served as the principal administrative headquarters for Marines in Europe throughout World War II. Muster rolls for the unit reveal the names of the numerous Marine personnel who were sent to Europe and Africa for staff duty or as observers and trainees, both before the war and during the war. This included many Marines who served with the Office of Strategic Services (OSS).
Principal duties for the detachment included: ensuring security for the naval headquarters, supplying orderlies for flag officers, operating a motorcycle and motor vehicle messenger service between various military and diplomatic offices, supplying escorts for State Department couriers, and performing of ceremonial duties as required.
About 35 Marines operated with the OSS throughout North Africa and Europe. Few details exist as to what the did though.
On 5 February 1942, the U.S. Navy established its first base on the European side of the Atlantic, in Londonderry, Northern Ireland, on the banks of the River Foyle. That forward base had become necessary be cause the fleet could not operate efficiently for any length of time more than 2,000 miles from a naval base.
Orders quickly followed for a Marine unit to provide security for this "naval operating base" (NOB) and the 1st Provisional Marine Battalion was organized in 1941 at Quantico, under command of Lieutenant Colonel Lucian W. Burnham. His executive officer was Major Louis C. Plain. In preparation, the Marines of that battalion received some rigorous and varied training, because one could not predict what duties their assignments would require of them.
The 400-man battalion left the U.S. in May 1942, on the Santa Rosa, a converted cruise ship of the Italian-American line, headed across the North Atlantic for a destination known to very few. A month later, an augmentation force of 152 enlisted Marines arrived on board the SS Siboney, led by Second Lieutenant John S. Hudson.
Marine Barracks, NOB, Londonderry, was assigned the mission to guard the dispersed facilities of the large base, which was about three miles from the city.
Headquarters and Service Company was billeted at Springtown Camp, as was Company B, which was assigned to guard the repair facilities. Company C, which guarded the Quonset storage ammunition dump at Fincairn Glen (five miles outside 'Derry), was billeted on the grounds of an old estate called "Beech Hill." Company A guarded the Naval Field Hospital at nearby Creevagh, a couple of strategically located radio stations, and a major supply depot at Lisahally. Those Marines were billeted in Quonset huts on the grounds of "Lisahally House," an estate on the River Foyle.
The Marines were needed in Londonderry not only to protect the naval base from sabotage from German units which might have been landed by submarine, but also from local infiltrators. The Irish Free State (Eire), just across the border from Ulster, maintained its neutrality throughout the war. With German and Japanese embassies in full operation in Dublin, there was the fear of sabotage attempts against Allied installations, prepared with the cooperation of militant elements of the Irish Republican Army (IRA). There were no IRA-supported sabotage attempts, however, and history reveals that the number of voluntary Irish enlistments in the British Army from Eire equalled the number from Ulster, where the draft was in effect.
The Marine Detachment, which had been on duty in London at the same location in Grosvenor Square since June 1941, became also a naval security detachment. However, it retained its American Embassy designation and continued to perform security duties for the Embassy. Additional duties included: providing security for the naval headquarters; supplying orderlies for several flag officers, including ComNavEu; and augmenting the motorcycle courier service linking the various military headquarters in London. In their capacities as special naval observers, the detachment commander, Major Jordan, and his executive officer, Captain John Hill, continued to visit various Allied commands throughout the United Kingdom.
Three U.S. Marines were to have participated in the Deippe landing originally scheduled for 3 July as part of a Royal Marine commando force landing from HMS Locust. The Dieppe landing was postponed because of bad weather and after further postponements, the US Marine participation was cancelled, and they went on to complete their commando training.
There was a slight American presence in North Africa prior to the Allied invasion, working among the French in an effort to ease the way for the landing force. The two most prominent individuals were Robert Murphy, U.S. counselor accredited to the Vichy Government, and his principal military assistant, Marine Colonel William A. Eddy, who had been assigned to the American Legation in Tangier, Algeria, as an assistant naval attache for air in April 1942. Their diplomatic efforts helped to modify the resistance to the eventual landing operations. Eddy's assistant, Marine Lieutenant Franklin Holcomb, contributed to the cause by locating and smuggling out of Morocco two boatmen from Casablanca who were familiar with the complex hydrographic problems in the area. They helped to pilot the landing force. Eisenhower, favorably impressed, appointed Colonel Eddy to be the senior military attache for Africa.
It was determined that weapons training was needed for U.S. Navy boat crewmen who would be involved in the Algerian portion of the landing as part of the Eastern Task Force. In September 1942, Marine Corps instructors were brought in from Londonderry and London to establish a three-week training camp at the naval base in Rosneath, Scotland.
From Londonderry, Lieutenant Colonel Louis C. Plain and Captain William E. Davis led a detail of 25 enlisted Marines. The London Detachment sent First Lieutenant Fenton J. Mee and 15 enlisted men. At the end of the training period these three officers and 30 of the enlisted group were divided up into six teams and assigned to six different ships as a part of the landing force; the remaining 10 enlisted men returned to their base in Londonderry.
On 31 October 1942, the Marine Detachment in London was disbanded and most of the unit transferred to Rosneath to establish a Marine Barracks there. Captain Thomas J. Myers, formerly a company commander with the unit in London, was placed in command. Some key enlisted personnel remained in London on detached duty, to carry on their original assignments at ComNavEu.
The Channel Islands
For the first time I have seen "History" at close quarters,and I know that its actual process is very different from what is presented to Posterity. - WWI General Max Hoffman
Re: The Channel Islands
LOL
