Birth of the German Marine Infantry

  As mentioned earlier, Zhou Tianlei represented the German Navy Command to ask the German Army General Command for several infantry divisions to train the first truly modern naval infantry in German history.

  However, the German Supreme Command later modified this plan and decided to first form a brigade-level naval infantry combat team to observe its effectiveness before deciding whether to expand the size of the German naval infantry.

  When several army infantry regiments received orders from the German Army High Command, ordering them to report to the Naval Command in accordance with the order. They were detached from the army organization and reorganized into a naval organization under the jurisdiction of the Naval Command. Although they felt very strange about this order (how could the navy use army troops? Many army officers thought so), due to the strict military discipline of the German army, they did not ask any questions and reported to the Naval Command as required by the order.

  At the Naval Headquarters, the commanders of the infantry regiments only learned that they were transferred to the Navy for the real reason that the German Supreme Command was going to establish a new branch - the Marine Corps. The Naval Headquarters and the Supreme Command defined the combat mission of this new force as: 1. Under the command of the Naval Headquarters, under the cover of the naval fleet, conduct amphibious landing operations against enemy-occupied coastal areas and islands, capture beachheads, can attack alone or lay the foundation for the follow-up troops of the army. 2. Conduct land battles related to naval battles. 3. Study and develop tactics, techniques, and equipment for landing operations.

  This unit has its own independent command structure, completely separate from the Army's chain of command. They report directly to the German Naval Command. This way, if the German military wants to execute such a task, they have a professional force to do it. However, the commander of the 1st Marine Regiment will not be produced among them, but rather by a naval officer.

  Although this is the case, these several German army regimental commanders were still very pleased. In the German Army, their infantry regiments belonged to non-elite units and rarely had the opportunity to fight on the front lines. They were garrison troops left behind in the rear. Their combat strength was relatively weak. This time they were selected, although under the jurisdiction of the Navy, they would have the opportunity to fight on the front line and would not watch their brother units fighting on the battlefield while they themselves guarded the rear with frustration.

  However, they did not expect that the food of the Marine Corps was not good. After reporting for duty, they were quickly taken to a secret newly built military camp in the Baltic Sea Danzig area by the Navy Command with special trains and troops.

  After a day of rest, they were pulled to the seaside, where hundreds of naval officers and sailors were waiting for them. The naval officers and sailors came to help these landlubbers undergo the most basic training of the Marine Corps - amphibious training.

  They took the troops to separate areas and began to practice amphibious drills. Hank was one of them, assigned to the 14th training unit, where he trained with 99 other soldiers.

  After a naval officer and sailor spent the morning educating them on swimming theory, they were each given a table where their hands and feet were tightly tied with four long rubber bands. With the help of the rubber bands, they repeatedly practiced frog-like movements on the table. The instructor patrolled beside them, checking if anyone was slacking off, and if they didn't meet their requirements, they would be trained until they were out of breath.

  After several days of simulated training, they were taken to the seaside. Several instructors led by example, taking off their clothes and wearing only swimming trunks, walked into the sea first. Those who had just experienced a few days of simulated training looked at the rolling waves of the sea, hesitated for a moment, and then followed the instructor's example, taking off their military uniforms, leaving only one pair of swimming trunks underneath. They trembled with fear as they walked into the sea, but the sea gave them a baptism by fire from the very beginning. Many of the "ducks" were splashed with a mouthful of salty and bitter seawater as soon as they entered the water, and they rushed to run back to the shore, crying out loudly.

  At this time, several instructors with ferocious faces had their arms crossed in front of their chest. Their thick upper limbs bulged with solid muscles. Whoever ran ashore, they would throw whoever back into the sea.

  Hank was out of breath from being submerged in the seawater. After a break in the middle, he refused to get back into the water.

  But four instructors immediately walked over with stern faces. One grabbed one of his limbs, and Hank struggled desperately with all fours, but it was useless in the firm grip of the strong instructors holding his four limbs. They carried him to the sea and the four of them threw him into the water together. Hank rose into the air like a cloud and fell into the water. A large amount of salty and bitter seawater immediately poured into his nostrils, causing him to cough loudly. Hank shouted: "Save me! Save me................"

  As he opened his mouth to shout, a big mouthful of salty and bitter seawater immediately poured into his mouth. The sound was cut off instantly. Several instructors stood far away protecting him, one of them laughed loudly: "You shout, you just shout, no matter whose name you shout, no one will care about you."

  Hank found that yelling, screaming and cursing were of no use whatsoever, so he calmed down after coughing up two mouthfuls of seawater to grasp the theoretical points his instructor was trying to drum into them. He started practicing his still-clumsy frog kick in the water.

  After a period of time, the Marine Corps began to assess the results of armed amphibious training. On the beachhead of the nearly 2000-meter-long sea training ground, sharp rain arrows shot towards the vast sandy beach. Thousands of fully-armed soldiers stood there. The soldier phalanx filled the huge landing field.

  At the forefront of the soldiers' phalanx was Leb, the chief instructor for this training exercise. Behind him were the commanding officers of each unit.

  Le Bu's handsome face had a pair of piercing eyes, the cold sea breeze caressed the tough tendons on his exposed skin. "Today's sea training project, armed swimming 5000 meters, I'm leading, Deputy Commander is at the end."

  Slogans resounded across the land. The icy sea water was bone-chilling, with waves rolling on the surface. The entire landing force plunged into the water in full gear to swim ashore. No matter whether you used the breaststroke, backstroke, freestyle or butterfly stroke, you had to reach the destination on time.

  Many Marines were exhausted after landing. But what awaited them was not rest, but even more rigorous training and testing.

  In this armed crossing 5,000 meters sea training project, Hank sprinted to the front. After pulling other marines 200 meters behind, Leff looked and was very happy: "Good job, what's your name?"

  "Hanke." "After training, I will inform your superior to transfer you to the Amphibious Reconnaissance Unit." Thus, Hanke entered the Amphibious Reconnaissance Unit, later known as the "Soul of the German Marine Corps".

  In the subsequent rubber boat training, Germany's future marine soldiers only discovered that this subject was not easier than swimming training. The instructor often chooses to conduct training from the warship to the shore during low tide, and when rowing from the shore to the warship, they often choose to do so during high tide.

  After the end of the boat training, the marines also had to work together to carry the rubber boats ashore and conduct running exercises. The instructor said this was to foster a spirit of cooperation among the marines.

  In intense rubber boat training, Marines are often so exhausted that their arms continue to mechanically paddle with the oars in hand, but they have fallen asleep.

  But this was only one of the many subjects of the Marine Corps, and even more arduous training was yet to come. On a day when strong winds and waves rose on the sea, Lebre, the commander-in-chief of the German Navy's Marine Corps, led his troops onto the training ship that had been waiting at the dock, amidst the howling waves.

  Several thousand tons of training warships on the stormy sea were like a small boat, sometimes thrown into the trough of waves and sometimes pushed to the top of waves. The training ship was shaking violently. All unsecured objects on the training ship were rolling and colliding with each other.

  The sailors who had been rolling on the sea for many years finally couldn't withstand the dizzying feeling of the big waves and vomited one after another. The newly arrived German naval infantrymen, who had never seen such a scene before, were all tossed about by the unpredictable sea, their internal organs all out of place. One by one, they felt dizzy and nauseous, their bodies limp and weak, and they just wanted to jump into the sea to end their suffering.

  But the German naval infantry commander, Leberecht Maass, was unmoved. He ordered: "On land you are soldiers, at sea you should be real sailors." He commanded all soldiers not to lie down and insisted on continuing their original training.

  The storm raged, German sailors on the training ship were lying down vomiting, while soldiers of the German naval infantry stood or crouched on deck spewing up the enemas, beef, bile and even blood they had barely eaten.

  The captain of the German training ship could not help but find the German naval infantry instructor, Colonel Lebrecht, to plead for the soldiers: "Colonel Lebrecht, it takes more than one day for ice to form three feet thick. You also know that we didn't adapt to this life from the start, we too slowly developed our ability to adapt to the sea."

  "We are training the first modern German naval infantry, many countries already have their own marine corps before us, we are latecomers, but will the battlefield treat us differently because we are latecomers? No, definitely not. So in order to catch up with those who established their marine corps before us, we can only use some more ruthless methods, sir, I have no choice. This is an order from the Naval Command. We must train a world-class marine corps within a short period of time."

  The training of the two amphibious reconnaissance troops, later known as the 'soul of the German Marine Corps', was even more arduous. After completing the basic training of the Marine Corps, they entered professional training and the intensity of training increased a lot.

  They first faced basic training, which was designed to build their foundation and instill the "necessary unyielding spirit" of a two-legged reconnaissance team member. This included exercises such as handstands, sit-ups, push-ups, jumping jacks, pull-ups, arm curls, climbing soft ladders, and long-distance armed forced marches. In addition, they also had to learn combat techniques, because even in the era of hot weapons, there were still many places on the battlefield where cold weapons had to be used to finish off the enemy. They practiced how to use their bare hands, bayonets, ropes or other small tools to kill or capture enemies.

  They often train this combat skill in various terrains. After completing basic training, they started professional training.

  Map reading is the first technique they need to master. In training, they often receive orders to attack an unknown terrain with only a map and compass. The map marks the target point. Their requirement is not to be discovered by the instructors playing the enemy, no matter what means are used, as long as they can reach the target point. However, this is not easy to achieve because there are deviations between the map and actual terrain. If only relying on the map for positioning, sometimes it will not have any effect, especially at night when it's not allowed for team members to take out the map again and again to compare with a flashlight, which can easily expose themselves and increase the possibility of being ambushed. Therefore, instructors require team members to memorize the map, using their eyes and ears to observe any unusual movements around them. In actual operations, they allocate physical strength according to the distance and terrain marked on the map. This skill can only be slowly explored through repeated training.

  In training, members of the Amphibious Reconnaissance Unit often have to cross many natural and artificial obstacles created by instructors, including heavily camouflaged traps and "minefields" fraught with danger. This is especially true during "human reconnaissance" training, where instructors prepare a coffin in advance, place a body inside, put a telegram in the pocket of the clothes on the corpse, and then place the coffin in the forest. Team members have to find the coffin based on its approximate location marked on the map, take out the telegram, memorize its contents, and report back to the instructor. The stench from the corpse is overwhelming, and instructors hiding nearby shake leaves to create a chilling sound that scares some timid team members into forgetting the contents of the telegram, forcing them to start all over again.

  Demolitions is another skill they have to learn, demolitions are often used in assault operations. Enemy command posts, vehicles, bridges and roads are all targets for demolition.

  In the classroom, the instructor briefly lectured on the types of explosives, methods for installing blasting devices, and weaknesses in targets to be destroyed, then took them outside for practical training.

  The members of the amphibious reconnaissance team started with explosive training on wood, then concrete, and finally steel. The amount of explosives, loading position, and ignition time were all different depending on the material being blasted. The instructor required them to remember these things firmly. Only after remembering did they take another step forward.

  Underwater assault is their unique skill that differentiates them from other troops. They are trained inside a submarine, wearing full diving gear and crawling in and out of torpedo tubes with diameters as small as 50-60 cm. Once the diving equipment is damaged, they face life-threatening danger. They also bring their own weapons and equipment with them. After exiting the submarine, they reach their target for assault and conduct the assault.

  In the training, many people's nasal cavity was bleeding due to seawater, but after the instructor treated their injuries, they were still ordered to continue training. In the harsh training, the number of members of the first amphibious reconnaissance team continued to decrease, from more than 300 at the beginning to only over 40 when the training ended.

  But it was this very rigorous training that earned them another nickname in later battles: 'as tough as rhino skin'.