117th Infantry Brigade Royal Marines

117th Infantry Brigade Royal Marines 117th RM brigade.svg 150 Formation sign of the 117th Infantry Brigade.http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/30072749 Badge, 117th Infantry Brigade, Royal Marines Imperial War Museum 22 December 2016 January to July 1945 United Kingdom Royal Navy Infantry brigade Second World War The 117th Infantry Brigade Royal Marines was an infantry brigade formation of the Royal Marines created in the final stages of the Second World War. Unit history The unit was one of two created to address the manpower shortage of 21st Army Group in early 1945. The brigade was created on 15 January 1945 from former members of the Royal Marines Division, which had been broken up in 1943 and the troops distributed to Marine Commandos, or retrained as landing craft crew. They were quickly re-mustered as regular infantry, organised as a standard Army brigade.http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/30071854 Badge, formation, Royal Marine Division & 116th Infantry Brigade, Royal Marines Imperial War Museum 22 December 2016 The Brigade was stationed in England until after the German surrender when it was moved forward to occupy the naval port of Kielhttp://www.naval-review.com/issues/1940s/1945-3.pdf Review of Royal Marine Operations, 1939–1945 "Duilius" The Naval Review XXXIII 3 186 22 December 2016 https://web.archive.org/web/20161223064238/http://www.naval-review.com/issues/1940s/1945-3.pdf 2016-12-23 dead as part of VIII Corps,http://www.baor-locations.org/Historyof21stArmyGroupandBAORMay45toFeb49.aspx.html History of the 21st Army Group and BAOR: May 1945 to February 1949 BAOR Locations 22 December 2016 releasing 46th Highland Brigade for occupation duties elsewhere.http://baor-locations.org/RNKiel.aspx.html Royal Navy units in Kiel BAOR Locations 22 December 2016 The Brigade was tasked with guarding naval installations and overseeing the capitulation of German naval ships and personnel. It also had to deal with the arrival of ships carrying troops returning from the Eastern front, and also civilian refugees from Soviet-occupied Germany. On one particularly busy night this involved taking command of 21 destroyers and removing 14,000 soldiers from shipping. The Brigade returned to the UK in July 1945 to be disbanded. See also United Kingdom British brigades of the Second World War References Category:Infantry brigades of the British Army in World War II Category:Military units and formations established in 1945 Category:Military units and formations disestablished in 1945