mnbdo royal marines

[Hug]

someone was looking for details on interpreting armed forces abbreviations mnbdo stood for mobile naval boom defence organization a euphemism the same as S.A.S. (which never had anything to do with the air services) It was responsible for the famous raid by canoes of the movie Cockle Shell Heroes commanded by 'blondie' hasler the unit was I believe originally based at portsmouth my father now deceased was in this unit. I have found it difficult to find any details of his service record. I do know that he served at one point in the Mediterranean, I believe Crete and also spent some time in North Africa where officially there weren't any Royal Marines at that time

[fleming1]

Hi Hug
Just seen your thread. My father was in Crete and on the Tobruk raid in North Africa as a royal marine. Have tried to get his records from the royal marine centre filled all the forms in and so far after 8 weeks have not heard a thing.
He did a lot of diving in the war to dispose of mines and underwater obstructions. He told me some of the things they got upto but I would love to trace his history through the war if I could. Do you know of any other source I might find out some information?

Best regards

eric

[Mike Jackson]

MNBDO

Mobile Naval Base Defence Organisation

Largely RM organisation for the defence against ground and air attack of a deployed naval base in WW2.

MNBDO 1 served initially in UK, then Crete, then elsewhere in the Middle East and latterly in Ceylon.

Mike