Britain’s Royal Marine Recruits In Grueling Mud Training

It is designed to turn the merely tough into the super-tough. The Royal Marines' much-feared Mud Run is the toughest part of the 32-week training course said to turn 'civilians into commandos', and looking at these photographs, you can see why even the strongest recruits dread it.

Exhausted, demoralized, and covered in foul-smelling sludge from head to toe, these Royal Marine recruits hope one day to wear the coveted Green Beret marking them out as the elite of Britain's fighting forces.

As these pictures, taken on Wednesday, show, the men need to call upon reserves - both mental and physical - that they didn't know they had simply to get through the grueling ordeal.

Captain Ben Chappell, who oversees physical training at the Royal Marines Commmando Training Centre in Lympstone, Devon, said: 'The Mud Run is about instilling a Royal Marines state of mind.

'The recruits spend up to 45 minutes in the mud that is so thick they can barely run, doing exercises and games, and it is so difficult that getting through it really builds team spirit.

 

'We are not just looking for physical strength but mental resilience as well, and the team cohesion that comes from getting through the hardship together - this strength and cohesion forms part of the Royal Marines' DNA.'

 

 

He said the recruits would not necessarily know when the run was coming up, saying: 'It's all about dislocation of expectation.' Their boilersuits offer little protection from the stinking slime as their superiors bawl at them to do press ups, and crawl on hands and knees through the mire left by the receding tide in the Exe estuary beside their training base in Lympstone, Devon.  

 

Nowhere else in Britain is there a military base right at the gaping mouth of a river, and the officers take full advantage of the noxious mire left by the River Exe for some hardcore obedience training.

 

A dreaded rite of passage, the infamous Mud Runs aren't a regular fixture, but occur as and when officers deem them necessary.  Generally they are held towards the end of the training course, just before the young recruits are awarded their coveted Green Berets.

Sometimes they take place sooner than that, and sometimes more than once. And as one of the toughest part of the Marines' training course, they are designed to weed out those unable to cope, and create a bond amongst those strong enough to survive.

'There are two key aims we're trying to achieve', explained Corporal Tom Limb, Troop Commander for 164 Recruit Troop who are in their fourth week of training.

'Firstly, instilling the ethos of team work and the commando qualities of courage, determination and cheerfulness. The troop are still early on in their training and they've not yet started to gel as a single unit which is important.

'The second is discipline - they understand what is expected of them but their discipline levels aren't where they're supposed to be at this stage. 'Eventually, after training and passing out they will be deployed with a Commando unit elsewhere, ready to go out on operational duties - so any discipline issues, to do with basic things like shaving and cleaning weapons that they are constantly forgetting to do, need to be ironed out early on so they don't manifest later when they're deployed.

'Hopefully the run will have achieved its aim.'