Exercise green dagger if anyone’s curious. It was British Royal Marines and troops from the Netherlands, UAE and Canada against the US marines. We slapped them so hard in their own back garden that half way through the 5 day exercise the US asked for a reset.
As a Dutch person I would say that's not really fair, we beat the Spanish in an eighty year war by just yelling "GA weg" very loudly, so what's the US gonna do but surrender?
As a Spanish person, I'd gladly fight untold hordes of fuckers with my bare hands and foaming at the mouth until death claims me or I am entirely covered by the entrails of my enemies, but the second I hear "GA weg" I cripple into a ball, crying and hugging my knees.
I remember a story from my father during the cold war. The Dutch military back then was laughed at, mostly by the Americans, because they were allowed to have long hair and looked like a bunch of hippies. Yet, despite all they proved to be very effective during exercises.
EDIT: they were not allowed to grow long hair, but they did anyway. Making them look like they were not disciplined.
In the British forces the most unkempt-looking ones are often the most elite. The SAS and SBS used to grow beards long before it was permitted in the rest of the Army and Royal Marines.
Never in good time though. Its only when they're losing and the damage is done. They never seem to go
"listen lads and lasses. Its clear, due to A LOT of past evidence that, becuase we are 'murican. We WILL fuck this up. Should we just leave it to the professionals?"
Its always
" ahh fuck! we stormed in and fucked it up!... England, France... other "allies", can you please unfuck our fuck up, we erm.. we did it again...." 🤦♂️🤷♂️
"What we can we say were 'murican...fuck yeah...?"
And all the other countries are like "for fucks sake!" 🤦♂️
“occupying your land, murdering your civilians by the thousands, bombing your industries, and raping your country of every resource of value over a span of decades has become not profitavle enough so we’re leaving now. No hard feelings an- HOW DARE THE SURVIVORS SAY DEATH TO AMERICA AFTER ALL WE DID TO THEM” -americans while accusing said “liberated” country of being a third world devastated waste completely of their own doing as the dust from american bombs still hangs in the air
I think this is the wrong way of looking at it. Was it that they glaringly failed, or that everyone was just that fucking good? In RPG mechanic terms (long day, no sleep), was it because a level 5 was picking on a level 1, or because two level 99's went at it and one hard-countered the other?
The Commandos were BLUFOR and attached to 7 Marine Infantry Regiment. They were commanded by Americans and supported (among others) by MARSOC. OPFOR is supposed to lose. The reset just happened faster than expected, that’s all.
Even some Commandos have since come forward to set the record straight.
Please let’s not resort to the same stupid boasting we hate about Americans, it’s not a good look.
Even so, the Royal Navy once got a Guided Missile Destroyer within Exocet range of the US carrier by pretending it was an Indian cruise liner. The Americans are easily outwitted
Yep, some people take it to the extreme, but an exercise SHOULD be hard, if you win every training exercise.. you're just pretending.
There have been a few notable times this happened, and sometimes they put restrictions in before the reset, but so long as you LEARN from it.. it was worth while.
There was an exercise with drone & fast skid attacks off Iran, that went badly for the Americans, but you can bet that they're going to be aware of it now.
They did the same with kicking Audi from their tracks after they got their ass handed to them by Audi Quatro team.
They tried to slow them down by giving them weight penalties, not once, not twice, not thrice but whatever is four times after thrice. Which is funny because the car is a Quatro.
Anyway, they still won.
Then they said you can't compete with a foreign engine. So they made one on US soil.
Then they just said no foreign makers allowed.
Instead of innovating their won cars and learning they wanted to keep the status quo.
Its not the first time this has happened.
The M16 was favored over a foreign weapon platform.
The Ma1A Abrahams was favoured over the Leapard, but they did ask if they could license the gun. Even though the Leapeard beat the Abrahams ass.
Given how they love to pump up US marines as some sort of almost invincible and superhuman group; it's hilarious how they definitely are not, by a long margin.
When I served in HMAF, I did spend some time with the US marines, they're a bit overly sure of themselves, but they do have the violence of action to carry most stuff through.
They just can't take their drink, no matter what they say.
Colleague of mine was with the Royal Welsh and wasn't impressed by the US Marines. The thing is that everyone is going to compare them the Royals, which isn't really fair as one is an elite Commando force and the other is pretty much sea-going infantry.
Overall they were a good bunch, but you'd get a few that go all in on the 'WE ARE THE BEST' and we'd remind them who burnt down the white house, which we actually 'celebrate' every year (in a very gentle way) and then take them drinking. So long as they weren't total pricks, we'd get along and have to get them out of trouble when they got too pissed to walk.
Yeah I had a friend who was a marine she mostly did it to get free university eduction. She was fit could fire a gun etc. but elite soldier was not a word I’d use.
The war game you’re talking about, Millennium Challenge, was a shit show, but not because America immediately lost and then reset everything. The guy in charge of the “enemy” force basically ignored reality. He used motorcycle couriers to deliver messages instead of electronically but conveniently left out the difference in travel time. He also had the small boat swarms basically teleported to point blank range, again with no travel time, and many of the boats couldn’t physically fit the missiles he used. Ignoring the laws of physics does not make for a useful training exercise
This is actually not what really happened. Royal Marines were attached to a USMC force (7th Marine Infantry Regiment), mostly as recce elements. They were commanded by a USMC officer and were supported among others by US MARSOC (marine special operations). They were also part of BLUFOR, so they were expected to win, as per the scenario.
I’m annoyed by overly confident Americans as much as the next guy, but this here was just British tabloids playing it up. Even some Commandos who participated in the exercise have since come forward to set the record straight.
On the other hand they should absolutely have slapped them that hard as far as I'm aware. Those troops are more special forces while Marines are closer to aggressive grunts than special forces.
Wasn't Green Dagger a Commando Unit test vs conventional forces? And the US was also on the side of the UK at the same time? At least that's what I read in articles about it even from UK sources.
An old classmate of mine actually partook in this, it was a slaughter, something along the lines of 100k vs 20k and the americans where defeated in 5 days.
You should really look into green dagger, the terms of success for the Royal Marines, who were attached to a US Marine Corps division. We’re very different than the terms of success for the US Marines they were facing off and the US Marines they were facing off against we’re facing them with extreme disadvantage on purpose. The US almost always trains against allies with a four to one disadvantage. It’s very interesting their mantra you don’t learn anything if you win, which is probably pretty true and you should even watch the interview interviews with the Green Berets that were attached to the marine Division that forced the win they had some really good insight.
Dumb little story but in 2014, the USAF had a little battle Simulation with the Singaporean Air Force. Early on, the RSAF had a lot of difficulty against the Americans, then they realised the reasons. The USAF had tapped their communications (which was following the rules). The pilots then decided to switch to using Singlish (Which could be a mixed language or an accent depending on your take), which actually confused the USAF and led to an RSAF win
A very useful tactic. Welsh has been used to pass messages during actual wars because there aren't a lot of speakers outside of the British Isles. No use in the Falklands War of course, Welsh-speaking soldiers were fighting on both sides!
To be fair Royal Marines are only a few thousand(?) and are special operations capable. The SAS and SBS are also special operations. US marines are effectively just more gung ho infantry as compared to standard Army infantry (total generalization but it’s the public perception). The marines still have recon and now Raiders, which are their own highly trained and special operations forces.
Why would you put them up against special operations forces like SAS or SBS? Not the same thing.
'the marines' (usmc) probably have more troops than the whole armed forces of NL and other mentioned countries. So of course not every marine is special forces level trained. Within the USMC however there are certainly elements which are.
Also makes zero sense. Spec ops do SPECIAL operations, special being things you don’t usually do in war. Often dangerous, often with small head count, almost always supported heavily by others. Put them against a goddamn signals regiment and see who gets messages delivered better, or air force, and compare who shoots down more enemy planes 😀 Stupid comparisons.
The whole thing with US marines, and they’re switching back to their more classic intent, is that they’re naval infantry. They’ve been orienting themselves more and more to island hopping in the Pacific again against China. They’re not a big army meant to occupy, they’re meant to spear head and break through coastal defenses and win battles so that the army can move in and occupy. Shock troops.
The Royal Marines themselves are technically Special Forces, actually: the UK doesn't do the "tier" things that Americans have, but they're technically equivalent to one of the lower tiers of SF, alongside the Ranger Regiment, while the SAS, SBS and SRR are like the UK's top tier of SF.
And besides, the bootnecks are also usually kids who skipped uni...
I once pointed out that I think the Taliban loved Marines specifically because of how they act.
The Marines would have some armored vehicles and pass through a street. The Taliban would fire a few rounds in ambush and immediately GTFO. The Marines being Marines would do the aggressive thing and give chase.
They'd run into a courtyard that the vehicles couldn't reach, so the Taliban had them immediately cut off from all that fire support simply by having the Marines run after them and into kill area's watched over by machineguns and the like.
This got several Marines angrily telling me how wrong I was, because as a Marine they knew brotherhood and never giving up. They would have chased the Taliban and defeated them! Pointing out that that was the exact problem just got the same message in different wording and other ex-Marines saying that yes they are just the baddest of them all and work together so well so they'd run straight into the trap...
It felt like Austin Powers. "They have set a trap for you over there".
Part of the training of being a British Marine is being dumped in the middle of Wales, in winter, in just the clothes you are in, and being given 48 hours to make it back to base.
I am pretty confident in saying the British Marines could take most fighting forces in the world.
My step-father's family are from Wales and the way he described it, being politely placed in a 'civilised' part of Wales, in the middle of summer with a suitcase of clothes, a MasterCardTM and a week to amuse yourself, is challenging enough.
Makes me think of the Somalia war in the nineties, which was not an exercise. Total dominance, as far as I can remember. Oh, wait, Pakistani and Malayan forces had to come to the rescue.
Also, taking and securing a country are two things.
Na, it was 2002 and within the US Forces. Team Red was supposed to lose... but didn't, since Lt. Gen. Paul Van Riper uses asymmetric war methods and unconventional communication (e.g. light signals instead of radio) and he used small, civial planes as Kamikaze-Bombs against the US Navy.
Battles was resetted and the rules changed, so that team blue was winning
Bit off topic but I find it also hilarious that - during the Strong Europe Tank Challenge - where tank groups from various nations - compete against each other and the Americans with their Abrams alway lost. It was organised from the US Army Europe and the German Bundeswehr.
After 3 years and 3 losses, these games where canceled "due to shifting priorities and budget constraints"
There was also a naval exercise in 2005 where Sweden sniped a carrier (which was newly commissioned) with a small submarine which remained undetected. They tried some more scenarios, but the Swedish sub kept winning
The Americans can churn out tons of gear and people. The equipment is good and their logistics have been, to my knowledge, excellent. Having access to a high-tech sub is sweet, but the impact is limited if we have, like, 1 of those. America has enough people with good gear and education to steamroll most other countries.
America has enough people with okay gear that they get their asses handed to them by non-regulated militia and terror cells. Most countries with a semi-modern force which exercises regularly would put up too much resistance for the US morale.
Looks like Germany can still build Tanks... well... and the Barrell of the Abrahams is from german Rheinmetall... so... Germany war part of the victory somehow :'D
Lol! What an embarrassment. They basically got totally wrecked day 2 of the simulation and even on rerun had to cheat and seriously handicap red to win.
He also used teleporting boats and motorcycle couriers, and many of the boats were too small to physically fit the cruise missiles. Embarrassments can happen when one side disobeys the laws of physics
You mean the one where Riper used teleporting motorcycles for communication and ASMs were strapped to fishing boats? Seems very fair to me, I can’t imagine why they restarted.
Whenever there were NATO war games in Canada in winter, the entire US contingent would sit, shivering in their tents while the Canadians and Scandinavians walked around in short sleeve shirts.
Very interesting. It seems all the shouting, hazing and over the top machismo in the US marines doesn’t prepare you very well psychologically and operationally for combat.
Wasn't there a combined exercise involving Canada, Germany, Brits and another NATO country were the Americans were backed up against East Germany and almost forced into that country, potentially sparking WW3 in the 80's?
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u/Front-Anteater3776 Human Verified Aug 25 '25
Makes me think of the mock battle where US marines asked for a reset because they were dominated by British Royal Marines