Royal Marines: Fighting in the Freezer

Bloodshed on the streets of Ukraine

on the deadliest day yet of anti-government protests.

In response to Russia's actions in Ukraine earlier this year...

David Cameron is expected to support President Obama's warning to Russia.

We have to be ready to deal with that kind of aggression

and make sure that Russian knows that, if it crosses the line,

if you like, then we are ready to respond.

We are now continuously rotating additional personnel and aircraft

through the Baltics.

This is probably the most challenging one.

I've never been in this kind of cold-weather environment.

Being fatigued and cold and tired and hungry, it takes its toll.

One of the reasons why we're in Eastern Europe

is to support our partners and deter Russian aggression.

We're here doing the same thing.

I am sure that, unless we're robust and unless we show resolve,

that this could become dangerous.

The Royal Marines are the only cold-weather mountain specialists

in the UK military.

It's obviously a fairly brutal environment,

temperatures down to -19.

The US Marine Corps are terribly gung ho. You see the pictures

of them all running along, shouting, ho-ho-ho, all this sort of thing.

I'm somewhat concerned that their focus has been typically

special forces type units,

and bringing a straight infantry battalion

certainly creates a challenge for them.

I'm 23 years old. I've been in the Marines for three years.

You know, people have their motives to join the Marines,

they want to serve their country, they're patriotic,

they want to get to travel around the world.

I did it purely because my brother is in the Marine Corps,

and watching him graduate boot camp

was honestly the sole reason why I joined the Marine Corps.

I was working two jobs, actually.

I was working in a fast-food restaurant and in a factory.

I was working in the restaurant part-time, factory full-time

and it was just getting really stressful and tiring,

so I wanted to try something new

and something I figured would really help me financially.

The reason you're here today is to do a safety drill.

This safety drill is proven,

it's been used hundreds of times in this environment over the years.

I was married. The reason I joined was because of my wife

and just somewhere along the line, it ended,

so now I'm just out here doing this and having a good time with it.

Icebreaking basically entails

and man on skis with his pack entering the ice.

It's important because, moving around frozen terrain,

we don't always know the consistency of the ice.

Go. Get in!

I am Corporal Mark Glass from Kentucky.

It's a whole lot colder here and a whole lot more snow.

Compose yourself.

-No, no, not yet, the ski poles in.

-Oh.

It was really cold.

A shock, it's hard to talk and hard to breathe

while you're inside the water.

OK, out you come, good. Drive and kick, drive and kick.

Initially, when they go in, the skin receptors on the body

are aware of this sudden change in temperature.

And that would kick in this involuntary response,

so you get the...huh! Huh!

And that's generally lasts for about three seconds.

The body then starts hyperventilating,

starts breathing quickly, and that can last for up to three minutes.

Calm down.

I was really nervous. I didn't know what to expect,

I was afraid I was going to get in there and not be able to get out.

But it was great, I loved it.

Make a toast, down in one.

United States Marine Corps.

-Thank you.

-Follow me.

We've rode in on the BBs

and right now we are building our snow shelters

where we will stay the night.

We're piling up a bunch of snow and compacting it down.

And after it settles, we will dig into it

and that will be our shelter for the night.

So, pack it into the middle, so it can be stomped down.

It's actually a long, long, tedious, exhausting project

that probably takes about six to eight hours,

from what the instructor said.

Some say it isn't as comfortable as a night in a tent,

however, if you've got a candle going and there's no airflow,

ie, you've dug your sleeping bays higher than the entrance trench,

then all the cold air drops

and it will be a comfortable zero degrees in that shelter.

It's been a long day, we've been piling up all the snow

and making sure it compacts right.

Now we're just tunnelling in.

We started digging around 9.45 and we didn't stop digging

until at least 17.00 hours.

So that's practically like eight hours of just piling the snow in.

Yeah, it's not...

It's not awesome, it's not good. But stuff happens.

We called for help and the whole company came

-in, like, ten seconds.

-We got everyone out.

Right.

Essentially, they've got to put in

bits of brushwood all over the shelter.

That then maintains the stability of the roof.

If they fail to do that, so once they've been digging in,

they've dug beyond the limits

and the roof of the shelter's collapsed in on top of them.

Unfortunately, now we've had to move them

onto the snow bank over yonder and they'll dig another shelter.

Yeah, this is probably the most different thing

that I've done in the Marine Corps.

I'd say we would be ready for anything that comes our way,

to be honest, just like that's how we as Marines are, just ready.

Respond and serve, without a question.

I think everyone who comes out here finds it tough.

The reason the Royal Marines come here, if we can operate here,

we can operate anywhere around the world or anywhere around the globe.

So this is a testing ground.

You couldn't get any tougher and more demanding.

So these guys have stepped straight off a plane from the US,

come to Europe, and then a week later, they are 300 miles

inside the Arctic Circle, fighting against these conditions.

Fighting in that weather is really, really difficult.

Just surviving is really difficult. To survive is half...

Well, it's more than half, it's 90% of it. 95% of it.

If you survive and can also fire something

and your equipment works, you're there.

The training that our Armed Forces can provide is something

other armies around the world really,

really want and we have some of the most specialist

and most admired training of any army around the world.

It's obviously a fairly brutal environment,

so as you'd expect,

the spectrum of cold-weather injuries, you have hypothermia

where the whole body is cold,

and becomes cold and then generally begins to shut down.

Sort of frost nip is a little bit of a warning sign, where,

yes, people have cold hands, cold feet, noses or ears.

Obviously a progression from that is the tissue actually starts freezing.

Then, that's frostbite and that is a significant problem

and risk out here.

Different degrees of frostbite, from superficial to deep,

depending on the layers of tissue that have actually frozen.

Glass.

Last night was really cold.

It's supposed to be a shelter to keep us safe and warm,

but it was still rather cold.

I mean, we worked for long hours yesterday

up until about midnight last night.

Our clothes are still kind of wet and cold and some parts are frozen.

I'm cold, I was hungry and we are fixing breakfast right now.

So it's been a really rough time these last two days.

It takes its toll. You've just got to suck it up and go on.

Guys, get your jackets on, if it's not already on.

Have your flasks out.

How was the night in the quinzhee on the whole?

MEN SHOUT Good.

Did it work, did it serve a purpose as a survival shelter?

OK, good, you're alive today, that's good.

The movement we're going to introduce initially will start off

with movement by snowshoes and then, a little bit later on,

we'll slowly, but surely, develop

utilising movements by skis, which will prove

quite an arduous task.

It's a little awkward at times, I'm not used to these positions

and wearing the skis. I need to get some better gloves

because I can't really shoot with these mitts on.

Gloves, the skis makes it more difficult.

There's more to work around to get the weapon and stuff like that.

But, a little practice, we'll get good at it.

It's not different than what I'm used to, being on, you know,

much more solid ground. Handling the weapon and having to...

..break through the...

..the undisturbed snow

just makes it a lot more... a lot more of a work-out

and a lot more tiring. So, but...

it's getting there, techniques are getting slowly perfected.

It's an arduous environment, where not only are we combating

the actual skill sets involved with maintaining our body temperature

in the cold, but also with the more pertinent point

of closing with, and defeating, the enemy.

-I'm so

-BLEEP

-if we go to war with Russia.

-I can't figure how to move this

-BLEEP.

In the last ten or so years, we've been focused elsewhere in the world.

And our cold-weather expertise hasn't been what it should be.

-Keep going.

-I know, I can't see.

Us coming here and learning from

the best cold-weather trainers in the world

is a fantastic opportunity.

All that skewering is, is utilising a long length of rope,

a small hitch over the ski poles.

It just means that we can almost double the amount of personnel

we can move around an area, in order to close with the enemy.

The biggest energy expulsion during this activity

is going to be the constant falling over

and then trying to stand up with kit on your back.

-Staying alive, staying alive.

-I blame the driver on that one!

The last bit of the exercise we're conducting is basically

the withdrawal, or the extraction.

Now, ultimately, this is probably the most testing part of the week,

due to the fact of the degradation the guys have received

from spending the two nights previous under canvas

and again, the survival shelter on the final day.

We've made it a long way, we've done a lot of hard work

and the Royal Marines have given us a lot of help,

as far as being able to survive out in this climate.

It's a really...harsh climate,

but I think with a little more practice, we can do it.

It's taken a while to grasp the urgency,

and it's that standing, waiting for an order and understanding

that you need to move away from that and start acting for yourself.

This is the best office in the world as far as I'm concerned

and I think the Americans are slowly starting to appreciate that as well.

Culturally, yes, there are differences, but we're Marines.

UK Marines, US Marines - we're Marines.

And there's a brotherhood

that transcends political boundaries and governments.

If you come across people who are highly trained and able

to live in that environment, it is extremely difficult to fight them.

And so the Russians will take this quite seriously.

They watch very carefully what we're doing,

and we're watching what they're doing. And we need to do that.

Exhausted. Skiing is the most demanding thing I've ever done.

I'm glad to be back on base

and a nice, warm bed to sleep in tonight.