In that same trip we took them on in a battle situation, much like what happened in the Mojave Desert this week, and cleared a “village” in 14 minutes – which was quicker and more efficient than almost any US military force had done it, leading the American commanders to debrief with our commanding officers to find out how we do things so well. It wasn’t anywhere near as difficult as what we were used to at home.

Later that same day, they put us on their “O” (obstacle) course. Two of our boys instantly broke their all-time record.

In Virginia, they duly welcomed us by having us attempt their “E” (endurance) course at the hottest point of the day. In some ways, the US philosophy is: “Why would we need to walk anywhere when we could just get a helicopter or vehicle?” Well, we haven’t got that luxury, so we train for the worst and make sure we can do it without hardware as backup.Ī couple of weeks later, it was time for the return trip – we knew they’d try to humiliate us by throwing us in at the deep-end, just as we’d done to them. Halfway up, we had to start carrying the Americans’ kit – they just couldn’t handle it. The first time I experienced a US-UK exchange it was our turn to host, so we took them to Scotland for mountain training, which included a trek up Ben Nevis in full kit. The US Marines contains some outstanding soldiers and some outstanding regiments (ask anybody from the SAS or SBS and they’ll tell you the elite special forces units in the US military are as good as anybody) but, compared like-for-like, the Royal Marines tended to be fitter, more tactically intelligent and, most importantly, able to push themselves far further than their US Marine counterparts. Training exercises with our US counterparts were fairly regular and they generally ended the same way: with the British coming out on top in just about every area. I’d go on to spend almost six years in the Royal Marines, working in Iraq, Somalia, Egypt and Afghanistan. I started Royal Marines training at Lympstone in 2005, and nine months later earned my green beret. The British commandos who “dominated” them into asking for a “reset” halfway into a five-day war fighting exercise, on the other hand, will be elated at having another feather in their famous cap. The US Marines Corps who were forced to surrender in the Mojave Desert this week, just days into a training exercise against their British equivalents, now know that all too well. They need tactical intelligence, psychological strength and supreme fitness levels too. But battle scenarios – even in training, with simulated casualties and simunition (paintball tip bullets) – require far more than just force. All that money, all that tech, all that firepower. As a British soldier, there’s no feeling quite like getting one over on the Americans.

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