An Interesting News Bit

["Millennium's End Notebook" <me-notebook@xxxxxxx>]

London Daily Telegraph
February 19, 2002

Marines Storm Ashore - In The Wrong Country

By Isambard Wilkinson in Madrid

A DETACHMENT of Royal Marines accidentally invaded Spain at the weekend, but
was repulsed by two policemen.

Using two landing craft, 20 commandos launched an amphibious attack at La
Linea, near the border with Gibraltar, instead of their intended target a
few hundred yards away on British soil.

Spanish newspapers gloated over the fiasco, which happened as Spain and
Britain are negotiating an agreement on a form of co-sovereignty for the
British colony.

The Ministry of Defence said the Marines were involved in a "low-key"
exercise but instead of being met by a mock enemy they were greeted by two
Spanish policemen who stopped the "invasion" with the international "halt"
signal of the raised arm.

"Buenos dias, senores. Que hacen aqui?" ("Good morning, gentlemen. What are
you doing here?") said one of the bemused officers when he saw the Marines,
in full combat gear, fanning out and adopting firing positions on the beach.

After a brief exchange of words and a glance at the most obvious point of
orientation, the Rock, the young officer in charge realised his map reading
had gone awry and ordered the men of 45 Commando to withdraw.

"It was a much regrettable and embarrassing mistake. Hopefully nothing of
this kind will happen again," said an MoD spokesman, who blamed the mistake
on bad weather. He added: "We were not trying to take Spain and have no
plans to do so."

The Royal Marines display only one battle honour on their cap badges and
that is Gibraltar. It dates from 1704 when 1,800 Marines stormed the Rock,
which was ceded to Britain in perpetuity by the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713.

The Spanish government publicly played down the incident. "We are not going
to protest. From our point of view the matter is closed," said a spokesman.

The mayor of La Linea, Juan Carlos Juarez, known for his patriotism, said:
"This was just a map reading error and will not harm relations between two
friendly countries.

"They landed on our coast to confront a supposed enemy with typical commando
tactics. But we managed to hold them on the beach."