Background: Unit which has served nation with distinction in war and peace

45 Commando has played a vital role in the UK's military history since the Second World War and has played a part in many of the conflicts the UK has found itself involved in around the world - and is currently serving in Afghanistan.

It has its origins in the 5th Royal Marines Battalion, raised at the end of the First World War.

But the current unit dates back to the battalion raised in April 1940 at Cowshot Camp in Brockwood which saw early action in Dakar between August and October that year. It was reorganised as 45 Commando in the last year of the Second World War when its first links with Scotland were formed with training taking place at Achnacarry in the Highlands before the unit was committed to D-Day and Operation Overlord.

After the war, the unit was moved around the world, based first in Hong Kong, then Malta - and was involved in the Suez Crisis in 1956 where it took part in the first ever helicopter assault. In the 1960s, it also saw action in Aden before being based at Plymouth until 1971 when the unit transferred to Arbroath, where it could defend Britain's nuclear submarines as well as the oil and gas platforms. It also put it closer to Norway, gaving access to Arctic training seen as vital to take on the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

During the Falklands Conflict in 1982, the unit landed at Ajax Bay on 21 May, and 45 Commando RM yomped across East Falkland, to the Battle for Stanley, conducting a night attack on the Two Sisters feature over the 11 and 12 June 1982, during which the unit lost 8 men and 17 were wounded.

The unit served in northern Iraq in the first Gulf War. It has also been involved in humanitarian efforts - in 1998 when it assisted Nicaragua and Honduras after Hurricane Mitch.