Whitburn Landings (Napoleon's World)

The Whitburn Landings were a disastrous attempted sea-to-land offensive undertaken by the US Marine Corps General Adam Baker and a force of 6,250 Marines of the 1st Marine Division, primarily the 2nd, 3rd and 4th Battalions. The Whitburn Landings were executed during the Siege of Gateshead in January of 1956 as part of the effort to capture the final English Workers Army stronghold in northern England. The landings were a spectacular failure, resulting in the deaths of roughly a third of the Marines, as well as 3,000 casualties from wounds or cold-inflicted illness (frostbite, pneumonia, etc.) and almost 700 Marines were captured, 88 of whom were executed by the EWA. The landings resulted in the resignation of Baker, the withdrawal of the US Marine Corps from northern England, and the transferral of field authority from US commanders to English Republican Army commanders in the ensuing Siege of Gateshead.