Was the us marine corps in Europe in World War 2?

Answer 1

Generally no. The Marine Corps grew to a strength of more than 700,000 men and fielded six full divisions, all infantry. All six of these divisions fought in the Pacific.

Every major US Navy warship has a Marine detachment. These included battleships and aircraft carriers. The US kept at least one battleship in the Atlantic until the German battleship Tirpitz was destroyed in late 1944, and there were three US battleships in the support fleet at the D-Day landings in June 1944 at Normandy, and in support of the Operation Dragoon landings in southern France in August 1944. So there were Marines in the support fleet, but no Marine combat units went ashore.

After the war began in Europe, but before the US entered the war, the British sent a brigade of troops to occupy Iceland, to prevent the Germans from taking over the island nation. Roosevelt agreed to send Americans to replace these British troops before Pearl Harbor. The 4th Regiment of Marines spent some months in the latter half of 1941 and into 1942 in Iceland, but saw no combat. This freed the British brigade to fight elsewhere.

Every US Embassy, then, as now, has a detachment of Marine guards, so Marines assigned to this duty were "in Europe". But no combat units saw any action in Europe in WWII.

In WWI, two regiments of Marines (the 5th and 6th) made up a brigade that was one half of the US Second Infantry Division which saw extensive action in France. Two other Marine regiments were sent to France but saw no action - their personnel were mostly used as replacements for the two regiments in the 2nd ID.