History of the United States Navy the Panama Canal, which was completed in 1914. The Great White Fleet required almost 50 coaling ships, and during the cruise most of the fleet's coal was purchased from the British, who could deny access to fuel during a military crisis as they did with Russia during the Russo-Japanese War. When United States agents discovered that the German merchant ship "Ypiranga" was carrying illegal arms to Mexico, President Wilson ordered the Navy to stop the ship from docking at the port of Veracruz. On 21 April 1914, a naval brigade of marines and sailors occupied Veracruz. A total of 55
Tell it to the Marines He "warns" of the invincibility of the German war machine and instructs the Americans to be sure to tell the Army and the Navy and, above all, "Tell it to the Marines!!" Naturally, the Nazis don't get the reference. The phrase was used in the 1942 serial "G-Men vs the Black Dragon" (it is a captured American agent's response to a sneering Japanese villain's account of Axis victories) The phrase is the title of a British sitcom, "Tell It to the Marines", which aired on ITV from 1959 to 1960. In a 1972 episode of "Doctor Who" ("Day of the