How one may serve in Germany and with marines after a long time (8)
I believe the answer is:
underarm
'how one may serve in germany and' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this defines the answer.
'marines after a long time' is the wordplay.
'marines' becomes 'RM' (abbreviation for 'Royal Marines').
'after' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'a long' becomes 'und' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'time' becomes 'era' (era is a kind of time).
'und'+'era'='undera'
'rm' after 'undera' is 'UNDERARM'.
'with' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for underarm that I've seen before include "Neglect service" , "Could such a delivery" , "How they used to deliver" , "Bowling below shoulder level" , "With hand below the shoulder (of bowling or serving)" .)