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Marine Corps ’“Raider Hall “
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On August 2, 2004, The United States Marine Corps proudly dedicated the new building for the Martial Arts Center Of Excellence, on the grounds of the Basic School (where newly commissioned Marine Lieutenants are thoroughly trained, prior to being assigned a command) at Quantico, Virginia, Marine Corps Base. Mindful of the traditions of the Corps and, in keeping with the purpose of the new facility, the $1.5 million home for martial arts training was named for the WW II Marine Raiders. Charles Meacham, President of the United States Marine Raider Association was present for the dedication and made a speech, which evoked the memories of the incredibly tough training they endured to become the “best of the best,” as well as the many rugged battles, in which they were, as the Corps states, “The First to Fight.” He remembered those who gave their youth and vigor and in some cases, their lives, to prove that America would not bow their head before anyone. He also alluded to the fact that the Marines who will complete the test of this program in the decades to come, will carry with them the legacy of the original Raiders, the fearsome warriors who cowed the Japanese, while he and the original Raiders “take up their higher calling of guarding, the Pearly Gates.” Mr. Meachum also reminisced about the Brotherhood that was born between them, through their “Gung Ho” attitude, working together, covering each others back and sworn to give their life for each other Raider.
The creation of the Raiders, in itself, is an interesting story. An odd set of circumstances gave birth to the Marine Raiders, when USMC Captain James Roosevelt, the son of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, became friends with Evans F. Carlson. Young Roosevelt was behind Carlson’s idea of fighting a guerrilla warfare battle against the Japanese. He based his strategy upon observation of the Chinese guerrilla warfare successfully waged by the forces of Mao Tse Dung. It was the President who gave Carlson the opportunity to meet with Mao, while the United States was backing the Presidency of Generalissimo Chang-Kai Shek.
Simultaneously, another friend of Pres. Roosevelt, by the name of “Wild Bill” Donovan, formerly a WW I Army hero and at that time was an intelligence advisor to the President. His idea was to train guerrilla forces to infiltrate behind enemy lines and lend assistance to underground resistance groups. During 1941, Donovan made a formal presentation of his plan to President Roosevelt and James Roosevelt sent a letter to the Marine Corps’ Major General Commandant (at that time the Commandant of Marines did not warrant Four Stars as at present) proposing the use of Carlson’s guerrilla troops, as shock troops, using amphibious landings in rubber rafts, launched under some circumstances, from submarines. Captain Roosevelt recommended the creation of “a unit similar to the British Commandos and the Chinese guerrillas.”
These ideas were fortuitous at that moment in time, since the attack on Pearl Harbor, left us without a formidable part of our fleet, a lack of planes of which none were up to par with the veteran pilots and modern planes of the Japanese. The Japanese also fielded a formidable army of battle hardened veterans who were pouring through the far East, annexing most of China and the Islands in the South Seas, with a barbaric assault that rivaled the murderous exploits of Genghis Kahn’s Golden Horde. They seemed unstoppable. At that time, the United States, unheeding of the history of WW I, was again without a decent sized Army, Air Wing or Marine Corps. The Army was poorly trained, due to lack of equipment, as basic as rifles and ammunition, as well as planes and tanks. Despite the fact that we entered WW I in the same condition, the Democratic administration had once again turned it’s back on history and cut back our forces and the defense budget, unrealistically forgetting that we were looked up to as a powerful nation and the defender of freedom, globally. As a result, the proposal to train small groups of guerrilla forces, who could pull off lightning like surprise assaults, at dawn, delivered in fierce, highly armed shock and destruction maneuvers. They would then pull back, using their hidden rubber rafts to egress the island they had just attacked and damaged badly. Unconventional warfare was the answer to a lack of troops and equipment, while the Japanese took all of the United Kingdom’s and America’s territories in the Pacific and the Germans drove the British forces back to their Island stronghold, which was in danger of being bombed out of existence.
With the British Commandos bringing the only real victories in land warfare, Prime Minister Winston Churchill recommended that course to President Roosevelt, as an efficient stop gap measure and a way to buck up the spirits of the citizenry of the country, while we built our Armed Forces. When President Roosevelt recommended that the Marine Corps field such a type of special force, the Commandant was aware that since it’s inception, the Corps was always under attack by both the Army and the Naval Department, to disband the Marine Corps, as an unneeded expense and a duplication of characteristics. They were considered expendable, especially between wars. So despite the amazing success they had in WW I against the Germans and behind the lines with the Army, led by General “Black Jack” Pershing, who despised the Marines and wanted them in the subservient role of Military Police and Depot Guards. Under these converging circumstances, the Commandant moved to assuage the President, while focusing upon the Amphibious Landing Principles, which would eventually defeat the Japanese and cement the future of the Corps, as an elite Force, among the other services. The Commandant, at that time, was Major General Thomas Holcomb. General Holland M. Smith is credited with turning a manual on amphibious operations, created at Marine Corps Schools, in Quantico, into a reality. It was General Smith, commanding the 1st Marine Brigade in a Fleet Landing Exercise (#6), in early 1940, who realized the difficulties ahead of the Marine Corps, in bringing to fruition the amphibious doctrine, which would eventually solidify the Corps place in the realm of the Armed Forces of The United States. What the exercise demonstrated to Gen. Smith is that there was an elemental paucity of amphibious craft that could actually initiate a landing on a hostile shore, in the line of fire from an imbedded enemy. Previously, landings by the Marines, in the skirmishes and battles, in Central America, which were called the “Banana Wars,” would be implemented in large rowboats, of the type normally associated with the Life Guard services in America and Australia. Obviously, heavy equipment, such as large artillery pieces, tanks or unloading construction equipment, required to build airfields for defense of the landing parties, as well as, food to sustain large amounts of troops required for such an assault or the ammunition to get the job done. Without sufficient assault craft that could land the Marines in continuous waves, there would be enough lag time behind each landing, for the enemy to attack the landing force at the shore line in overwhelming numbers, throwing each wave back into the sea.
During the Caribbean Exercise, the General used a newly developed Destroyer Transport, to land the 5th Marines from the Manley (APD 1) in rubber boats, in pre-dawn darkness, on a beach isolated from what would be the main landing beach. They were to secure key terrain, in order to protect the main landing party. Gen. Smith would find this Exercise revealing and one year later, in Exercise (# 7); he utilized three of the Destroyer Transports to bring the men of the 7th Marines into the beach, again well ahead of the main attack, this time, designating the unit the Mobile Landing Group. Utilizing his empirical knowledge gained from these two exercises, Gen. Smith envisioned future landings in three distinct groups, combining Para-Marines in the first assault, followed quickly by glider borne troops, a light tank Battalion and at least one high speed Destroyer Transport.
In 1941, Gen. Smith, now in charge of the Amphibious Force Atlantic Fleet (AFAF). This group was centered on the First Marine Division and the Army’s 1st Infantry Division. Maneuvers at the newly acquired base at Camp Lejeune, N.C., he used six APDs to land the 1st Battalion, Fifth Marines, which reported directly to his command. The plan used a tank company and a single company of parachutists to the APD Battalion. The APD Battalion went in on D-Day plus two, on an isolated beach behind enemy lines and as this group hit the enemy from behind, the extraordinary doctrine of close air support that the Marine Corps created, hit the enemy ceaselessly, allowing the Mobile Force drove inland and destroyed the enemy’s reserve force, in a surprise attack. It led to a complete victory in the exercise and the Marine Corps new amphibious role was fashioned, although landing craft and other mainstays of today’s Marine amphibious assaults were still to be created (with a succession of landing craft developed over the length of WW II, as well as, many other elements of island attack principles.)
As it turned out, part of Gen. Smith’s vision was already at work and the choice of the Fifth Marines for these exercises and demonstrations, was made by Smith, expressly because he had made the commander of the Fifth Marines, Lieutenant Colonel Merritt A. “Red Mike” Edson. His outfit would be referred to by the General as the “light Battalion” or the “APD Battalion.” When the other elements of the landing forces moved to their new home in New River (Camp Lejeune), Edson and the 1st Battalion stayed in Quantico, placed in a separate category from the rest of the Division.
Edson soon sent a lengthy report in August of 1941 stating what he felt their mission would be. He saw them focused upon Reconnaissance, raids and special ops.
During the invasion of Guadalcanal, both of these elements were brought into play, in the first invasion of Japanese held territory. It was an historic day for America. Having watched the Japanese Forces, relentlessly enter and defeat all of the islands of the South Pacific, as well as Burma, the Philippine Islands and China. In most cases, their attack was not only efficient, but also brutal and even bestial in its ferocity. In Nan king, the Japanese troops not only killed the combatants, but gathered up the civilian men, tied their hands behind their back and either shot them in the back of their head or the Officers cut their heads from their bodies, with their Samurai swords. The soldiers and Officers raped and abused the women, before killing many of them, while the rest were in forced prostitution at the pleasure of the victors. The children were killed by being thrown into the air and caught upon the troops unusually long bayonets. All of this took place in a festive air of celebration by the Japanese Army. Few people are aware that on the day of infamy that their Navy attacked Pearl Harbor, without warning, they simultaneously invaded Wake Island, Midway and other strategic Islands, in an obviously well thought out plan, executed brilliantly. Except for Wake Island, where a small band of Marines and civilian workers, held the Japs off for over two weeks, as the Japanese threw more warships, planes and soldiers into the fray, out of sheer embarrassment. The defenders of Wake Island sank three destroyers, using several artillery pieces on the island and manned by the Marines, as well as, a troop ship. When the Japanese “Betty” bombers arrived, the pitifully few Marine airplanes that they possessed, heroically went up to meet them, knocking down many of them, along with the covering Zero fighters in dog fights. But, over the two weeks that they fought off the Japanese mounting attacks, the planes and their pilots were brought down. Finally the Marines and civilians who fought together, so valiantly, had to surrender. To this day, some of the Marine defenders are still with us and in fact, told their story of the actual facts, as opposed to the movie version. The only reason they were not executed on the spot, was because a Senior Officer of the Japanese ground forces realized that the whole world knew about the courage of these men who fought against unbelievable odds and the publicity of murdering them, as the Japanese often did, carelessly and without thought, as they would step on a bug. They did not want the entire world to know of an explicit horrific slaughter of helpless men.
Beyond the strategic and tactical purposes of attacking Guadalcanal, there was another pressing reason. The folks at home were only hearing of one Japanese conquest, after another, without retribution from U.S. Forces. It was imperative for the morale of both the men and women in uniform, as well as, the Americans who shared every moment of anxiety and fear with those troops, as well as giving up the use of gasoline, meat, nylons and were forced to cover their windows at night, so that no light could be seen by enemy bombers, if they ventured over our shores.
The result of all of the machinations of the Presidency, The OSS (the precursor of the CIA) and the Defense Department, led to a Marine amphibious assault, using newly designed landing craft, while the Raiders landed ahead of the main attack on Japanese held islands
just-off Guadalcanal and an end-run on Guadalcanal, as well.
Eight months after, the treacherous attack on Pearl Harbor, on 7 August, 1942, The First Raider Battalion, under Col. Merritt “Red Mike” Edson, who had gained his repute during the Coco River patrol operations during the “Banana Wars,” led the way on the Guadalcanal Japanese islet of Tulagi, while the 1st Parachute Battalion Marines used rafts to land on, as the Marine Corps referred to them, the “fly speck islets,” of Gavuto and Tanambogo. The 2nd Marines, simultaneously hit Florida Island. These were all dawn operations, preceding the main assault of Guadalcanal, made by the 5th Marines initially, quickly backed up, by having the 1st Marines hit the shore, as well.
The main assault was now on and while the landing was eerily, unopposed, the Japanese Generals had planned to allow the Marines to hit the shore and then be struck by a massed counter-attack by the 2nd (Sendai) Division, The Ichiki Detachment, The Kawaguchi Brigade and the 38th Division. The Marines moved inland, sending patrols out, which discovered that large Japanese elements were moving toward the Marines, who then began to dig in amongst the jungle terrain. The Japanese were not the only problem the Marines had to shoulder, since the Navy armada off shore, bringing in troops and supplies, got word that a large group of Nippon warships, with both Cruisers and Destroyers, all larger and more heavily armed than the American Fleet, was approaching and closing quickly. The American Fleet with many thin-skinned transport ships in tow, upped anchors and moved out to the open sea, leaving the Marines stranded, with sparse supplies of both ammunition and food. The Marines were forced to replenish their food with rice and dried fish that they captured as they drove the Japanese inland.
One of the main objectives for picking Guadalcanal, as the initial target, was the fact that the Japanese were building an airfield on the Island, which would accommodate medium bombers, which could reach and bomb Australia proper. Meanwhile, the Raiders and Para-Marines had cleaned up the elements of Japanese on the islets ringing Guadalcanal and were ferried to the main Island. Edson’s Raiders set up their positions on a grassy knoll overlooking the newly renamed “Henderson Field,” in honor of the first Marine pilot lost in combat, which Marine Engineers and Seabees had quickly finished. That allowed Marine and Navy planes to sortie from Henderson field to aid the beseeched Marines, with close air-support, a tactic the Marines had perfected during the “Banana Wars”. It was this position that would see the most dangerous attack during the evening of 12 to 13 September, when a mass Kamikaze attack, nearly broke through the lines, but they reinforced the center of the line and threw back the entire Kawaguchi Brigade, the remnants of which slipped back into their jungle lair. However, when the sun rose, the Marines viewed a horrendous spectacle of Japanese bodies piled upon each other, as they were cut down and tied to run over the bodies of their own troops, to get at the Raiders. Meanwhile the main Marine forces were dug in along the Tenaru River, repulsing wave after wave of Banzai attacks, until the jungles were strewn with the rotting bodies of the fanatical Japanese.
Five days later, the 1st and 2nd Battalions of the 7th Marines under the famed “Chesty” Puller and Herman (Haiti) Hanneker, respectively, were there for the final push to take the Island of Guadalcanal, totaling four months of fierce, un-giving fighting. The Marines had taken over 1,000 casualties, while only a handful of the twenty thousand Japanese on Guadalcanal escaped the deadly assault of the Marines. This would set the stage for the island hopping campaign that would place further battle ribbons upon the Marine flag, such as Tarawa, Saipan, Iwo Jima and Okinawa. The Marine Corps takes rightful pride in their slogan, “First to Fight,” and fight they did, dying by the thousands for the country they loved and still protect. The Raiders were blooded at Guadalcanal and it would not be the last battle for these specially trained, keen for battle troops, who considered themselves the “Best of the Best.” God Bless the Raiders and the comrades they lost. At Guadalcanal, the cost to the 1st Marine Raiders were 172 Wounded in Action, 72 Killed in Action, 4 who Died of Wounds later, and 1 Missing in Action.
Col. Evan F. Carlson’s 2nd Raider Battalion, "among" who was represented Major James Roosevelt; the son of the President of the United States, soon joined the fray, adding to the legend of the Raiders.
Both Cols. Edson and Carlson would become highly decorated and respected for their leadership. In a truly unique and new style of battle, for the Marine Corps, these two men would forge the spearhead of guerilla fighting, stunning the Japanese Commanders and totally disrupting their carefully predetermined plans and organization. The Japanese hierarchy was based on total control at the highest command level, with presumed perfection of timing and application. They were either adverse to any change in their plans, or incapable to adapt to the fog of war, where situations suddenly turn on a dime, with unexpected consequences. Despite the flow of battle, the Japanese commanders refused to adapt, but simply would withdraw and then attack quickly, in the same manner of the original attack. This led to the Banzai charges, where the gutsy and superbly trained Marines held their ground and swept a torrent of fire against the oncoming attackers, heaping mounds of Nipponese warriors left dead upon the field of fire. One of the problems, regarding their inability to change tactics, may have been that, to question the original plan, would cause the top Commanders to lose face. For the junior officers, that would be unthinkable, therefore, they would not contemplate this disgraceful act.
Even amongst the Raider Command, there was a wide variance of command operation. Col. Edson while doggedly and persistently trained and sharpened the guerilla skills of silent death and surprise, overwhelming attack, he adhered to the command structure of the Marine Corps Manual, with strict discipline as their backbone. Conversely, Col. Carlson who had been introduced to the President, by his son, Major James Roosevelt, was encouraged by FDR, to travel to China, with his staff and spend time with the Commander of the Red Army, of Mao-Tse-Dung, who was inflicting high casualties on both the Japanese Forces and the veterans of Generalissimo Chiang-Kai-Shek, in order to fulfill his vision of leadership of a post-war Chinese Communist Government, under his leadership. It was Mao’s guerilla tactics that inspired Col. Carlson and the proletarian staff command, where all individuals were equal and worked together for the common good. It was Col. Carlson who introduced Chinese expressions into the lexicon of the Marine’s speech such as, Gung-Ho, literally meaning, “Work together.” This created an odd anomaly to the situation, with other Marine Corps Commanders displeased with the avid enthusiasm with which Col. Carlson embraced the Communists doctrine and advice. Many Officers distrusted Col. Carlson throughout the war.
Unlike the Japanese, the Marines have always had a strict command structure, which actively cultivated a strong spirit of initiative, which allowed command to be passed down to the lowest enlisted personnel, in the event that during an attack, the command structure was decimated. This ability of the individual Marine to step forward and take charge and be obeyed prevents the routs or panic that can set in if the upper command is wiped out. Since Marine Officers are trained to lead their troops into combat, from the front of the charge, the loss of command is not an isolated situation.
During the action in the South Pacific Campaign, in WW II, the Raiders suffered the total loss of 892 men, with 795 Killed in Action, 69 Died of Wounds and 28 Missing in Action. These were the Raiders who gave that last measure of their valor.
With great pleasure and pride, I can say that on the day of my Commissioning, as a Marine Second Lieutenant, the “Big E,” then General Merritt Edson, delivered the focal speech. He was still a tough and rugged person and harkening back to his own experience, with our families attending the ceremony, he announced, “Gentlemen, look to your left and to your right, for those two men out of you three, will give his life for the Corps and Country.” My reaction was that my Mother probably had just fainted in the auditorium and sadness for the people on my left and right.