Marine Raiders

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Marine Raider insignia
Marine Raider insignia

The Marine Raiders were elite units established by the United States Marine Corps during World War II to conduct amphibious light infantry warfare, particularly in landing in rubber boats and operating behind the lines. The "Edson's" Raiders of 1st Marine Raiders Battalion and Carlson's Raiders of 2nd Marine Raiders Battalion are acclaimed to be the first United States Special Operations Forces to form and see combat in WWII.

However most combat operations saw the Raiders employed as regular infantry, and combined with the resentment within the rest of the Marines that the Raiders were an "elite force within an elite force", led to the eventual abandonment of the experiment as their casualties couldn't be replaced by similarly trained personnel. The elite within an elite criticism was also held among amongst some Marines when the Force Reconnaissance Companies were disbanded and integrated into the new Marine Special Operations Battalions to participate with sister services' units under the United States Special Operations Command.

Four battalions served operationally but all were disbanded in February 1944 when the Corps made the doctrinal decision that standard Marine infantry battalions would be trained to perform their missions. One criticism of the units was that the Raider replacement system was too hard to manage. A unit that had been formed and trained together did not assimilate replacements well. The personnel from the Raider battalions were then used to reform the 4th Marine Regiment, which had been lost in the Philippines early in the war.

Contents

[edit] History

[edit] Creation

The Raiders were created by an order from President Franklin D. Roosevelt, acting on proposals from Colonel William J. Donovan and Major (later, Brigadier General) Evans F. Carlson. Carlson, a former soldier in the Pancho Villa Mexican Punitive Expedition and World War I and later a Marine officer in Nicaragua and an Intelligence Officer of the 4th Marines in China, had spent years observing the tactics and strategy of Communist Chinese irregulars (Zhu De and the 8th Route Army in particular) as they fought the occupying Japanese, and had become enthralled with their version of guerrilla warfare. In 1933 Carlson had commanded the Marine Detachment at the Warm Springs, Georgia vacation retreat of President Roosevelt where he formed a close friendship with both Franklin D. Roosevelt and his son James Roosevelt. Carlson resigned from the Marines to speak to American businessmen to warn them against providing materials to Japan. Carlson rejoined the Marines in April 1941, gaining a commission from the Commandant as a reserve major. Carlson still had the President's ear as well as FDR's son James Roosevelt who was now a Marine Captain was his friend and protégé.

With America thrust into the war, the President became interested in creating an American counterpart to the British Commandos and the Marine Corps was the natural place for this organization. Indeed, the commanding general of the 2nd Marine Division initially proposed the name "Marine Commandos". The Commandant of the Marine Corps, Major General Thomas Holcomb, was of the opinion, however, that "the term 'Marine' is sufficient to indicate a man ready for duty at any time, and the injection of a special name, such as 'Commando,' would be undesirable and superfluous." General Holcomb redesignated the 1st Battalion 5th Marines as the "1st Separate Battalion" and created the 2nd Separate Battalion to be commanded by Carlson in response to pressure from the President. (1/5 had been previously employed to practice experimental landing techniques using high speed transports and rubber boats.)

The debate over the creation of these elite units came to a climax when the new commander of the Pacific Fleet, Admiral Chester Nimitz, requested "commando units" for raids against lightly defended Japanese-held islands. The commandant selected the term "Raiders" and created two battalions. The 1st Raider Battalion was activated on February 16, 1942, followed by the 2nd Raider Battalion on February 19. Carlson was given a promotion to Lieutenant Colonel and placed in command of the 2nd Raiders, and Lt. Col. (later, Major General) Merritt A. "Red Mike" Edson, command of the 1st.

[edit] World War II Combat Action

Marine Raiders on Bougainville, New Guinea, January 1944
Marine Raiders on Bougainville, New Guinea, January 1944

Both Raider battalions were put into action at roughly the same time. Carlson's 2d Raider Battalion boarded the submarines Nautilus (SS-168, Cdr William H. Brockman, Jr.) and Argonaut (APS-1, Cdr John R. "Jack" Pierce) and performed a raid on Makin Island ("muggin"), a small Japanese base in the Pacific. The success of the raid was debatable; though the Japanese force was almost entirely wiped out, the intention was to divert Japanese men and materiel to smaller bases like Makin instead of larger targets (i.e. Guadalcanal). The long-term effect was to alert Japan to the weakness of her defenses in this area; they were much stronger when Nimitz returned to the Gilberts in November 1943. The operation (being a raid rather than a full invasion) was quick, and casualties were relatively light, including nine men unintentionally left on the island when the Raiders returned to the submarines. Meanwhile (several days earlier), Edson's First Raider Battalion (along with the 1st Marine Division and other units) hit the beach of Tulagi in the British Solomon Islands Protectorate. Operation Watchtower, in sharp contrast to Makin, would last several months and prove to be some of the toughest fighting of the Pacific War. After their initial capture of Tulagi, the Raiders were moved to Guadalcanal. One of their most notable engagements was the "Battle of Edson's Ridge", where the 1st Raiders, remnants of the 1st Parachute Battalion, and the 2d Battalion, 5th Marines scored a major tactical victory over Imperial Japanese Army forces.

In the fall of 1942, two additional Raider battalions were created; the 3rd Raiders in Samoa, commanded by Lt. Col. Harry B. Liversedge, and the 4th Raiders at Camp Pendleton, California, commanded by now-Lt. Col. James Roosevelt. These battalions distinguished themselves in heavy combat alongside the 1st and 2d Raiders in the 1943 campaigns on New Georgia and Bougainville, as part of the Solomons and New Guinea campaigns.

[edit] Post World War II

According to a Marine Corps Times article of 28 April 2006, the 20 June 2003 activation of the Marine Corps Special Operations Command, which began with Detachment One, paid homage to the Marine Raiders. The Detachment’s insignia, designed by Gunnery Sgt. Anthony Siciliano, incorporated the Raiders’ famous knife, a Fairbairn-Sykes stiletto, and the Raiders’ insignia as a tribute and link to the famed battalions, which existed for only two years after their 1942 inception. When they went into combat in Iraq, as part of a Navy SEAL task group, Det 1 called itself Task Unit Raider. However, use of the name has now ended; Marine Corps officials have decided that Marines and units in the new Marine Corps Special Operations Command, which was stood up in February 2006, won’t be called Raiders. The Raider battalions of WWII have now been broken up into individual Raider companies. There is one Marine Raider company in every Battalion Landing Team (BLT). A co 1/4 "Alpha Raiders" made an amphibous invasion into Baghdad in 2003 and made history books again fighting in Najaf, Iraq to retake the Al Iman Mosque from insurgents.

[edit] Training

The Raiders were given the best of the Marines' equipment, and were handpicked from available volunteers. Carlson's unit took a different direction than Edson's; Carlson borrowed some of the principles learned from his years with the 8th Route Army in China. Lt. Col. Carlson infused his men with values of treating officers and enlisted men equally, even to the point of using the phrase "Gung-ho!" as a rallying cry. However, the 1st had a unique structure as well, set up by Edson in his pre-Raider days. Edson still held true to traditional Marine Corps doctrine in most ways, and the two battalions were quite dissimilar. It seemed the only thing they had in common were their names and status as elite units.

[edit] Marine Raiders on film

  • Walter Wanger's Gung Ho! (1943 film) - is an interesting depiction of the 2nd Raider Battalion's raid on Makin Island. Though Carlson and his executive officer James Roosevelt are not depicted in the film Sam Levine plays Victor "Transport" Maghikian (who acted as an adviser on the film) and J. Carrol Naish plays a character based on Lieutenant John Apergis who was in the unit but not on Makin. Randolph Scott played the role of the battalion commander. Carlson acted as a technical advisor and several actual members of the Makin Island raid appear in the film.
  • RKO's Marine Raiders (film) (1944) is a fictionalised account of the 1st Raider Battalion on Guadalcanal, on leave in Australia, then on Bougainville. Pat O'Brien played the commander of the 1st Raider Battalion with Robert Ryan playing a Paramarine captain.
  • Baby Blue Marine (1976) features Jan Michael Vincent being dishonourably discharged from the Marines and swapping his blue clothing for a real Marine Raider's (played by Richard Gere) uniform.

[edit] Marine Raider Medal of Honor recipients

[edit] See also

United States Marine Corps Portal

[edit] References

[edit] External links

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