Merrill's Marauders
5307th Composite Unit (provisional) |
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Coat of arms of the Marauders |
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active | 1943 to 1944 |
Country | United States of America |
Armed forces | United States Armed Forces |
Armed forces | United States Army |
Branch of service | United States Army Rangers |
Type | Light infantry |
structure | 3 battalions with 2 combat teams each |
Strength | about 3000 |
Nickname | Merrill's Marauders |
Wars and major battles | Pacific War , Burma campaign |
Merrill's Marauders (dt. "Merrill's Marauders "), official name 5307th Composite Unit (Provisional) (dt. "5307th Combined Association (tentative)"), with the use of code GALAHAD were a special unit and a large bandage on brigade level of the United States Army Rangers with a focus on command warfare and long- range reconnaissance .
history
The troop, consisting of three battalions of two combat teams of 400 men each , a staff and an air transport unit, which was nicknamed after its commander Brigadier General Frank Merrill , was set up in India after the Quadrant Conference on October 31, 1943 and dated British military trained. In February 1944, Merrill's Marauders began operations in the Burmese theater of war against the Imperial Japanese Army as part of the Northern Combat Area Command (NCAC) . During their deployment in Burma , the troops achieved outstanding successes, including the liberation of a prison camp in which the last survivors of the Bataan death march were also imprisoned. However, it also suffered enormous losses, so that it was disbanded on August 10, 1944 with a manpower of 130 deployable soldiers from originally around 3,000.
literature
- Alan Barker: Merrill's Marauders. Ballantine 1972.
- Cresson H. Kearny: Jungle Snafus ... And Remedies. Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine, 1996, ISBN 1-884067-10-7 .
- John B. George: Shots Fired In Anger. NRA Publications, 1981, ISBN 0-935998-42-X .
- James Hopkins: Spearhead. Merrill's Marauders Society, 2000, ISBN 0-8018-6404-6 .
- Edwin Hoyt: Merrill's Marauders. Pinnacle Books, 1980, ISBN 0-523-40671-1 .
- Charles Newton Hunter: Galahad. Naylor Publishing, 1963.
- John Latimer: Burma: The Forgotten War. John Murray, 2004, ISBN 0-7195-6576-6 .
- Charlton Ogburn Jr: The Marauders. Harper & Row, New York 1956.
- Logan Weston: The Fightin 'Preacher. Vision Press, 1992, ISBN 0-9628579-7-1 .
Web links
- USCMH MERRILL'S MARAUDERS February - May 1944 (English)
- Office of the US Surgeon General: Office of Medical History: Book 5, The Marauders and the microbes index (English)
- ranger.org (English)
- marauder.org (English)
- Special Operations in the China-Burma-India Theater (English)
- United States Army Command and General Staff College - US Army Combined Arms Center (English)
- Merrill's Marauders - Roll of Honor, Awards and Images. (English)