Merrill's Marauders in Burma in WW2 - John McManus

[@jim99west46]

My father was a B25 pilot in Burma who also flew C47s at the battle of Imphal to fly ammo in and wounded out. The 5307th was the most abused American unit of the war.

[@MikeSale-l6x]

My grandpa was a merrill's marauder and went on to a 18 year military career. After retirement, he worked with helping veterans. Proud of him😊

[@JohnTubbsMB]

My late father-in-law (Russell K. Kono) was one of the 14 Nisei interpreters that were critical to the success of the Merrill's Marauders' campaign in Burma. He was born on the big island of Hawaii and in law school on the mainland when the war broke out, and enlisted, and then volunteered for what became the Marauders. Like so many veterans, he hardly talked about the experience, and we didn't know enough about the history to really try to get more information from him before he passed. (Details of the campaign were classified for quite some time after the war as well.). We are members of the Proud Descendants of Merrill's Marauders. There are of course very few left of the original unit, not including the replacements that were brought in toward the end of the campaign.

[@pamelahawn9300]

My gather was a merrill's Marauder Soldier! Could you please mention. The link? My father had a mule that he took care of. He was h humble man. I didn't realize what a hero he was. I am researching this now. More information is coming out. I am totally gobsmacked. In his personal life, he was a humble family man, hard working, common middle class Dad.

[@JohnTubbsMB]

As most fans of this channel know, most Japanese-Americans who fought for the US in WWII were sent to the segregated 442nd in Europe. But of course interpreters were needed in the Pacific theater, and the 14 Japanese-Americans with Merrill including my father-in-law, were crucial - tapping into telegraph lines, etc. Can you imagine being Japanese in the Pacific Theater at that time? Must have been really stressful. Each of the Nisei in MM was assigned a bodyguard, who had two functions. The first was to protect them from American GI’s who might mistake them for enemy soldiers who had gotten an American uniform. The second was to shoot them if they were about to be taken prisoner by the Japanese. Of course once the campaign was underway and everyone realized the value and contributions they made, there weren’t any problems. Everyone was in the thick of it together.

[@nomadmarauder-dw9re]

​@@JohnTubbsMBThere's no doubt that the internment was racially motivated. But not wholly in the simplistic way we've been taught to view it. Think about protective custody for people who were obviously Japanese. Secondly, we had a pool of people who not only spoke the language and had insights into Japanese culture, but actual contacts in Japan. Some had even been in the Japanese military!

[@wintkyaw7576]

Thank you from Myanmar( Burma). I'm a retired militay history teacher in the Defense Services Acadamy in Pyin Oo Lwin (May Myo). I have some materials for that line of study now decaying in a box. Happy that you are keeping that part oh history.

[@FreeFallingAir]

My Great Uncle Luther served in Merrill's Marauders, truly a great man. All those men were absolute heros and badasses.

[@roofdriller1537]

My grand father, was in 2nd bn G co. green team and was a personal radio man for Stilwell. all those men were tough as nails and a heroic story to say the least

[@FreeFallingAir]

@@roofdriller1537 that's awesome, not too many living today, but they live on through us. Truly the greatest generation

[@Italianguy-tx1yi]

Same

[@travisrahman8680]

My grandpa was in Merrill's Marauders. He had some crazy stories

[@b61mack56]

My dad was a member of the Marauders in WWII. His uniform is on display at Ft. Dix, NJ along with the official Marauders training manual.

[@sandtiger]

I met one of the Marauders in the Grocery store in Daytona a few years ago. He was still vigorous and sharp. He was asked to speak at his great grand daughter's school. The teacher said she did not know we had soldiers in Burma. That was when I asked if he was with the Marauders. I was thrilled to be talking to someone who had been a part of history.

[@jonrettich5768]

Tuchman is laudatory of Stillwell but does acknowledge his being caught between a rock and a hard place with a profoundly manipulative Chang Kai Chek who does fire him. To protect Chinese military interests in the Burma campaign Stillwell does thoroughly and brutally abuse any other national unit he can get his hands on. I think his constant frustration is manifest. His preference and true capability was for combat. Who else could have done what he did I don't know. He had served in China and was fluent in Chinese and likely knew a lot of the players and had a substantive rank thus he was chosen. I greatly appreciate your guests and presentations. You answer valuable questions I never thought to ask. Once again thank you so much

[@charleswinters7129]

My father was a OSS scout for Merrill’s Marauders. This unit was put together with the best from the Army, Marines and the OSS. The were volunteers except the OSS who were hand selected for their ability to fight and their mental toughness. My father had boxed Rocky Graziano for the welterweight title going 15 rounds but he did lose before being drafted. A normal soldier could never do what these guys did. They faced more combat then any other unit. They were the highest decorated unit in American history. They were tough people during a near impossible job. They have more members in the Ranger Hall of Fame then any other group. My father I was informed will be in when he loses his top secret rating. Roy Matsumoto’s son told me more about what my father did during the war then what my father did. His family did not even know he was OSS. Those guys knew how to keep a secret.

[@WW2TV]

Thanks fir the info, I'd like to see your source for volunteers joining from the USMC though, as I'd never had that before. From Guadalcanal and The Solomons campaign yes, but Army units

[@nomadmarauder-dw9re]

​@@WW2TVHe probably meant OSS.

[@stephenknutson6256]

Just came across this channel. My father was a loader for 75 mm as part of the Mars task force, which followed the Maraders. Flying into Michiana the day it finally fell to the Chinese. Looking out the window of the airplane. Seeing the Chinese troops attacking from both sides of the town. Shooting at each other because the Japanese had withdrawn the night before. Logistics was a major problem. Air drops were only partially successful. Oats for the mules always came first. Both for Marauders and Mars. And trying to March on 2000 calories didn't work. Often, going days with nothing to eat. My father went into combat without having anything to eat for four days. Actually marching through the jungle at night, holding onto the tail of the mule ahead. Arriving in the combat zone.told to set up on the forward facing slope of a hill, which expossed them to 90 mm cannon fire from Japanese artillery. C B I Roundup is an excellent source of material for the China Burma India campaign.

[@WW2TV]

Welcome aboard Stephen

[@nauticalwolf6649]

These shows never cease to intrigue me. My whole view of Stilwell has been changed

[@nauticalwolf6649]

I never knew about the African American engineers. I agree they need a lot more recognition. They had to fight not just racism but the very environment too. And, I think Burma as a whole is forgotten in America. I’m amazed how many people don’t even know we fought there

[@ericb.4358]

Sad to see modern Burmese (Mayanmarese?) enduring that brutal military mis-rule. The Katchins and Karen tribal people are at the forefront of the resistance. God bless them and see them to victory and a democratic nation.

[@nomadmarauder-dw9re]

Lot's of engineer units were black. One of them built half of the Al Can highway.A white engineer unit built the other half. And the only black paratrooper unit spent the war as airborne fire fighters. Smoke jumpers. I think the unit was 555th P.I.R. Yeah, triple nickel. And one of the last segregated units was a Ranger Battalion in the Korean War.

[@tonyvart7068]

Very good show again in what has been a great series of shows. Well done to all who took part and i must say that i enjoy the informed comments in the chat bars as well...they add a lot to the debate.

[@GeographyCzar]

Wait, wait, this channel had a Burma Week? AND you're now talking about the American contribution? SUBSCRIBED!! My grandfather fought in Burma. He drove truck, supplying the front line troops from early in 1943 all the way to the spring of 1945, when he got transferred home temporarily, and then shipped out for the west coast, which no one needed to tell him meant the invasion of Japan. He was on the train when the Bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, and his immediate exclamation to the news was, "blow another one!" which we did. Anyway he brought back so many stories about driving on the mountainous Ledo Road and the fighting in Burma and his personal experiences of getting caught up in combat, surrounded by Japanese counter-attacks, resupplied by air at night and etc, etc. But 99% of his story was left untold. He brought back a Japanese battle flag with mysterious writing (in Japanese) all over it. Sadly, it burned with his house almost 30 years ago, and I hadn't yet reached the age where I knew enough to start tracking down answers (he died even before the house fire). Now I, as a trained Historian and Geographer, have so many questions. These shows are the only answers I can get now, but how I regret not learning more in my teens and early 20s when the detailed answers might still have been findable. Thanks WW2TV for covering Merrill's Marauders, who my grandfather talked about all the time decades ago!

[@WW2TV]

We try and cover all theatres and nations - hence 800 shows. Thanks for the sub

[@philbosworth3789]

A very pertinent point about what happened to China, and how that has impacted pretty much everybody since.

[@mjinoz1677]

Great stuff from John as always - and glad to hear him shout out the unsung contributions of folks like the African-American engineers.

[@danielmichaud2867]

Learned about this through my love of WW2 history, and as of the other day was pleasantly surprised to find a copy of The Best of YANK magazine inscribed by the staff directly to Merrill while he still held the rank of Maj. General… It reads “To Maj. Gen. Frank Merrill with the best wishes of the YANK CBI staff”

[@C77-C77]

The marauders, i believe, were the only unit issued the "M1922 Cavalry Machine Rifle", a version of the M1918 BAR with a finned barrel, spiked bipod that sat at the end of the forestock, spiked monopod, couple other things. Very rare today. Weighed 8lbs more than the original M1918, 3lbs more than A2. Musta been hell lugging that around the jungle.

[@robertsammartano3827]

My Dad was a Marauder. Spoke little of battles. Spent 30 days in ambush in swampy waters. He said lost more friends due to dysentery, malaria and other illnesses.

[@WW2TV]

That's very much the Burma story - terrible conditions

[@jefferyyoung6521]

Just letting you and the viewers know that the man in the lead in the video introduction is my father..William F Young..West Virginia...

[@WW2TV]

Great information - thank you

[@ericbryant4860]

Merrill's Maurader's, the Devil's Brigade, and Darby;s Rabgers were WW2's forrunners of the Green Berets of Veit Nam.

[@charleswinters7129]

Roy Matsumoto a interpreter and OSS spy for Merrill’s Marauders was a long time instructor for the Green Berets. He earned a MOH with MM.

[@bobleicht5295]

Charleswinters7129, not sure where you got the bio data on MSG Matsumoto, but it is mostly wrong. He was assigned to the 5307th Composite Unit (‘MM’), not the OSS, which operated in Burma as Detachment 101. And MSG M did not receive the MOH.

[@eddiehepfer4996]

My great grandfather was a Merrill marauders soldier. He fought with them the whole time in the CBI theater

[@anthonychase4364]

Great point made about China's strategic significance post 1949. Wow! Thanks for this.

[@dave3156]

Geez horrible place to be assigned! If anyone can make sense of all these different views, John can do it! Thanks Paul and John!!!

[@thegreatdominion949]

It would be great to get Burma Campaign veteran Bob Farquharson (RCAF Dakota pilot) on for your second Burma week if it doesn't come too late. There can't be too many Burma vets left standing, let alone ones that are able to make a presentation about their experiences as he did last December for the Royal Canadian Military Institute.

[@philbosworth3789]

A very good episode yet again. More informative than the film for sure.

[@brianlinville5420]

My great grandpa was in the 475th infantry regiment fighting in burma. I didnt know that i knew he was in ww2 but not the 475th

[@porksterbob]

This was a very good video. I liked that the guest, despite being a bit pro Stilwell mentioned Stilwell's massive strategic failure vis a vis China and America's vision for Asia. I think you should do a China week and try to get Rana mitter Hans van de ven.

[@jonrettich-ff4gj]

Again and again so informative. Stillwell was another stuck between a rock and a hard place. His treatment of specialist and all but the Chinese combat forces was reprehensible. His real job was to keep China in the war so you had a brusque no nonsense Yank against an extremely sophisticated and manipulative player, it had to be a nightmare. He was fired by Chang in ‘44 for successfully predicting the extremely violent Japanese reaction to US bombing from China. Again with fluency in Chinese and his rank he was almost the only choice. I wish he had had or been able to listen to experts that could have helped him maneuver through the political labyrinth. To hear about the incredible achievements of this unit and the road designers and builders brings home our amazing capabilities. Thank you and your choices of presenters as ever

[@porksterbob]

He was not fired for predicting the ichigo offensive. He was fired for being openly insubordinate to his commander and not prioritizing the defense of China over the continuation of the Burma campaign.

[@jonrettich-ff4gj]

@@porksterbob I suspect that was the technical excuse. Chang I believe was looking for every way to protect his resources and while American air power seemed a good way Stillwell saw correctly it would likely bring more Japanese attacks directly on China while the Burma route would be more protective in the end. They were an awful combination of personalities in an incredibly difficult time and place. I wonder if any could have done better Chinese or American as we continue to pay a terrible price for that period

[@porksterbob]

@@jonrettich-ff4gj Stillwell's replacement, Wedermeyer, did much better. Stilwell had the fundamental misconception that he was there to be a battlefield commander. He was not. He was thrust into that role in Burma in 1942, because it was a convenient for the command between China and Britain to have him as a go between. He then persisted in trying to keep that role when it wasn't warranted. Chiang Kai She had worked fine with Soviet advisors and German ones. To understand how wrong headed Stilwell was, imagine a hypothetical German general sent to advise the Italians. Imagine the year is 1941 and he complains back to Hitler, "These Italian sailors don't want to fight. They just sit in their harbor and are scared of the Royal Navy. They should take the offensive! Listen, if they don't send all 4 of their battleships to bombard the British in Libya, I am going to publicly call my Italian boss an incompetent jackass sucking up the Reich's resources." Think for one second what happens if the Italians used their powerful navy in an all out attack on the British in the Med in 1941. The Italian navy would certainly damage the British, but it would be utterly destroyed in return. Every one understands this. But Stilwell took Chiang's and the other Chinese generals reticence to attack the Japanese as cowardice. He didn't give credence to the idea that 5 years of experience had given them a good idea of how and when Chinese soldiers could be expected to fight the Japanese and win. No one told the Free French, "By the way, first you need to liberate Marseilles on your own, then we can give you more aid because you proved your offensive credentials"

[@jonrettich-ff4gj]

@@porksterbob Thank you so much, you’ve made your point and I am grateful that you made this comprehensive effort to inform me. I consider Stillwell abusive of his best troops and inept politically, chosen for his rank and language capability at a time of crises. I do not know if Chang had other foreign advisors during combat with Japan but our not informing ourselves or working with the Communists at Chang’s insistence did prove disastrous after the war and was an example of our “kowtowing”to his demands. Thank you again

[@brianlinville5420]

Where would be a good place to find out about my great grandpas service in the 475th since there is very little about them

[@WW2TV]

Have you applied for his service records? That's always the first step www.archives.gov/veterans/military-service-records

[@ericbryant4860]

Any info you could help me with on Jere A. Macy's military service record would be helpful, prior to his service in Burma he had already earned his CIB badge. this Info would be helpful.

[@ericbryant4860]

The Name Galahad" was the Name of the Operatinla Campaigne the Mauraders were part of they were led by Gen. Frank D, Merrill. He died towards the end of the Maurader's portion of the campigne and Gen. Stilwell brought in a thord person not fully knowledgable with the unit to put in command of the init instead of promoting that units ex o to be in command of it. the Final action ?the taking of Michinow was not part of the original operation for the Mauraders. My dad faught with them but was not part of that unit, he was with a transportational company as a "mule skinner", his name was Jere A. Macy.

[@pamelahawn9300]

My father Henry nordbo was a muleskinner also!

[@porksterbob]

Also, other point. Myitkyina is pronounced "Mitchinar". The "ky" is a way of anglicizing a Burmese sound that is sort of like an english Ch.

[@WW2TV]

It's one of those names that everyone pronounces differently. British units one way, American another

[@porksterbob]

@@WW2TV I was saying that the Marauder way is actually closer to how the Burmese themselves say it. You get the same thing with Chinese names during this period where, because of the prevailing Wade Giles romanization system (made by and for linguists), there are spelling rules that lead to mispronunciation by people who don't know those rules. For example, in the Wade giles system... K = English G K' = English K T = English D T' = English T P = English B P' = English P Ch = English J Ch' = English Ch Making things more complex is that the prevailing western viewpoint on China was through Hong Kong, where they speak Cantonese... Cantonese and mandarin are both descended from Middle Chinese, but they are not mutually intelligible. It would be like writing modern French using Romanian. (Both of which are Latin descended romance languages) One of the aspects of that is the romanization of characters pronounced with a "j" sound in mandarin to a "k" in Cantonese based romanizations. Also, Cantonese syllables have the possibility of "k," "t," and "p" sounds as additional final consonant sounds where Mandarin only has two "n" and "ng" I lived in China and encountered this first hand when trying to talk about Chiang Kai Shek with Chinese people. In Mandarin, his name is pronounced, "Jiang Jieshi" 蔣介石 and that's how Chinese and Taiwanese people know him. But he was first written about in the west when he was part of Sun Yat Sen's government in Canton (Guangzhou) in the 1920's so "Jiang" (蔣) was written as Chiang (looking at the Wade Giles table above), "Jie" (介) became Kai based on the cantonese pronunciation of the second character, and "shi" (石) became "Shek" based on the fact that, in Cantonese, that character is pronounced with a k sound at the end. This all gets really annoying when trying to read about early 20th century Chinese history because the same person or place will be written about with different spellings depending on the source.

[@zincpederson6242]

McManus's ISLAND INFERNOS is an incredible read.

[@TheArizonaRanger.]

Does anyone have a good book recommendation on Merrills Marauders?

[@WW2TV]

The Gavin Mortimer book is excellent

[@jimplummer4879]

My father's cousin was shot down flying over the hump.

[@bryanwiedeman3154]

2nd Ranger Bn does not recognize Merrill only Col. Hunter as the leader of Galahad…cheers

[@bryanwiedeman3154]

I was a Staff Sergeant from C Co. 2nd Ranger Bn and was quest speaker in Laughlin Nevada at the Last Merrill’s Marauder convention in 1996. The rank and file only consider the men that marched through the jungle to be members of Galahad and those flying out with ouchies to cool drinks and clean sheets were not. Too bad Hollywood invented a nickname that was insulting too it’s members.

[@conemadam]

Cannot conceive of the conditions and the horror/bravery .

[@briancooper2112]

I have all his books.

[@ernestbetz6346]

was it that merrill a yes man

[@tharindudilshan5118]

Rangers lead the way

[@chrisdubois7688]

My grandpa was a marauder

[@WW2TV]

How cool