Merrill's Marauders OK'd for Congressional Gold Medal

From the October 14, 2020, Chicago Tribune "Merrill's Marauders of WW II OK'd for congressional medal" by Russ Bynum (AP).

They spent months behind enemy lines, marching hundreds of miles through the tangled jungles and steep mountains of Burma as they battled hunger and disease between firefights with Japanese forces during their secret mission.

In February 1944, the American jungle fighting unit nicknamed Merrill's Marauders set out to capture a Japanese-held airfield and open an Allied supply route between India and China.  Starting with 3,000 soldiers, the Marauders completed their mission five months later with barely 200 men still in the fight.

The journey of roughly 1,000 miles on foot was so grueling that fighting "was the easy part," said Robert Passanisi, who at age 96 is among just nine known Marauders  still known to be alive.

Now the Marauders, officially designated by the Army as the 5307th Composite Unit (Provisional), have been approved by Congress to be awarded its highest honor: the Congressional Gold Medal.

--GreGen

Wilmington's World War II Veterans-- Part 1: 'Rice Paddy Navy', the 'Hump' and 'Flying Tigers'

From the  August 15, 2021, Wilmington (N.C.) Star-News " 'Bonded together forevermore':  Honoring  Wilmington's World War II heroes" by Wilbur D. Jones Jr..

Three Wilmington Navy men served withy the Sino-American Cooperative  Organization, better-known as the "Rice Paddy Navy."  They were a group of guerillas, intelligence agents and weather observers operating behind Japanese lines.

They included Yeoman 1st Class Marvin Murphy

Boatswains Mate  1st Class G.C. West

W.S. Rourk

********************************

Captain Skinny Pennington flew C-54 cargo transports over  the "Hump" (Himalayas) along the "Aluminum Trail" (so-named because of the wreckage of crashed aircraft) into China from India.

Donald Whelpley served  18 months with the "Flying Tigers" P-40 fighter squadrons.

Of course, if you want to know anything about Wilmington, N.C., in the war, M r. Jones is the man to see.

--GreGen

'Merrill's Marauders' Receive Congressional Gold Medal-- Part 1

From the January 2021 Military History magazine.

In October 2020, President Donald J. Trump approved the Congressional Gold Medal for the U.S. Army's 5307th Composite Unit (Provisional) the storied World War II jungle fighters better known as "Merrill's Marauders."

Time correspondent James Shepley bestowed that nickname in honor of unit leader Brigadier General Frank Merrill.

Eight of the original Marauders are still living.

The elite unit originated in late 1943, when Lt. General Joseph "Vinegar Joe" Stillwell, then commander of U.S. forces in China, Burma and India, conceived a long-range penetration mission into Japanese-occupied Burma to disrupt enemy supply and communication lines while a larger Allied force fought to reopen the Burma Road into China.

Some 3,000 U.S. servicemen volunteered for the Marauders.

--GreGen

Military Service of Captain Sir Thomas Moore-- Part 2: Part of the 'Forgotten Army' in Burma and Worked With Churchill Tanks

As part of the Fourteenth Army, the so-called "Forgotten Army", he served in Arakan in western Burma where he survived an attack of the dengue fever.

Moore returned to Britain in February 1945 to take a training course on the inner workings of the Churchill tanks and learned how to become an instructor.  He did not go back to his regiment, however, as he  remained as an instructor and the Technical Adjutant of the Armoured Vehicle Fighting School in Bovington Camp until he was demobilized in early 1946.

Back in civilian life, he worked with a roofing company and then a concrete one.

He raced motorcycles competitively and had been riding them since he purchased his first one at age 12.

--GreGen

World War II 'No Regrets Tour' by Sidney Walton, 101, Veterans Day

From the November 10, 2020, Pennsylvania Real-Time News "101-year-old World War II veteran embarks on Veterans Day motorcade tour" by Dan Gleiter.

On Tuesday, Harrisburg, Pa., provided a warm send-off for Sidney Walton where he received the Key to the City from the mayor.  Harrisburg police then escorted him in the first stage of his tour to Washington, D.C..

Mr. Walton is one of the last remaining World War II veterans and says he has always been sorry he did not get a chance to meet any pf the last surviving Civil War veterans before they too passed into history.  So, he launched his tour in 2018 with intentions to visit all fifty states and meet with all  fifty governors in his "No Regrets Tour."

He has already been to 35 states.

In 1941, he quit college in New York City at age 21 to join the U.S. Army and "fight Hitler."  That was nine months before Pearl Harbor.  During the war, he was with the  34th Infantry,  8th Division and fought in China, Burma, India Theater.

Out of 16 million WW II veterans, most recent estimates have  only 325,000 still alive with around 300 dying every day.  It is expected that all will be gone in the next 15 years.

Pennsylvania has around  18,000 still alive.

--GreGen

10 Odd Jobs of World War II-- Part 3: Field Artillery Sound recorder and Airplane Woodworker

9.  FIELD ARTILLERY SOUND RECORDER

Until the development of radar, sound ranging was one the most effective ways to locate enemy artillery, mortars and rockets.  The process was first developed in World War I, and then continued being used through the Korean War.

From a forward operating post, a field artillery  sound recorder would monitor  an oscillograph and recorder connected to several microphones.  When the sound of an enemy gun would reach a microphone, the information would be recorded on sound film and the data from several microphones could be analyzed to locate an enemy gun.

The technology is still in use today by many countries, which often use  sound ranging in concert with radar.

10.  AIRPLANE WOODWORKER

Although wood was largely phased out and replace by tubular steel in airplane construction by the time World War II started, there was still a need for airplane woodworkers to repair and maintain existing aircraft-- especially gliders and some training aircraft.

Wooden gliders like the Waco CG-41--  the most widely used American troop/cargo glider of the war--  played critical parts in the action.  The CG-4A was first used in the invasion of Sicily in July 1943.  They most commonly flew airborne troops into battle, most famously on the D-Day assault on France on June 6, 1944 and in Operation Market Garden in September  1944.

They were also used  in the China-Burma-India Theater.

--GreGen

 

S.S. Lurline-- Part 1: Fast Ocean Liner That Carried Ray Merrick to War

From Wikipedia.

Last month, I wrote about World War II veteran Ray "Pops" Merrick, a member of our Fox Lake, Illinois, American Legion who was posted during the war over in the India-Burma area and part of the effort to keep the Chinese Nationalist forces fighting the Japanese over "The Hump."

He went across the Pacific Ocean onboard the S.S. Lurline and had some vivid memories of the voyage.  Not ever hearing of this ship, I decided to do some more research on it.

The SS Lurline was the third vessel in the Matson Lines to have this name and was the last of its four  fast and luxurious  ocean liners built for their Hawaii and Australia runs from the U.S. West Coast.

Its sister ships were the SS Malolo, SS Mariposa and SS Monterey.  All became fast troopships during the war., operated by the War Shipping Administration.

After the war, it went back to taking passengers around the Pacific until put out of service in 1980 and scrapped in 1987.

--GreGen

"Flying the Hump"-- Part 3: "Aluminum Alley"

"In late 1944, the operation was flying mostly daylight and  good weather," wrote Wendall A. Phillips.  To increase tonnage delivered, the planes were ordered into the air anytime of the day and any kind of weather. "Of course, the tonnage rapidly improved but, so did our losses in 'Aluminum Alley' as we called it.

Mr. Phillips continued:  "The Hump became littered with with our aircraft.  On a clear day, you could see the sun reflecting off the crashed planes lying there."

The supply flights brought everything from troops to needed supplies, to a cow needed to supply milk to a remote base, light weapons and even a falcon trained to attack Japanese carrier pigeons (with mice aboard to feed it).

The main cargo, however was 55-gallon drums of aviation fuel.

--GreGen

WW II Vet Ray "Pops" Merrick-- Part 2: The Hump, The "Dragon Lady," Aluminum Alley and the Concussion

During the war he was involved in the Allied flying over "The Hump."  This was the name given to the eastern portion of the Himalaya Mountains over which they flew military transport aircraft from India to China.  The Allies were supporting forces of Chinese Nationalist Chiang Kai-hek who was fighting the Japanese.  Pops remembers once seeing Chiank Kai Shek's wife, the "Dragon Lady," and she was a beauty.

Mr. Merrick said this was referred to as "Aluminum Alley" because of all the planes that went down through accidental crashes, motor problems and being shot down.  One problem often encountered was hitting an air pocket and the sudden loss of altitude.

During his time over there he did see Japanese soldiers on occasion, but they would be dead.

While in Burma, he was in traffic control and security and part of what he did was going up a narrow trail with supplies.  It was while here that he was hit by something on his helmet.  "To this day I don't know what it was."  He ended up with a concussion.  He somehow ended up back at his encampment and was walking around with no clue where he was.

He was put in a hospital.  They gave him a spinal to check for blood on the brain and he woke up in a hospital in Calcutta, India.  By then, with the war almost over and having accumulated enough points to get a leave or discharge, he was given a 30-day leave and sent back to Georgia where he was discharged.

--GreGem

WW II Vet Ray "Pops" Merrick Turns 95-- Part 1: From Chicago to Burma

You very likely have seen "Pops" around the Legion, enjoying his gambling, beer and occasional blackberry brandy.  Most people, including myself just call him "Pops."  His sidekick is his son Ken.

He was born in Chicago on September 5, 1923, and was a member of the Army Air Corps during the war.  He was drafted right out of high school at age 19 and spent his boot camp training at places in Florida and Georgia.

During the war he served in New Caledonia, India, Burma and Australia and received a concussion from something, he doesn't know what, while in Burma.  Much of the time he was in the service, he was in charge of traffic control and security.

Even as an enlisted man, he could swear at officers if they goofed up as long as he said, "Sir."

Sir!!!   --GreGen

Great War Ends!-- Part 6: Overlooked China-Burma-India Theater

Another Chicagoan in Paris suggested sending a thank-you gift to his fellow GIs in the Pacific and sought donations standing in front of a giant tree in front of the Red Cross facility.  Within an hour, hundreds of dollar bills and thousands of franc notes had been pinned to the tree.

Another Chicago GI lamented, however, that military in the China-Burma-India theater were the "forgotten" boys of the war.

This was true as shortly after America's entry into the war, American and British leaders had decided that the first priority of the war was to be the European Theater and the Pacific second.

You rarely hear of the China-Burma-India Theater of the war.

--GreGen