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A Different War:Marines in Europe and North Africaby Lieutenant Colonel Harry W. Edwards, USMC (Ret)

hortly after the UnitedStates entered WorldWar II, the Alliesagreed that the Eu-ropean Theater would

have priority in the war over the Pa-cific Theater. The Marine Corps' warwas in the Pacific and all war plansregarding the employment of Ma-rines reflected that. Nevertheless, be-cause the Marine Corps was part ofthe naval establishment, it hadresponsibility also for furnishingmen to parts of the Navy assigned tothe European and Mediterraneantheaters and to the operations con-ducted there.

These were not large Marine for-mations, but were, for the most part,individual Marines and small detach-ments assigned to guard duty at thebarracks and naval operating basesestablished in the United Kingdom,or men assigned as "sea-going" Ma-

On the Cover: During their periods oftraining, the London Marines weretaught how to climb cliffs using moun-taineering techniques. Similar skills areelements of training undertaken bypresent-day Marine reconnaissanceunits. Photo courtesy of Col Roy J. Bat-terton, USMC (Ret).

At left: Britain's King George VI inspectsthe Marine detachment of Washington(BB 56) on 7 June 1942. From left are:RAdm Robert C. Giffen, commandingTask Force 39; King George; AdmHarold R. Stark, special naval observer;and Capt Howard H. Benson, com-mander of the Washington. Command-ing the Marine Detachment is CaptJames D. Hittle, who retired as a brig-adier general; commanding the 1st Pla-toon is lstLt Jonas M. Platt, who retiredas a major general; commanding the 2dPlatoon is 2dLt Robert Knox. Photocourtesy of The Admiralty, London

rifles in the detachments of the largefighting ships. Another category wasfilled by those intrepid Marines whovolunteered for duty with the Officeof Strategic Services (OSS), to under-take covert operations with the un-derground against the Nazis in theoccupied countries of Europe andNorth Africa.

In April 1941, Congress stipulatedthat Marine Corps strength should be20 percent of that of the Navy. Onlya relatively few Marines were de-tailed to the Atlantic and they wereprimarily assigned to the Navy toperform their traditional functions,that of security of naval installationsand service afloat. Though few innumber, they made a significant con-tribution, though largely over-shadowed by the exploits of theirfellow Marines in the Pacific.

The U.S. Atlantic Fleet in 1941comprised four old battleships, NewYork (BB 34), Texas (BB 35), Arkan-sas (BB 33), and Wyoming (BB 32);one division of heavy cruisers, SanFrancisco (CA 38), Tuscaloosa (CA37), Quincy (CA 39), and Vincennes(CA 44); the aircraft carrier Ranger(CV 4); and a destroyer squadron.The carrier Wasp (CV 7) would jointhe fleet shortly upon its commis-sioning. Marine detachments wereassigned to these ships.

Marines have traditionally servedas part of the complement of navalwarships. In World War II, this serv-ice was confined mostly to the larger-sized ships — battleships (BB); cruis-ers, both heavy (CA) and light (CL);and carriers and light carriers (CV orC\TL). Smaller ships normally carrieda Marine detachment only whenthey served as flagships.

Marine training for sea duty be-

1

fore the war was provided at seaschools established in Portsmouth,Virginia, and San Diego, California.Marines selected for this programhad to meet three principal criteria:age (over 18); height (at least 5'8");and a willingness to serve. Thoseselected attended a course of eightweeks' duration whose curriculumincluded the operation of ships' gunsto which they would be assigned ascrewmen, naval terminology, boatdrills, damage control, emergencydrills, fire-fighting, gunnery practice,shipboard ceremonies, sentry duties,naval etiquette, and duties of a land-ing party.

The duties of the detachment con-sisted primarily of maintaining theinternal security of the ship, manningsecondary gun batteries in action,and forming landing parties as need-ed. Seagoing Marines were calledupon to demonstrate a high degree ofproficiency in their assigned duties.

Assignment to sea duty, over theyears, was always highly coveted,since it satisfied a Marine's basic re-quirements for travel and adventure,and carried the promise of some ex-citing action along the way, as part ofa ship's landing party on foreignshores.

A Marine officer on board shipcould anticipate assignment as the le-gal counsel or law officer for mostcourts-martial held on board andduty as a shore patrol officer. He alsowould have an assignment at a bat-tle station, stand quarterdeckwatches when in port, and be pre-pared to lead his detachment ashorewhen called upon to protect Ameri-can lives and property.

A detachment consisted of two orthree officers and 100 or more enlist-

ed Marines on a battleship, one ortwo officers and 80 enlisted men ona heavy cruiser or carrier, and oneand 45 on a light cruiser.

During 1941, the fleet was steadi-ly and quickly augmented as thenaval ship-building program got un-derway in earnest. Along with a mas-sive recruiting program, reserveforces were called up. By November,there were 3,793 Marines serving indetachments on 68 naval ships. Andthe Atlantic Fleet was further en-larged at that time by three more bat-tleships, Idaho (BB 42), Mississippi(BB 41), and New Mexico (BB 40);four light cruisers, Philadelphia (CL41), Brooklyn (CL 40), Savannah(CL 42), and Nashville (CL 43); andthe carrier Yorktown (CV 10).

The urgency of military events inearly 1941 made it appear that,despite its Pacific orientation, theMarine Corps, as a ready, all-

volunteer force, would actually be-come part of the U.S. deployment tothe Atlantic to join Allied forces inthe campaign against Germany.

The prewar period was a difficulttime in international relations, sincethe U.S. was coming under increasing

alter Jordan became a Ma-rine officer after graduationfrom the Virginia Military

Institute in 1924. He served a tour inNicaragua and another on sea duty be-fore his assignment as the first com-mander of the Marine Detachment,American Embassy, London, July 1941to November 1942.

This was the first organized unit ofAmerican armed forces to be sent to Bri-tain during World War II. Colonel Jor-dan was in charge of the advanceechelon when the ship carrying it wastorpedoed and sunk on the way to En-

gland. While in England he was in-strumental in arranging for the U.S.Marines to undergo joint training withthe Royal Marines.

In 1943, Colonel Jordan received theSilver Star Medal for his leadership ofa combat unit (2d Battalion, 2d Marines)in the Tarawa assault. For his services onthe 4th Marine Division staff at Saipanand Tinian, he was awarded the Legionof Merit. As the commander of the 24thMarines at Iwo Jima, he received a se-cond award of that medal.

He retired from the Marine Corps in1946 and died on 16 October 1947.

LtCol Walter I. Jordan, commander of the Marine Detach-ment, American Embassy, London, briefs his officers on awinter day in London, 1942. From left are: lsLt Fenton 1. Mee,

Photo courtesy of Col Roy J. Batterton, USMC (Ret)

Maj John B. Hill, Capt Roy I. Batterton, lstLt Thomas I. My-ers, Capt Walter F Layer, and Marine Gunner George V. Clark.Nearly all Marines in Europe reported through the detachment.

pressure from France and Great Bri-tain to provide assistance. PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt was increasing-ly disposed to do so, but lacked bothCongressional mandate and publicsupport.

The terms of the armistice after the

Colonel Walter I. Jordan USMC

2

fall of France in June 1940 forced thatcountry to accept alignment with theAxis. This arrangement posed impor-tant questions on the future status ofFrench territory in the WesternHemisphere. Of particular sig-nificance was the island of Marti-nique, which harbored majorelements of the French fleet, plusmore than 100 American-built air-craft that were in transit to Europe,and a storehouse of gold bullion.

Other Atlantic islands of strategicinterest to the U.S. were those of thePortuguese Azores and Iceland. Theyappeared to be both strategicallyvaluable and vulnerable. Marineforces were alerted in 1941 to the pos-sibility of assignment to Martiniqueor the Azores. Protecting Iceland be-came a top priority as British intelli-gence reports revealed Germany'splans to attack Russia.

To help deal with these concernsand to facilitate amphibious training,the Commandant of the MarineCorps established a provisional corpsin May, commanded by Major Gen-eral Holland M. Smith. It includedthe 1st Marine Division and the Ar-

my's 1st Infantry Division. When theAmphibious Force, Atlantic Fleet,was commissioned at Norfolk, Gen-eral Smith was the first commanderof its ground component, Amphibi-ous Corps, Atlantic Fleet. Throughthe efforts of General Smith's am-

phibious training staff, the 1st, 3d,7th, and 9th U.S. Infantry Divisionswere given amphibious training intime for the North African landings.When the call came in June 1941 forthe first major deployment of Ameri-can combat forces in the AtlanticTheater, it was the 1st ProvisionalMarine Brigade, comprised of the 6thMarines and the 5th Defense Battal-ion, which was dispatched to Iceland.

The brigade landed there on 7 Julyand remained on occupation duty for10 months, until May 1942. The de-tails of the operation are covered inOutpost in the North Atlantic: Ma-Tines in the Defense of Iceland,another pamphlet of this series. Thethreat of German occupation of anyof the Atlantic bases was greatly les-sened on 22 June, when Hitler or-dered his forces to invade Soviet

It is interesting to note that, whenthe 1st Provisional Brigade wentashore at Reykjavik, Iceland, it wasmet on the dock by Major Walter I.Jordan and members of his 12thProvisional Marine Company. These

Photo courtesy of Col Roy J. Batterton, USMC (Ret)American Ambassador to the Court of St. James's, John Winant, gives instruc-tions to orderly PlSgt John H. Allen, Jr. Marines provided security for the Em-bassy following recommendations by its security officer, Maj John C. Mc Queen.

Russia.

A Marine duty NCO checks in visitors to the American Embassy in London,while other Marines stand guard at the entrance and the check-in point.

Photo courtesy of Col Roy J. Batterton, USMC (Ret)

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11 Marines were survivors of the tor-pedoing and sinking of the Dutchtransport, SS Maasdam, by a Ger-man submarine 300 miles south ofIceland on 26 June. They were res-cued and taken to Iceland on the SSRanda. The men had formed an ad-vance detail of Major Jordan's unit,en route from the Marine Barracksin Washington for assignment in Lon-don. Reembarked on the SS Volen-dam, they finally reached London on15 July, there to join forces with 48other Marines, including three

officers, Captain John B. Hill andFirst Lieutenants Roy J. Batterton, Jr.,and Joseph L. Atkins. These threeofficers had been embarked onanother Dutch transport, the SS In-draporia, which made the crossingwithout mishap. The 59-man organi-zation was designated the MarineDetachment, American Embassy. Asecond echelon arrived about sixmonths later.

The table of organization for thisdetachment had been prepared inLondon sometime earlier by Major

4

John C. McQueen, at the request ofAdmiral Robert L. Ghormley, Assis-tant Chief of Naval Operations, whowas in England at the time.

Major McQueen had been sent toLondon in the prewar period in 1940.He traveled in civilian clothes on aship, Duchess of Richmond, and ar-rived in London during a German airraid. After reporting to the Ameri-can Embassy, he went to Inveraray,Scotland, to observe the training ofRoyal Marines and especially tostudy the landing craft in use by theBritish. Marine Major Arthur T.Mason accompanied McQueen onthis visit. Mason benefited from thesecontacts in his subsequent duty as-signment to the combined operationssection on the staff of the SupremeCommander Southeast Asia, Ad-miral Lord Louis Mountbatten.

While McQueen was in London,he was concerned about the lack ofsecurity at the American Embassy at1 Grosvenor Square and made somecomments to that effect. The Ameri-can Ambassador, John Winant, wasso impressed that he gave McQueenthe job of embassy security officer.

Before leaving to return toWashington, he was entrusted witha classified instrument to be deliveredto the Office of Naval Intelligence(ONI). He had some anxious mo-ments en route home through theAzores, since it was considered to bea den of spies at that time. Upon ar-rival in New York, he was met, un-expectedly, by strangers in civilianclothes. He thought surely they wereout to waylay him, only to learn thatthey were ONI security men. He wasrelieved when he delivered his pre-cious cargo to Washington: a top-secret radar device invented by theBritish and specifications for itsmanufacture. It was greatly superi-or to equipment then in developmentin the United States.

McQueen was but one of a succes-sion of Marine officers ordered toLondon during this period before thewar and continuing throughout the

Photo courtesy of Col Roy J. Batterton, USMC (Ret)London Marines also served as fire wardens during the Nazi air raids on the city,and were prepared to put out fires on the roof of their detachment quarters inGrosvenor Square in 1942. They were to remain here for the rest of the war.

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war. Most of them held the title of"assistant naval attache" (ANA) or"special naval observer" (SNO). TheANA designation enabled one totravel on a diplomatic passport andto enjoy many of its privileges, in-cluding immunity from arrest in thehost country. An attache was a mem-ber not only of the official staff ofthe American Ambassador to GreatBritain, but also of the diplomaticcorps, composed of all of the foreigngovernmental representatives resi-dent in London. An attache alsocould be accredited to the Londonembassy while being designated asANA in other countries. This was thecase with several Marine officers,who were accredited to London andassigned to Cairo and other capitals.

Once established in London, theMarine Detachment, American Em-bassy, under command of MajorWalter I. Jordan, with Captain JohnB. Hill as executive officer, becamethe official reporting echelon fornearly all Marine personnel servingin Europe and Africa, including thoseon temporary duty and those at-tached to the OSS. The detachmentwas billeted at 20 Grosvenor Square,which was known at that time as theAmerican Embassy Annex.

Major Jordan and Captain Hillboth held the title of ANA and theirduties took them to various parts ofthe United Kingdom as Special NavalObservers (SNOs). Jordan was theonly detachment commander to car-ry this added title. None of the threeofficers who succeeded him in thepost— Captain Thomas J. Myers,First Lieutenant Alan Doubleday,and Captain Harry W. Edwards —were so designated.

Initially, the detachment rostershowed a strength of four officersand 55 enlisted men. Since this wasthe first embassy detachment in Lon-don for the Marine Corps, the enlist-ed personnel were selected withemphasis on intelligence and militarybearing; many of them had previous-ly served in the 1939 World's Fair

Department of Defense Photo (USMC) A49691

Maj John C. Mc Queen was ordered toEngland in 1940 to observe the trainingof Royal Marines and to study the typesof British landing craft. While in Lon-don, he was appointed Embassy securi-ty officer by Ambassador Winant.Detachment in New York. When thesecond echelon of the 12th Provision-al Marine Company arrived in De-cember 1941 with 2 more officers and62 enlisted Marines, the strengthswelled to 123. The two additionalofficers were Captain Walter Layerand First Lieutenant Thomas J.Myers.

Before departure from America, allmembers of the detachment were

outfitted with a complete civilianwardrobe, purchased from the HechtCompany in Washington, D.C., witha government clothing allowance. Itwas U.S. policy, prior to the decla-ration of war, to have military per-sonnel travel in civilian clothes whenen route to countries which were atwar.

The mission of the London detach-ment was to provide security for theAmerican Embassy and to furnish es-corts for State Department couriers.Sergeant John H. Allen, Jr., was as-signed duty as orderly to the Ameri-can Ambassador. The unit's billet onGrosvenor Square was close to theAmerican Embassy, a very presti-gious address in peacetime, but atempting target in wartime. The Ma-rifles established their own mess, ap-pointed an air raid precaution officerand, with the arrival of Harley-Davidson motorcycles equipped withsidecars, operated a courier servicebetween the Embassy and variousgovernmental staff offices in London.Warrant Officer George V. Clark or-ganized the service, modeled afterone that he operated in Shanghai,China, for the 4th Marines during1937-1939.

As with all services, the immedi-

LtCol Jordan fostered good relations with the Allied services in England, andespecially with the Royal Marines. A rifle match was held jointly with them atPortsmouth in 1942. According to the scoreboard, the Royal Marines won.

Photo courtesy of Col Roy J. Batterton, USMC (Ret)

5

ate prewar era was a period of rapidexpansion for the Marine Corps. Ma-rine aviation, which would growfrom 240 pilots in 1940 to 10,000 in1944, focused much of its attentionon the Royal Air Force (RAF), whoseeffective air defense in the Battle ofBritain (1940) was one of the greatestmilitary victories of all time. It hadseverely reduced the strength andcombat efficiency of the Luftwaffe,the German air force, saved the be-leaguered survivors of Dunkirk, andprotected England from invasion.Many Marine aviators visited En-gland and Egypt during this time,and what they learned from the RAFwould have a profound effect uponthe development of tactics and tech-niques employed by the Marine airarm during World War II.

Major General Ralph J. Mitchell,Director of Aviation at Headquart-ers, U.S. Marine Corps, prior toWorld War II, was eager to have hisofficers and NCOs learn what theycould from the British experience offighting the Luftwaffe. He sent themas observers to Cairo and Londonand frequently as students or traineesto various training courses offered bythe British.

In 1941, MajGen Ralph I. Mitchell,Director of Aviation at Headquarters,Marine Corps, dispatched senior Marineaviators to observe and learn what theycould from British air tactics against theNazis in the desert war. Then-Col RoyS. Geiger, here in a postwar official por-trait, was one of the first sent to Egypt.

Department of Defense Photo (USMC) 303319

These practices began beforeAmerica entered the war, and con-tinued throughout the war. Most ofthose officers were given the statusof ANA for Air, and assigned to theAmerican Embassy in London. AfterJune 1941, they were carried, forrecord purposes, on the muster rollsof the Marine Detachment inLondon.

Among the first arrivals, in April1941, were Colonels Roy S. Geigerand Christian F. Schilt. They spenttheir time in Africa, observing Britishoperations. Geiger was on board theBritish aircraft carrier Formidablewhile it was performing escort duty.By the time the carrier had reachedits destination, it had lost all of itsaircraft and pilots in combat opera-tions protecting the convoy from at-tack by aircraft and submarines.

Brigadier General Ross E. Rowelland Captain Edward C. Dyer tookthe long trip around through Chinaand India and arrived in Cairo amonth later. Rowell was interested inthe operational side of the RAF andhe told Dyer to concentrate on thetechnical aspects, since Dyer was acommunications specialist with anadvanced electronics degree and hadbeen assigned to the Navy Bureau ofAeronautics.

They met with top British militaryleaders: General Sir ArchibaldWavell, Air Vice Marshal ArthurTedder, and Admiral Andrew Cun-ningham, and found all of them ex-tremely cooperative. In anticipationof American entry into the war, near-ly all of the British commanders werevery friendly and forthcoming withtheir military visitors. The only ex-ception was General Bernard L.Montgomery, who had a reputationfor not tolerating visitors at his head-quarters.

The Marines were favorably im-pressed by a number of things whichthey observed, including: the organi-zation of the war rooms; the RAF ra-dio intercept system used to track themovement of all German aircraft; de-

6

Department of Defense Photo (USMC) A401984

Col Christian F Schilt was another Ma-rine pilot sent to the Middle East. Forbravery in January 1928 while flyingwith Observation Squadron 7-M,then-i stLt Schilt was awarded the Me-dal of Honor. He served in both WorldWar II and the Korean War, where hewas commander of the 1st MAW

ceptive use of dummy airfields, com-plete with dummy aircraft; the com-petence of British radio techniciansand their ingenuity in salvagingmaterial for operational repairs; andthe effective air defense system em-ployed by the RAP in the WesternDesert.

Other Marine aviators who ar-rived in Cairo at this time includedLieutenant Colonels Claude A. Lar-kin and Walter G. Farrell, and Cap-tain Perry 0. Parmalee. All visitedRAF squadrons in Haifa and Beirutas well as Egypt.

While in Egypt, Dyer contractedyellow jaundice and dengue feverand was to be hospitalized for amonth. Once recovered, he caught upwith Rowell in London, where theyvisited the RAP Coastal Commandheadquarters in Scotland and Bom-ber Command in England. They ob-served how the RAF used pathfinderaircraft to guide their bomber forma-tions over German targets and howthey employed saturation bombingto minimize losses.

Dyer enrolled in a three-week

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course for fighter controllers at Stan-more where, for the first time, he wasgiven detailed information about theuse of radar. The Germans, as did theU.S., also had some radar equip-ment, but it was not nearly assophisticated, or effective, as that de-veloped by the British. Dyer next at-tended a British radar school andstood watches, as an observer, at var-ious Fighter Command stations andground control intercept stations, soas to become well indoctrinated inthe system.

For his return home, Dyer em-barked on a British aircraft carrierand that was, for him, the most dis-appointing part of the entire trip. Healleged that the British use of alco-hol in their wardrooms adversely af-fected both their personnel and theirflight operations.

Drawing upon his training and ob-servations in England, Dyer was ableto suggest changes in Marine aviationdoctrine for employing interceptingaircraft more effectively. He also wasable to adopt much of the RAF sys-tem of night interception in the sub-sequent development of training fornight fighter squadrons in the MarineCorps.

Back in Washington, he shared his

knowledge with others, especially hisNaval Academy classmate, MajorFrank H. Schwable, who later playeda large role in developing a night-fighter program for the MarineCorps.

Dyer's visit to England was quicklyfollowed by those of other Marineflyers in 1941 and 1942. They includ-ed Schwable and Major Lewis G."Griff" Merritt. Schwable was direct-ed by the Commandant of the Ma-rine Corps to "get all the informationyou can on the organization andoperation of night fighting squa-drons, paying particular attention tothe operational routine, squadrontraining, gunnery and tactical doc-trine He also was told not tobe concerned about the technical endof it, since that had been covered byDyer. Schwable and Merritt alsovisited Cairo to observe British airoperations in desert warfare.

When Schwable returned home inApril 1942, he wrote a detailed reporton his findings. He was convincedthat the most essential qualificationfor a night fighter pilot was his desireto be one. He recommended thatthose selected should be fairly youngbut stable and conscientious, cool-headed but aggressive, and not

Department of Defense Photo (USMC) 68297

Maj Frank H. Schwable was directed byMajGenComdt Thomas Holcomb to goto England to "get all the informationyou can on the organization and opera-tion of night fighting squadronsWhen he returned to the United States,he pioneered Marine Corps night fight-er tactics and commanded the first suchnight fighter squadron in the Pacific

quick-on-the-trigger or devil-may-care, as many a day fighter had been.

He and Dyer fought hard to obtainfunding for the aircraft and person-nel that would ultimately produce aneffective night fighter capability forthe Marine Corps. When the firstMarine Night Fighter Squadron,VMF(N)-531, was commissioned on16 November 1942, Schwable be-came its leader and it would achievea fine combat record in the Pacific

The list of Marine aviators whovisited Europe and North Africaoperations continued. LieutenantColonel Francis P. Mulcahy andMajor William J. Manley both spentnearly all of their time in Egypt.Lieutenant Colonel Field Harris andMajor William D. McKittrick spentnearly four months, from August toNovember 1941, inspecting Britishaircraft facilities and equipment(much of which was American-made), debriefing bomber crews, andtalking with staff officers. They alsovisited Palestine, Syria, and Cyprus.

war.

Two Marine aviators, BGen Ross E. Rowell, left, and Capt Edward C. Dyer took thelong trip to the Middle East by way of China and India, and arrived in Cairo in May1941. They both went on to England, where they observed British bombing tactics.Dyer attended fighter control and radar schools, learning ground control systems.

Department of Defense Photos (USMC) 12631 and 11868

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Department of Defense Photo (USMC) 14569-A

Another pilot sent to the Middle Eastwas Maj Lewis G. "Griff" Merritt, whohad the unique experience, as a Marine,of being shot down by a Luftwaffe planewhile a passenger in a RAF aircraft.

Captain Etheridge C. Best went toEngland to study the communica-tions control system in the RAF. Heattended the RAF Day Fighter Con-troller Course and several coursesregarding radar. He also visited mostof the RAF units in England. Return-ing home in early 1942, he helped topioneer the use of a ground controlintercept system by the Marine Corpsand became a deputy director of theElectronics Division of the Bureau ofAeronautics.

Prodded by an urgent request fromAdmiral William F. Halsey for anight fighter capability in the Pacif-ic, the Marine Corps continued tosend aviation personnel to Englandto observe and train with the RAF inorder to learn its system of nightfighting and radar control. Amongthe officers so assigned were MajorsFrank H. Lamson-Scribner, WilliamVia, Michael Sampas, Gooderham L.McCormick, Frank C. Dailey, andJohn Wehle.

Major Wehle, who was a Marinetest pilot, took particular interest intesting various British aircraft. Hewas also charged to investigate theBritish glider program. He returnedto the U.S. with a negative recom-

mendation, which probably helpedto doom a Marine Corps glider pro-gram that was already underway.

Many distinguished ground of-ficers also conducted productivevisits to England as observers priorto America's entrance into the war.

Colonel Julian C. Smith and MajorJack P. Juhan arrived in London atthe height of the German air blitzand spent some anxious moments inair-raid shelters. They collected alarge amount of material on landingboats and tactics, enjoyed a numberof high-level briefings, and toured theBritish amphibious warfare base atRosneath, Scotland, where they hada visit with Prime Minister WinstonS. Churchill. Their trips were fol-lowed by those of Colonel John T.Walker, Majors George F. Good, Jr.and Lyman C. Miller, Captains BruceT. Hemphill, Eustace C. Smoak, JoeSmoak, and Charles Cox, and War-rant Officer Ira Brook.

During May and June of 1941,Major Good and Captain Hemphilltraveled to England on a secret mis-sion, along with some Navy civil en-gineers, to tour four base sites, twoin Scotland and two in Ireland, andto advise the Marine Corps and theNavy as to their security require-ments. They arrived in London on aPan American Airways Clipper flightvia Lisbon.

Their itinerary included a five-daystay in Londonderry, NorthernIreland, followed by a stop inGreenoch, Scotland. At the end oftheir reconnaissance, Major Good re-turned to Iceland to rejoin the 5thDefense Battalion, and CaptainHemphill escorted the newly arrivedMarine embassy guard detachmentto London before returning toWashington.

Majors Wallace M. Greene, Jr.,and Samuel B. Griffith II, arrivedtogether in England in 1941 with aninterest in special forces, in anticipa-tion of the establishment of similarorganizations in the Marine Corps.

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Greene attended the British Am-phibious Warfare School and theRoyal Engineers' Demolition School,while Griffith observed commandotraining. After their return — andbased to a degree upon an impetusfrom the White House — Major Gen-eral Thomas Holcomb, Comman-dant of the Marine Corps, authorizedthe formation of two raider battal-ions. Griffith became the executiveofficer of the 1st Raider Battalion andsubsequently its commander.

The concept of having specializedunits in the Marine Corps was a con-troversial issue and would continueto be so during the war. Commandotraining, however, was a focus of in-terest as the Marines noted the suc-cess the British commandos had, andthey welcomed the opportunity tosend Marines to England for thattraining.

On 7 June 1942, the London de-tachment designated two of itsofficers, Captain Roy T. Batterton,Jr., and Marine Gunner George V.Clark, and 10 enlisted men, to takethe training. Captain Batterton later

Then-Col Julian C. Smith, left, and MajJack P Juhan arrived in England at theheight of the German air raids to collectinformation on British landing craft andtactics, and to tour the amphibiouswarfare base at Rosneath, Scotland.

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provided some interesting highlightsof his experience during seven gruel-ing weeks that summer (He consid-ered the course to have been extreme-ly valuable to him during his subse-quent duty with the 4th MarineRaider Battalion in the Pacific.).

Batterton's Marine detail was as-signed successively to four differentcommando units for its training atvarious bases in Scotland and En-gland. Three were British ArmyCommandos (4th, 6th, and 9th) andone Royal Marines. A British Armycommando averaged 500 men in sizewith a lieutenant colonel in com-mand. There were six troops percommando, each commanded by acaptain, and three sections per troop,each commanded by a lieutenant.

Their training began at Achnacar-r Scotland, where the Marines werequartered in Nissen huts. Their bedsconsisted of wooden slabs, laidacross six-inch blocks with strawmats as mattresses. Their working

day was from 0830 to 1740, with timeoff only on Saturday afternoons.Training was in 40-minute periods al-located as follows: Bren gun, 16 peri-ods; Thompson sub-machine gun, 4;grenades, 9; pistol, 4; foreign arms,6; Garand rifle, 10; firing allweapons, 20; physical training, 21;bayonet, 6; climbing, 4. In addition,there were various course exercises,toggle bridging, field craft (scoutingand patrolling), marching, map-reading, and two field exercises of 16and 36 hours each.

A rapid, seven-mile march de-manded the utmost endurance. Onsuch a forced march, the British re-quired that all men keep in step, allthe time, at either quick- or double-time, to create the teamwork which isessential to achieving their objective.

On a toggle ride (called 'DeathRide"), they crossed a stream byclimbing a tree with the help of a50-foot rope ladder, then slidingdown a taut rope stretched down-

9

ward at a 30-degree angle from thetree to another on the opposite bank,by looping the toggle rope over thetaut rope. A toggle rope is normallysix feet long and half an inch in di-ameter, with a wooden handlespliced on one end and an eye splicedon the other end.

For descending from cliffs, theywere taught a method called "absail-ing;' which involves the use of a100-foot length of 1/2-inch rope,looped first around a tree or a rock.The descent is made in bounds, andthe rope section is brought alongwith each increment of descent.

In an assault exercise, performedin 10 minutes, they crawled under abarbed wire, ascended a log ramp inorder to jump from an eight-footheight over a six-foot barbed wireobstacle, descended a cliff by rope,and finished with a bayonet charge!

In another such exercise, two-manteams were employed, one coveringthe other, to approach a dummyhouse while firing from the hip withautomatic weapons, throwinggrenades through the windows,searching the structure, then depart-ing over a fence, down a ravine byrope ladder, and up the other side byrope, using grenades against surprisetargets, and ending with a bayonetcharge. They also practiced rowinga 30-foot whaleboat, followed by across-country run of two miles fromand back to the boat.

Several of these assault exerciseswere conducted with live ammuni-tion. The training schedule proceed-ed regardless of weather, which isfrequently poor in Scotland. Duringtraining hours in the camp area, withfew exceptions, everyone moved onthe double.

For their 36-hour exercise, theyembarked for a night landing on asimulated Norwegian coastal area.Upon landing they moved 15 milesto a viaduct, made preparations to"blow it up;' and returned by a differ-ent route which was 35 miles cross-country. They organized a defensive

Photo courtesy of Col Roy J. Battertori, IJSMC (Ret)

Capt Roy 1. Batterton and Marine Gunner George V Clark of the London detach-ment took 10 members of the detachment north to Scotland to begin a seven-weekcommando training course. They are shown here at Achnacarry, where they begantheir training. In the front row are, from left: PFC Edgar Reynolds, Capt Batter-ton, Cpl John Sudro, and Sgt George Allen. Middle row: Cpl Walter Kelly, PFCMichael Dun bar, PFC Donald Stoner, and Cpl Paul Cramer. Rear row: Sgt GeorgeHudock, Marine Gunner Clark, PFC Taylor Collom, PlSgt Way Holland, Sgt CurtisTatum, and Cpl Henry Dozier. Another member, Sgt Robert Ryan, was not present.

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perimeter and signaled for a retrievalby boat.

During the course of the sevenweeks of training, the Marines wentfrom Achnacarry, Scotland; toCowes on the Isle of Wight; to Ports-mouth, England (where they em-barked in preparation for a landingat Dieppe on the French coast); thenback to Scotland to Lachailort andHelensburgh. Thereafter, it was atired but physically fit, well-traineddetail of Marines which returned toits detachment in London on 31 July.These Marines were soon transferredto the United States and assigned tocombat units for duty in the Pacificmostly to Marine raider battalions inwhich they could practice and sharetheir lessons learned.

The senior British instructor wasso pleased with the performance ofthis group that he sent a letter viaAdmiral Lord Louis Mountbatten,then head of British combined oper-ations, to Admiral Stark at the head-

quarters of Commander, NavalForces Europe, stating that "the Ma-rines have undergone an arduouscommando training with an excep-tionally unconquerable spirit whichnever wavered during the course" Hesingled out for special praise thework of Captain Batterton and Ma-rine Gunner Clark and three NCOs:Platoon Sergeant Way Holland, andSergeants George J. Huddock andCurtis A. Tatum. This report pleasedMajor Jordan, as he had been in-strumental in organizing an exchangeof training between the Royal Ma-rines and the Corps which wouldcontinue over the years. Captain Bat-terton and his detail were not the firstgroup of Marines to receive this com-mando training, nor were they thelast. It proved to be a beneficial train-ing resource for the Marine Corps inthe early stages of World War II.

During May and June 1941, MajorGerald C. Thomas and CaptainJames Roosevelt followed one of the

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most interesting itineraries of anyMarine in the European Theater. Ona special mission for PresidentRoosevelt, they flew from India toBasra, Iraq, along with BrigadierWilliam Slim of the British Army, ar-riving at a hotel that was filled withwounded soldiers. They flew fromthere on a British Sunderland flyingboat to Suez, and on by car to Cairo,where they met two more Marine ob-servers, Farrell and Captain Par-malee. After a briefing by the staffof Air Vice Marshal Arthur Tedder(later General Eisenhower's topdeputy in Europe), they had a visitwith General Sir Archibald Wavell,Middle East commander. Thereafter,they obtained requested transporta-tion to Crete to deliver a message toKing George, who had been drivenfrom his throne in Greece by the Ger-mans. Despite dire warnings ofdanger, they flew in a British flyingboat to Crete, where they landed inthe midst of a German air raid.Nevertheless, they completed theirmission, which was to deliver the let-ter from President Roosevelt to KingGeorge, and then departed for Alex-andria, Egypt.

From Cairo they flew to Jerusalemfor visits with King Peter of Yugos-lavia; the High Commissioner forPalestine, Sir John McMichael; andAbdul, the Regent of Iraq. They werenearly killed here during a strafingattack by German fighters. They hadonly sandbags for protection, sincethere were no dugouts to hide in be-cause of the high water table in thearea. By the time they returned toCairo, the Germans had already in-vaded Crete and seized the islandwith heavy losses for the Britishdefense force.

Returning to Cairo, they visitedGeneral Charles de Gaulle at his FreeFrench Headquarters, then in Cairo,before leaving (along with Parmaleeand Farrell) on a flying boat for Lis-bon. Then-Captain Mountbattenalso was a passenger on that flight.He had earlier lost his destroyer di-

Photo courtesy of Col Roy J. Batterton, USMC (Ret)During their periods of training in Scotland, the London Marines were taughthow to climb cliffs using mountaineering techniques. Similar skills are elementsof training undertaken by present-day Marine Corps reconnaissance units.

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vision in the battle of Greece, and hetold them that his nephew, PrincePhilip, was also a survivor of that ac-tion. At the end of that memorabletrip, Major Thomas reported to theCommandant of the Marine Corpsand requested to be returned to dutywith troops.

The muster rolls of the MarineDetachment in London frequently in-cluded the names of "visiting" Ma-rines. The number of visitors eachmonth varied, as did their assign-ments and missions. In this category,OSS Marines were a most unusualgroup, mostly reservists recruited be-cause they possessed highly special-ized skills needed to carry out theorganization's intelligence mission.

The OSS was established on 13June 1942 as a successor to the Officeof the Coordinator of Information(COT). Its director was Army ReserveColonel William J. Donovan, aWorld War I hero and recipient of theMedal of Honor, whose reputationfor fearlessness earned him the nick-name of "Wild Bill:' OSS was a stra-tegic intelligence organization whichfunctioned outside the military serv-ices to carry out missions assigned bythe chiefs of the armed services.

In addition to its civilian person-nel, OSS had the authority to recruitmilitary personnel from all services.Marine officers assigned to this workwere given a specialty of MSS: Mis-cellaneous Strategic Services. Morethan 35 Marine officers and a con-siderable number of enlisted Marineswere assigned to duty with the OSSin Africa and Europe during the war.Their duties were so highly secretthat even their award citations wereclassified and remained so until af-ter the war. Captain Peter J. Ortiz,for example, was twice awarded theNavy Cross, but these citations werenot immediately published. The Ma-rine Corps personnel in OSS madesignificant contributions to the Alliedwar effort in Europe and throughoutthe world.

In October 1942, two COl/OSS

y the time Colonel Franklin A.Hart arrived for duty in Londonin June 1941, he already had a

distinguished record of Marine Corpsservice.

A student at Auburn University, classof 1915, Hart was a top athlete in foot-ball, track, and soccer. He served as aMarine officer in France in World War I,and later in the Dominican Republic andNicaragua, followed by a tour of seaduty and another of shore duty inHawaii.

As a Special Naval Observer in En-gland during World War II, he partici-pated in the Dieppe operation in July1942 and remained in England until Oc-tober on the ComNavEu staff.

In June 1943 he commanded the 24thMarines in the Marshall Islands and atboth Saipan and Tinian, from whichoperations he earned the Navy Crossand the Legion of Merit. As assistant di-vision commander of the 4th Marine Di-vision on Iwo Jima, he received a BronzeStar Medal.

Subsequent duty assignments includ-

ed: Director, Division of Reserve, andDirector, Public Information, Head-quarters, U.S. Marine Corps; and Com-manding General, Marine Corps RecruitDepot, Parris Island. After his last com-mand as Commandant, Marine CorpsSchools, Quantico, Lieutenant GeneralHart retired in 1954 and was promotedto general on the retired list. He died on22 June 1967.

General Franklin A. Hart, USMC

Capt James Roosevelt, left, and Ma] Gerald C. Thomas are shown at Shepherd'sHotel, Cairo, in May 1941, one of the last stops on Capt Roosevelt's mission forhis father, President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Capt Roosevelt commanded the 4thRaider Battalion in the Pacific War, while Maj Thomas became G-3 and later chiefof staff of the 1st Marine Division on Guadalcanal, and later commanded it in Korea.

Photo courtesy of Mrs. Gerald C. Thomas

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Marines were stationed at the Ameri-can Legation in Tangiers, Morocco,a key listening post in Africa for theU.S. at the time. They were Lieu-tenant Colonel William A. Eddy andSecond Lieutenant FranklinHolcomb.

Eddy was born in Lebanon ofAmerican missionary parents andwas fluent in Arabic. He had earneda Navy Cross and two Silver StarMedals for combat action with the6th Marines in World War I. Hol-comb was the only son of the Ma-rine Corps Commandant, GeneralHolcomb. Both officers were desig-nated assistant naval attaches for airand would play a prominent role inrelations with the Vichy French, andin providing valuable intelligence forAllied landings in Africa. Robert D.Murphy, counselor of the AmericanEmbassy in Vichy, once commentedthat "no American knew more aboutArabs or power politics in Africathan Colonel Eddy." In January 1943they were joined in Tangier by Cap-tain Ortiz. He was an Americancitizen but had served in the French

Foreign Legion early in World War Weber also received an unusual as-II. Thus, he was well acquainted with signment. A petroleum specialist asthe area. a civilian, he was ordered, under the

Marine Reserve Lieutenant Otto auspices of the Office of Naval Intel-

One Marine assigned to covert activities in Europe with the Office of Strategic Serv-ices (OSS) was Capt Peter I. Ortiz, who was twice decorated with the Navy Cross.Here he receives his first Navy Cross from Adm Harold R. Stark in London.

Photo courtesy of LtCoI Peter J. Ortiz, Jr., USMC

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Marine DetachmentAmerican Embassy, London, England

Q n 15 July 1941, the Marine Corps established itsfirst embassy detachment at London, England. Itwas commanded by Major Walter I. Jordan. In-

itial strength was approximately 60 officers and men, butthis was doubled in size by December 1941 with the ar-rival of a second echelon from Marine Barracks, Washing-ton, D.C.

The detachment was billeted in the American EmbassyAnnex at 20 Grosvenor Square. Initially, the duties of thedetachment were primarily security and messenger serv-ice for the embassy. However, with the arrival of AdmiralHarold R. Stark as Commander, Naval Forces, Europe(ComNavEu) on 17 March 1942, there was a realignmentof duties to focus more upon the naval headquarters andless upon the embassy.

Major Jordan was succeeded by Captain Thomas J. My-ers in October 1942. At that time the detachment was in-activated and its personnel transferred to Rosneath,Scotland, to establish a Marine Barracks at the U.S. NavyOperating Base at that location. The detachment was re-

established in London on 21 January 1943, and resumedits original designation and duties. Myers was replaced byFirst Lieutenant Alan Doubleday, who served until August1944. He, in turn, was succeeded by Captain Harry W. Ed-wards, who remained in that post until April 1946, at whichtime the unit was given a new designation as the MarineDetachment, U.S. Naval Forces, Europe.

The detachment served as the principal administrativeheadquarters for Marines in Europe throughout World WarII. Muster rolls for the unit reveal the names of the numer-ous Marine personnel who were sent to Europe and Africafor staff duty or as observers and trainees, both before thewar and during the war. This included many Marines whoserved with the Office of Strategic Services (OSS).

Principal duties for the detachment included: ensuringsecurity for the naval headquarters, supplying orderlies forflag officers, operating a motorcycle and motor vehicle mes-senger service between various military and diplomaticoffices, supplying escorts for State Department couriers,and performing of ceremonial duties as required.

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ligence (ONI), to report for duty inCairo. From there he went to As-mara, Eritrea, where he stayed forseveral months, and finally he

ne of the most decorated Ma-rine officers of World War II,Colonel Peter Ortiz served in

both Africa and Europe throughout thewar, as a member of the Office of Stra-tegic Services (OSS).

Although born in the U.S., he waseducated in France and began his mili-tary service in 1932 at the age of 19 withthe French Foreign Legion. He waswounded in action and imprisoned bythe Germans in 1940. After his escape,he made his way to the U.S. and joinedthe Marines. As a result of his trainingand experience, he was awarded a com-mission, and a special duty assignmentas an assistant naval attache in Tangier,Morocco. Once again, Ortiz was wound-ed while performing combat intelligence

returned to Cairo and served as anintelligence officer with the ArmyForces in the Middle East.

As a result of the lend-lease to the

work in preparation for Allied landingsin North Africa.

In 1943, as a member of the OSS, hewas dropped by parachute into France toaid the Resistance, and assisted in therescue of four downed RAF pilots. Hewas recaptured by the Germans in 1944and spent the remainder of the war asa POW.

Ortiz's decorations included two NavyCrosses, the Legion of Merit, the Orderof the British Empire, and five Croix deGuerre. He also was made a Chevalierof the Legion of Honor by the French.

Upon return to civilian life, Ortiz be-came involved in the film industry. Atthe same time, at least two Hollywoodfilms were made based upon his personalexploits. He died on 16 May 1988 at theage of 75.

Royal Navy of 50 overage destroyersearly in the war, the British madeavailable to the United States baseson various islands in the Atlantic.Marine units were posted at severalof these naval bases, where they re-mained throughout the war. They in-cluded: Marine Barracks inBermuda, Trinidad, and Argentia,Newfoundland, and Marine detach-ments on Grand Cayman and An-tigua islands and in the Bahamas.

The Pearl Harbor attack on 7 De-cember 1941, followed by a declara-tion of war on Germany and Japan,greatly accelerated the mobilizationof U.S. naval forces in the Atlanticand Pacific Theaters. On 30 June1941, the Marine Corps had 3,642officers and 41,394 enlisted Marines,and was expanding at the rate of2,000 enlistments a month. AfterPearl Harbor, the enlistments explod-ed with 8,500 in December 1941,13,000 in January 1942, and 10,000in February. By June of that year, the

Sgt Charles L. Perry, a member of Capt Ortiz' OSS team, diedwhen his parachute failed while jumping over the Haute Savoieregion of France. Here, Capt Ortiz and the team members

Department of Defense Photo (USMC) A412362render honors at Perry's grave. From left they are: Capt Or-tiz; Capt Francis Coolidge, USA; Sgt Robert E. Lasalle; SgtJohn P Bodnar; Sgt Frederick I. Brunner; and Sgt Jack Risler.

Colonel Peter J. Ortiz, USMC

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strength of the Marine Corps hadmore than tripled.

On 5 February 1942, the U.S.Navy established its first base on theEuropean side of the Atlantic in Lon-donderry, Northern Ireland, on thebanks of the River Foyle. That for-ward base had become necessary be-cause the fleet could not operateefficiently for any length of timemore than 2,000 miles from a navalbase.

Orders quickly followed for a Ma-rine unit to provide security for this"naval operating base" (NOB) and the1st Provisional Marine Battalion wasorganized in 1941 at Quantico, un-der command of Lieutenant ColonelLucian W. Burnham. His executiveofficer was Major Louis C. Plain. Inpreparation, the Marines of that bat-talion received some rigorous andvaried training, because one couldnot predict what duties their assign-ments would require of them.

The 400-man battalion left theU.S. in May 1942, on the Santa Rosa,a converted cruise ship of the Italian-American line, headed across theNorth Atlantic for a destinationknown to very few. A month later,an augmentation force of 152 enlist-ed Marines arrived on board the SSSiboney, led by Second LieutenantJohn S. Hudson.

Sgt Jack Risler, left, and Sgt John P Bod-nar, in Paris, look at the orders givingthem top priority for a flight back homeafter their release from a Nazi prisonerof war camp in northern Germany.Department of Defense Photo (USMC) A412365

Upon arrival in Ireland, the unitwas designated the Marine Barracks,NOB, Londonderry, and assigned themission to guard the dispersed facil-ities of the large base, which wasabout three miles from the city. Ini-tially, the Marine Barracks was or-ganized as follows: Headquarters and

nother distinguished scholarwho made his mark as aReserve officer in the Marine

Corps was Colonel William A. Eddy.Eddy became a Marine officer in 1917,

after graduation from Princeton Univer-sity. He saw action in France in WorldWar I and received two Purple Hearts,a Navy Cross, the Distinguished Serv-ice Cross, and two Silver Star Medals.

Between wars, he became a professorof English at Dartmouth College and, in1936, the president of Hobart Collegeand William Smith College, both inGeneva, New York.

Returning for active duty with the

Service Company, under commandof Major James J. Dugan; CompanyA, commanded by Captain John M.Bathum; and Company B, with Cap-tain Frank A. Martincheck in com-mand. In late October 1942, anotherdraft of more than 200 men, with Se-cond Lieutenant James B. Metzer in

Marines in 1941, he served successivelywith the Office of Naval Intelligence, asnaval attache in Cairo, Egypt, and laterin Tangier, and finally he assumed dutieswith the Office of Strategic Services(OSS). Eddy was fluent in Arabic, hav-ing been born in Lebanon in a mission-ary family.

He was released from active duty asa colonel in August 1944 to accept an ap-pointment as U.S. Minister to Saudi Ara-bia, where he served until July 1946.

He died on 3 May 1962 in Lebanon atthe age of 66 while serving as a consul-tant for the Arabian American Oil Com-pany and was buried in Lebanon.

Photo courtesy of Mrs. Mary Eddy FurmanAlso assigned to the Office of Strategic Services was LtCol William A. Eddy, a well-deco rated veteran of World War I, where he earned the Navy Cross and two SilverStar Medals. Born in Lebanon of missionary parents, Eddy was fluent in Arabiaand acted as interpreter for President Roosevelt when he met King Ibn Saud of SaudiArabia. Eddy was photographed with the king on board the destroyer Murphy (DD603) while in the Red Sea. The naval officers shown here are not identified.

Colonel William A. Eddy, USMCR

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charge, arrived from the States onboard the U.S. Army transportBoringuen. It became Company C.Meanwhile, several promotions tookplace in the unit — Bathum to major,Plain and Dugan to lieutenantcolonel, four company officers tocaptain — and the battalion reor-ganized to add an additional compa-ny. Captain Donald R. Kennedy tookover Company B and Captain Ge-orge 0. Ludcke received command ofCompany C.

Headquarters and Service Compa-ny was billeted at Springtown Camp,as was Company B, which was as-signed to guard the repair facilities.Company C, which guarded theQuonset storage ammunition dumpat Fincairn Glen (five miles outside'Derry), was billeted on the groundsof an old estate called "Beech Hill."Company A guarded the Naval FieldHospital at nearby Creevagh, a cou-ple of strategically located radio sta-tions, and a major supply depot atLisahally. Those Marines were billet-ed in Quonset huts on the groundsof "Lisahally House;' an estate on theRiver Foyle.

The Marines were needed in Lon-donderry not only to protect thenaval base from sabotage from Ger-man units which might have beenlanded by submarine, but also fromlocal infiltrators. The Irish Free State(Eire), just across the border from UI-

ster, maintained its neutralitythroughout the war. With Germanand Japanese embassies in full oper-ation in Dublin, there was the fearof sabotage attempts against Alliedinstallations, prepared with thecooperation of militant elements ofthe Irish Republican Army (IRA).There were no IRA-supported

Photo courtesy of Col Roy J. Batterton, USMC (Ret)

sabotage attempts, however, and his-tory reveals that the number ofvoluntary Irish enlistments in theBritish Army from Eire equalled thenumber from Ulster, where the draftwas in effect.

An interesting incident took placeduring this period, which under-scored the high degree of cooperation

The motor pool detail of the London detachment in 1 944-1 946used their Harley-Davidson motorcycles to provide courier

service for Commander, Naval Forces, Europe, and also fur-nished armed escorts for U.S. Department of State couriers.

U.S. Marines could be found in Londonderry at: 1) Lisahally, at the mouth of LoughFoyle, a guarded dock area; 2) Fincairn Glen, an ammunition dump; 3) Beech Hill,where units consolidated after moving from Springtown (Company A and Hq Com-pany) and Lisahally (Companies B and C) in 1944; 4) main naval repair base, whichserviced U.S. destroyers and Canadian corvettes on the North Atlantic run; 5)Springtown, original site of the headquarters and Company A; and 6) CreevaghNaval Hospital. Marine sentries also were posted at two radio transmitting sites.

15

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between the two Irish governments.A New Zealand bomber crash-landed in Eire and its crew expectedto be interned for the duration of thewar by the Irish Free State. However,with the unofficial blessing of the Ir-ish Government, the RAF with theassistance of a detail from the Ma-rine Barracks, dismantled the planeand removed it and its crew acrossthe border.

Major James J. Dugan, the bar-racks adjutant, was a colorful mem-ber of the original "Irish Marines;' anickname given to the Marines serv-ing in Londonderry. He was a red-head from Boston who brought withhim several members of his Bostonreserve unit. He retained good rap-port with the Irish and formed fromthe barracks drum and bugle corpsa bagpipe band which became atrademark of this unit. The Marineswere a welcome sight to this area,which had sent most of its youngmen off to war in 1939 in the BritishArmy, and from which many neverreturned.

Since rain falls on average 240 daysout of the year in this area, Marineslearned quickly to do without cleardays. They also learned to respect theRoyal Ulster Constabulary (RUC),which did a very efficient job ofmaintaining law and order in thishistoric city of 48,000 people. TheMarines on shore patrol duty, com-manded by Captain William P. Al-ston, established a good workingrelationship with the RUC, and alsowith Superintendent of Police TomCollins, from Londonderry's neigh-boring County Donegal, who be-came a frequent guest at battalionsocial events.

Just as the "Irish" battalion arrivedin Londonderry, the 1st ProvisionalMarine Brigade was relieved inIceland by an Army unit andreturned to the 2d Marine Divisionat Camp Pendleton. A continuingMarine presence was maintained inIceland, however, with the organiza-tion of a Marine Barracks stationedat the Fleet Air Base in Reykjavik.This 100-man unit was initially com-

16

manded by Major Hewin 0. Ham-mond. It would remain in Icelanduntil 22 October 1945, when it wasdisbanded.

Meanwhile, in London, NavalForces Europe welcomed its com-mander (ComNavEu) on 17 March1942, with the arrival of AdmiralHarold R. Stark. He had been Chiefof Naval Operations until he wasreplaced by Admiral Ernest J. Kingafter the attack on Pearl Harbor.

The Marine Detachment, whichhad been on duty in London at thesame location in Grosvenor Squaresince June 1941, became also a navalsecurity detachment. However, it re-tained its American Embassy desig-nation and continued to performsecurity duties for the Embassy. Ad-ditional duties included: providingsecurity for the naval headquarters;supplying orderlies for several flagofficers, including ComNavEu; andaugmenting the motorcycle courierservice linking the various militaryheadquarters in London. In their ca-

Photo courtesy of George 0. LudckeIn June 1942, the Marine Barracks, Naval Operating Base, arriving at this time were Maj Louis Shoemaker, Maj JohnLondonderry, Northern Ireland, was established with the ar- Bathum, Capt Frank Martincheck, and LtCol James 1. Du-rival of its Marine personnel. From left to right, the officers gan. Their mission was to deter saboteurs, of whatever origin.

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pacities as special naval observers,the detachment commander, MajorJordan, and his executive officer,Captain John Hill, continued to visitvarious Allied commands through-out the United Kingdom.

Colonel Franklin A. Hart, whohad been on duty in London sinceJune as an assistant naval attache atthe American Embassy, now joinedthe ComNavEu staff as Chief ofNaval Planning Section. Hart andMarine aviator Lieutenant ColonelHarold D. Campbell were assignedto duties as liaison officers to theCommander of Combined Opera-tions, Vice Admiral Lord LouisMountbatten. These duties involvedthem in the planning and preparationfor the combined British-Canadianforces' amphibious raid on 19 August1942 at Dieppe, on the northeasterncoast of France. They both observedthis operation from the deck of aBritish destroyer, HMS Fernie.

The Dieppe landing was original-ly scheduled for 3 July. The elaborateamphibious raid was to involve morethan 6,000 troops, mostly Canadian,and more than 250 ships. Royal Ma-

rifle commandos, American rangers,and Free French soldiers also were toparticipate. Had it taken place on thescheduled date, three U.S. Marineswould have participated as part of aRoyal Marine commando, landingfrom HMS Locust. Captain Roy Bat-terton, Sergeant Robert R. Ryan, and

Corporal Paul E. Cramer were thethree Marines who boarded the shipat Portsmouth, England, in prepara-tion for a landing that was then post-poned because of bad weather. Afterfurther postponements, their partic-ipation was cancelled, and they wenton to complete their commando

The Lord Mayor of Londonderry, Sir Frederick Simmons, in-spects a detachment from the Marine Barracks at a parade

Photo courtesy of George 0. Ludcke

in 1943. With the Lord Mayor is Maj John Bathum, and tohis rear is the barracks commander, Col Lucian W Burnham.

On the steps of Londonderry's historic Guild Hall, LtCol Dugan addresses an Ul-ster war bond rally in 1943, as his battalion commander, Col Burnham, listens.

Photo courtesy of George 0. Ludcke

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training on 30 July, and prepared forreassignment in the States. Inretrospect, we know that these Ma-rines were fortunate to have missedout on the Dieppe raid, because itwas a fiasco.

Planned as a surprise attackwithout benefit of air or naval gun-fire preparation, it was designed totest Allied ability to assault and seizea port, to test new types of assaultcraft and equipment, and to continueto keep the Germans on edge as toAllied plans for a cross-channel in-vasion.

However, tactical surprise was notachieved and the landing party wasoverwhelmed. After five hours ofheavy fighting, the landing forcewithdrew, suffering a loss of 3,648men killed, wounded, missing, orcaptured. Possibly the best that canbe said of this costly lesson is that itwas a part of the price paid to helpto ensure the highly successful land-ing at Normandy on 6 June 1944.There, unlike Dieppe, there would beno attempt to seize a heavily defend-ed port, and the assault would bemade in daylight, preceded and co-vered by the heaviest naval and airbombardment that could be devised.

Shortly after the Dieppe opera-

tion, Colonels Hart and Campbellreturned to Washington, where theywere able to draw upon their ex-periences in planning for amphibiousoperations in the Pacific. Hart wassucceeded by Marine Colonel Wil-ham T. Clement in October 1942.Clement, who had narrowly escapedcapture by the Japanese at Cor-regidor, was assigned to the Intelli-gence Division of ComNavEu towork on naval planning for the cross-channel invasion of Europe. AdmiralStark, in a letter of 13 July 1943 tothe Commandant of the MarineCorps, praised Colonel Clement forhis work in setting up the IntelligenceSection of ComNavEu.

A part of the high-level planningconducted by the American and Brit-ish governments called for the forma-tion of a military ring aroundGermany to be tightened as the warprogressed. The occupation of FrenchNorth Africa was seen as a first stepin that process. It also would openthe Mediterranean to Allied supplyconvoys and save the long haularound the Cape of Good Hope.

Rear Admiral H. Kent Hewitt be-came the Commander of Amphibi-

18

ous Forces, Atlantic Fleet(ComPhibLant) in April 1942, andthe planning for the North Africanoperation, to be known as OperationTorch, was begun in earnest.

During the planning, PhibLant ex-panded from a force of three trans-ports to one of 28 transports, inanticipation of transporting 37,000Army troops and 250 tanks, plustheir combat equipment andsupplies.

The operation called for U.S.forces to establish firm and mutual-iy supporting lodgements in theCasablanca area of French Morocco,on the Atlantic coast of Africa, andsimultaneously, with a combinedAmerican-British landing force, toseize the Oran-Algiers-Tunis area inthe Mediterranean.

The objectives would be to seizecontrol of the entire area of FrenchMorocco, Algeria, and possiblyTunisia; to be prepared to take actionagainst Spanish Morocco; and tofacilitate air and ground operationsagainst Axis forces in the westerndesert.

There were important politicalconsiderations involved, since thisarea was under control of the VichyFrench Government. It's president,

During their stay in Northern Ireland and influenced by theirsurroundings, members of the battalion drum and bugle corpstook bagpipe lessons and formed a pipe band. The adjutant,

Photo courtesy of George 0. Ludckethen-Maj Dugan, a red-haired Bostonian, was chief booster.When the barracks was deactivated, the band returned tothe States as a unit and performed in War Bond drives.

Marshal Henri Petain, according tothe terms of the French surrender,had agreed to collaborate with theGermans. It was known that theFrench Navy represented by AdmiralJean Darlan, was intensely loyal toPetain and, under the watchful eyesof the Axis powers, would probablyoppose the landing.

The Vichy French, especiallymembers of the naval service, wereknown to be bitter toward the Brit-ish Royal Navy, and hostile towardthe activities of the Free French,represented by General Charles deGaulle. Under these circumstances,it was impossible to predict the kindof reception the task forces could ex-pect in French North Africa.

There was a slight Americanpresence in North Africa during theperiod, working among the Frenchin an effort to ease the way for thelanding force. The two most promi-nent individuals were Robert Mur-phy, U.S. counselor accredited to theVichy Government, and his principalmilitary assistant, Marine ColonelWilliam A. Eddy, who had been as-signed to the American Legation inTangier, Algeria, as an assistant navalattache for air in April 1942. Theirdiplomatic efforts helped to modifythe resistance to the eventual land-ing operations. Eddy's assistant, Ma-rine Lieutenant Franklin Holcomb,contributed to the cause by locatingand smuggling out of Morocco twoboatmen from Casablanca who werefamiliar with the complex hydro-graphic problems in the area. Theyhelped to pilot the landing force.

Lieutenant General Dwight D.Eisenhower established his head-quarters in London as Commander-in-Chief, Allied Expeditionary Forces(CinCAEF) on 14 August, in time toget involved with the planning forOperation Torch. Admiral Sir An-drew Cunningham was given over-all command of the operation.Colonel Eddy traveled from Moroc-co to brief Eisenhower and his staffon the operation. Eddy went on to

Washington to brief the service chiefsand President Roosevelt. Eisenhow-er, favorably impressed, appointedColonel Eddy to be the senior mili-tary attache for Africa.

Meanwhile, it was determined thatweapons training was needed forU.S. Navy boat crewmen who wouldbe involved in the Algerian portionof the landing as part of the EasternTask Force. In September 1942, Ma-rine Corps instructors were broughtin from Londonderry and London toestablish a three-week training campat the naval base in Rosneath,Scotland.

From Londonderry, LieutenantColonel Louis C. Plain and CaptainWilliam E. Davis led a detail of 25enlisted Marines. The LondonDetachment sent First LieutenantFenton J. Mee and 15 enlisted men.At the end of the training periodthese three officers and 30 of the en-listed group were divided up into sixteams and assigned to six differentships as a part of the landing force;

Col William T Clement, who narrowlyescaped capture by the Japanese at Cor-regidor in Manila Bay, was assigned towork on the plans for the cross-channelinvasion of France on D-Day, 6 June1944. At the end of this duty, he waspromoted to brigadier general and as-signed as assistant division commanderof the 6th Marine Division, then onGuadalcanal preparing for Okinawa.Department of Defense Photo (USMC) 522257

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the remaining 10 enlisted menreturned to their base in Lon-donderry.

On 31 October 1942, the MarineDetachment in London was disband-ed and most of the unit transferredto Rosneath to establish a MarineBarracks there. Captain Thomas J.Myers, formerly a company com-mander with the unit in London, wasplaced in command. He was assist-ed by Lieutenants Frank R. Wilkin-son, Horton J. Greene, Truman J.Lyford, and Alexander D. Cereghi-no. Lieutenant Weldon James wasalso present as a public affairs officer.Lieutenant Colonels Walter I. Jordanand John B. Hill visited Rosneathbriefly before being reassigned to theStates in November. Some key enlist-ed personnel remained in London ondetached duty, to carry on their origi-nal assignments at ComNavEu.

Command of the Western NavalTask Force (TF 34), for the landingin Morocco, was given to Rear Ad-miral Hewitt. It was comprised en-tirely of U.S. forces. Two of his keystaff members were Marine of-cers — Lieutenant Colonel Homer L.Litzenberg, as assistant operationsofficer, and Major Francis MilletRogers as assistant intelligenceofficer.

Major General George S. Patton'sWestern Task Force provided thetroops for the Morocco landings.Ships of the task force left from var-ious east coast ports in late October1942 and, once assembled in convoy,formed an armada of 100 ships, dis-persed over the ocean in an area ofsome 20 by 30 miles. Yet it was said"that a flag hoist on Admiral Hewitt'sship, Augusta (CA 31), could reachthe entire fleet in ten minutes:'

The task force was heavy on fire-power to counter the threat from theFrench capital ships Richelieu andJean Bart (with 15-inch guns), andthe possible intervention of Germanwarships. Included were the new bat-tleship Massachusetts (BB 59) (withnine 16-inch guns); the Texas (BB 35)

'I

Department of Defense Photo (USMC) A31943

Then-LtCol Homer L. Litzenberg servedon the staff of Task Force 34 commander,RAdm H. Kent Hewitt, in OperationTorch, the invasion of North Africa. Helater served with the 4th Marine Div i-sion in the Pacific War and retired afterthe Korean War as a lieutenant general.

and New York (BB 34) (each with ten14-inch guns); the carrier Ranger (CV4) and four escort carriers; heavycruisers Wichita (CA 45), Tuscaloo-sa (CA 37) and Augusta; light cruis-ers Savannah (CL 42), Brooklyn (CL40), Philadelphia (CL 41), andCleveland (CL 55); 38 destroyers;four submarines; and many lesserships. Marine ship's detachmentswere on board all of the capital shipsand the carrier.

Unlike the French army, the Frenchnavy had not been hammered by the

Axis and was still full of fight andprepared to resist. In France, the navywas responsible for coastal defensein the broadest sense, including coastartillery and offshore aerial recon-naissance. These activities were un-der the command of Vice AdmiralFrancois Michelier.

The convoy crossed 4,000 milesthrough submarine-infested waters atan average speed of 14 knots, in ord-er to fulfill a scheduled D-Day of 8November 1942. The principal oper-ation plan called for a main landingat Fedala, 14 miles north of Casab-lanca, with secondary landings atPort Lyautey, 65 miles north, and atSafi, 125 miles south, of Casablanca.

H-hour was 0400 but there wasconfusion in the dark of night, so thefirst wave landed more than an hourlate. Naval shore batteries suppliedthe principal opposition to the land-ing, supplemented later by strafingattacks by French aircraft. Manyships of the French navy were in-volved. Some were sunk by U.S.ships, others escaped. Several U.S.task force ships were lost to shorebattery fire and German submarinetorpedoes. However, fighting onshore in the Fedala area was over ina matter of hours. Colonel Litzenbergwent ashore in this area and re-mained for a few days with GeneralPatton's headquarters. By 11 Novem-ber U.S. soldiers were in position toattack Casablanca, but since the

French defenders declared an ar-mistice, that attack was cancelled.

Major Rogers, who was fluent inFrench and Arabic went ashore atFedala with the mission of arrangingthe berthing in Casablanca of Ad-miral Hewitt's flagship, Augusta. OnD-Day, Rogers went into hostile ter-ritory to seek out French Vice Ad-miral Francois Michelier, to try tonegotiate the surrender of all Frenchmilitary personnel in Morocco. Hewas subsequently used as an inter-preter for peace negotiations withFrench officials and was awarded aSilver Star Medal for his courageousefforts. Rogers remained on Hewitt'sstaff throughout all of his subsequentamphibious operations in theMediterranean area.

The landings in the Port Lyauteyarea were successful, but stiffresistance was later encountered andthe shore batteries were not silenceduntil the following day. The townwas taken on the 9th and the airfieldthe following day. An armistice wasdeclared on the 11th.

The Safi landing found littleresistance, except from shore batter-ies, and the Army tank units wereashore by the 11th, ready for theirmove on Casablanca. A party fromthe Marine detachment of the USSPhiladelphia, operating under com-mand of the Army 47th Infantry,landed at the Port of Safi on 10November and proceeded to the air-

Major General Homer L. Litzenberg, USMCs a major, Homer L. Litzen-berg was assigned to Head-quarters, Commander-in-

Chief, U.S. Fleet, and served in Englandduring combined planning with the Brit-ish on the conduct of the war. He alsoparticipated in the amphibious assault ofCasablanca, French Morocco, in Novem-ber 1942.

General Litzenberg was born in 1903and began his service in the MarineCorps as an enlisted man. In 37 years of

service he proved himself to be a leaderin combat with the award of the NavyCross, the Army Distinguished ServiceMedal, three Silver Star Medals, and theLegion of Merit.

He served with the 24th Marines inthe Marshall Islands and the V Amphibi-ous Corps in the Saipan and Tinian cam-paigns.

As commander of the 7th Marines, hewent to Korea on 1 September 1950, and

20

led that unit in the Inchon landing andthe Chosin Reservoir campaign thatfollowed.

Subsequently, Litzertberg served as thebase commander of Camp Lejeune, andthen as Commanding General, MarineCorps Recruit Depot, Parris Island;senior member of the Military ArmisticeCommission in Korea; and InspectorGeneral of the Marine Corps, before hisretirement on 31 May 1959.

He died on 27 June 1963.

Colonel Francis M. Rogers, USMCs a captain in the MarineReserve, Francis Millet Rogersleft his position as a Harvard

University professor of foreign lan-guages and civilizations to come onto ac-tive duty in World War II.

He was a student of western Europe-an languages and was particularly fluentin French and Portuguese. In 1941, hewas assigned to the Amphibious Force,Atlantic Fleet (PhibLant) and establishedat Quantico what was possibly the firstarmed forces foreign language school onthe east coast. When Rear Admiral H.Kent Hewitt was given command of thePhibLant in late 1941, Rogers joined hisstaff as an intelligence officer.

In this capacity he performed distin-guished service in three landing opera-tions in the North African theater ofoperations. These were: Operation Torchin Morocco, Operation Husky in Sicily,and Operation Avalanche in Salerno. Inthe Morocco landing on 8 November,Major General George S. Patton, Jr., asthe landing force commander, awardeda Silver Star Medal to Major Rogers forhis service in negotiations with FrenchVice Admiral Francois Michelier, whichled to the surrender of Vichy Frenchnaval forces to the Allies.

After his return from overseas, Rogerswas assigned to duty with the staff ofChief of Naval Operations Admiral Er-

nest J. King in Washington, D.C., until19 October 1945 when he was releasedfrom active duty and returned to theHarvard faculty.

Colonel Rogers died on 15 August1989.

port to guard that facility untilrelieved the following day.

The Eastern Naval Task Force ofOperation Torch was scheduled fora simultaneous landing over Algeri-an beaches in the Mediterranean.This force was assembled in the Unit-ed Kingdom and consisted primari-ly of Royal Navy warships and Alliedmerchant marine transports. Unlikethe U.S. Navy, there were no trooptransports in the Royal Navy. TheBritish simply leased merchant shipsas needed and converted them totroop transports. The landing forceconsisted of 23,000 British Army and10,000 American Army troops. Be-cause of their perceived hostility

towards the British, it was hoped thatthe Vichy French would view this asan American operation and, there-fore, offer less resistance. The EasternTask Force, including the Marinesfrom Rosneath, sailed from the Unit-ed Kingdom on 25 October, boundfor Algeria. The Center Task Forcewhich had the mission of seizing andsecuring the Oran area of WesternAlgeria, had planned night landingsat 0100 on 8 November in three lo-calities: one southeast and north ofArzeu (20 miles east of Oran), a se-cond 14 miles west of Oran, and thethird about 27 miles west of Oran.By H-hour plus 2 there was also tobe a frontal assault on the Port of

21

Oran by two British ships. Their mis-sion was to breach a harbor boomchain and land onto the dock a com-mando unit which would seizeFrench naval vessels in the harbor.

Little opposition was encounteredin the three landing areas, except forsome fire from coastal batteries andaircraft strafing. By the evening ofthe 9th, the ground troops held threeof the important airfields in the vi-cinity, had captured 2,000 prisonersand 90 aircraft, and were ready to as-sault the city when a truce was called.

The U.S. Marines in the Arzeulanding party were in three groups:Lieutenant Colonel Plain with 11 en-listed men, Captain Davis (who

w

spoke French) with six Marines, andSergeant Arnold Arrowood with sixMarines. Upon landing, they foundso many French ships lying at anchorthat not enough officers were avail-able to take them over, so the job wasgiven to the enlisted Marines, withone man assigned to each ship, com-plete with its crew. Some sniper firewas encountered, but they were ableto deal with it and suffered nocasualties.

It was quite a different story forthe six Marines on board HMS Hart-/and, which along with HMS Wa!-ney, both former U.S. Coast Guardcutters, had the mission of openingthe Port of Oran. Running withoutlights at 0300, they were picked upby searchlights on shore and engagedby naval gunfire from French shipsinside the harbor, coastal artillery onthe bluffs, and machine-gun cross firefrom the jetties. Hart/and missed theboom on the first try and, in back-ing off for a second attempt, ran thegantlet of withering fire in an effortto come alongside the dock longenough to discharge its landing party.Marine Corporal Norman Boike,who was on board, reported "four-inch shells coming through the cut-ter's sides like blue flame:' Their ves-sel was soon without power andadrift, and the dead and woundedwere piling up on the deck and in thewater. Although wounded himself,Boike was able to jump overboardwith a raft and, along with First Ser-geant Fred Whittacker and other Ma-rines, sailors, and British com-mandos, who had initially beentrapped below deck, rescue some ofthe wounded and make his way toshore. Both vessels sank with heavylosses, estimated to be 450 out of atotal of 600 men who were on board.Two Marines were lost in this action(Privates First Class James Earhart,Jr., and Robert F. Horr) and the rest,along with all those who landed,were taken captive as they cameashore. However, they were releasedas soon as the armistice was signed.

Horr was listed as missing in actionand Earhart was buried in the Ameri-can Cemetery which was establishedat Oran.

In the Algiers area, the landingtook place as planned at about 0100,unopposed except by coastal forts.Coastal batteries opened fire onforces afloat and did some damage.The boom at the harbor was alsorammed by two British destroyers,one of which suffered some damage,but nothing like that at the Oranharbor.

By 8 November, the city of Algi-ers had surrendered, and a friendlywelcome was extended after all fight-ing had ceased. French Admiral JeanDarlan was taken into protective cus-tody and issued the order to hisforces for suspension of all hostilitiesin Algeria and Morocco, and urgedall elements of the French fleet to jointhe Allied cause.

General Eisenhower was reported-ly infuriated by the decision of theFrench to resist. To spare furthercasualties and speed the war effort,however, he agreed to negotiate withDarlan, in spite of the latter's notori-ous reputation as a Nazi collabora-tor. Their agreement permittedDarlan to become governor-generalof French North Africa, in exchangefor a promise to have the FrenchArmy lay down its arms. The agree-ment brought great criticism ofEisenhower.

The U.S. Navy established anoperating and supply base in Oran,which soon became the most impor-tant base of its kind in North Afri-ca. A Marine detachment wasestablished at the base and CaptainDavis and Lieutenant Fenton Mee,along with all of the enlisted Marineswho had participated in the landing,became members of the detachment.Davis became the security officer andMee was made detachment com-mander. Lieutenant Colonel Plainjoined the Naval Force staff in Oranand remained until his transfer to theStates a short time later. The detach-

22

ment remained in Oran until 12March 1943, when it was disbandedand all personnel returned to theStates.

The Marine Detachment, Ameri-can Embassy, London, was re-established at ComNavEu on 21January 1943, and Captain ThomasJ. Myers was placed in command.The Marine Barracks at Rosneathwas disbanded and its personneltransferred either to London or toLondonderry.

The detachment was reduced insize to 30 enlisted men. Two Marinelieutenants, Paul Cramer and WalterPickerel, and a number of enlistedMarines, who had been under in-struction at the Royal Marines Mili-tary School in Devon over theprevious few weeks, were detachedand returned to the United States.

On 3 February, the Navy estab-lished a new command, U.S. NavalForces Northwest African Waters atOran. Hewitt, now promoted to viceadmiral, was placed in command,and as also Eighth Fleet commanderdirected to prepare for more landingsin the Mediterranean.

It was intended that the seizure ofAlgeria and Morocco quickly leadalso to Allied occupation of Tunisia,opening the Mediterranean coast forstaging to carry the battle northward.However, the Axis made a strongstand in Tunisia and gave way onlygrudgingly against the combinedforces of the British Eighth Army andAmerican forces, led by General Pat-ton and Major General Omar Brad-ley. German and Italian forces inTunisia finally surrendered withsome 150,000 men on 13 May. Thisserious loss for the Axis provided theAllies air and sea supremacythroughout the southern Mediterra-nean, and permitted a convoy routeto be opened through to the SuezCanal.

The decision of the Allies at thispoint was to rule out an invasion ofFrance in 1943, but they did agree (atthe Casablanca Conference in Janu-

a I.

Brigadier General Richard H. Jeschke, USMCthe start of World War II,

Colonel Richard H. Jeschkewas the commander of the 8th

Marines, and he led that unit in combatin the Guadalcanal operation.

After this action, Jeschke was flownback to Washington and sent to theMediterranean in May 1943, to the staffof the VI Amphibious Force, U.S. Atlan-tic Fleet, as Force Marine operations andtraining officer. In this capacity he par-ticipated in the landings at Sicily withthe Western Naval Task Force. He alsoparticipated in the amphibious assault

landing and subsequent operations inNormandy, France, from 1 June to 1 July1944.

During this period, to keep the Forcecommander informed, Colonel Jeschkemade frequent liaison visits to front-lineArmy combat units ashore, and wassubsequently awarded the Legion ofMerit for this service. France awardedhim the Croix de Guerre. ColonelJeschke retired in 1949 and for havingbeen decorated in combat was advancedto brigadier general on the retired list.He died on 15 December 1957.

ary 1943) that the next move wouldbe an invasion of Sicily. This opera-tion would maintain pressure on theenemy. Operation Husky was set for10 July.

General Eisenhower received hisfourth star on 11 February and wasdesignated the Supreme Com-mander, North African Theater ofOperations, with three British subor-dinates: General Sir Harold R. L. G.Alexander (ground forces), Admiralof the Fleet Sir Andrew B. Cunning-ham (sea forces), and Air Chief Mar-shal Sir Arthur William Tedder (airforces). Each had an Americansubordinate: Lieutenant General Ge-orge S. Patton, Jr., U.S. SeventhArmy; Vice Admiral H. KentHewitt, ComNavNAW, and Lieu-tenant General Carl A. Spaatz,Northwest African Air Force. Oper-ational forces were divided, with Ad-miral Hewitt in charge of theWestern Naval Task Force embark-ing General Patton's Seventh Army,and British Vice Admiral Sir BertramH. Ramsey, commanding the EasternNaval Task Force, embarking Lieu-tenant General Sir Bernard L. Mont-gomery's Eighth Army.

Operation Husky would employan assault force consisting of fourAmerican divisions, four British, andone Canadian, against a defenseforce comprised of two German andsix Italian divisions. However, the

enemy units were capable of quickreinforcement from the Italian main-land across the narrow Straits ofMessina.

The bitter lessons of Dieppe andOran were taken into account. Theseizure of enemy airfields, ratherthan the assault of enemy ports, wasselected as the first objective. Theemphasis was still on achieving tac-tical surprise, which ruled out pre-landing air and naval bombardment;a decision which Hewitt did notfavor.

The landing formation was bothunusual and bold, with eight divi-sions landing abreast on a broadfront, allowing only a minimal forcein reserve and quite a distance re-moved. Measured in terms of the in-itial assault, it was to be the greatestamphibious operation ever to thatdate, involving a total of 2,800 shipsand assault craft. Unfortunately, thelanding forces had no integration ofcommand for air support, either tac-tical or strategic, resulting in manyproblems for the landing forces inobtaining timely air support. Themistake was rectified in subsequentoperations.

Vice Admiral Hewitt had underhis command 580 ships and 1,124shipborne landing craft to be em-ployed in transporting General Pat-ton's Seventh Army, which wasdivided among three attack forces.

23

These were TF 86, under Rear Ad-miral Richard L. Conolly, with lightcruisers Brooklyn and Birmingham(CL 62) and eight destroyers for es-cort and gunfire support; TF 81, un-der Rear Admiral John L. Hall, withlight cruisers Savannah and Boise(CL 47) and 13 destroyers; and TF85, under Rear Admiral Alan Kirk,with light cruiser Philadelphia and 16destroyers. Admiral Ramsey had 818ships and 715 shipborne landing craftfor his landing force, composedmostly of British and Canadiantroops.

Rear Admiral Conolly had a mostdifficult task: that of moving some25,000 men from Africa to Sicily ina fleet of landing ships, tank; land-ing craft, tank; and landing craft, in-fantry, which was designated JOSSForce. Travelling in a convoy of sevencolumns, they were slowed at timesto a speed of two and a half knotsby strong winds and heavy seas. Thiswas the first shore-to-shore amphibi-ous operation to make such extensiveuse of these landing ships. TheSicilian coastline presented a furthercomplication. Because it was knownto be fronted with false beacheswhich would prevent landing shipsfrom placing their troops and equip-ment on the shore, pontoon cause-ways were brought along to bridgethe gap. The newly developed am-phibious truck, called DUKW, was

Major General Robert 0. Bare, USMCn World War II, while serving onthe staff of Admiral Sir BertramRamsey, Allied Naval Commander-

in-Chief, Colonel Robert 0. Bare workedon the planning of the Normandy inva-sion. He was later awarded the BronzeStar Medal while attached to British As-sault Force J during the invasion.

A graduate of the Naval Academy,Class of 1924, Bare achieved early recog-nition as a distinguished rifle and pistolmarksman in the Marine Corps.

After his return from England in 1943,

he served in the Palau and Okinawacampaigns in the Pacific in World WarII. In the Korean War he was the assis-tant division commander of the 1st Ma-rine Division and was awarded aDistinguished Service Medal and aLegion of Merit.

Bare held additional assignments asDirector of the Marine Corps Develop-ment Center at Quantico and as Directorof Personnel at Headquarters MarineCorps.

He died on 30 September 1980.

first employed in this operation andmet with great success. False beachespresented no problem for theDUKWs, which could continue in-land, as needed, with their cargo.

Vice Admiral Hewitt's WesternNaval Task Force staged from portsin Algeria. General Patton and hisstaff were embarked on Hewitt's flag-ship, Monrovia (APA 31). Onceagain, Marine Major Rogers was onboard as a staff member. On D-Dayhe went ashore and was given the jobof supervising the loading of Italianprisoners onto LCIs. Colonel Litzen-berg had been replaced for the land-ings on Sicily by another Marineofficer, Colonel Richard H. Jeschke,who had served briefly in liaisonwith U.S. Army forces in Morocco.

The landings, on 10 July, weremade in darkness at 0245 over anarea embracing some 37 miles ofshoreline in the Gulf of Gela. Onceagain the enemy was not surprised,but the landing ship force didremarkably well despite heavy surfand accurate gunfire. In some placesthe beach areas were mined and anumber of vehicles were blown up.There was little combat air patrolover the target area.

On 20 July, the dictator BenitoMussolini was removed from powerin Italy and Hitler ordered a with-drawal of Axis forces from Sicily.

The mountainous terrain assisted theenemy's ability to fight a series of rearguard actions in the direction of theStraits of Messina, where the retreatwas a short run across in ferry boatsto the toe of Italy. Allied forces triedto intercept this movement by leap-frogging along the coast in a series ofamphibious landings, but theylagged too far behind the fast-movingenemy forces to cut them off or to in-flict significant losses. In the space ofsix days and seven nights, ending on17 August, the Germans had with-drawn to the mainland with 40,000troops and the Italians 62,000, so anopportunity to capture a large enemyforce was lost to the Allies. An im-portant major objective of the oper-ation, seizure of Sicily, wasaccomplished.

In June 1943, Marine ColonelRobert 0. Bare arrived in London incivilian clothes, as prescribed byregulations (because he had astopover in Foynes, Ireland), for spe-cial duty with ComNavEu. His spe-cial duty involved an assignment tothe Office of the Chief of Staff,Supreme Allied Commander. TheSupreme Commander to head thisoffice (General Eisenhower) had notyet been designated, so the officer incharge was Major General FrederickMorgan, British Army, with theresponsibility of conducting planningand preparations for Operation

24

Overlord, formerly Neptune, thecross-channel invasion to come.

Bare was detailed as "staff officerplans" in the naval section under Ad-miral Sir Bertram Ramsey. He hadthe task of selecting British beachesfor practice landings and naval gun-fire training. The area selected wasSlapton Sands, near Dartmouth. TheBritish government evacuated morethan 3,000 citizens from the area.

In October Bare traveled on a Brit-ish ship to the Pas de Calais area ofFrance as part of a fake invasion forceto test German reactions and to tryto mislead them about Allied in-tentions.

Marine Colonel James E. Kerr alsoparticipated in the planning phase forOperation Overlord. He was as-signed as a training officer on thestaff of Commander, Landing Craftand Bases, Eleventh AmphibiousForce, Europe. His duties involvedthe supervision of amphibious train-ing of personnel for all landing shipsand craft to be used in the invasion.Both Kerr and Bare remainedthrough all of the planning phasesfor Overlord and then participatedin the landing.

Meanwhile, in the Pacific, theGuadalcanal operation (August 1942)had revealed to the Marine Corps theneed for an adequate night airdefense capability. Marines whoserved in the Pacific reported the

constant presence of Japanese aircraftbuzzing over the combat areas atnight, keeping everyone awake. Theycollectively earned the nickname"Washing-Machine Charlie:'

To provide for future night airoperations, a cadre of aviation per-sonnel, including six officers and fiveenlisted men, was sent to England inFebruary 1943 for training with theRoyal Air Force (RAF). LieutenantColonel Edward W. Montgomerywas in charge of the group and wasthe primary liaison with the RAELieutenant Colonels Guy Morrowand Marion M. Magruder were de-signated to obtain detailed knowl-edge of the British fighter control anddirection system, including facilities,personnel, and equipment, and tofacilitate the acquisition of the equip-ment by the Marine Corps. MajorPeter D. Lambrecht and CaptainHomer G. Hutchinson, Jr., were se-lected for operational training asnight fighters, and Captain EdwardHicks was to be trained as a nightfighter ground air controller. The fiveNCOs were assigned to train as air-borne intercept radar operators(ROs).

The five aviators of the group wereinitially assigned to RAF Station Col-tishall for three weeks of flight train-ing in Bisley and Blenheim aircraft.They wore dark goggles and readfluorescent instrument dials to simu-late night instrument flying.

Lambrecht and Hutchinson werethen sent to RAF Station Cranfieldfor operational training with thetwin-engine Bristol Beaufighter, andin employing airborne radar to inter-cept enemy aircraft at night. Greatemphasis also was placed on the abil-ity to visually identify various air-craft types to help avoid firing onfriendly planes. At this point the twoofficers were joined in the cockpit bytheir Marine ROs, Sergeants NestorTabor and Pete Hales, now qualifiedas radar operators in the British air-borne intercept system.

When this phase of training had

Photo courtesy of BGen Homer J. Hutchinson

Marine pilots Majs Peter D. Lam brecht, left, and Homer 1. Hutchinson are shownwith Wing Commander L. N. Hayes, commander of RAF Night Fighter Squadron256, at RAF Station Ford in Sussex from which they flew missions in May 1943.

Maj Hutchinson stands in front of the Bristol Beau fighter in which he fought.Photo courtesy of BGen Homer J. Hutchinson, USMC (Ret)

25

I

been completed, the two USMCteams were sent to Sussex on 6 Mayto join RAF Night Fighter Squadron256. They were immediately assignedto night combat air patrol over theEnglish Channel. It was here thatHutchinson learned to appreciate theability of RAF ground controllers;these technicians had the difficult jobof keeping friendly bombers andfighters separated in a crowded airspace, while attempting to pick upenemy intruders. Lambrecht, Hutch-inson, Tabor, and Hales, spent threeweeks at this station flying nightcombat air defense missions againstthe Luftwaffe.

Lieutenant Colonel Montgomerysubsequently served as the first com-mander of Marine Aircraft Group53, a night-fighter group, from 1943to 1945. Lieutenant Colonel Morrowbecame the first commander of a Ma-rine night-fighter operational train-ing detachment in 1943. LieutenantColonel Magruder commissionedand commanded VMF(N)-533 in1943 and Major Hutchinson was hisexecutive officer. Major Lambrechtcommanded VMF(N)-541 in 1944,and in August 1952 was killed in ac-tion while flying a night-fighter com-bat mission in Korea.

Another group of Marine officerswho arrived in London at this time,on a secret mission, came from thePlans and Policies Division of Ma-rine Corps Headquarters. They in-cluded Lieutenant Colonels James P.Berkeley, Edward Hagenah, Harold0. Deakin, Norman Hussa, and JohnScott. All spent a week in London onthe way to the U.S. Naval ForcesNorthwest African Waters Commandto take part as observers in the nextinvasion, which would be the land-ing, designated Operation Ava-lanche, at Salerno, Italy on 9September 1943. While in England,they spent their time with oppositestaff numbers in U.S. and British or-ganizations. Berkeley, for example,a communications officer, visited theRoyal Navy School of Signals at

Eastleigh and the British Army Sig-nal Center at Cheltenham; Deakinwent to Devon to view amphibioustraining.

The decision for the Salerno oper-ation had been agreed upon at theTrident Conference in Washington,D.C. on 12 May 1943, as an effort totake Italy out of the war and to en-gage as many German divisions aspossible prior to a major cross-channel invasion. Unfortunately, thetwo-month delay between the land-ings on Sicily and Salerno wouldenable the Germans to bring 13 di-visions into Italy with their topleadership, Field Marshals ErwinRommel, in the north, and AlbertKesselring, in the south. The Italiansurrender on 8 September seemed tohave little effect on the German oc-cupation force and its determinationto prevent a rapid conquest of Italy.

The command structure for Oper-ation Avalanche was much the sameas in previous operations in NorthAfrica, with Vice Admiral Hewitt asthe Western Naval Task Force Com-mander. Marine Major Rogers wasonce again on board Hewitt's flag-ship, the Ancon (AP 66), as a staffofficer. Under Hewitt was a largelyBritish Northern Attack Force underCommodore G. N. Oliver (with theBritish X Corps), and a mainlyAmerican Southern Attack Force un-der Rear Admiral John L. Hall (withthe U.S. VI Corps). The leading forcewas the U.S. Eighth Army undercommand of Lieutenant GeneralMark W. Clark.

Rear Admiral Conolly was againin charge of the JOSS force of land-ing ships. The five Marine officersfrom Washington were embarkedwith this force at Bizerte, Tunisia,each on a separate LST carrying Brit-ish troops.

Colonel Berkeley said that his LST,which landed about H-hour plus 2,immediately came under fire fromGerman artillery and was sodamaged that it had to withdraw forrepairs to its elevator mechanism be-

26

fore returning to unload. As a resultof this experience he gained greatrespect for German artillery and itsability to mass artillery fire on a tar-get. Lieutenant Colonel Deakin land-ed at 0340 in an assault boat wavewith a battalion from the RoyalHampshire Regiment.

Air support was better organizedthan for the previous OperationHusky as a result not only of con-solidated control but also thepresence of escort carriers. H-hourwas set at 0330 and there was nonaval gunfire preparation in the in-terest of achieving surprise, but therewere heavy casualties in early wavesfrom both beach defenses and aerialattack. Later waves had the benefitof some excellent naval gunfire sup-port, which helped to break up aGerman armored counterattackagainst the beachhead. Major Rogerswas assigned duty as liaison officerbetween the Ancon and the BritishX Corps commander, LieutenantGeneral Sir Richard McCreary onHMS Hilary.

After the landing operation, allfive Marine officers returned to Paler-mo, Sicily, on Admiral Conolly'sflagship, Biscayne (AGC 18), for ashort visit with two Army generals,George S. Patton and Lucian K. Trus-cott, Jr. Lieutenant Colonel Berkeleyrecalls the visit with some grim hu-mor. He said they began to discussthe value of naval gunfire at the land-ing and Patton interrupted with acomment that naval gunfire was "nodamn good." Truscott disagreed,reminding him that naval gunfire"saved us at the landings in Sicily."From there they flew to Oran to briefAdmiral John Hall, and thenreturned home on 23 September.

It may well be that naval gunfiresupport and air power made thedifference in the success of the FifthArmy at Salerno. However, by stay-ing on station, the Navy paid aheavy price. The Luftwaffe attackedwith a newly developed radio-controlled glide bomb, sinking a

4

!'4 .' '

._I

Is. -p.-

1-

number of vessels, and damaging theU.S. cruisers Philadelphia and Savan-nah and the British battleship War-spite. The bomb which struck theSavannah killed an entire U.S. Ma-rine gun crew manning one of theturrets.

This costly campaign was conclud-ed when the Germans began a with-drawal on 16 September and Alliedforces entered Naples on 1 October.Military analyst 1. F. C. Fuller con-sidered Salerno to be "the most ab-surd and senseless campaign of theentire war:'

The delay at Salerno only com-pounded the problem for the nextamphibious assault in Italy, sched-uled for 8 November but delayed un-til 21 January 1944. This was theAnzio operation, called Shingle,which would turn out to be one ofthe costliest operations of the warwith more than 5,000 members of thelanding force killed.

There was great controversy in theplanning phase among the CombinedChiefs about the wisdom of makingthis landing. In the end, PrimeMinister Churchill prevailed with theargument that unless Rome was

taken, Italy would never be free ofGerman domination.

At this juncture, General Eisen-hower was appointed the SupremeCommander, Allied ExpeditionaryForce (SHAEF) and, even though hehad expressed grave reservationsabout the Anzio operation, his newresponsibility took him out of theMediterranean area and back to Lon-don to head up the planning forOperation Overlord.

By this time, the Chief of Staff,Supreme Allied Commander (COS-SAC) staff had already grown to 489officers, 215 of them American. Asa part of this staff, Rear AdmiralAlan G. Kirk was given command ofthe Western Naval Task Force. As-signed to Kirk's staff was MarineColonel Jeschke as assistant planningofficer and Force G-3. He had previ-ously taken part in the amphibiouslanding at Sicily and then returnedto England for duty with the U.S.First Army. With Eisenhower's ar-rival, COSSAC was absorbed intohis new SHAEF headquarters.

By 30 May there was a total of

27

1,526,965 U.S. troops in the UnitedKingdom and more than five milliontons of supplies and equipment. Ofthese American forces, 124,000 werenaval forces with some 15,000 at-tached to combatant ships, 87,000 tolanding and beach craft, and 22,000to the various naval bases establishedin the U.K. Marines still had theirdetachment in London and the twobarracks in Londonderry andIceland, and the many ships' detach-ments with the Atlantic Fleet.

Surprise and deception were stillthe order of the day, and this ac-counted for a great deal of the suc-cess of the Overlord operation. Notonly was the enemy kept guessingabout the date (6 June), but he wasalso deceived as to the target area(Normandy).

H-hour for the airborne landingswas 0130, 6 June, with approximately13,000 paratroopers dropping in theCherbourg area. Their jump was insupport of the Force U troops land-ing over a nine-mile stretch ofbeaches on the Cotentin Peninsula,named Utah. Twenty-six assaultwaves were scheduled to land, start-ing at 0630.

Photo courtesy of Col Richard Jeschke, USMC (Ret)After the Normandy D-Day landing on 6 June 1944, Marine ley, left and MajGen I. Lawton Collins, second from left. TheCol Richard H. Jeschke, second from right, who was an ob- officer on the right is unidentified. After the war, Gen Brad-server at the landing, went ashore with LtGen Omar Brad- ley became Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 1949.

When there was a delay in thelanding schedule, Rear Admiral DonP. Moon, in command of Force U,sent Marine Colonel Kerr, a memberof his staff, in a patrol craft to takecontrol and to report on how theoperation was working. Kerr report-ed that Red Beach was clear so thatwaves on Green Beach, which wereheld up, could be diverted. This land-ing went so well that by the eveningof D-Day most of the units hadreached their objectives with surpris-ingly low casualties. A principal fac-tor in this success was the heavy andaccurate naval gunfire on targetsinland.

The landing at Omaha Beach wasquite a different story. This was per-formed by Force 0, under coiñmandof Rear Admiral John L. Hall. It washere that the Germans were able toinflict some 2,000 casualties on thelanding force of 34,000.

Among the Marines who partici-pated in this landing were ColonelJeschke and Lieutenant WeldonJames, who was an observer on theflagship Texas, which furnishedmuch of the naval gunfire support.

The U.S. Army V Corps, whichlanded at Omaha, had so much op-position that it was unable to link up

until the following day with VIICorps, which landed at Utah andhad moved quickly inland.

On the eastern flank of Omahawas the British assault area. Stretch-ing toward Caen, it was considereda key to the defense of Normandyand was the area where Germanylaunched its major counterattack.Two Marine officers were with theBritish forces in this area. CaptainHerbert C. Merillat, a combat cor-respondent, was an observer with theRoyal Marines in a landing craft,guns, large ([.CG). This vessel had themission of knocking out Germanpillboxes from close inshore. ColonelBare, on board the Llangibby Castle,was attached to the British AssaultForce I with the 3d Canadian Divi-sion, which went ashore nearCourselles-sur-Mer. This force landedat 0810 after a naval bombardmentthat lasted nearly two hours, and itwas able to move rapidly inland withfairly light casualties. However, oncethe Germans were finally convincedthat this landing was not a feint fora major landing elsewhere, theylaunched some heavy counterattacksthat prevented the Allies from seiz-ing Caen until nearly a month later,well behind their planned schedule.

The miracle of Operation Over-

25

lord was its sheer size and complex-ity. On D-Day, 130,000 troops alonewere landed against tough opposi-tion. Nothing like it had ever beendone before. But after seven weeksof fighting the deepest penetrationwas only 25 to 30 miles on an 80-milefront.

Bare, who had served in Englandover the past year as a staff officerwith ComNavEu and COSSAC, wasmost impressed with British ingenui-ty in the preparations for OperationOverlord. He described the develop-ment of such equipment as floatingdocks, flexible oil pipes, floatingbreakwaters, artificial harbors, anda sunken ship shelter as "just un-believable" This equipment was a sal-vation for the landing force, enablingit to project its strength, totally morethan one and half million men, ontothe Normandy beaches with suffi-cient power to sustain itself.

Colonels Bare and Kerr arrivedback in London on the same day thatthe Germans launched their first Vibuzz-bomb attack on the city. Theyreturned to Washington on theQueen Mary. Bare was transferred tothe Pacific to become chief of staffof the 1st Marine Division for the in-vasion of Okinawa.

A Marine successor on the staff ofComNavEu was Colonel Paul D.Sherman. He joined in July as staffofficer, plans, with the Allied NavalCommander-in-Chief, ExpeditionaryForce, in time to make the landing insouthern France, near St. Malo, as amember of Navy Task Force 125 on29 August 1944. It was called Oper-ation Dragoon. Initially it was calledOperation Anvil, subsequentlychanged to Dragoon, reportedly be-cause Mr. Churchill was dragoonedinto accepting it.

Captain Merillat and LieutenantJames also participated in this oper-ation as observers. Merillat was onthe battleship Nevada (BB 36), whichhad the mission of knocking outsome 340mm guns on the heights

Photo courtesy of Herbert C. Merillat

Capt Herbert C. Merillat, center, observed the 6 June D-Day landing of Canadianforces over Juno Beach with Royal Navy Lt Hugh Ashworth, left, and Royal Ma-rine Lt. George Hardwick from the deck of a British landing craft, LCG-1007.

I

I''"MItI4:iI I(I II

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protecting Toulon, and James withCombat Division 5. Major Rogerswas assigned to the cruiser Brooklynas an interpreter for the commanderof the French II Corps, General Edou-ard de Larminent and his staff.

Two cruisers, the Philadelphia andAugusta, provided gunfire supportfor French Army troops on thewestern outskirts of Toulon. Fourdays later these ships sent landingparties ashore, which included theirMarine detachments, to accept thesurrender of German forces on the is-lands of Pomegues, Chateau d'If, andRatonneau in the Bay of Marseilles.Some 730 Germans were takenprisoner in these operations. Over-lord and Dragoon were the two mainoperations in the invasion of Europein which the U.S. Navy played aleading part.

It is appropriate here to mentionanother Marine officer who had amost unusual assignment on the con-tinent. John H. Magruder III servedas a civilian with an ambulance unitin India in 1939, attached to the Brit-ish Army. Returning home in 1941,he was commissioned in the MarineCorps. Having lived in Holland forsome years, where his father, Cap-tain John H. Magruder, Jr., USN,

Another Marine who served in Europewas John H. Magruder III, who was as-signed as a liaison officer to Gen BernardMontgomery's Twenty-first Army Groupin the Liberation of Holland.Department of Defense Photo (USMC) A407625

was naval attache, he was fluent inDutch and was assigned as a liaisonofficer to the British Army which, inturn, assigned him to General Mont-gomery's Twenty-first Army Group.He participated in the liberation ofHolland and was decorated by theDutch government. He also served inthe Pacific War later.

Colonel Sherman, after the inva-sion of southern France, was assignedto duty as the U.S. Naval Represen-tative on the SHAEF staff in France.From there he went to Naval Forces,Germany, and finally to the G-4 Di-vision of Headquarters, U.S. Forces,Europe.

On 18 August 1944, the MarineBarracks, Londonderr was disband-ed after two years of service. Its ongi-nal commander, Colonel Burnham,had been replaced the previous yearby Colonel Shaler Ladd, and severalof the officers who came to Irelandwith the battalion had already rotat-ed back to the States.

It was a historic farewell as the bat-talion marched down the Strand, ledby its own bagpipe band playing afavorite Irish air, "The Wearin' of theGreen" (a song that seemed as ap-propriate for the Marines as it wasfor the Irish). As the unit boarded

29

ship at Lisahally pier and headeddown the River Foyle bound for theAtlantic, the U.S. Navy Band playedthe "Marines' Hymn" for a final sa-lute. One month later a ship bearing35 Irish brides of American Marinesleft Londonderry bound for the U.S.,and the name of the ship that trans-ported them was The Marine Haven!

An 80-man Marine detachment,under command of LieutenantChester A. Goodwin, Jr., took theplace of the battalion. Its mission wasmuch more limited — to provide secu-rity for the Naval Radio Station,which was a key communications fa-cility for all naval operations in thistheater. This detachment would re-main at Londonderry until disband-ment on 12 November 1945.

A rotation of command at the em-bassy detachment in London in Au-gust 1944 brought this writer to thatpost, to succeed First Lieutenant AlanDoubleday. The author embarked onthe Queen Elizabeth in New York incompany with some 17,000 troops.Officers were billeted six to astateroom. The ship traveled withoutescort in a blackout condition, at anaverage speed of 32 knots. The cross-ing was made in three and a half dayswithout incident, in spite of the con-tinuing presence of German U-boats.The procedure at that time permit-

Photo courtesy of George 0. LudckeIrish war brides of Londonderry Marines leave for the United States on board theMarine Haven in September 1944, a month after their husbands left Ireland.

Changing of the Guard

Marine Corps Historical Collection

On 31 December 1943, after a seven-yeartour as Commandant of the MarineCorps and a 44-year Marine Corpscareer, LtGen Thomas Holcornb retiredand was appointed Minister to SouthAfrica, where he served 1944-1 948.

ted any ship, which could travel ata speed of 16 knots or faster, to travelwithout escort since it was assumedthat it could outrun a submarine.

Also embarked were a number ofMarine replacements bound for Lon-don; all were Pacific war veterans.Many of the ship's passengers wereArmy Air Corps pilots returning fora second or third tour of combatduty. This was probably the reasonwhy so much money was beingwagered in wardroom card games.One soldier was even caught tryingto cheat a few Marines with crookeddice in a crap game. He barely es-caped being thrown overboard forhis efforts, and was given a court-martial on board and convicted.

The ship docked in Greenoch,Scotland, just across the River Clydefrom Gourock. The saying there was:"If you can see Gourock, it's going torain; it you can't see it, it's raining:'

This writer traveled to London bytrain and, just as he arrived, a Vibuzz-bomb passed over the train.That was an introduction to what

would become an almost daily occur-rence in the months ahead. Buzz-bombs were used by the Germans todevastate large areas of London, onlyto be replaced (on 8 September 1944)by even more deadly V2 rocketbombs. These travelled at such highspeeds and high altitudes that therewas no defense against them at thetime.

The author was lodged temporar-ily in the top floor of a large hoteland quickly discovered that it wasnot a preferred location. No one withknowledge of the threat from buzz-bombs wanted to be on an upperfloor.

The detachment was billeted as aunit in Grosvenor Square at theheadquarters of ComNavEu, quitevulnerable to rocket attacks. TheMarines had many close calls andsuffered some minor injuries fromconcussion. The Marine detachmentwas the only military organization tobe billeted together, enabling it toprovide security for the naval head-quarters and the embassy if needed.

The detachment maintained itsmilitary proficiency with small armsby frequent visits to the pistol rangeat Wormwood Scrubs, a British pri-son on the outskirts of London. Itwas also able to assist naval person-nel in small arms qualification priorto their transfer to duty stations inEurope. For rifle marksmanshiptraining, members of the detachmentwere sent to the range in Londonder-ry. The London detachment also oc-casionally exchanged personnel fordisciplinary reasons or simply as achange in type of duty. The detach-ment operated the Navy brig in Lon-don, and furnished orderlies for anumber of flag officers, such as thosein charge of communications and in-telligence. At least two men were onduty with Admiral Stark's office,another with a British flag officer,another with the chief of staff ofComNavEu. Later in the war, Ma-rines were sent to Paris to performa similar service for Commander,

30

Naval Forces, France, and in Germa-ny for Commander, Naval Forces,Germany. Every effort was made toreplace the men who had not yet per-formed service in the Pacific, but thatbecame difficult when a flag officerexpressed a strong interest in retain-ing the orderly assigned to him. Ad-miral Stark's reliance upon SergeantFrancis M. Connolly, who served ashis orderly for more than three years,was an example.

The detachment also performed aregular schedule of drills and ceremo-nies, and a weekly parade in thesquare with a small Navy band wasalways well attended. As the Marineswore dress blues, civilians looking onseemed to be cheered by this touchof color in what was otherwise a verydrab military scene.

The detachment was given aChristmas present on 12 December1944 when it was invited to a con-cert by Army Air Corps Major GlennMiller and his orchestra at theQueensbury All-Services Club. Dur-ing the evening, he paid a specialtribute to the detachment asrepresentatives of the Marine Corps.This turned out to be the last perfor-mance of his life. On a flight to Paristhe following day, his plane was ap-parently shot down by the Luftwaffeand he was never heard from again.

The detachment participated in avery special occasion on 16 Septem-ber 1945 when the Commandant or-dered it to deliver, with appropriateceremony, a set of Marine colors tothe Royal Welsh Fusiliers (RWF),whose regimental headquarters waslocated in Wrexham, Wales.

A color guard was selected, whichincluded Platoon Sergeant FlorianoP. Sampieri, Sergeant Ray Fitzgerald,and Privates First Class MatthewRyan and Marvin Bullard. Theytraveled to Wrexham, where theyparaded with an RWF unit to the par-ish church and presented the colors.The colors are still displayed there incommemoration of the close associ-ation between the two services: The

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RWF is the oldest military organiza-tion in Wales, with a long history offoreign duty, especially during theBoxer Rebellion in China, where itfought alongside the U.S. MarineCorps.

On display at the Royal WelshFusiliers' regimental chapel was theoriginal score of John Philip Sousa'smarch, "The Royal Welsh Fusiliers,"which he composed and delivered tothe regiment in person on 26 June1930, just two years before his death.The Marine color guard also paidhonor to the grave of Elihu Yale, theWelsh founder of Yale University,who is buried in Wrexham.

At the time of this author's arrivalin July 1944, one month after the D-Day landing in Normandy, Londonwas a city of considerable devasta-tion. German buzz-bombs were adaily occurrence, and in daylightthey were clearly visible as they camelumbering over like large trucks inthe sky, setting off a siren warningsystem in the danger area. As eachlanded the result would be nearly asquare block of destruction, fre-quently with many casualties, sincethe target area was so well populat-ed. Yet, in spite of this danger andthe many shortages caused by thewar, there seemed to be a great spirit

among the people, as they seemed toknow they would eventually winout.

London was also a city of peoplein uniform. It appeared that half thepopulation wore some type of uni-form, many from countries that werehard to identify. There were quite anumber of Dutch Marines, who hadescaped to the United States and beentrained at Camp Lejeune and worethe regular American Marine greenuniform with their own insignia.Their frequent failure to saluteAmerican officers resulted in com-plaints to the detachment com-mander, which was a difficultproblem for him to resolve.

The London Marine detachmentmuster rolls continued to carry thenames of many Marines who werelisted for reporting purposes only.Their duties covered a wide range ofactivities. Most were highly classi-fied, especially those with the Officeof Strategic Services (OSS) perform-ing clandestine services on the Con-tinent. Two of these, SergeantCharles Perry and Platoon SergeantFrederick J. Brunner, were killed inaction in Europe. Another OSS Ma-rine was Lieutenant John Hamilton(movie star Sterling Hayden), whowas awarded the Silver Star Medal

for his work with guerrilla forces inYugoslavia.

The muster rolls of the detachmentalso listed Captain Marvin C. Ross,who was assigned to the G-5 sectionof the SHAEF staff, representingMonuments, Fine Arts, and Ar-chives, with a mission to help salvageand preserve the art treasures of Eu-rope. Another was a Marine colonel,Wethered Woodworth, who hadserved in France in World War I. Hewas a field commissioner in the U.K.in the headquarters office of theArmy-Navy Liquidation Commis-sioner. There was also LieutenantAlan K. Magary, who was on thestaff of the Naval Technical Mission,Europe. Marine Captain John Dick-son was shown as an intelligenceofficer with ComNavEu. He was aGerman linguist, whose wife was aformer member of the Berlin Sym-phony Orchestra.

One of the most prominent mem-bers of the group was Marine Lieu-tenant Edward T. Dickinson, Jr. Hewas an expert on factories who wasgiven the responsibility, prior to D-Day, to develop plans for thesabotage of key factories in occupiedEurope, and subsequently to pin-point targets for destruction by guer-rilla forces.

The Marine Detachment, American Embassy, London, posesin Grosvenor Square in January 1945. Maj Harry Edwards,

31

the detachment commander, is on the left of the rear row, whilePlSgt Floriano P. Sampieri, senior NCO, is on the right.

Photo courtesy of LtCol Harry Edwards, USMC (Ret)

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There also was Lieutenant ColonelJohn M. Maury, Jr., an assistantnaval attache for air in the Ameri-can Legation at Murmansk, Russia,representing the War Shipping Ad-ministration. Murmansk was theport to which large amounts of sup-plies were sent, starting in 1941, insupport of the Russian war effort. Itwas the shortest route over the Arc-tic Circle and around the North Capeof Norway, but to use it was extreme-ly dangerous. German submarinesand aircraft, floating mines and hor-rible weather conditions took aheavy toll of Allied shipping, in spiteof the protective presence of Alliedwarships. On one such convoy ear-ly in the war, the American admiralin command disappeared from hisflagship, the Washington (BB 56), un-der mysterious circumstances. It waspresumed that he had been washedoverboard in the dark from his flag-ship. The convoy could not stop orslow down, however, because of thesubmarine threat, and he was listedas lost at sea.

When Admiral Hewitt arrived in1945 in relief of Admiral Stark, asComNavEu, he soon found faultwith his Navy security personnel andpromptly assigned to the Marinedetachment all security duties for theentire headquarters. And when heleft on an inspection trip to theMediterranean to visit the cruiserHelena (CL 50) and the battleshipMissouri (BB 63), he took with himthe detachment's senior MarineNCO, Platoon Sergeant "Sam" Sam-pieri, and one other Marine.

Shortly after the fall of Berlin,Coast Guard Commander J. SkellyWright and the Marine detachmentcommander paid a liaison visit totwo German cities, Bremerhaven andBerlin. They learned that they werethe first members of their respectiveservices to visit those two cities sincethe end of the war. At the time of thisvisit, both cities were almost com-pletely devastated.

They returned to London to join

the celebration of V-E Day, on 8 May1945. By this time everyone was sothoroughly fed up with blackouts,food rationing, buzz-bombs, and thewar in general that the whole cityseemed to erupt with joy and relief.This was tempered only by theknowledge that British militaryforces in Europe fully expected to bedeployed to the Pacific to join in thefight against Japan. Of course, theywere spared when the Japanese sur-rendered just three months later. V-JDay called for a repeat celebration,since that meant the world war hadfinally ended.

At the time of the author's depar-ture from London, in April 1946, thename of his organization waschanged. It would no longer be theMarine Detachment, American Em-bassy, but rather Marine Detach-ment, U.S. Naval Forces, Europe.

With the war's ending, it seemedlike more than a change of name forthe London detachment, but ratherthe terminal point for an organiza-tion that had been the focus of nearlyall Marine activities in the Europe-

an theater over an historic five-yearperiod (1941-1946).

The unit muster rolls during thatturbulent time reveal the names ofmany Marines who participated,either as Special Naval Observers,Assistant Naval Attaches, staffofficers, trainees, or combatants.Many of the officers shown on thosereports were in the ranks of lieu-tenant, captain, and major at thetime, but went on to become colonelsand generals before the end of thewar, and one, Major Wallace M.Greene, Jr., became the 23d Com-mandant of the Marine Corps.

For its part, the London detach-ment received recognition for its war-time service in the form of servicestreamers for the detachment colors:

American Defense Service Streamerwith one Bronze Star

European-African-Middle EasternCampaign Streamer

World War II Victory Streamer

National Defense Service Streamerwith one Bronze Star (Korean War)

Maj Harry Edwards looks on as his detachment Marines supervise ComNavEu staffmembers firing their pistols at targets located in Wormwood Scrubs, London.

Photo courtesy of LtCol Harry Edwards, USMC (Ret)

32

'0Research sources for this monograph wereprincipally books and records on file at the Ma-rine Corps Historical Center, Washington NavyYard. Primary sources included: Muster rolls ofMarine Corps units serving in the AtlanticTheater, 1941-1946, and the Marine Corps Per-sonal Papers Collection, especially the papersof Gens Thomas Holcomb, Holland M. Smith,and Wallace M. Greene, Jr.; LtGens James P.Berkeley, Julian C. Smith, and George F. Good,Jr.; BGens Frank H. Schwable and JamesRoosevelt; and Col John H. Magruder. Also theMarine Corps Oral History Collection, especial-ly the interviews with Gen Gerald C. Thomas;LtGens Robert 0. Bare, James P. Berkeley, Ge-orge F. Good, Jr., John C. McQueen, FrancisP. Mulcahy, and Julian C. Smith; MajGens Au-gust Larson, Omar T. Pfeiffer and Wood B.Kyle; and BGens Harold 0. Deakin, Edward C.Dyer, and Frank C. Schwable. Also bibliogra-phy files on various Marine officers and enlist-ed personnel; a draft manuscript (1989) entitled,"Herringbone Cloak-G.I. Dagger, Marines ofthe ass," by Maj Robert E. Mattingly, USMC;A Chronology of the U.S. Marine Corps1 935-1 946; and Benis M. Frank and Henry I.Shaw, Jr., History of U.S. Marine Corps Oper-ations in World War II, vol V, Victory and Oc-cupation (Washington: Historical Branch, G-3Division, HQMC, 1969).

Another important source was valuable com-mentary to the author from: LtGen James P.Berkeley; MajGen Jack P. Juhan; BGens HomerG. Hutchinson, Jr., and Harold 0. Deakin; ColsRoy T Batterton, Jr., John B. Hudson, and BruceT. Hemphill; Capt Herbert C. Merillat; andChief Warrant Officer George V. Clark. Ac-knowledgments are also due for the valuablecontributions of a former Marine officer, Ge-orge 0. Ludcke; and those of Mrs. SheilaAckerland-Lobasco, the daughter of former Ma-rine Col Francis M. Rogers.

The author is especially indebted to membersof the staff of the Marine Corps and NavyHistorical Centers for assistance with theproject.

The following changes should be made in theWorld War II 50th Anniversary commemora-tive pamphlets, as noted:

First Offensive: The Marine Corps Campaignfor Guadalcanal, p. 14, the officer listed (31)should be Maj Robert 0. Bowen.

Time of the Aces: Marine Pilots in the Solo-mons, p. 14, Robert L. Smith should be JohnL. Smith; p. 33, Sadai should be Sasai.

Up the Slot: Marines in the Central Solo-mons, p. 33, in the photo caption, Army AirForce Col Fiske Marshall should be MarineCorps Col Fiske Marshall.Breaching the Marianas: The Battle for Saipan,pp. 4-5, the quote attributed to Maj James A.Donovan was made by Capt Carl W. Hoffmanand was derived from his oral history transcript.

L ieutenant Colonel Harry W. Edwards, USMC(Ret), was in charge of the Historical Branch,

G-3 Division, Headquarters, U.S. Marine Corps,from 1952-1955. He also served on the board ofthe Marine Corps Gazette and as an editor of theOld Breed News for the 1st Marine Division As-sociation. In 1940 he graduated from the Univer-sity of Minnesota and in May 1941 received hiscommission in the Marine Corps as a member

of the 5th Reserve Officers Course. His 21 years of service included duty with the1st, 2d, and 3d Marine Divisions. As a regimental staff officer with the 3d Ma-rines, he participated in the amphibious landing on Bougainville in the Solomons,1 November 1943. From 1944 to 1946, he commanded the Marine Detachment,American Embassy, in London. In the Korean War, 195 1-1952, he commanded the3d Battalion, 7th Marines. He was awarded a Bronze Star with Combat V. He taughtin the Senior School at Quantico, and was a member of the Advance Base ProblemTeam 1955-1958. He ser'ed on the Joint Staff in Tokyo, Japan, 1958-1960, and wasawarded the Air Force Commendation Medal. He retired on 1 April 1962.

-'-:.:--—945 iØ

WORLD WAR II

THIS PAMPHLET HISTORY, one in a series devoted to U.S. Marines in theWorld War II era, is publishedfor the education and training of Marines bythe History and Museums D'fvision, Headquarters, U.S. Marine Corps,Washington, D.C., as a part of the U.S. Department of Defense observanceof the 50th anniversary of victory in that war.

Editorial costs of preparing this pamphlet have been defrayed in part bya bequest from the estate of Emilie H. Watts, in memory of her late husband,Thomas M. Watts, who served as a Marine and was the recipient of a PurpleHeart.

WORLD WAR II COMMEMORATIVE SERIES

DIRECTOR OF MARINE CORPS HISTORY AND MUSEUMSBrigadier General Edwin H. Simmons, USMC (Ret)

GENERAL EDITOR.WORLD WAR II COMMEMORATIVE SERIES

Benis M. Frank

CARTOGRAPHIC CONSULTANTGeorge C. MacGillivray

EDITING AND DESIGN SECTION. HISTORY AND MUSEUMS DIVISIONRobert E. Struder, Senior Editor; W. Stephen Hill, Visual Information

Specialist; Catherine A. Kerns, Composition Services Technician

Marine Corps Historical CenterBuilding 58, Washington Navy Yard

Washington, D.C. 20374-5040

1994

PCN 190 003125 00