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A Different War:

Marines in Europe and North Africa

by Lieutenant Colonel Harry W. Edwards, USMC (Ret)

hortly after the United

States entered World

War II, the Allies

agreed that the European Theater would

have priority in the war over the Pacific Theater. The Marine Corps' war

was in the Pacific and all war plans

regarding the employment of Marines reflected that. Nevertheless, because the Marine Corps was part of

the naval establishment, it had

responsibility also for furnishing

men to parts of the Navy assigned to

the European and Mediterranean

theaters and to the operations conducted there.

These were not large Marine formations, but were, for the most part,

individual Marines and small detachments assigned to guard duty at the

barracks and naval operating bases

established in the United Kingdom,

or men assigned as "sea-going" MaOn the Cover: During their periods of

training, the London Marines were

taught how to climb cliffs using mountaineering techniques. Similar skills are

elements of training undertaken by

present-day Marine reconnaissance

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

At left: Britain's King George VI inspects

the Marine detachment of Washington

(BB 56) on 7 June 1942. From left are:

RAdm Robert C. Giffen, commanding

Task Force 39; King George; Adm

Harold R. Stark, special naval observer;

and Capt Howard H. Benson, commander of the Washington. Commanding the Marine Detachment is Capt

James D. Hittle, who retired as a brigadier general; commanding the 1st Platoon is lstLt Jonas M. Platt, who retired

as a major general; commanding the 2d

Platoon is 2dLt Robert Knox. Photo

courtesy of The Admiralty, London

rifles in the detachments of the large

fighting ships. Another category was

filled by those intrepid Marines who

volunteered for duty with the Office

of Strategic Services (OSS), to undertake covert operations with the underground against the Nazis in the

occupied countries of Europe and

North Africa.

In April 1941, Congress stipulated

that Marine Corps strength should be

20 percent of that of the Navy. Only

a relatively few Marines were detailed to the Atlantic and they were

primarily assigned to the Navy to

perform their traditional functions,

that of security of naval installations

and service afloat. Though few in

number, they made a significant contribution, though largely overshadowed by the exploits of their

fellow Marines in the Pacific.

The U.S. Atlantic Fleet in 1941

comprised four old battleships, New

York (BB 34), Texas (BB 35), Arkansas (BB 33), and Wyoming (BB 32);

one division of heavy cruisers, San

Francisco (CA 38), Tuscaloosa (CA

37), Quincy (CA 39), and Vincennes

(CA 44); the aircraft carrier Ranger

(CV 4); and a destroyer squadron.

The carrier Wasp (CV 7) would join

the fleet shortly upon its commissioning. Marine detachments were

assigned to these ships.

Marines have traditionally served

as part of the complement of naval

warships. In World War II, this service was confined mostly to the largersized ships — battleships (BB); cruisers, both heavy (CA) and light (CL);

and carriers and light carriers (CV or

C\TL). Smaller ships normally carried

a Marine detachment only when

they served as flagships.

Marine training for sea duty be1

fore the war was provided at sea

schools established in Portsmouth,

Virginia, and San Diego, California.

Marines selected for this program

had to meet three principal criteria:

age (over 18); height (at least 5'8");

and a willingness to serve. Those

selected attended a course of eight

weeks' duration whose curriculum

included the operation of ships' guns

to which they would be assigned as

crewmen, naval terminology, boat

drills, damage control, emergency

drills, fire-fighting, gunnery practice,

shipboard ceremonies, sentry duties,

naval etiquette, and duties of a landing party.

The duties of the detachment consisted primarily of maintaining the

internal security of the ship, manning

secondary gun batteries in action,

and forming landing parties as needed. Seagoing Marines were called

upon to demonstrate a high degree of

proficiency in their assigned duties.

Assignment to sea duty, over the

years, was always highly coveted,

since it satisfied a Marine's basic requirements for travel and adventure,

and carried the promise of some exciting action along the way, as part of

a ship's landing party on foreign

shores.

A Marine officer on board ship

could anticipate assignment as the legal counsel or law officer for most

courts-martial held on board and

duty as a shore patrol officer. He also

would have an assignment at a battle station, stand quarterdeck

watches when in port, and be prepared to lead his detachment ashore

when called upon to protect American lives and property.

A detachment consisted of two or

three officers and 100 or more enlist-
ed Marines on a battleship, one or

two officers and 80 enlisted men on

a heavy cruiser or carrier, and one

and 45 on a light cruiser.

During 1941, the fleet was steadily and quickly augmented as the

naval ship-building program got underway in earnest. Along with a massive recruiting program, reserve

forces were called up. By November,

there were 3,793 Marines serving in

detachments on 68 naval ships. And

the Atlantic Fleet was further enlarged at that time by three more battleships, Idaho (BB 42), Mississippi

(BB 41), and New Mexico (BB 40);

four light cruisers, Philadelphia (CL

41), Brooklyn (CL 40), Savannah

(CL 42), and Nashville (CL 43); and

the carrier Yorktown (CV 10).

The urgency of military events in

early 1941 made it appear that,

despite its Pacific orientation, the

Marine Corps, as a ready, allvolunteer force, would actually become part of the U.S. deployment to

the Atlantic to join Allied forces in

the campaign against Germany.

The prewar period was a difficult

time in international relations, since

the U.S. was coming under increasing

alter Jordan became a Marine officer after graduation

from the Virginia Military

Institute in 1924. He served a tour in

Nicaragua and another on sea duty before his assignment as the first commander of the Marine Detachment,

American Embassy, London, July 1941

to November 1942.

This was the first organized unit of

American armed forces to be sent to Britain during World War II. Colonel Jordan was in charge of the advance

echelon when the ship carrying it was

torpedoed and sunk on the way to England. While in England he was instrumental in arranging for the U.S.

Marines to undergo joint training with

the Royal Marines.

In 1943, Colonel Jordan received the

Silver Star Medal for his leadership of

a combat unit (2d Battalion, 2d Marines)

in the Tarawa assault. For his services on

the 4th Marine Division staff at Saipan

and Tinian, he was awarded the Legion

of Merit. As the commander of the 24th

Marines at Iwo Jima, he received a second award of that medal.

He retired from the Marine Corps in

1946 and died on 16 October 1947.

LtCol Walter I. Jordan, commander of the Marine Detachment, American Embassy, London, briefs his officers on a

winter 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. Myers, Capt Walter F Layer, and Marine Gunner George V. Clark.

Nearly all Marines in Europe reported through the detachment.

pressure from France and Great Britain to provide assistance. President

Franklin D. Roosevelt was increasingly disposed to do so, but lacked both

Congressional mandate and public

support.

The terms of the armistice after the

Colonel Walter I. Jordan USMC

2
fall of France in June 1940 forced that

country to accept alignment with the

Axis. This arrangement posed important questions on the future status of

French territory in the Western

Hemisphere. Of particular significance was the island of Martinique, which harbored major

elements of the French fleet, plus

more than 100 American-built aircraft that were in transit to Europe,

and a storehouse of gold bullion.

Other Atlantic islands of strategic

interest to the U.S. were those of the

Portuguese Azores and Iceland. They

appeared to be both strategically

valuable and vulnerable. Marine

forces were alerted in 1941 to the possibility of assignment to Martinique

or the Azores. Protecting Iceland became a top priority as British intelligence reports revealed Germany's

plans to attack Russia.

To help deal with these concerns

and to facilitate amphibious training,

the Commandant of the Marine

Corps established a provisional corps

in May, commanded by Major General Holland M. Smith. It included

the 1st Marine Division and the Army's 1st Infantry Division. When the

Amphibious Force, Atlantic Fleet,

was commissioned at Norfolk, General Smith was the first commander

of its ground component, Amphibious Corps, Atlantic Fleet. Through

the efforts of General Smith's amphibious training staff, the 1st, 3d,

7th, and 9th U.S. Infantry Divisions

were given amphibious training in

time for the North African landings.

When the call came in June 1941 for

the first major deployment of American combat forces in the Atlantic

Theater, it was the 1st Provisional

Marine Brigade, comprised of the 6th

Marines and the 5th Defense Battalion, which was dispatched to Iceland.

The brigade landed there on 7 July

and remained on occupation duty for

10 months, until May 1942. The details of the operation are covered in

Outpost in the North Atlantic: MaTines in the Defense of Iceland,

another pamphlet of this series. The

threat of German occupation of any

of the Atlantic bases was greatly lessened on 22 June, when Hitler ordered his forces to invade Soviet

It is interesting to note that, when

the 1st Provisional Brigade went

ashore at Reykjavik, Iceland, it was

met on the dock by Major Walter I.

Jordan and members of his 12th

Provisional Marine Company. These

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

American Ambassador to the Court of St. James's, John Winant, gives instructions to orderly PlSgt John H. Allen, Jr. Marines provided security for the Embassy 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)

3

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a

c

1
11 Marines were survivors of the torpedoing and sinking of the Dutch

transport, SS Maasdam, by a German submarine 300 miles south of

Iceland on 26 June. They were rescued and taken to Iceland on the SS

Randa. The men had formed an advance detail of Major Jordan's unit,

en route from the Marine Barracks

in Washington for assignment in London. Reembarked on the SS Volendam, they finally reached London on

15 July, there to join forces with 48

other Marines, including three

officers, Captain John B. Hill and

First Lieutenants Roy J. Batterton, Jr.,

and Joseph L. Atkins. These three

officers had been embarked on

another Dutch transport, the SS Indraporia, which made the crossing

without mishap. The 59-man organization was designated the Marine

Detachment, American Embassy. A

second echelon arrived about six

months later.

The table of organization for this

detachment had been prepared in

London sometime earlier by Major

4

John C. McQueen, at the request of

Admiral Robert L. Ghormley, Assistant Chief of Naval Operations, who

was in England at the time.

Major McQueen had been sent to

London in the prewar period in 1940.

He traveled in civilian clothes on a

ship, Duchess of Richmond, and arrived in London during a German air

raid. After reporting to the American Embassy, he went to Inveraray,

Scotland, to observe the training of

Royal Marines and especially to

study the landing craft in use by the

British. Marine Major Arthur T.

Mason accompanied McQueen on

this visit. Mason benefited from these

contacts in his subsequent duty assignment to the combined operations

section on the staff of the Supreme

Commander Southeast Asia, Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten.

While McQueen was in London,

he was concerned about the lack of

security at the American Embassy at

1 Grosvenor Square and made some

comments to that effect. The American Ambassador, John Winant, was

so impressed that he gave McQueen

the job of embassy security officer.

Before leaving to return to

Washington, he was entrusted with

a classified instrument to be delivered

to the Office of Naval Intelligence

(ONI). He had some anxious moments en route home through the

Azores, since it was considered to be

a den of spies at that time. Upon arrival in New York, he was met, unexpectedly, by strangers in civilian

clothes. He thought surely they were

out to waylay him, only to learn that

they were ONI security men. He was

relieved when he delivered his precious cargo to Washington: a topsecret radar device invented by the

British and specifications for its

manufacture. It was greatly superior to equipment then in development

in the United States.

McQueen was but one of a succession of Marine officers ordered to

London during this period before the

war 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 in

Grosvenor Square in 1942. They were to remain here for the rest of the war.
—I) t4

I1 M I,,I.-,

war. Most of them held the title of

"assistant naval attache" (ANA) or

"special naval observer" (SNO). The

ANA designation enabled one to

travel on a diplomatic passport and

to enjoy many of its privileges, including immunity from arrest in the

host country. An attache was a member not only of the official staff of

the American Ambassador to Great

Britain, but also of the diplomatic

corps, composed of all of the foreign

governmental representatives resident in London. An attache also

could be accredited to the London

embassy while being designated as

ANA in other countries. This was the

case with several Marine officers,

who were accredited to London and

assigned to Cairo and other capitals.

Once established in London, the

Marine Detachment, American Embassy, under command of Major

Walter I. Jordan, with Captain John

B. Hill as executive officer, became

the official reporting echelon for

nearly all Marine personnel serving

in Europe and Africa, including those

on temporary duty and those attached to the OSS. The detachment

was billeted at 20 Grosvenor Square,

which was known at that time as the

American Embassy Annex.

Major Jordan and Captain Hill

both held the title of ANA and their

duties took them to various parts of

the United Kingdom as Special Naval

Observers (SNOs). Jordan was the

only detachment commander to carry this added title. None of the three

officers who succeeded him in the

post— Captain Thomas J. Myers,

First Lieutenant Alan Doubleday,

and Captain Harry W. Edwards —

were so designated.

Initially, the detachment roster

showed a strength of four officers

and 55 enlisted men. Since this was

the first embassy detachment in London for the Marine Corps, the enlisted personnel were selected with

emphasis on intelligence and military

bearing; many of them had previously served in the 1939 World's Fair

Department of Defense Photo (USMC) A49691

Maj John C. Mc Queen was ordered to

England in 1940 to observe the training

of Royal Marines and to study the types

of British landing craft. While in London, he was appointed Embassy security officer by Ambassador Winant.

Detachment in New York. When the

second echelon of the 12th Provisional Marine Company arrived in December 1941 with 2 more officers and

62 enlisted Marines, the strength

swelled to 123. The two additional

officers were Captain Walter Layer

and First Lieutenant Thomas J.

Myers.

Before departure from America, all

members of the detachment were

outfitted with a complete civilian

wardrobe, purchased from the Hecht

Company in Washington, D.C., with

a government clothing allowance. It

was U.S. policy, prior to the declaration of war, to have military personnel travel in civilian clothes when

en route to countries which were at

war.

The mission of the London detachment was to provide security for the

American Embassy and to furnish escorts for State Department couriers.

Sergeant John H. Allen, Jr., was assigned duty as orderly to the American Ambassador. The unit's billet on

Grosvenor Square was close to the

American Embassy, a very prestigious address in peacetime, but a

tempting target in wartime. The Marifles established their own mess, appointed an air raid precaution officer

and, with the arrival of HarleyDavidson motorcycles equipped with

sidecars, operated a courier service

between the Embassy and various

governmental staff offices in London.

Warrant Officer George V. Clark organized the service, modeled after

one that he operated in Shanghai,

China, for the 4th Marines during

1937-1939.

As with all services, the immediLtCol Jordan fostered good relations with the Allied services in England, and

especially with the Royal Marines. A rifle match was held jointly with them at

Portsmouth 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 rapid

expansion for the Marine Corps. Marine aviation, which would grow

from 240 pilots in 1940 to 10,000 in

1944, focused much of its attention

on the Royal Air Force (RAF), whose

effective air defense in the Battle of

Britain (1940) was one of the greatest

military victories of all time. It had

severely reduced the strength and

combat efficiency of the Luftwaffe,

the German air force, saved the beleaguered survivors of Dunkirk, and

protected England from invasion.

Many Marine aviators visited England and Egypt during this time,

and what they learned from the RAF

would have a profound effect upon

the development of tactics and techniques employed by the Marine air

arm during World War II.

Major General Ralph J. Mitchell,

Director of Aviation at Headquarters, U.S. Marine Corps, prior to

World War II, was eager to have his

officers and NCOs learn what they

could from the British experience of

fighting the Luftwaffe. He sent them

as observers to Cairo and London

and frequently as students or trainees

to various training courses offered by

the British.

In 1941, MajGen Ralph I. Mitchell,

Director of Aviation at Headquarters,

Marine Corps, dispatched senior Marine

aviators to observe and learn what they

could from British air tactics against the

Nazis in the desert war. Then-Col Roy

S. Geiger, here in a postwar official portrait, was one of the first sent to Egypt.

Department of Defense Photo (USMC) 303319

These practices began before

America entered the war, and continued throughout the war. Most of

those officers were given the status

of ANA for Air, and assigned to the

American Embassy in London. After

June 1941, they were carried, for

record purposes, on the muster rolls

of the Marine Detachment in

London.

Among the first arrivals, in April

1941, were Colonels Roy S. Geiger

and Christian F. Schilt. They spent

their time in Africa, observing British

operations. Geiger was on board the

British aircraft carrier Formidable

while it was performing escort duty.

By the time the carrier had reached

its destination, it had lost all of its

aircraft and pilots in combat operations protecting the convoy from attack by aircraft and submarines.

Brigadier General Ross E. Rowell

and Captain Edward C. Dyer took

the long trip around through China

and India and arrived in Cairo a

month later. Rowell was interested in

the operational side of the RAF and

he told Dyer to concentrate on the

technical aspects, since Dyer was a

communications specialist with an

advanced electronics degree and had

been assigned to the Navy Bureau of

Aeronautics.

They met with top British military

leaders: General Sir Archibald

Wavell, Air Vice Marshal Arthur

Tedder, and Admiral Andrew Cunningham, and found all of them extremely cooperative. In anticipation

of American entry into the war, nearly all of the British commanders were

very friendly and forthcoming with

their military visitors. The only exception was General Bernard L.

Montgomery, who had a reputation

for not tolerating visitors at his headquarters.

The Marines were favorably impressed by a number of things which

they observed, including: the organization of the war rooms; the RAF radio intercept system used to track the

movement of all German aircraft; de6

Department of Defense Photo (USMC) A401984

Col Christian F Schilt was another Marine pilot sent to the Middle East. For

bravery in January 1928 while flying

with Observation Squadron 7-M,

then-i stLt Schilt was awarded the Medal of Honor. He served in both World

War II and the Korean War, where he

was commander of the 1st MAW

ceptive use of dummy airfields, complete with dummy aircraft; the competence of British radio technicians

and their ingenuity in salvaging

material for operational repairs; and

the effective air defense system employed by the RAP in the Western

Desert.

Other Marine aviators who arrived in Cairo at this time included

Lieutenant Colonels Claude A. Larkin and Walter G. Farrell, and Captain Perry 0. Parmalee. All visited

RAF squadrons in Haifa and Beirut

as well as Egypt.

While in Egypt, Dyer contracted

yellow jaundice and dengue fever

and was to be hospitalized for a

month. Once recovered, he caught up

with Rowell in London, where they

visited the RAP Coastal Command

headquarters in Scotland and Bomber Command in England. They observed how the RAF used pathfinder

aircraft to guide their bomber formations over German targets and how

they employed saturation bombing

to minimize losses.

Dyer enrolled in a three-week

(I

I
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course for fighter controllers at Stanmore where, for the first time, he was

given detailed information about the

use of radar. The Germans, as did the

U.S., also had some radar equipment, but it was not nearly as

sophisticated, or effective, as that developed by the British. Dyer next attended a British radar school and

stood watches, as an observer, at various Fighter Command stations and

ground control intercept stations, so

as to become well indoctrinated in

the system.

For his return home, Dyer embarked on a British aircraft carrier

and that was, for him, the most disappointing part of the entire trip. He

alleged that the British use of alcohol in their wardrooms adversely affected both their personnel and their

flight operations.

Drawing upon his training and observations in England, Dyer was able

to suggest changes in Marine aviation

doctrine for employing intercepting

aircraft more effectively. He also was

able to adopt much of the RAF system of night interception in the subsequent development of training for

night fighter squadrons in the Marine

Corps.

Back in Washington, he shared his

knowledge with others, especially his

Naval Academy classmate, Major

Frank H. Schwable, who later played

a large role in developing a nightfighter program for the Marine

Corps.

Dyer's visit to England was quickly

followed by those of other Marine

flyers in 1941 and 1942. They included Schwable and Major Lewis G.

"Griff" Merritt. Schwable was directed by the Commandant of the Marine Corps to "get all the information

you can on the organization and

operation of night fighting squadrons, paying particular attention to

the operational routine, squadron

training, gunnery and tactical doctrine He also was told not to

be concerned about the technical end

of it, since that had been covered by

Dyer. Schwable and Merritt also

visited Cairo to observe British air

operations in desert warfare.

When Schwable returned home in

April 1942, he wrote a detailed report

on his findings. He was convinced

that the most essential qualification

for a night fighter pilot was his desire

to be one. He recommended that

those selected should be fairly young

but stable and conscientious, coolheaded but aggressive, and not

Department of Defense Photo (USMC) 68297

Maj Frank H. Schwable was directed by

MajGenComdt Thomas Holcomb to go

to England to "get all the information

you can on the organization and operation of night fighting squadrons

When he returned to the United States,

he pioneered Marine Corps night fighter tactics and commanded the first such

night fighter squadron in the Pacific

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

He and Dyer fought hard to obtain

funding for the aircraft and personnel that would ultimately produce an

effective night fighter capability for

the Marine Corps. When the first

Marine Night Fighter Squadron,

VMF(N)-531, was commissioned on

16 November 1942, Schwable became its leader and it would achieve

a fine combat record in the Pacific

The list of Marine aviators who

visited Europe and North Africa

operations continued. Lieutenant

Colonel Francis P. Mulcahy and

Major William J. Manley both spent

nearly all of their time in Egypt.

Lieutenant Colonel Field Harris and

Major William D. McKittrick spent

nearly four months, from August to

November 1941, inspecting British

aircraft facilities and equipment

(much of which was Americanmade), debriefing bomber crews, and

talking with staff officers. They also

visited Palestine, Syria, and Cyprus.

war.

Two Marine aviators, BGen Ross E. Rowell, left, and Capt Edward C. Dyer took the

long trip to the Middle East by way of China and India, and arrived in Cairo in May

1941. 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

7

—a
Department of Defense Photo (USMC) 14569-A

Another pilot sent to the Middle East

was Maj Lewis G. "Griff" Merritt, who

had the unique experience, as a Marine,

of being shot down by a Luftwaffe plane

while a passenger in a RAF aircraft.

Captain Etheridge C. Best went to

England to study the communications control system in the RAF. He

attended the RAF Day Fighter Controller Course and several courses

regarding radar. He also visited most

of the RAF units in England. Returning home in early 1942, he helped to

pioneer the use of a ground control

intercept system by the Marine Corps

and became a deputy director of the

Electronics Division of the Bureau of

Aeronautics.

Prodded by an urgent request from

Admiral William F. Halsey for a

night fighter capability in the Pacific, the Marine Corps continued to

send aviation personnel to England

to observe and train with the RAF in

order to learn its system of night

fighting and radar control. Among

the officers so assigned were Majors

Frank H. Lamson-Scribner, William

Via, Michael Sampas, Gooderham L.

McCormick, Frank C. Dailey, and

John Wehle.

Major Wehle, who was a Marine

test pilot, took particular interest in

testing various British aircraft. He

was also charged to investigate the

British glider program. He returned

to the U.S. with a negative recommendation, which probably helped

to doom a Marine Corps glider program that was already underway.

Many distinguished ground officers also conducted productive

visits to England as observers prior

to America's entrance into the war.

Colonel Julian C. Smith and Major

Jack P. Juhan arrived in London at

the height of the German air blitz

and spent some anxious moments in

air-raid shelters. They collected a

large amount of material on landing

boats and tactics, enjoyed a number

of high-level briefings, and toured the

British amphibious warfare base at

Rosneath, Scotland, where they had

a visit with Prime Minister Winston

S. Churchill. Their trips were followed by those of Colonel John T.

Walker, Majors George F. Good, Jr.

and Lyman C. Miller, Captains Bruce

T. Hemphill, Eustace C. Smoak, Joe

Smoak, and Charles Cox, and Warrant Officer Ira Brook.

During May and June of 1941,

Major Good and Captain Hemphill

traveled to England on a secret mission, along with some Navy civil engineers, to tour four base sites, two

in Scotland and two in Ireland, and

to advise the Marine Corps and the

Navy as to their security requirements. They arrived in London on a

Pan American Airways Clipper flight

via Lisbon.

Their itinerary included a five-day

stay in Londonderry, Northern

Ireland, followed by a stop in

Greenoch, Scotland. At the end of

their reconnaissance, Major Good returned to Iceland to rejoin the 5th

Defense Battalion, and Captain

Hemphill escorted the newly arrived

Marine embassy guard detachment

to London before returning to

Washington.

Majors Wallace M. Greene, Jr.,

and Samuel B. Griffith II, arrived

together in England in 1941 with an

interest in special forces, in anticipation of the establishment of similar

organizations in the Marine Corps.

8

Greene attended the British Amphibious Warfare School and the

Royal Engineers' Demolition School,

while Griffith observed commando

training. After their return — and

based to a degree upon an impetus

from the White House — Major General Thomas Holcomb, Commandant of the Marine Corps, authorized

the formation of two raider battalions. Griffith became the executive

officer of the 1st Raider Battalion and

subsequently its commander.

The concept of having specialized

units in the Marine Corps was a controversial issue and would continue

to be so during the war. Commando

training, however, was a focus of interest as the Marines noted the success the British commandos had, and

they welcomed the opportunity to

send Marines to England for that

training.

On 7 June 1942, the London detachment designated two of its

officers, Captain Roy T. Batterton,

Jr., and Marine Gunner George V.

Clark, and 10 enlisted men, to take

the training. Captain Batterton later

Then-Col Julian C. Smith, left, and Maj

Jack P Juhan arrived in England at the

height of the German air raids to collect

information on British landing craft and

tactics, and to tour the amphibious

warfare base at Rosneath, Scotland.
tr',

v'i

provided some interesting highlights

of his experience during seven grueling weeks that summer (He considered the course to have been extremely valuable to him during his subsequent duty with the 4th Marine

Raider Battalion in the Pacific.).

Batterton's Marine detail was assigned successively to four different

commando units for its training at

various bases in Scotland and England. Three were British Army

Commandos (4th, 6th, and 9th) and

one Royal Marines. A British Army

commando averaged 500 men in size

with a lieutenant colonel in command. There were six troops per

commando, each commanded by a

captain, and three sections per troop,

each commanded by a lieutenant.

Their training began at Achnacarr Scotland, where the Marines were

quartered in Nissen huts. Their beds

consisted of wooden slabs, laid

across six-inch blocks with straw

mats as mattresses. Their working

day was from 0830 to 1740, with time

off only on Saturday afternoons.

Training was in 40-minute periods allocated as follows: Bren gun, 16 periods; Thompson sub-machine gun, 4;

grenades, 9; pistol, 4; foreign arms,

6; Garand rifle, 10; firing all

weapons, 20; physical training, 21;

bayonet, 6; climbing, 4. In addition,

there were various course exercises,

toggle bridging, field craft (scouting

and patrolling), marching, mapreading, and two field exercises of 16

and 36 hours each.

A rapid, seven-mile march demanded the utmost endurance. On

such a forced march, the British required that all men keep in step, all

the time, at either quick- or doubletime, to create the teamwork which is

essential to achieving their objective.

On a toggle ride (called 'Death

Ride"), they crossed a stream by

climbing a tree with the help of a

50-foot rope ladder, then sliding

down a taut rope stretched down9

ward at a 30-degree angle from the

tree to another on the opposite bank,

by looping the toggle rope over the

taut rope. A toggle rope is normally

six feet long and half an inch in diameter, with a wooden handle

spliced on one end and an eye spliced

on the other end.

For descending from cliffs, they

were taught a method called "absailing;' which involves the use of a

100-foot length of 1/2-inch rope,

looped first around a tree or a rock.

The descent is made in bounds, and

the rope section is brought along

with each increment of descent.

In an assault exercise, performed

in 10 minutes, they crawled under a

barbed wire, ascended a log ramp in

order to jump from an eight-foot

height over a six-foot barbed wire

obstacle, descended a cliff by rope,

and finished with a bayonet charge!

In another such exercise, two-man

teams were employed, one covering

the other, to approach a dummy

house while firing from the hip with

automatic weapons, throwing

grenades through the windows,

searching the structure, then departing over a fence, down a ravine by

rope ladder, and up the other side by

rope, using grenades against surprise

targets, and ending with a bayonet

charge. They also practiced rowing

a 30-foot whaleboat, followed by a

cross-country run of two miles from

and back to the boat.

Several of these assault exercises

were conducted with live ammunition. The training schedule proceeded regardless of weather, which is

frequently poor in Scotland. During

training hours in the camp area, with

few exceptions, everyone moved on

the double.

For their 36-hour exercise, they

embarked for a night landing on a

simulated Norwegian coastal area.

Upon landing they moved 15 miles

to a viaduct, made preparations to

"blow it up;' and returned by a different route which was 35 miles crosscountry. 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 detachment took 10 members of the detachment north to Scotland to begin a seven-week

commando training course. They are shown here at Achnacarry, where they began

their training. In the front row are, from left: PFC Edgar Reynolds, Capt Batterton, Cpl John Sudro, and Sgt George Allen. Middle row: Cpl Walter Kelly, PFC

Michael Dun bar, PFC Donald Stoner, and Cpl Paul Cramer. Rear row: Sgt George

Hudock, Marine Gunner Clark, PFC Taylor Collom, PlSgt Way Holland, Sgt Curtis

Tatum, and Cpl Henry Dozier. Another member, Sgt Robert Ryan, was not present.
I

'C-.

, 9.wr4W

perimeter and signaled for a retrieval

by boat.

During the course of the seven

weeks of training, the Marines went

from Achnacarry, Scotland; to

Cowes on the Isle of Wight; to Portsmouth, England (where they embarked in preparation for a landing

at Dieppe on the French coast); then

back to Scotland to Lachailort and

Helensburgh. Thereafter, it was a

tired but physically fit, well-trained

detail of Marines which returned to

its detachment in London on 31 July.

These Marines were soon transferred

to the United States and assigned to

combat units for duty in the Pacific

mostly to Marine raider battalions in

which they could practice and share

their lessons learned.

The senior British instructor was

so pleased with the performance of

this group that he sent a letter via

Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten,

then head of British combined operations, to Admiral Stark at the headquarters of Commander, Naval

Forces Europe, stating that "the Marines have undergone an arduous

commando training with an exceptionally unconquerable spirit which

never wavered during the course" He

singled out for special praise the

work of Captain Batterton and Marine Gunner Clark and three NCOs:

Platoon Sergeant Way Holland, and

Sergeants George J. Huddock and

Curtis A. Tatum. This report pleased

Major Jordan, as he had been instrumental in organizing an exchange

of training between the Royal Marines and the Corps which would

continue over the years. Captain Batterton and his detail were not the first

group of Marines to receive this commando training, nor were they the

last. It proved to be a beneficial training resource for the Marine Corps in

the early stages of World War II.

During May and June 1941, Major

Gerald C. Thomas and Captain

James Roosevelt followed one of the

10

most interesting itineraries of any

Marine in the European Theater. On

a special mission for President

Roosevelt, they flew from India to

Basra, Iraq, along with Brigadier

William Slim of the British Army, arriving at a hotel that was filled with

wounded soldiers. They flew from

there on a British Sunderland flying

boat to Suez, and on by car to Cairo,

where they met two more Marine observers, Farrell and Captain Parmalee. After a briefing by the staff

of Air Vice Marshal Arthur Tedder

(later General Eisenhower's top

deputy in Europe), they had a visit

with General Sir Archibald Wavell,

Middle East commander. Thereafter,

they obtained requested transportation to Crete to deliver a message to

King George, who had been driven

from his throne in Greece by the Germans. Despite dire warnings of

danger, they flew in a British flying

boat to Crete, where they landed in

the midst of a German air raid.

Nevertheless, they completed their

mission, which was to deliver the letter from President Roosevelt to King

George, and then departed for Alexandria, Egypt.

From Cairo they flew to Jerusalem

for visits with King Peter of Yugoslavia; the High Commissioner for

Palestine, Sir John McMichael; and

Abdul, the Regent of Iraq. They were

nearly killed here during a strafing

attack by German fighters. They had

only sandbags for protection, since

there were no dugouts to hide in because of the high water table in the

area. By the time they returned to

Cairo, the Germans had already invaded Crete and seized the island

with heavy losses for the British

defense force.

Returning to Cairo, they visited

General Charles de Gaulle at his Free

French Headquarters, then in Cairo,

before leaving (along with Parmalee

and Farrell) on a flying boat for Lisbon. Then-Captain Mountbatten

also was a passenger on that flight.

He had earlier lost his destroyer diPhoto courtesy of Col Roy J. Batterton, USMC (Ret)

During their periods of training in Scotland, the London Marines were taught

how to climb cliffs using mountaineering techniques. Similar skills are elements

of training undertaken by present-day Marine Corps reconnaissance units.
s!r

4/.

vision in the battle of Greece, and he

told them that his nephew, Prince

Philip, was also a survivor of that action. At the end of that memorable

trip, Major Thomas reported to the

Commandant of the Marine Corps

and requested to be returned to duty

with troops.

The muster rolls of the Marine

Detachment in London frequently included the names of "visiting" Marines. The number of visitors each

month varied, as did their assignments and missions. In this category,

OSS Marines were a most unusual

group, mostly reservists recruited because they possessed highly specialized skills needed to carry out the

organization's intelligence mission.

The OSS was established on 13

June 1942 as a successor to the Office

of the Coordinator of Information

(COT). Its director was Army Reserve

Colonel William J. Donovan, a

World War I hero and recipient of the

Medal of Honor, whose reputation

for fearlessness earned him the nickname of "Wild Bill:' OSS was a strategic intelligence organization which

functioned outside the military services to carry out missions assigned by

the chiefs of the armed services.

In addition to its civilian personnel, OSS had the authority to recruit

military personnel from all services.

Marine officers assigned to this work

were given a specialty of MSS: Miscellaneous Strategic Services. More

than 35 Marine officers and a considerable number of enlisted Marines

were assigned to duty with the OSS

in Africa and Europe during the war.

Their duties were so highly secret

that even their award citations were

classified and remained so until after the war. Captain Peter J. Ortiz,

for example, was twice awarded the

Navy Cross, but these citations were

not immediately published. The Marine Corps personnel in OSS made

significant contributions to the Allied

war effort in Europe and throughout

the world.

In October 1942, two COl/OSS

y the time Colonel Franklin A.

Hart arrived for duty in London

in June 1941, he already had a

distinguished record of Marine Corps

service.

A student at Auburn University, class

of 1915, Hart was a top athlete in football, track, and soccer. He served as a

Marine officer in France in World War I,

and later in the Dominican Republic and

Nicaragua, followed by a tour of sea

duty and another of shore duty in

Hawaii.

As a Special Naval Observer in England during World War II, he participated in the Dieppe operation in July

1942 and remained in England until October on the ComNavEu staff.

In June 1943 he commanded the 24th

Marines in the Marshall Islands and at

both Saipan and Tinian, from which

operations he earned the Navy Cross

and the Legion of Merit. As assistant division commander of the 4th Marine Division on Iwo Jima, he received a Bronze

Star Medal.

Subsequent duty assignments included: Director, Division of Reserve, and

Director, Public Information, Headquarters, U.S. Marine Corps; and Commanding General, Marine Corps Recruit

Depot, Parris Island. After his last command as Commandant, Marine Corps

Schools, Quantico, Lieutenant General

Hart retired in 1954 and was promoted

to general on the retired list. He died on

22 June 1967.

General Franklin A. Hart, USMC

Capt James Roosevelt, left, and Ma] Gerald C. Thomas are shown at Shepherd's

Hotel, Cairo, in May 1941, one of the last stops on Capt Roosevelt's mission for

his father, President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Capt Roosevelt commanded the 4th

Raider Battalion in the Pacific War, while Maj Thomas became G-3 and later chief

of staff of the 1st Marine Division on Guadalcanal, and later commanded it in Korea.

Photo courtesy of Mrs. Gerald C. Thomas

11

:1

4l

'
Marines were stationed at the American Legation in Tangiers, Morocco,

a key listening post in Africa for the

U.S. at the time. They were Lieutenant Colonel William A. Eddy and

Second Lieutenant Franklin

Holcomb.

Eddy was born in Lebanon of

American missionary parents and

was fluent in Arabic. He had earned

a Navy Cross and two Silver Star

Medals for combat action with the

6th Marines in World War I. Holcomb was the only son of the Marine Corps Commandant, General

Holcomb. Both officers were designated assistant naval attaches for air

and would play a prominent role in

relations with the Vichy French, and

in providing valuable intelligence for

Allied landings in Africa. Robert D.

Murphy, counselor of the American

Embassy in Vichy, once commented

that "no American knew more about

Arabs or power politics in Africa

than Colonel Eddy." In January 1943

they were joined in Tangier by Captain Ortiz. He was an American

citizen but had served in the French

Foreign Legion early in World War Weber also received an unusual asII. Thus, he was well acquainted with signment. A petroleum specialist as

the area. a civilian, he was ordered, under the

Marine Reserve Lieutenant Otto auspices of the Office of Naval IntelOne Marine assigned to covert activities in Europe with the Office of Strategic Services (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

12

Marine Detachment

American Embassy, London, England

Q

n 15 July 1941, the Marine Corps established its

first embassy detachment at London, England. It

was commanded by Major Walter I. Jordan. Initial strength was approximately 60 officers and men, but

this was doubled in size by December 1941 with the arrival of a second echelon from Marine Barracks, Washington, D.C.

The detachment was billeted in the American Embassy

Annex at 20 Grosvenor Square. Initially, the duties of the

detachment were primarily security and messenger service for the embassy. However, with the arrival of Admiral

Harold R. Stark as Commander, Naval Forces, Europe

(ComNavEu) on 17 March 1942, there was a realignment

of duties to focus more upon the naval headquarters and

less upon the embassy.

Major Jordan was succeeded by Captain Thomas J. Myers in October 1942. At that time the detachment was inactivated and its personnel transferred to Rosneath,

Scotland, to establish a Marine Barracks at the U.S. Navy

Operating Base at that location. The detachment was reestablished in London on 21 January 1943, and resumed

its original designation and duties. Myers was replaced by

First Lieutenant Alan Doubleday, who served until August

1944. He, in turn, was succeeded by Captain Harry W. Edwards, who remained in that post until April 1946, at which

time the unit was given a new designation as the Marine

Detachment, U.S. Naval Forces, Europe.

The detachment served as the principal administrative

headquarters for Marines in Europe throughout World War

II. Muster rolls for the unit reveal the names of the numerous Marine personnel who were sent to Europe and Africa

for staff duty or as observers and trainees, both before the

war and during the war. This included many Marines who

served with the Office of Strategic Services (OSS).

Principal duties for the detachment included: ensuring

security for the naval headquarters, supplying orderlies for

flag officers, operating a motorcycle and motor vehicle messenger service between various military and diplomatic

offices, supplying escorts for State Department couriers,

and performing of ceremonial duties as required.
t-- L S

.1⁄4.

J. p. 4

4.." -----9

ligence (ONI), to report for duty in

Cairo. From there he went to Asmara, Eritrea, where he stayed for

several months, and finally he

ne of the most decorated Marine officers of World War II,

Colonel Peter Ortiz served in

both Africa and Europe throughout the

war, as a member of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS).

Although born in the U.S., he was

educated in France and began his military service in 1932 at the age of 19 with

the French Foreign Legion. He was

wounded in action and imprisoned by

the Germans in 1940. After his escape,

he made his way to the U.S. and joined

the Marines. As a result of his training

and experience, he was awarded a commission, and a special duty assignment

as an assistant naval attache in Tangier,

Morocco. Once again, Ortiz was wounded while performing combat intelligence

returned to Cairo and served as an

intelligence officer with the Army

Forces in the Middle East.

As a result of the lend-lease to the

work in preparation for Allied landings

in North Africa.

In 1943, as a member of the OSS, he

was dropped by parachute into France to

aid the Resistance, and assisted in the

rescue of four downed RAF pilots. He

was recaptured by the Germans in 1944

and spent the remainder of the war as

a POW.

Ortiz's decorations included two Navy

Crosses, the Legion of Merit, the Order

of the British Empire, and five Croix de

Guerre. He also was made a Chevalier

of the Legion of Honor by the French.

Upon return to civilian life, Ortiz became involved in the film industry. At

the same time, at least two Hollywood

films were made based upon his personal

exploits. He died on 16 May 1988 at the

age of 75.

Royal Navy of 50 overage destroyers

early in the war, the British made

available to the United States bases

on various islands in the Atlantic.

Marine units were posted at several

of these naval bases, where they remained throughout the war. They included: Marine Barracks in

Bermuda, Trinidad, and Argentia,

Newfoundland, and Marine detachments on Grand Cayman and Antigua islands and in the Bahamas.

The Pearl Harbor attack on 7 December 1941, followed by a declaration of war on Germany and Japan,

greatly accelerated the mobilization

of U.S. naval forces in the Atlantic

and Pacific Theaters. On 30 June

1941, the Marine Corps had 3,642

officers and 41,394 enlisted Marines,

and was expanding at the rate of

2,000 enlistments a month. After

Pearl Harbor, the enlistments exploded with 8,500 in December 1941,

13,000 in January 1942, and 10,000

in February. By June of that year, the

Sgt Charles L. Perry, a member of Capt Ortiz' OSS team, died

when his parachute failed while jumping over the Haute Savoie

region of France. Here, Capt Ortiz and the team members

Department of Defense Photo (USMC) A412362

render honors at Perry's grave. From left they are: Capt Ortiz; Capt Francis Coolidge, USA; Sgt Robert E. Lasalle; Sgt

John P Bodnar; Sgt Frederick I. Brunner; and Sgt Jack Risler.

Colonel Peter J. Ortiz, USMC

13
strength of the Marine Corps had

more than tripled.

On 5 February 1942, the U.S.

Navy established its first base on the

European side of the Atlantic in Londonderry, Northern Ireland, on the

banks of the River Foyle. That forward base had become necessary because the fleet could not operate

efficiently for any length of time

more than 2,000 miles from a naval

base.

Orders quickly followed for a Marine unit to provide security for this

"naval operating base" (NOB) and the

1st Provisional Marine Battalion was

organized in 1941 at Quantico, under command of Lieutenant Colonel

Lucian W. Burnham. His executive

officer was Major Louis C. Plain. In

preparation, the Marines of that battalion received some rigorous and

varied training, because one could

not predict what duties their assignments would require of them.

The 400-man battalion left the

U.S. in May 1942, on the Santa Rosa,

a converted cruise ship of the ItalianAmerican line, headed across the

North Atlantic for a destination

known to very few. A month later,

an augmentation force of 152 enlisted Marines arrived on board the SS

Siboney, led by Second Lieutenant

John S. Hudson.

Sgt Jack Risler, left, and Sgt John P Bodnar, in Paris, look at the orders giving

them top priority for a flight back home

after their release from a Nazi prisoner

of war camp in northern Germany.

Department of Defense Photo (USMC) A412365

Upon arrival in Ireland, the unit

was designated the Marine Barracks,

NOB, Londonderry, and assigned the

mission to guard the dispersed facilities of the large base, which was

about three miles from the city. Initially, the Marine Barracks was organized as follows: Headquarters and

nother distinguished scholar

who made his mark as a Reserve officer in the Marine

Corps was Colonel William A. Eddy.

Eddy became a Marine officer in 1917,

after graduation from Princeton University. He saw action in France in World

War I and received two Purple Hearts,

a Navy Cross, the Distinguished Service Cross, and two Silver Star Medals.

Between wars, he became a professor

of English at Dartmouth College and, in

1936, the president of Hobart College

and William Smith College, both in

Geneva, New York.

Returning for active duty with the

Service Company, under command

of Major James J. Dugan; Company

A, commanded by Captain John M.

Bathum; and Company B, with Captain Frank A. Martincheck in command. In late October 1942, another

draft of more than 200 men, with Second Lieutenant James B. Metzer in

Marines in 1941, he served successively

with the Office of Naval Intelligence, as

naval attache in Cairo, Egypt, and later

in Tangier, and finally he assumed duties

with the Office of Strategic Services

(OSS). Eddy was fluent in Arabic, having been born in Lebanon in a missionary family.

He was released from active duty as

a colonel in August 1944 to accept an appointment as U.S. Minister to Saudi Arabia, where he served until July 1946.

He died on 3 May 1962 in Lebanon at

the age of 66 while serving as a consultant for the Arabian American Oil Company and was buried in Lebanon.

Photo courtesy of Mrs. Mary Eddy Furman

Also assigned to the Office of Strategic Services was LtCol William A. Eddy, a welldeco rated veteran of World War I, where he earned the Navy Cross and two Silver

Star Medals. Born in Lebanon of missionary parents, Eddy was fluent in Arabia

and acted as interpreter for President Roosevelt when he met King Ibn Saud of Saudi

Arabia. Eddy was photographed with the king on board the destroyer Murphy (DD

603) while in the Red Sea. The naval officers shown here are not identified.

Colonel William A. Eddy, USMCR

14
U

.d

-r - 1

charge, arrived from the States on

board the U.S. Army transport

Boringuen. It became Company C.

Meanwhile, several promotions took

place in the unit — Bathum to major,

Plain and Dugan to lieutenant

colonel, four company officers to

captain — and the battalion reorganized to add an additional company. Captain Donald R. Kennedy took

over Company B and Captain George 0. Ludcke received command of

Company C.

Headquarters and Service Company was billeted at Springtown Camp,

as was Company B, which was assigned to guard the repair facilities.

Company C, which guarded the

Quonset storage ammunition dump

at Fincairn Glen (five miles outside

'Derry), was billeted on the grounds

of an old estate called "Beech Hill."

Company A guarded the Naval Field

Hospital at nearby Creevagh, a couple of strategically located radio stations, and a major supply depot at

Lisahally. Those Marines were billeted in Quonset huts on the grounds

of "Lisahally House;' an estate on the

River Foyle.

The Marines were needed in Londonderry not only to protect the

naval base from sabotage from German units which might have been

landed by submarine, but also from

local infiltrators. The Irish Free State

(Eire), just across the border from UIster, maintained its neutrality

throughout the war. With German

and Japanese embassies in full operation in Dublin, there was the fear

of sabotage attempts against Allied

installations, prepared with the

cooperation of militant elements of

the Irish Republican Army (IRA).

There were no IRA-supported

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

sabotage attempts, however, and history reveals that the number of

voluntary Irish enlistments in the

British Army from Eire equalled the

number from Ulster, where the draft

was in effect.

An interesting incident took place

during this period, which underscored the high degree of cooperation

The motor pool detail of the London detachment in 1 944-1 946

used their Harley-Davidson motorcycles to provide courier

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

U.S. Marines could be found in Londonderry at: 1) Lisahally, at the mouth of Lough

Foyle, a guarded dock area; 2) Fincairn Glen, an ammunition dump; 3) Beech Hill,

where units consolidated after moving from Springtown (Company A and Hq Company) and Lisahally (Companies B and C) in 1944; 4) main naval repair base, which

serviced U.S. destroyers and Canadian corvettes on the North Atlantic run; 5)

Springtown, original site of the headquarters and Company A; and 6) Creevagh

Naval Hospital. Marine sentries also were posted at two radio transmitting sites.

15
St

between the two Irish governments.

A New Zealand bomber crashlanded in Eire and its crew expected

to be interned for the duration of the

war by the Irish Free State. However,

with the unofficial blessing of the Irish Government, the RAF with the

assistance of a detail from the Marine Barracks, dismantled the plane

and removed it and its crew across

the border.

Major James J. Dugan, the barracks adjutant, was a colorful member of the original "Irish Marines;' a

nickname given to the Marines serving in Londonderry. He was a redhead from Boston who brought with

him several members of his Boston

reserve unit. He retained good rapport with the Irish and formed from

the barracks drum and bugle corps

a bagpipe band which became a

trademark of this unit. The Marines

were a welcome sight to this area,

which had sent most of its young

men off to war in 1939 in the British

Army, and from which many never

returned.

Since rain falls on average 240 days

out of the year in this area, Marines

learned quickly to do without clear

days. They also learned to respect the

Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC),

which did a very efficient job of

maintaining law and order in this

historic city of 48,000 people. The

Marines on shore patrol duty, commanded by Captain William P. Alston, established a good working

relationship with the RUC, and also

with Superintendent of Police Tom

Collins, from Londonderry's neighboring County Donegal, who became a frequent guest at battalion

social events.

Just as the "Irish" battalion arrived

in Londonderry, the 1st Provisional

Marine Brigade was relieved in

Iceland by an Army unit and

returned to the 2d Marine Division

at Camp Pendleton. A continuing

Marine presence was maintained in

Iceland, however, with the organization of a Marine Barracks stationed

at the Fleet Air Base in Reykjavik.

This 100-man unit was initially com16

manded by Major Hewin 0. Hammond. It would remain in Iceland

until 22 October 1945, when it was

disbanded.

Meanwhile, in London, Naval

Forces Europe welcomed its commander (ComNavEu) on 17 March

1942, with the arrival of Admiral

Harold R. Stark. He had been Chief

of Naval Operations until he was

replaced by Admiral Ernest J. King

after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

The Marine Detachment, which

had been on duty in London at the

same location in Grosvenor Square

since June 1941, became also a naval

security detachment. However, it retained its American Embassy designation and continued to perform

security duties for the Embassy. Additional duties included: providing

security for the naval headquarters;

supplying orderlies for several flag

officers, including ComNavEu; and

augmenting the motorcycle courier

service linking the various military

headquarters in London. In their caPhoto courtesy of George 0. Ludcke

In June 1942, the Marine Barracks, Naval Operating Base, arriving at this time were Maj Louis Shoemaker, Maj John

Londonderry, Northern Ireland, was established with the ar- Bathum, Capt Frank Martincheck, and LtCol James 1. Durival of its Marine personnel. From left to right, the officers gan. Their mission was to deter saboteurs, of whatever origin.
• r —

• :

'i-a

-—-I.. .

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S

pacities as special naval observers,

the detachment commander, Major

Jordan, and his executive officer,

Captain John Hill, continued to visit

various Allied commands throughout the United Kingdom.

Colonel Franklin A. Hart, who

had been on duty in London since

June as an assistant naval attache at

the American Embassy, now joined

the ComNavEu staff as Chief of

Naval Planning Section. Hart and

Marine aviator Lieutenant Colonel

Harold D. Campbell were assigned

to duties as liaison officers to the

Commander of Combined Operations, Vice Admiral Lord Louis

Mountbatten. These duties involved

them in the planning and preparation

for the combined British-Canadian

forces' amphibious raid on 19 August

1942 at Dieppe, on the northeastern

coast of France. They both observed

this operation from the deck of a

British destroyer, HMS Fernie.

The Dieppe landing was originally scheduled for 3 July. The elaborate

amphibious raid was to involve more

than 6,000 troops, mostly Canadian,

and more than 250 ships. Royal Marifle commandos, American rangers,

and Free French soldiers also were to

participate. Had it taken place on the

scheduled date, three U.S. Marines

would have participated as part of a

Royal Marine commando, landing

from HMS Locust. Captain Roy Batterton, Sergeant Robert R. Ryan, and

Corporal Paul E. Cramer were the

three Marines who boarded the ship

at Portsmouth, England, in preparation for a landing that was then postponed because of bad weather. After

further postponements, their participation was cancelled, and they went

on to complete their commando

The Lord Mayor of Londonderry, Sir Frederick Simmons, inspects 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 to

his rear is the barracks commander, Col Lucian W Burnham.

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

Photo courtesy of George 0. Ludcke

17

ji4t H

.?i2

S
I— __ r 1⁄2r

training on 30 July, and prepared for

reassignment in the States. In

retrospect, we know that these Marines were fortunate to have missed

out on the Dieppe raid, because it

was a fiasco.

Planned as a surprise attack

without benefit of air or naval gunfire preparation, it was designed to

test Allied ability to assault and seize

a port, to test new types of assault

craft and equipment, and to continue

to keep the Germans on edge as to

Allied plans for a cross-channel invasion.

However, tactical surprise was not

achieved and the landing party was

overwhelmed. After five hours of

heavy fighting, the landing force

withdrew, suffering a loss of 3,648

men killed, wounded, missing, or

captured. Possibly the best that can

be said of this costly lesson is that it

was a part of the price paid to help

to ensure the highly successful landing at Normandy on 6 June 1944.

There, unlike Dieppe, there would be

no attempt to seize a heavily defended port, and the assault would be

made in daylight, preceded and covered by the heaviest naval and air

bombardment that could be devised.

Shortly after the Dieppe operation, Colonels Hart and Campbell

returned to Washington, where they

were able to draw upon their experiences in planning for amphibious

operations in the Pacific. Hart was

succeeded by Marine Colonel Wilham T. Clement in October 1942.

Clement, who had narrowly escaped

capture by the Japanese at Corregidor, was assigned to the Intelligence Division of ComNavEu to

work on naval planning for the crosschannel invasion of Europe. Admiral

Stark, in a letter of 13 July 1943 to

the Commandant of the Marine

Corps, praised Colonel Clement for

his work in setting up the Intelligence

Section of ComNavEu.

A part of the high-level planning

conducted by the American and British governments called for the formation of a military ring around

Germany to be tightened as the war

progressed. The occupation of French

North Africa was seen as a first step

in that process. It also would open

the Mediterranean to Allied supply

convoys and save the long haul

around the Cape of Good Hope.

Rear Admiral H. Kent Hewitt became the Commander of Amphibi18

ous Forces, Atlantic Fleet

(ComPhibLant) in April 1942, and

the planning for the North African

operation, to be known as Operation

Torch, was begun in earnest.

During the planning, PhibLant expanded from a force of three transports to one of 28 transports, in

anticipation of transporting 37,000

Army troops and 250 tanks, plus

their combat equipment and

supplies.

The operation called for U.S.

forces to establish firm and mutualiy supporting lodgements in the

Casablanca area of French Morocco,

on the Atlantic coast of Africa, and

simultaneously, with a combined

American-British landing force, to

seize the Oran-Algiers-Tunis area in

the Mediterranean.

The objectives would be to seize

control of the entire area of French

Morocco, Algeria, and possibly

Tunisia; to be prepared to take action

against Spanish Morocco; and to

facilitate air and ground operations

against Axis forces in the western

desert.

There were important political

considerations involved, since this

area was under control of the Vichy

French Government. It's president,

During their stay in Northern Ireland and influenced by their

surroundings, members of the battalion drum and bugle corps

took bagpipe lessons and formed a pipe band. The adjutant,

Photo courtesy of George 0. Ludcke

then-Maj Dugan, a red-haired Bostonian, was chief booster.

When the barracks was deactivated, the band returned to

the States as a unit and performed in War Bond drives.
Marshal Henri Petain, according to

the terms of the French surrender,

had agreed to collaborate with the

Germans. It was known that the

French Navy represented by Admiral

Jean Darlan, was intensely loyal to

Petain and, under the watchful eyes

of the Axis powers, would probably

oppose the landing.

The Vichy French, especially

members of the naval service, were

known to be bitter toward the British Royal Navy, and hostile toward

the activities of the Free French,

represented by General Charles de

Gaulle. Under these circumstances,

it was impossible to predict the kind

of reception the task forces could expect in French North Africa.

There was a slight American

presence in North Africa during the

period, working among the French

in an effort to ease the way for the

landing force. The two most prominent individuals were Robert Murphy, U.S. counselor accredited to the

Vichy Government, and his principal

military assistant, Marine Colonel

William A. Eddy, who had been assigned to the American Legation in

Tangier, Algeria, as an assistant naval

attache for air in April 1942. Their

diplomatic efforts helped to modify

the resistance to the eventual landing operations. Eddy's assistant, Marine Lieutenant Franklin Holcomb,

contributed to the cause by locating

and smuggling out of Morocco two

boatmen from Casablanca who were

familiar with the complex hydrographic problems in the area. They

helped to pilot the landing force.

Lieutenant General Dwight D.

Eisenhower established his headquarters in London as Commanderin-Chief, Allied Expeditionary Forces

(CinCAEF) on 14 August, in time to

get involved with the planning for

Operation Torch. Admiral Sir Andrew Cunningham was given overall command of the operation.

Colonel Eddy traveled from Morocco to brief Eisenhower and his staff

on the operation. Eddy went on to

Washington to brief the service chiefs

and President Roosevelt. Eisenhower, favorably impressed, appointed

Colonel Eddy to be the senior military attache for Africa.

Meanwhile, it was determined that

weapons training was needed for

U.S. Navy boat crewmen who would

be involved in the Algerian portion

of the landing as part of the Eastern

Task Force. In September 1942, Marine Corps instructors were brought

in from Londonderry and London to

establish a three-week training camp

at the naval base in Rosneath,

Scotland.

From Londonderry, Lieutenant

Colonel Louis C. Plain and Captain

William E. Davis led a detail of 25

enlisted Marines. The London

Detachment sent First Lieutenant

Fenton J. Mee and 15 enlisted men.

At the end of the training period

these three officers and 30 of the enlisted group were divided up into six

teams and assigned to six different

ships as a part of the landing force;

Col William T Clement, who narrowly

escaped capture by the Japanese at Corregidor in Manila Bay, was assigned to

work on the plans for the cross-channel

invasion of France on D-Day, 6 June

1944. At the end of this duty, he was

promoted to brigadier general and assigned as assistant division commander

of the 6th Marine Division, then on

Guadalcanal preparing for Okinawa.

Department of Defense Photo (USMC) 522257

19

the remaining 10 enlisted men

returned to their base in Londonderry.

On 31 October 1942, the Marine

Detachment in London was disbanded and most of the unit transferred

to Rosneath to establish a Marine

Barracks there. Captain Thomas J.

Myers, formerly a company commander with the unit in London, was

placed in command. He was assisted by Lieutenants Frank R. Wilkinson, Horton J. Greene, Truman J.

Lyford, and Alexander D. Cereghino. Lieutenant Weldon James was

also present as a public affairs officer.

Lieutenant Colonels Walter I. Jordan

and John B. Hill visited Rosneath

briefly before being reassigned to the

States in November. Some key enlisted personnel remained in London on

detached duty, to carry on their original assignments at ComNavEu.

Command of the Western Naval

Task Force (TF 34), for the landing

in Morocco, was given to Rear Admiral Hewitt. It was comprised entirely of U.S. forces. Two of his key

staff members were Marine ofcers — Lieutenant Colonel Homer L.

Litzenberg, as assistant operations

officer, and Major Francis Millet

Rogers as assistant intelligence

officer.

Major General George S. Patton's

Western Task Force provided the

troops for the Morocco landings.

Ships of the task force left from various east coast ports in late October

1942 and, once assembled in convoy,

formed an armada of 100 ships, dispersed over the ocean in an area of

some 20 by 30 miles. Yet it was said

"that a flag hoist on Admiral Hewitt's

ship, Augusta (CA 31), could reach

the entire fleet in ten minutes:'

The task force was heavy on firepower to counter the threat from the

French capital ships Richelieu and

Jean Bart (with 15-inch guns), and

the possible intervention of German

warships. Included were the new battleship Massachusetts (BB 59) (with

nine 16-inch guns); the Texas (BB 35)
'I

Department of Defense Photo (USMC) A31943

Then-LtCol Homer L. Litzenberg served

on the staff of Task Force 34 commander,

RAdm H. Kent Hewitt, in Operation

Torch, the invasion of North Africa. He

later served with the 4th Marine Div ision in the Pacific War and retired after

the Korean War as a lieutenant general.

and New York (BB 34) (each with ten

14-inch guns); the carrier Ranger (CV

4) and four escort carriers; heavy

cruisers Wichita (CA 45), Tuscaloosa (CA 37) and Augusta; light cruisers Savannah (CL 42), Brooklyn (CL

40), Philadelphia (CL 41), and

Cleveland (CL 55); 38 destroyers;

four submarines; and many lesser

ships. Marine ship's detachments

were on board all of the capital ships

and the carrier.

Unlike the French army, the French

navy had not been hammered by the

Axis and was still full of fight and

prepared to resist. In France, the navy

was responsible for coastal defense

in the broadest sense, including coast

artillery and offshore aerial reconnaissance. These activities were under the command of Vice Admiral

Francois Michelier.

The convoy crossed 4,000 miles

through submarine-infested waters at

an average speed of 14 knots, in order to fulfill a scheduled D-Day of 8

November 1942. The principal operation plan called for a main landing

at Fedala, 14 miles north of Casablanca, with secondary landings at

Port Lyautey, 65 miles north, and at

Safi, 125 miles south, of Casablanca.

H-hour was 0400 but there was

confusion in the dark of night, so the

first wave landed more than an hour

late. Naval shore batteries supplied

the principal opposition to the landing, supplemented later by strafing

attacks by French aircraft. Many

ships of the French navy were involved. Some were sunk by U.S.

ships, others escaped. Several U.S.

task force ships were lost to shore

battery fire and German submarine

torpedoes. However, fighting on

shore in the Fedala area was over in

a matter of hours. Colonel Litzenberg

went ashore in this area and remained for a few days with General

Patton's headquarters. By 11 November U.S. soldiers were in position to

attack Casablanca, but since the

French defenders declared an armistice, that attack was cancelled.

Major Rogers, who was fluent in

French and Arabic went ashore at

Fedala with the mission of arranging

the berthing in Casablanca of Admiral Hewitt's flagship, Augusta. On

D-Day, Rogers went into hostile territory to seek out French Vice Admiral Francois Michelier, to try to

negotiate the surrender of all French

military personnel in Morocco. He

was subsequently used as an interpreter for peace negotiations with

French officials and was awarded a

Silver Star Medal for his courageous

efforts. Rogers remained on Hewitt's

staff throughout all of his subsequent

amphibious operations in the

Mediterranean area.

The landings in the Port Lyautey

area were successful, but stiff

resistance was later encountered and

the shore batteries were not silenced

until the following day. The town

was taken on the 9th and the airfield

the following day. An armistice was

declared on the 11th.

The Safi landing found little

resistance, except from shore batteries, and the Army tank units were

ashore by the 11th, ready for their

move on Casablanca. A party from

the Marine detachment of the USS

Philadelphia, operating under command of the Army 47th Infantry,

landed at the Port of Safi on 10

November and proceeded to the airMajor General Homer L. Litzenberg, USMC

s a major, Homer L. Litzenberg was assigned to Headquarters, Commander-inChief, U.S. Fleet, and served in England

during combined planning with the British on the conduct of the war. He also

participated in the amphibious assault of

Casablanca, French Morocco, in November 1942.

General Litzenberg was born in 1903

and began his service in the Marine

Corps as an enlisted man. In 37 years of

service he proved himself to be a leader

in combat with the award of the Navy

Cross, the Army Distinguished Service

Medal, three Silver Star Medals, and the

Legion of Merit.

He served with the 24th Marines in

the Marshall Islands and the V Amphibious Corps in the Saipan and Tinian campaigns.

As commander of the 7th Marines, he

went to Korea on 1 September 1950, and

20

led that unit in the Inchon landing and

the Chosin Reservoir campaign that

followed.

Subsequently, Litzertberg served as the

base commander of Camp Lejeune, and

then as Commanding General, Marine

Corps Recruit Depot, Parris Island;

senior member of the Military Armistice

Commission in Korea; and Inspector

General of the Marine Corps, before his

retirement on 31 May 1959.

He died on 27 June 1963.
Colonel Francis M. Rogers, USMC

s a captain in the Marine

Reserve, Francis Millet Rogers

left his position as a Harvard

University professor of foreign languages and civilizations to come onto active duty in World War II.

He was a student of western European languages and was particularly fluent

in French and Portuguese. In 1941, he

was assigned to the Amphibious Force,

Atlantic Fleet (PhibLant) and established

at Quantico what was possibly the first

armed forces foreign language school on

the east coast. When Rear Admiral H.

Kent Hewitt was given command of the

PhibLant in late 1941, Rogers joined his

staff as an intelligence officer.

In this capacity he performed distinguished service in three landing operations in the North African theater of

operations. These were: Operation Torch

in Morocco, Operation Husky in Sicily,

and Operation Avalanche in Salerno. In

the Morocco landing on 8 November,

Major General George S. Patton, Jr., as

the landing force commander, awarded

a Silver Star Medal to Major Rogers for

his service in negotiations with French

Vice Admiral Francois Michelier, which

led to the surrender of Vichy French

naval forces to the Allies.

After his return from overseas, Rogers

was assigned to duty with the staff of

Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Ernest J. King in Washington, D.C., until

19 October 1945 when he was released

from active duty and returned to the

Harvard faculty.

Colonel Rogers died on 15 August

1989.

port to guard that facility until

relieved the following day.

The Eastern Naval Task Force of

Operation Torch was scheduled for

a simultaneous landing over Algerian beaches in the Mediterranean.

This force was assembled in the United Kingdom and consisted primarily of Royal Navy warships and Allied

merchant marine transports. Unlike

the U.S. Navy, there were no troop

transports in the Royal Navy. The

British simply leased merchant ships

as needed and converted them to

troop transports. The landing force

consisted of 23,000 British Army and

10,000 American Army troops. Because of their perceived hostility

towards the British, it was hoped that

the Vichy French would view this as

an American operation and, therefore, offer less resistance. The Eastern

Task Force, including the Marines

from Rosneath, sailed from the United Kingdom on 25 October, bound

for Algeria. The Center Task Force

which had the mission of seizing and

securing the Oran area of Western

Algeria, had planned night landings

at 0100 on 8 November in three localities: one southeast and north of

Arzeu (20 miles east of Oran), a second 14 miles west of Oran, and the

third about 27 miles west of Oran.

By H-hour plus 2 there was also to

be a frontal assault on the Port of

21

Oran by two British ships. Their mission was to breach a harbor boom

chain and land onto the dock a commando unit which would seize

French naval vessels in the harbor.

Little opposition was encountered

in the three landing areas, except for

some fire from coastal batteries and

aircraft strafing. By the evening of

the 9th, the ground troops held three

of the important airfields in the vicinity, had captured 2,000 prisoners

and 90 aircraft, and were ready to assault the city when a truce was called.

The U.S. Marines in the Arzeu

landing party were in three groups:

Lieutenant Colonel Plain with 11 enlisted men, Captain Davis (who

w
spoke French) with six Marines, and

Sergeant Arnold Arrowood with six

Marines. Upon landing, they found

so many French ships lying at anchor

that not enough officers were available to take them over, so the job was

given to the enlisted Marines, with

one man assigned to each ship, complete with its crew. Some sniper fire

was encountered, but they were able

to deal with it and suffered no

casualties.

It was quite a different story for

the six Marines on board HMS Hart-

/and, which along with HMS Wa!-

ney, both former U.S. Coast Guard

cutters, had the mission of opening

the Port of Oran. Running without

lights at 0300, they were picked up

by searchlights on shore and engaged

by naval gunfire from French ships

inside the harbor, coastal artillery on

the bluffs, and machine-gun cross fire

from the jetties. Hart/and missed the

boom on the first try and, in backing off for a second attempt, ran the

gantlet of withering fire in an effort

to come alongside the dock long

enough to discharge its landing party.

Marine Corporal Norman Boike,

who was on board, reported "fourinch shells coming through the cutter's sides like blue flame:' Their vessel was soon without power and

adrift, and the dead and wounded

were piling up on the deck and in the

water. Although wounded himself,

Boike was able to jump overboard

with a raft and, along with First Sergeant Fred Whittacker and other Marines, sailors, and British commandos, who had initially been

trapped below deck, rescue some of

the wounded and make his way to

shore. Both vessels sank with heavy

losses, estimated to be 450 out of a

total 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 came

ashore. However, they were released

as soon as the armistice was signed.

Horr was listed as missing in action

and Earhart was buried in the American Cemetery which was established

at Oran.

In the Algiers area, the landing

took place as planned at about 0100,

unopposed except by coastal forts.

Coastal batteries opened fire on

forces afloat and did some damage.

The boom at the harbor was also

rammed by two British destroyers,

one of which suffered some damage,

but nothing like that at the Oran

harbor.

By 8 November, the city of Algiers had surrendered, and a friendly

welcome was extended after all fighting had ceased. French Admiral Jean

Darlan was taken into protective custody and issued the order to his

forces for suspension of all hostilities

in Algeria and Morocco, and urged

all elements of the French fleet to join

the Allied cause.

General Eisenhower was reportedly infuriated by the decision of the

French to resist. To spare further

casualties and speed the war effort,

however, he agreed to negotiate with

Darlan, in spite of the latter's notorious reputation as a Nazi collaborator. Their agreement permitted

Darlan to become governor-general

of French North Africa, in exchange

for a promise to have the French

Army lay down its arms. The agreement brought great criticism of

Eisenhower.

The U.S. Navy established an

operating and supply base in Oran,

which soon became the most important base of its kind in North Africa. A Marine detachment was

established at the base and Captain

Davis and Lieutenant Fenton Mee,

along with all of the enlisted Marines

who had participated in the landing,

became members of the detachment.

Davis became the security officer and

Mee was made detachment commander. Lieutenant Colonel Plain

joined the Naval Force staff in Oran

and remained until his transfer to the

States a short time later. The detach22

ment remained in Oran until 12

March 1943, when it was disbanded

and all personnel returned to the

States.

The Marine Detachment, American Embassy, London, was reestablished at ComNavEu on 21

January 1943, and Captain Thomas

J. Myers was placed in command.

The Marine Barracks at Rosneath

was disbanded and its personnel

transferred either to London or to

Londonderry.

The detachment was reduced in

size to 30 enlisted men. Two Marine

lieutenants, Paul Cramer and Walter

Pickerel, and a number of enlisted

Marines, who had been under instruction at the Royal Marines Military School in Devon over the

previous few weeks, were detached

and returned to the United States.

On 3 February, the Navy established a new command, U.S. Naval

Forces Northwest African Waters at

Oran. Hewitt, now promoted to vice

admiral, was placed in command,

and as also Eighth Fleet commander

directed to prepare for more landings

in the Mediterranean.

It was intended that the seizure of

Algeria and Morocco quickly lead

also to Allied occupation of Tunisia,

opening the Mediterranean coast for

staging to carry the battle northward.

However, the Axis made a strong

stand in Tunisia and gave way only

grudgingly against the combined

forces of the British Eighth Army and

American forces, led by General Patton and Major General Omar Bradley. German and Italian forces in

Tunisia finally surrendered with

some 150,000 men on 13 May. This

serious loss for the Axis provided the

Allies air and sea supremacy

throughout the southern Mediterranean, and permitted a convoy route

to be opened through to the Suez

Canal.

The decision of the Allies at this

point was to rule out an invasion of

France in 1943, but they did agree (at

the Casablanca Conference in Janu-
a I.

Brigadier General Richard H. Jeschke, USMC

the start of World War II,

Colonel Richard H. Jeschke

was the commander of the 8th

Marines, and he led that unit in combat

in the Guadalcanal operation.

After this action, Jeschke was flown

back to Washington and sent to the

Mediterranean in May 1943, to the staff

of the VI Amphibious Force, U.S. Atlantic Fleet, as Force Marine operations and

training officer. In this capacity he participated in the landings at Sicily with

the Western Naval Task Force. He also

participated in the amphibious assault

landing and subsequent operations in

Normandy, France, from 1 June to 1 July

1944.

During this period, to keep the Force

commander informed, Colonel Jeschke

made frequent liaison visits to front-line

Army combat units ashore, and was

subsequently awarded the Legion of

Merit for this service. France awarded

him the Croix de Guerre. Colonel

Jeschke retired in 1949 and for having

been decorated in combat was advanced

to brigadier general on the retired list.

He died on 15 December 1957.

ary 1943) that the next move would

be an invasion of Sicily. This operation would maintain pressure on the

enemy. Operation Husky was set for

10 July.

General Eisenhower received his

fourth star on 11 February and was

designated the Supreme Commander, North African Theater of

Operations, with three British subordinates: General Sir Harold R. L. G.

Alexander (ground forces), Admiral

of the Fleet Sir Andrew B. Cunningham (sea forces), and Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur William Tedder (air

forces). Each had an American

subordinate: Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr., U.S. Seventh

Army; Vice Admiral H. Kent

Hewitt, ComNavNAW, and Lieutenant General Carl A. Spaatz,

Northwest African Air Force. Operational forces were divided, with Admiral Hewitt in charge of the

Western Naval Task Force embarking General Patton's Seventh Army,

and British Vice Admiral Sir Bertram

H. Ramsey, commanding the Eastern

Naval Task Force, embarking Lieutenant General Sir Bernard L. Montgomery's Eighth Army.

Operation Husky would employ

an assault force consisting of four

American divisions, four British, and

one Canadian, against a defense

force comprised of two German and

six Italian divisions. However, the

enemy units were capable of quick

reinforcement from the Italian mainland across the narrow Straits of

Messina.

The bitter lessons of Dieppe and

Oran were taken into account. The

seizure of enemy airfields, rather

than the assault of enemy ports, was

selected as the first objective. The

emphasis was still on achieving tactical surprise, which ruled out prelanding air and naval bombardment;

a decision which Hewitt did not

favor.

The landing formation was both

unusual and bold, with eight divisions landing abreast on a broad

front, allowing only a minimal force

in reserve and quite a distance removed. Measured in terms of the initial assault, it was to be the greatest

amphibious operation ever to that

date, involving a total of 2,800 ships

and assault craft. Unfortunately, the

landing forces had no integration of

command for air support, either tactical or strategic, resulting in many

problems for the landing forces in

obtaining timely air support. The

mistake was rectified in subsequent

operations.

Vice Admiral Hewitt had under

his command 580 ships and 1,124

shipborne landing craft to be employed in transporting General Patton's Seventh Army, which was

divided among three attack forces.

23

These were TF 86, under Rear Admiral Richard L. Conolly, with light

cruisers Brooklyn and Birmingham

(CL 62) and eight destroyers for escort and gunfire support; TF 81, under Rear Admiral John L. Hall, with

light cruisers Savannah and Boise

(CL 47) and 13 destroyers; and TF

85, under Rear Admiral Alan Kirk,

with light cruiser Philadelphia and 16

destroyers. Admiral Ramsey had 818

ships and 715 shipborne landing craft

for his landing force, composed

mostly of British and Canadian

troops.

Rear Admiral Conolly had a most

difficult task: that of moving some

25,000 men from Africa to Sicily in

a fleet of landing ships, tank; landing craft, tank; and landing craft, infantry, which was designated JOSS

Force. Travelling in a convoy of seven

columns, they were slowed at times

to a speed of two and a half knots

by strong winds and heavy seas. This

was the first shore-to-shore amphibious operation to make such extensive

use of these landing ships. The

Sicilian coastline presented a further

complication. Because it was known

to be fronted with false beaches

which would prevent landing ships

from placing their troops and equipment on the shore, pontoon causeways were brought along to bridge

the gap. The newly developed amphibious truck, called DUKW, was
Major General Robert 0. Bare, USMC

n World War II, while serving on

the staff of Admiral Sir Bertram

Ramsey, Allied Naval Commanderin-Chief, Colonel Robert 0. Bare worked

on the planning of the Normandy invasion. He was later awarded the Bronze

Star Medal while attached to British Assault Force J during the invasion.

A graduate of the Naval Academy,

Class of 1924, Bare achieved early recognition as a distinguished rifle and pistol

marksman in the Marine Corps.

After his return from England in 1943,

he served in the Palau and Okinawa

campaigns in the Pacific in World War

II. In the Korean War he was the assistant division commander of the 1st Marine Division and was awarded a

Distinguished Service Medal and a

Legion of Merit.

Bare held additional assignments as

Director of the Marine Corps Development Center at Quantico and as Director

of Personnel at Headquarters Marine

Corps.

He died on 30 September 1980.

first employed in this operation and

met with great success. False beaches

presented no problem for the

DUKWs, which could continue inland, as needed, with their cargo.

Vice Admiral Hewitt's Western

Naval Task Force staged from ports

in Algeria. General Patton and his

staff were embarked on Hewitt's flagship, Monrovia (APA 31). Once

again, Marine Major Rogers was on

board as a staff member. On D-Day

he went ashore and was given the job

of supervising the loading of Italian

prisoners onto LCIs. Colonel Litzenberg had been replaced for the landings on Sicily by another Marine

officer, Colonel Richard H. Jeschke,

who had served briefly in liaison

with U.S. Army forces in Morocco.

The landings, on 10 July, were

made in darkness at 0245 over an

area embracing some 37 miles of

shoreline in the Gulf of Gela. Once

again the enemy was not surprised,

but the landing ship force did

remarkably well despite heavy surf

and accurate gunfire. In some places

the beach areas were mined and a

number of vehicles were blown up.

There was little combat air patrol

over the target area.

On 20 July, the dictator Benito

Mussolini was removed from power

in Italy and Hitler ordered a withdrawal of Axis forces from Sicily.

The mountainous terrain assisted the

enemy's ability to fight a series of rear

guard actions in the direction of the

Straits of Messina, where the retreat

was a short run across in ferry boats

to the toe of Italy. Allied forces tried

to intercept this movement by leapfrogging along the coast in a series of

amphibious landings, but they

lagged too far behind the fast-moving

enemy forces to cut them off or to inflict significant losses. In the space of

six days and seven nights, ending on

17 August, the Germans had withdrawn to the mainland with 40,000

troops and the Italians 62,000, so an

opportunity to capture a large enemy

force was lost to the Allies. An important major objective of the operation, seizure of Sicily, was

accomplished.

In June 1943, Marine Colonel

Robert 0. Bare arrived in London in

civilian clothes, as prescribed by

regulations (because he had a

stopover in Foynes, Ireland), for special duty with ComNavEu. His special duty involved an assignment to

the Office of the Chief of Staff,

Supreme Allied Commander. The

Supreme Commander to head this

office (General Eisenhower) had not

yet been designated, so the officer in

charge was Major General Frederick

Morgan, British Army, with the

responsibility of conducting planning

and preparations for Operation

24

Overlord, formerly Neptune, the

cross-channel invasion to come.

Bare was detailed as "staff officer

plans" in the naval section under Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsey. He had

the task of selecting British beaches

for practice landings and naval gunfire training. The area selected was

Slapton Sands, near Dartmouth. The

British government evacuated more

than 3,000 citizens from the area.

In October Bare traveled on a British ship to the Pas de Calais area of

France as part of a fake invasion force

to test German reactions and to try

to mislead them about Allied intentions.

Marine Colonel James E. Kerr also

participated in the planning phase for

Operation Overlord. He was assigned as a training officer on the

staff of Commander, Landing Craft

and Bases, Eleventh Amphibious

Force, Europe. His duties involved

the supervision of amphibious training of personnel for all landing ships

and craft to be used in the invasion.

Both Kerr and Bare remained

through all of the planning phases

for Overlord and then participated

in the landing.

Meanwhile, in the Pacific, the

Guadalcanal operation (August 1942)

had revealed to the Marine Corps the

need for an adequate night air

defense capability. Marines who

served in the Pacific reported the
constant presence of Japanese aircraft

buzzing over the combat areas at

night, keeping everyone awake. They

collectively earned the nickname

"Washing-Machine Charlie:'

To provide for future night air

operations, a cadre of aviation personnel, including six officers and five

enlisted men, was sent to England in

February 1943 for training with the

Royal Air Force (RAF). Lieutenant

Colonel Edward W. Montgomery

was in charge of the group and was

the primary liaison with the RAE

Lieutenant Colonels Guy Morrow

and Marion M. Magruder were designated to obtain detailed knowledge of the British fighter control and

direction system, including facilities,

personnel, and equipment, and to

facilitate the acquisition of the equipment by the Marine Corps. Major

Peter D. Lambrecht and Captain

Homer G. Hutchinson, Jr., were selected for operational training as

night fighters, and Captain Edward

Hicks was to be trained as a night

fighter ground air controller. The five

NCOs were assigned to train as airborne intercept radar operators

(ROs).

The five aviators of the group were

initially assigned to RAF Station Coltishall for three weeks of flight training in Bisley and Blenheim aircraft.

They wore dark goggles and read

fluorescent instrument dials to simulate night instrument flying.

Lambrecht and Hutchinson were

then sent to RAF Station Cranfield

for operational training with the

twin-engine Bristol Beaufighter, and

in employing airborne radar to intercept enemy aircraft at night. Great

emphasis also was placed on the ability to visually identify various aircraft types to help avoid firing on

friendly planes. At this point the two

officers were joined in the cockpit by

their Marine ROs, Sergeants Nestor

Tabor and Pete Hales, now qualified

as radar operators in the British airborne 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 shown

with Wing Commander L. N. Hayes, commander of RAF Night Fighter Squadron

256, 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 USMC

teams were sent to Sussex on 6 May

to join RAF Night Fighter Squadron

256. They were immediately assigned

to night combat air patrol over the

English Channel. It was here that

Hutchinson learned to appreciate the

ability of RAF ground controllers;

these technicians had the difficult job

of keeping friendly bombers and

fighters separated in a crowded air

space, while attempting to pick up

enemy intruders. Lambrecht, Hutchinson, Tabor, and Hales, spent three

weeks at this station flying night

combat air defense missions against

the Luftwaffe.

Lieutenant Colonel Montgomery

subsequently served as the first commander of Marine Aircraft Group

53, a night-fighter group, from 1943

to 1945. Lieutenant Colonel Morrow

became the first commander of a Marine night-fighter operational training detachment in 1943. Lieutenant

Colonel Magruder commissioned

and commanded VMF(N)-533 in

1943 and Major Hutchinson was his

executive officer. Major Lambrecht

commanded VMF(N)-541 in 1944,

and in August 1952 was killed in action while flying a night-fighter combat mission in Korea.

Another group of Marine officers

who arrived in London at this time,

on a secret mission, came from the

Plans and Policies Division of Marine Corps Headquarters. They included Lieutenant Colonels James P.

Berkeley, Edward Hagenah, Harold

0. Deakin, Norman Hussa, and John

Scott. All spent a week in London on

the way to the U.S. Naval Forces

Northwest African Waters Command

to take part as observers in the next

invasion, which would be the landing, designated Operation Avalanche, at Salerno, Italy on 9

September 1943. While in England,

they spent their time with opposite

staff numbers in U.S. and British organizations. Berkeley, for example,

a communications officer, visited the

Royal Navy School of Signals at

Eastleigh and the British Army Signal Center at Cheltenham; Deakin

went to Devon to view amphibious

training.

The decision for the Salerno operation had been agreed upon at the

Trident Conference in Washington,

D.C. on 12 May 1943, as an effort to

take Italy out of the war and to engage as many German divisions as

possible prior to a major crosschannel invasion. Unfortunately, the

two-month delay between the landings on Sicily and Salerno would

enable the Germans to bring 13 divisions into Italy with their top

leadership, Field Marshals Erwin

Rommel, in the north, and Albert

Kesselring, in the south. The Italian

surrender on 8 September seemed to

have little effect on the German occupation force and its determination

to prevent a rapid conquest of Italy.

The command structure for Operation Avalanche was much the same

as in previous operations in North

Africa, with Vice Admiral Hewitt as

the Western Naval Task Force Commander. Marine Major Rogers was

once again on board Hewitt's flagship, the Ancon (AP 66), as a staff

officer. Under Hewitt was a largely

British Northern Attack Force under

Commodore G. N. Oliver (with the

British X Corps), and a mainly

American Southern Attack Force under Rear Admiral John L. Hall (with

the U.S. VI Corps). The leading force

was the U.S. Eighth Army under

command of Lieutenant General

Mark W. Clark.

Rear Admiral Conolly was again

in charge of the JOSS force of landing ships. The five Marine officers

from Washington were embarked

with this force at Bizerte, Tunisia,

each on a separate LST carrying British troops.

Colonel Berkeley said that his LST,

which landed about H-hour plus 2,

immediately came under fire from

German artillery and was so

damaged that it had to withdraw for

repairs to its elevator mechanism be26

fore returning to unload. As a result

of this experience he gained great

respect for German artillery and its

ability to mass artillery fire on a target. Lieutenant Colonel Deakin landed at 0340 in an assault boat wave

with a battalion from the Royal

Hampshire Regiment.

Air support was better organized

than for the previous Operation

Husky as a result not only of consolidated control but also the

presence of escort carriers. H-hour

was set at 0330 and there was no

naval gunfire preparation in the interest of achieving surprise, but there

were heavy casualties in early waves

from both beach defenses and aerial

attack. Later waves had the benefit

of some excellent naval gunfire support, which helped to break up a

German armored counterattack

against the beachhead. Major Rogers

was assigned duty as liaison officer

between the Ancon and the British

X Corps commander, Lieutenant

General Sir Richard McCreary on

HMS Hilary.

After the landing operation, all

five Marine officers returned to Palermo, Sicily, on Admiral Conolly's

flagship, Biscayne (AGC 18), for a

short visit with two Army generals,

George S. Patton and Lucian K. Truscott, Jr. Lieutenant Colonel Berkeley

recalls the visit with some grim humor. He said they began to discuss

the value of naval gunfire at the landing and Patton interrupted with a

comment that naval gunfire was "no

damn good." Truscott disagreed,

reminding him that naval gunfire

"saved us at the landings in Sicily."

From there they flew to Oran to brief

Admiral John Hall, and then

returned home on 23 September.

It may well be that naval gunfire

support and air power made the

difference in the success of the Fifth

Army at Salerno. However, by staying on station, the Navy paid a

heavy price. The Luftwaffe attacked

with a newly developed radiocontrolled glide bomb, sinking a
4

!'4 .' ' ._

I

Is. - p.-

1-

number of vessels, and damaging the

U.S. cruisers Philadelphia and Savannah and the British battleship Warspite. The bomb which struck the

Savannah killed an entire U.S. Marine gun crew manning one of the

turrets.

This costly campaign was concluded when the Germans began a withdrawal on 16 September and Allied

forces entered Naples on 1 October.

Military analyst 1. F. C. Fuller considered Salerno to be "the most absurd and senseless campaign of the

entire war:'

The delay at Salerno only compounded the problem for the next

amphibious assault in Italy, scheduled for 8 November but delayed until 21 January 1944. This was the

Anzio operation, called Shingle,

which would turn out to be one of

the costliest operations of the war

with more than 5,000 members of the

landing force killed.

There was great controversy in the

planning phase among the Combined

Chiefs about the wisdom of making

this landing. In the end, Prime

Minister Churchill prevailed with the

argument that unless Rome was

taken, Italy would never be free of

German domination.

At this juncture, General Eisenhower was appointed the Supreme

Commander, Allied Expeditionary

Force (SHAEF) and, even though he

had expressed grave reservations

about the Anzio operation, his new

responsibility took him out of the

Mediterranean area and back to London to head up the planning for

Operation Overlord.

By this time, the Chief of Staff,

Supreme Allied Commander (COSSAC) staff had already grown to 489

officers, 215 of them American. As

a part of this staff, Rear Admiral

Alan G. Kirk was given command of

the Western Naval Task Force. Assigned to Kirk's staff was Marine

Colonel Jeschke as assistant planning

officer and Force G-3. He had previously taken part in the amphibious

landing at Sicily and then returned

to England for duty with the U.S.

First Army. With Eisenhower's arrival, COSSAC was absorbed into

his new SHAEF headquarters.

By 30 May there was a total of

27

1,526,965 U.S. troops in the United

Kingdom and more than five million

tons of supplies and equipment. Of

these American forces, 124,000 were

naval forces with some 15,000 attached to combatant ships, 87,000 to

landing and beach craft, and 22,000

to the various naval bases established

in the U.K. Marines still had their

detachment in London and the two

barracks in Londonderry and

Iceland, and the many ships' detachments with the Atlantic Fleet.

Surprise and deception were still

the order of the day, and this accounted for a great deal of the success of the Overlord operation. Not

only was the enemy kept guessing

about the date (6 June), but he was

also deceived as to the target area

(Normandy).

H-hour for the airborne landings

was 0130, 6 June, with approximately

13,000 paratroopers dropping in the

Cherbourg area. Their jump was in

support of the Force U troops landing over a nine-mile stretch of

beaches on the Cotentin Peninsula,

named Utah. Twenty-six assault

waves were scheduled to land, starting 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. The

Col Richard H. Jeschke, second from right, who was an ob- officer on the right is unidentified. After the war, Gen Bradserver 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 the

landing schedule, Rear Admiral Don

P. Moon, in command of Force U,

sent Marine Colonel Kerr, a member

of his staff, in a patrol craft to take

control and to report on how the

operation was working. Kerr reported that Red Beach was clear so that

waves on Green Beach, which were

held up, could be diverted. This landing went so well that by the evening

of D-Day most of the units had

reached their objectives with surprisingly low casualties. A principal factor in this success was the heavy and

accurate naval gunfire on targets

inland.

The landing at Omaha Beach was

quite a different story. This was performed by Force 0, under coiñmand

of Rear Admiral John L. Hall. It was

here that the Germans were able to

inflict some 2,000 casualties on the

landing force of 34,000.

Among the Marines who participated in this landing were Colonel

Jeschke and Lieutenant Weldon

James, who was an observer on the

flagship Texas, which furnished

much of the naval gunfire support.

The U.S. Army V Corps, which

landed at Omaha, had so much opposition that it was unable to link up

until the following day with VII

Corps, which landed at Utah and

had moved quickly inland.

On the eastern flank of Omaha

was the British assault area. Stretching toward Caen, it was considered

a key to the defense of Normandy

and was the area where Germany

launched its major counterattack.

Two Marine officers were with the

British forces in this area. Captain

Herbert C. Merillat, a combat correspondent, was an observer with the

Royal Marines in a landing craft,

guns, large ([.CG). This vessel had the

mission of knocking out German

pillboxes from close inshore. Colonel

Bare, on board the Llangibby Castle,

was attached to the British Assault

Force I with the 3d Canadian Division, which went ashore near

Courselles-sur-Mer. This force landed

at 0810 after a naval bombardment

that lasted nearly two hours, and it

was able to move rapidly inland with

fairly light casualties. However, once

the Germans were finally convinced

that this landing was not a feint for

a major landing elsewhere, they

launched some heavy counterattacks

that prevented the Allies from seizing Caen until nearly a month later,

well behind their planned schedule.

The miracle of Operation Over25

lord was its sheer size and complexity. On D-Day, 130,000 troops alone

were landed against tough opposition. Nothing like it had ever been

done before. But after seven weeks

of fighting the deepest penetration

was only 25 to 30 miles on an 80-mile

front.

Bare, who had served in England

over the past year as a staff officer

with ComNavEu and COSSAC, was

most impressed with British ingenuity in the preparations for Operation

Overlord. He described the development of such equipment as floating

docks, flexible oil pipes, floating

breakwaters, artificial harbors, and

a sunken ship shelter as "just unbelievable" This equipment was a salvation for the landing force, enabling

it to project its strength, totally more

than one and half million men, onto

the Normandy beaches with sufficient power to sustain itself.

Colonels Bare and Kerr arrived

back in London on the same day that

the Germans launched their first Vi

buzz-bomb attack on the city. They

returned to Washington on the

Queen Mary. Bare was transferred to

the Pacific to become chief of staff

of the 1st Marine Division for the invasion of Okinawa.

A Marine successor on the staff of

ComNavEu was Colonel Paul D.

Sherman. He joined in July as staff

officer, plans, with the Allied Naval

Commander-in-Chief, Expeditionary

Force, in time to make the landing in

southern France, near St. Malo, as a

member of Navy Task Force 125 on

29 August 1944. It was called Operation Dragoon. Initially it was called

Operation Anvil, subsequently

changed to Dragoon, reportedly because Mr. Churchill was dragooned

into accepting it.

Captain Merillat and Lieutenant

James also participated in this operation as observers. Merillat was on

the battleship Nevada (BB 36), which

had the mission of knocking out

some 340mm guns on the heights

Photo courtesy of Herbert C. Merillat

Capt Herbert C. Merillat, center, observed the 6 June D-Day landing of Canadian

forces over Juno Beach with Royal Navy Lt Hugh Ashworth, left, and Royal Marine Lt. George Hardwick from the deck of a British landing craft, LCG-1007.
I

I'

'"MItI4:iI I(I II

t—j4c

:1,

I—

I

'-I

protecting Toulon, and James with

Combat Division 5. Major Rogers

was assigned to the cruiser Brooklyn

as an interpreter for the commander

of the French II Corps, General Edouard de Larminent and his staff.

Two cruisers, the Philadelphia and

Augusta, provided gunfire support

for French Army troops on the

western outskirts of Toulon. Four

days later these ships sent landing

parties ashore, which included their

Marine detachments, to accept the

surrender of German forces on the islands of Pomegues, Chateau d'If, and

Ratonneau in the Bay of Marseilles.

Some 730 Germans were taken

prisoner in these operations. Overlord and Dragoon were the two main

operations in the invasion of Europe

in which the U.S. Navy played a

leading part.

It is appropriate here to mention

another Marine officer who had a

most unusual assignment on the continent. John H. Magruder III served

as a civilian with an ambulance unit

in India in 1939, attached to the British Army. Returning home in 1941,

he was commissioned in the Marine

Corps. Having lived in Holland for

some years, where his father, Captain John H. Magruder, Jr., USN,

Another Marine who served in Europe

was John H. Magruder III, who was assigned as a liaison officer to Gen Bernard

Montgomery's Twenty-first Army Group

in the Liberation of Holland.

Department of Defense Photo (USMC) A407625

was naval attache, he was fluent in

Dutch and was assigned as a liaison

officer to the British Army which, in

turn, assigned him to General Montgomery's Twenty-first Army Group.

He participated in the liberation of

Holland and was decorated by the

Dutch government. He also served in

the Pacific War later.

Colonel Sherman, after the invasion of southern France, was assigned

to duty as the U.S. Naval Representative on the SHAEF staff in France.

From there he went to Naval Forces,

Germany, and finally to the G-4 Division of Headquarters, U.S. Forces,

Europe.

On 18 August 1944, the Marine

Barracks, Londonderr was disbanded after two years of service. Its onginal commander, Colonel Burnham,

had been replaced the previous year

by Colonel Shaler Ladd, and several

of the officers who came to Ireland

with the battalion had already rotated back to the States.

It was a historic farewell as the battalion marched down the Strand, led

by its own bagpipe band playing a

favorite Irish air, "The Wearin' of the

Green" (a song that seemed as appropriate for the Marines as it was

for the Irish). As the unit boarded

29

ship at Lisahally pier and headed

down the River Foyle bound for the

Atlantic, the U.S. Navy Band played

the "Marines' Hymn" for a final salute. One month later a ship bearing

35 Irish brides of American Marines

left Londonderry bound for the U.S.,

and the name of the ship that transported them was The Marine Haven!

An 80-man Marine detachment,

under command of Lieutenant

Chester A. Goodwin, Jr., took the

place of the battalion. Its mission was

much more limited — to provide security for the Naval Radio Station,

which was a key communications facility for all naval operations in this

theater. This detachment would remain at Londonderry until disbandment on 12 November 1945.

A rotation of command at the embassy detachment in London in August 1944 brought this writer to that

post, to succeed First Lieutenant Alan

Doubleday. The author embarked on

the Queen Elizabeth in New York in

company with some 17,000 troops.

Officers were billeted six to a

stateroom. The ship traveled without

escort in a blackout condition, at an

average speed of 32 knots. The crossing was made in three and a half days

without incident, in spite of the continuing presence of German U-boats.

The procedure at that time permitPhoto courtesy of George 0. Ludcke

Irish war brides of Londonderry Marines leave for the United States on board the

Marine 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-year

tour as Commandant of the Marine

Corps and a 44-year Marine Corps

career, LtGen Thomas Holcornb retired

and was appointed Minister to South

Africa, where he served 1944-1 948.

ted any ship, which could travel at

a speed of 16 knots or faster, to travel

without escort since it was assumed

that it could outrun a submarine.

Also embarked were a number of

Marine replacements bound for London; all were Pacific war veterans.

Many of the ship's passengers were

Army Air Corps pilots returning for

a second or third tour of combat

duty. This was probably the reason

why so much money was being

wagered in wardroom card games.

One soldier was even caught trying

to cheat a few Marines with crooked

dice in a crap game. He barely escaped being thrown overboard for

his efforts, and was given a courtmartial on board and convicted.

The ship docked in Greenoch,

Scotland, just across the River Clyde

from Gourock. The saying there was:

"If you can see Gourock, it's going to

rain; it you can't see it, it's raining:'

This writer traveled to London by

train and, just as he arrived, a Vi

buzz-bomb passed over the train.

That was an introduction to what

would become an almost daily occurrence in the months ahead. Buzzbombs were used by the Germans to

devastate large areas of London, only

to be replaced (on 8 September 1944)

by even more deadly V2 rocket

bombs. These travelled at such high

speeds and high altitudes that there

was no defense against them at the

time.

The author was lodged temporarily in the top floor of a large hotel

and quickly discovered that it was

not a preferred location. No one with

knowledge of the threat from buzzbombs wanted to be on an upper

floor.

The detachment was billeted as a

unit in Grosvenor Square at the

headquarters of ComNavEu, quite

vulnerable to rocket attacks. The

Marines had many close calls and

suffered some minor injuries from

concussion. The Marine detachment

was the only military organization to

be billeted together, enabling it to

provide security for the naval headquarters and the embassy if needed.

The detachment maintained its

military proficiency with small arms

by frequent visits to the pistol range

at Wormwood Scrubs, a British prison on the outskirts of London. It

was also able to assist naval personnel in small arms qualification prior

to their transfer to duty stations in

Europe. For rifle marksmanship

training, members of the detachment

were sent to the range in Londonderry. The London detachment also occasionally exchanged personnel for

disciplinary reasons or simply as a

change in type of duty. The detachment operated the Navy brig in London, and furnished orderlies for a

number of flag officers, such as those

in charge of communications and intelligence. At least two men were on

duty with Admiral Stark's office,

another with a British flag officer,

another with the chief of staff of

ComNavEu. Later in the war, Marines were sent to Paris to perform

a similar service for Commander,

30

Naval Forces, France, and in Germany for Commander, Naval Forces,

Germany. Every effort was made to

replace the men who had not yet performed service in the Pacific, but that

became difficult when a flag officer

expressed a strong interest in retaining the orderly assigned to him. Admiral Stark's reliance upon Sergeant

Francis M. Connolly, who served as

his orderly for more than three years,

was an example.

The detachment also performed a

regular schedule of drills and ceremonies, and a weekly parade in the

square with a small Navy band was

always well attended. As the Marines

wore dress blues, civilians looking on

seemed to be cheered by this touch

of color in what was otherwise a very

drab military scene.

The detachment was given a

Christmas present on 12 December

1944 when it was invited to a concert by Army Air Corps Major Glenn

Miller and his orchestra at the

Queensbury All-Services Club. During the evening, he paid a special

tribute to the detachment as

representatives of the Marine Corps.

This turned out to be the last performance of his life. On a flight to Paris

the following day, his plane was apparently shot down by the Luftwaffe

and he was never heard from again.

The detachment participated in a

very special occasion on 16 September 1945 when the Commandant ordered it to deliver, with appropriate

ceremony, a set of Marine colors to

the Royal Welsh Fusiliers (RWF),

whose regimental headquarters was

located in Wrexham, Wales.

A color guard was selected, which

included Platoon Sergeant Floriano

P. Sampieri, Sergeant Ray Fitzgerald,

and Privates First Class Matthew

Ryan and Marvin Bullard. They

traveled to Wrexham, where they

paraded with an RWF unit to the parish church and presented the colors.

The colors are still displayed there in

commemoration of the close association between the two services: The
.1 - a e " e cC'

RWF is the oldest military organization in Wales, with a long history of

foreign duty, especially during the

Boxer Rebellion in China, where it

fought alongside the U.S. Marine

Corps.

On display at the Royal Welsh

Fusiliers' regimental chapel was the

original score of John Philip Sousa's

march, "The Royal Welsh Fusiliers,"

which he composed and delivered to

the regiment in person on 26 June

1930, just two years before his death.

The Marine color guard also paid

honor to the grave of Elihu Yale, the

Welsh founder of Yale University,

who is buried in Wrexham.

At the time of this author's arrival

in July 1944, one month after the DDay landing in Normandy, London

was a city of considerable devastation. German buzz-bombs were a

daily occurrence, and in daylight

they were clearly visible as they came

lumbering over like large trucks in

the sky, setting off a siren warning

system in the danger area. As each

landed the result would be nearly a

square block of destruction, frequently with many casualties, since

the target area was so well populated. Yet, in spite of this danger and

the many shortages caused by the

war, there seemed to be a great spirit

among the people, as they seemed to

know they would eventually win

out.

London was also a city of people

in uniform. It appeared that half the

population wore some type of uniform, many from countries that were

hard to identify. There were quite a

number of Dutch Marines, who had

escaped to the United States and been

trained at Camp Lejeune and wore

the regular American Marine green

uniform with their own insignia.

Their frequent failure to salute

American officers resulted in complaints to the detachment commander, which was a difficult

problem for him to resolve.

The London Marine detachment

muster rolls continued to carry the

names of many Marines who were

listed for reporting purposes only.

Their duties covered a wide range of

activities. Most were highly classified, especially those with the Office

of Strategic Services (OSS) performing clandestine services on the Continent. Two of these, Sergeant

Charles Perry and Platoon Sergeant

Frederick J. Brunner, were killed in

action in Europe. Another OSS Marine was Lieutenant John Hamilton

(movie star Sterling Hayden), who

was awarded the Silver Star Medal

for his work with guerrilla forces in

Yugoslavia.

The muster rolls of the detachment

also listed Captain Marvin C. Ross,

who was assigned to the G-5 section

of the SHAEF staff, representing

Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives, with a mission to help salvage

and preserve the art treasures of Europe. Another was a Marine colonel,

Wethered Woodworth, who had

served in France in World War I. He

was a field commissioner in the U.K.

in the headquarters office of the

Army-Navy Liquidation Commissioner. There was also Lieutenant

Alan K. Magary, who was on the

staff of the Naval Technical Mission,

Europe. Marine Captain John Dickson was shown as an intelligence

officer with ComNavEu. He was a

German linguist, whose wife was a

former member of the Berlin Symphony Orchestra.

One of the most prominent members of the group was Marine Lieutenant Edward T. Dickinson, Jr. He

was an expert on factories who was

given the responsibility, prior to DDay, to develop plans for the

sabotage of key factories in occupied

Europe, and subsequently to pinpoint targets for destruction by guerrilla forces.

The Marine Detachment, American Embassy, London, poses

in Grosvenor Square in January 1945. Maj Harry Edwards,

31

the detachment commander, is on the left of the rear row, while

PlSgt Floriano P. Sampieri, senior NCO, is on the right.

Photo courtesy of LtCol Harry Edwards, USMC (Ret)
I - —

There also was Lieutenant Colonel

John M. Maury, Jr., an assistant

naval attache for air in the American Legation at Murmansk, Russia,

representing the War Shipping Administration. Murmansk was the

port to which large amounts of supplies were sent, starting in 1941, in

support of the Russian war effort. It

was the shortest route over the Arctic Circle and around the North Cape

of Norway, but to use it was extremely dangerous. German submarines

and aircraft, floating mines and horrible weather conditions took a

heavy toll of Allied shipping, in spite

of the protective presence of Allied

warships. On one such convoy early in the war, the American admiral

in command disappeared from his

flagship, the Washington (BB 56), under mysterious circumstances. It was

presumed that he had been washed

overboard in the dark from his flagship. The convoy could not stop or

slow down, however, because of the

submarine threat, and he was listed

as lost at sea.

When Admiral Hewitt arrived in

1945 in relief of Admiral Stark, as

ComNavEu, he soon found fault

with his Navy security personnel and

promptly assigned to the Marine

detachment all security duties for the

entire headquarters. And when he

left on an inspection trip to the

Mediterranean to visit the cruiser

Helena (CL 50) and the battleship

Missouri (BB 63), he took with him

the detachment's senior Marine

NCO, Platoon Sergeant "Sam" Sampieri, and one other Marine.

Shortly after the fall of Berlin,

Coast Guard Commander J. Skelly

Wright and the Marine detachment

commander paid a liaison visit to

two German cities, Bremerhaven and

Berlin. They learned that they were

the first members of their respective

services to visit those two cities since

the end of the war. At the time of this

visit, both cities were almost completely devastated.

They returned to London to join

the celebration of V-E Day, on 8 May

1945. By this time everyone was so

thoroughly fed up with blackouts,

food rationing, buzz-bombs, and the

war in general that the whole city

seemed to erupt with joy and relief.

This was tempered only by the

knowledge that British military

forces in Europe fully expected to be

deployed to the Pacific to join in the

fight against Japan. Of course, they

were spared when the Japanese surrendered just three months later. V-J

Day called for a repeat celebration,

since that meant the world war had

finally ended.

At the time of the author's departure from London, in April 1946, the

name of his organization was

changed. It would no longer be the

Marine Detachment, American Embassy, but rather Marine Detachment, U.S. Naval Forces, Europe.

With the war's ending, it seemed

like more than a change of name for

the London detachment, but rather

the terminal point for an organization that had been the focus of nearly

all Marine activities in the European theater over an historic five-year

period (1941-1946).

The unit muster rolls during that

turbulent time reveal the names of

many Marines who participated,

either as Special Naval Observers,

Assistant Naval Attaches, staff

officers, trainees, or combatants.

Many of the officers shown on those

reports were in the ranks of lieutenant, captain, and major at the

time, but went on to become colonels

and generals before the end of the

war, and one, Major Wallace M.

Greene, Jr., became the 23d Commandant of the Marine Corps.

For its part, the London detachment received recognition for its wartime service in the form of service

streamers for the detachment colors:

American Defense Service Streamer

with one Bronze Star

European-African-Middle Eastern

Campaign Streamer

World War II Victory Streamer

National Defense Service Streamer

with one Bronze Star (Korean War)

Maj Harry Edwards looks on as his detachment Marines supervise ComNavEu staff

members firing their pistols at targets located in Wormwood Scrubs, London.

Photo courtesy of LtCol Harry Edwards, USMC (Ret)

32
Research sources for this monograph were '0

principally books and records on file at the Marine Corps Historical Center, Washington Navy

Yard. Primary sources included: Muster rolls of

Marine Corps units serving in the Atlantic

Theater, 1941-1946, and the Marine Corps Personal Papers Collection, especially the papers

of 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 James

Roosevelt; and Col John H. Magruder. Also the

Marine Corps Oral History Collection, especially the interviews with Gen Gerald C. Thomas;

LtGens Robert 0. Bare, James P. Berkeley, George F. Good, Jr., John C. McQueen, Francis

P. Mulcahy, and Julian C. Smith; MajGens August Larson, Omar T. Pfeiffer and Wood B.

Kyle; and BGens Harold 0. Deakin, Edward C.

Dyer, and Frank C. Schwable. Also bibliography files on various Marine officers and enlisted personnel; a draft manuscript (1989) entitled,

"Herringbone Cloak-G.I. Dagger, Marines of

the ass," by Maj Robert E. Mattingly, USMC;

A Chronology of the U.S. Marine Corps

1 935-1 946; and Benis M. Frank and Henry I.

Shaw, Jr., History of U.S. Marine Corps Operations in World War II, vol V, Victory and Occupation (Washington: Historical Branch, G-3

Division, HQMC, 1969).

Another important source was valuable commentary to the author from: LtGen James P.

Berkeley; MajGen Jack P. Juhan; BGens Homer

G. Hutchinson, Jr., and Harold 0. Deakin; Cols

Roy T Batterton, Jr., John B. Hudson, and Bruce

T. Hemphill; Capt Herbert C. Merillat; and

Chief Warrant Officer George V. Clark. Acknowledgments are also due for the valuable

contributions of a former Marine officer, George 0. Ludcke; and those of Mrs. Sheila

Ackerland-Lobasco, the daughter of former Marine Col Francis M. Rogers.

The author is especially indebted to members

of the staff of the Marine Corps and Navy

Historical Centers for assistance with the

project.

The following changes should be made in the

World War II 50th Anniversary commemorative pamphlets, as noted:

First Offensive: The Marine Corps Campaign

for Guadalcanal, p. 14, the officer listed (31)

should be Maj Robert 0. Bowen.

Time of the Aces: Marine Pilots in the Solomons, p. 14, Robert L. Smith should be John

L. Smith; p. 33, Sadai should be Sasai.

Up the Slot: Marines in the Central Solomons, p. 33, in the photo caption, Army Air

Force Col Fiske Marshall should be Marine

Corps 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. Hoffman

and 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 of

the Marine Corps Gazette and as an editor of the

Old Breed News for the 1st Marine Division Association. In 1940 he graduated from the University of Minnesota and in May 1941 received his

commission in the Marine Corps as a member

of the 5th Reserve Officers Course. His 21 years of service included duty with the

1st, 2d, and 3d Marine Divisions. As a regimental staff officer with the 3d Marines, 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 the

3d Battalion, 7th Marines. He was awarded a Bronze Star with Combat V. He taught

in the Senior School at Quantico, and was a member of the Advance Base Problem

Team 1955-1958. He ser'ed on the Joint Staff in Tokyo, Japan, 1958-1960, and was

awarded 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 the

World War II era, is publishedfor the education and training of Marines by

the History and Museums D'fvision, Headquarters, U.S. Marine Corps,

Washington, D.C., as a part of the U.S. Department of Defense observance

of the 50th anniversary of victory in that war.

Editorial costs of preparing this pamphlet have been defrayed in part by

a 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 Purple

Heart.

WORLD WAR II COMMEMORATIVE SERIES

DIRECTOR OF MARINE CORPS HISTORY AND MUSEUMS

Brigadier General Edwin H. Simmons, USMC (Ret)

GENERAL EDITOR.

WORLD WAR II COMMEMORATIVE SERIES

Benis M. Frank

CARTOGRAPHIC CONSULTANT

George C. MacGillivray

EDITING AND DESIGN SECTION. HISTORY AND MUSEUMS DIVISION

Robert E. Struder, Senior Editor; W. Stephen Hill, Visual Information

Specialist; Catherine A. Kerns, Composition Services Technician

Marine Corps Historical Center

Building 58, Washington Navy Yard

Washington, D.C. 20374-5040

1994

PCN 190 003125 00