[Teaser] Units of History: U.S. Marine Raiders of WWII

Happy Monday, Patrons! Here's an teaser of the script for our upcoming Units of History documentary on the United States Marine Raiders of World War II. While most of the script is still a WIP, I wanted to share a portion of the more completed sections because this is going to be a cool documentary.

Enjoy!

Equipment

The equipment of the Marine Raiders was quite distinct both visually and functionally. This began with their issued battledress, the M1942 Frog Skin pattern. They were actually the first unit issued this variant which featured a 5 color jungle pattern on one side and the 3 color beach patter on the reversible inside. The material itself was a lighter kit than their peers which was meant to last them several months in rough conditions. For protection they wore no armor besides steel helmets with cloth covers so as to travel as lightly as possible. Survival gear, ammo, and rations were carried on their person in a pouch or backpack.

In terms of offense, the raiders were extremely well equipped, having pulled presidential favors to get their men everything they needed. Whereas regular Marine squads sported 8 Springfield bolt-action rifles and a single BAR, the Raider squads carried multiple M1 semi-automatic rifles, M50 Reisings, BARs, and Thompson Sub Machine Guns. Occasionally they even fielded the BOYS Anti-Tank rifle as seen during the Makin Raid.

Yet the Raiders were hesitant to get too bogged down with heavy weaponry. For instance they replaced the traditional 81mm mortar with a 60mm variant which was more mobile. Along the same lines they relied on several knife variants for both close quarters combat and general utility. This included the so-called “Stiletto” knife, styled after Fairbairn-Sykes fighting knife, and a massive 9 inch bowie knife known jokingly as the “Gung Ho” Knife.

When it came time to deploy, the Marine Raiders were mostly carried in High Speed Transport-Destroyers. These APDs were WWI-era destroyers converted into transports whose torpedo tubes and 4 inch guns were replaced with a small number or 3 inch guns to make room for troops and 4 Higgins boats.

Entering the battlefield might be achieved using larger landing craft but more often than not, the Raiders made landfall atop small rubber boats, each of which could hold a squad of 10 men.

Organization

Let us now discuss the organization of this Marine Raider squad and see how it fit into the larger structure of the Marine Raider Battalion. For our purposes, we will be looking specifically at Evan Carlson’s 2nd Battalion as it was organized around May through September of 1942.

As mentioned, the lowest organizational unit was a squad of 10 men led by an NCO who was typically a Corporal. Thanks to the heavy loadout of the Raiders, they could be broken out into 3 fire teams each of which boasted a BAR, a Thompson Sub Machine Gun, and an M1 rifle.

By contrast regular Marine and Army squads primarily fielded riflemen who acted in support of one light machine gun. As such they did not have the weaponry necessary to break out in this manner and could not bring to bear anywhere near this amount of firepower. The tactical implications of this shall be discussed shortly.

Moving on, we will note how 3 of these squads would be rolled up into a platoon with its own headquarters composed of a Platoon Commander, a Platoon Sergeant, a radio operator, and  2 messengers. All together they numbered around 35 soldiers which was just enough to fit inside the Nautilus and Argonaut submarines for the Makin Atoll raid.

At the next level up, two of these Rifle Platoons would be joined by a Weapons Platoon, composed of a mortar section, a machine gun section, and their HQ, to form a company. This unit would be led by its own HQ of 11 men that included the Commanding Officer, his support staff, and various specialists such as the Company Armorer and the Demolition Sergeant. Altogether they numbered about 104 men which would fit into a single APD.

Initially only 6 such ships were available to Carlson’s force and so his 2nd Battalion was thus composed of 6 companies in addition to his overall HQ.

There would be 4 Marine Raider Battalions created over the course of 1942. Each was organized slightly differently until their unification into a single Raider Regiment on March 15th of 1943 at which point a common method of organization was enforced. This would be a mixture of the various battalion structures but at its base utilized Carlson’s 10 man squad and 3-man fire team we previously described. By 1944, this structure would generally be extended to the entire Marine Corp with the main difference being the addition of a 4th man to each fire team to make it more resistant to casualties.