[Scimitar]

5307th Composite Unit (Provisional)
Merrill's Marauders


Authorized Strength
- Men = 2997 (incl 247 who remained in India as support)
- Horses = 360
- Mules = 360


Burma Mission Details
= 24 Feb - 3 Aug 1944
= 161 days / 23 weeks / 5.3 months
= Advanced 750 miles (1,210 km) through some of the harshest jungle terrain in the world
= 5 major and 27 minor engagements
= Including two conventional engagments for which the force was not intended nor equipped for


Casualty Report
By the end, of the 2,750 men to enter Burma, only two were left alive who had never been hospitalized with wounds or major illness. None of the horses and only 41 mules survived.

The final mission was; with the help of the Chinese; taking the town of Myitkyina, from a vastly superior Japanese force of 4,600 men. The Marauders suffered 272 killed, 955 wounded, and 980 evacuated for illness and disease; a casulaty rate approaching 10% killed + 35% wounded and 35% incapacitated. Many men later died from the cerebral malaria, amoebic dysentery, or scrub typhus. The casualties included General Merrill himself, who had suffered a second heart attack before going down with malaria.

By the time the town of Myitkyina was finally taken, only about 200 surviving members of the original Marauders were present.

A week after Myitkyina fell, on 10 August 1944, the 5307th was disbanded with a final total of 130 combat-effective officers and men (out of the original 2,997).


Amazing

S