Merrills Marauders original footage
 

Stumbled upon this. Tough people doing impossible things to get it done.

Incredible strength, courage and enginuity.

Seems fitting here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=un5kb7Xpe5A

Nice, thanks for posting...

Excellent! Very informative. Thank you.

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Thanks, great history.

Just 2 more klics....what an AO.
No MRE bellies...reminds me of what grunts looked like in RVN. Just keep humpin'.

For me it was about how much is spoken of the men, even with no sound of their actual words in those moments.

Like the guy humping the 125lb saddle up the muddy hill just to get it done. Or all the others that just grabbed the gear from the mules and humped them along the whole trail to accomplish the mission. The expressions were not (Jeez this sucks, ouch) it was just that glare of, I am walking from here to there.

The one soldier standing up from cover to take a few shots, pauses with thought and examination, then smirks when he realizes he did hit the bad guy, then settles in, picks new target.

Working with the local village people to move supplies while also keeping rapport happy in the AO.

The soldiers making fins for the depth charges from scratch to make a bigger bomb, because, hey the ones we have are not good enough, then using team work to set them up right.

Finally, the commanders absolutely leading from the front.

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

Incredible stuff. I like the substitute of the depth charge for the 250-lb GP. Talk about "get a bigger hammer."
:lifter