The Deeds Of Valiant Men: A Study In Leadership. The Marauders In North Burma, 1944
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LTC Henry L. Kinnison IV
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The Deeds Of Valiant Men - LTC Henry L. Kinnison IV
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Text originally published in 1993 under the same title.
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The Deeds of Valiant Men: A Study in Leadership — The Marauders in North Burma, 1944
by
Henry L. Kinnison IV, LTC, USA
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents
TABLE OF CONTENTS 4
ABSTRACT 5
THE DEEDS OF VALIANT MEN: A STUDY IN LEADERSHIP — THE MARAUDERS IN NORTH BURMA, 1944 6
BACKGROUND 9
FORMATION AND TRAINING 11
MOVING FORWARD 18
THE STRATEGIC SITUATION 20
THE OPERATIONAL AND TACTICAL SITUATION 21
WALAWBUM 24
The Plan 24
Terrain and Movement 24
Action Summary 25
Reflections on Leadership 28
Commander’s Presence 28
Styles of Senior Leadership 30
The Deputy Commander 30
Purpose, Direction and Intent 31
SHADUZUP AND INKANGAHTAWNG 32
The Operational and Tactical Situation 32
The Strategic Situation 32
The Plan 32
Action Summary 34
Movement to Shaduzup 34
Movement to Inkangahtawng 35
Movement to Nhpum Ga 43
Siege at Nhpum Ga 46
Reflections on Leadership 52
The Deputy Commander 52
Presence of the Commander 53
Soldier Motivation and Morale 53
MYITKYINA 56
The Operational and Tactical Situation 56
The Strategic Situation 56
The Plan 57
Terrain and Movement 58
Action Summary 58
CONCLUSION 67
The Limits of Human Endurance 67
Commanders and Surgeons 68
REQUEST FROM THE PUBLISHER 71
BIBLIOGRAPHY 72
ABSTRACT
This paper is intended to examine key aspects of senior leadership in the execution of the North Burma Campaign of 1944 by the 5307th Composite Unit (Provisional). The paper addresses the formation and training of the unit, also known as Merrill’s Marauders. It also addresses the three major missions performed by the Marauders to include the seizing of the Myitkyina airstrip. In particular, the paper considers the leadership of Generals Stilwell and Merrill during the campaign and examines new evidence concerning their performance.
THE DEEDS OF VALIANT MEN: A STUDY IN LEADERSHIP — THE MARAUDERS IN NORTH BURMA, 1944
Numerous secondary accounts of the 1944 allied campaign in north Burma have examined an organization known popularly as Merrill’s Marauders and officially by the abstruse title of the 5307th Composite Unit (Provisional). Many of the accounts, in detail, alleged broken promises, ineptness, and failed leadership. Most often, those blamed are General Joseph W. Stilwell, commander of the American China-Burma-India Theater, and Brigadier General Frank D. Merrill, commander of the Marauders. The allegations, in fact, derived principally from two first-hand accounts that provided unofficial and somewhat flawed histories of the Marauders. A third first-hand account, recently published, sheds a different light on General Stilwell’s and General Merrill’s association with the 5307th. The account, offered as a history of the Marauders’ 2d Battalion, also provides a wealth of information about both generals. Using the newly published information, this paper will examine the Marauders and their senior leaders. It will also highlight some basic themes and issues of significance to current and future military leaders.
The 5307th Composite Unit (Provisional) of the Army of the United States entered the annals of American military history for its actions in Japanese-held northern Burma during the spring of 1944. Organized and trained for long-range penetration, it bore the code name GALAHAD and popular name Merrill’s Marauders,
an appellation provided by the press. Commanded by Brigadier General Frank D. Merrill, the Marauders consisted of 2,997 officers and men organized into a headquarters and three battalions. The Marauders fought and died from the village of Ledo in northeast India to the Burmese town of Myitkyina, situated along the Irrawaddy River.
Operating in conjunction with the Chinese 226 and 33th Divisions the American Tenth Air Force, and Detachment 101 of the American Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the Marauders penetrated behind Japanese lines in some of the most difficult, disease ridden terrain in the world. In a little over three months, they marched by foot over 700 miles; in five major and 30 minor fights, they met and defeated the Japanese 18th Division (the Chrysanthemum Division), veterans of the capture of Singapore and Burma. Their operations culminated in the seizure of the strategically important, all-weather airstrip at Myitkyina. Though bought with the blood and bravery of fevered, exhausted, emaciated men—this extraordinary achievement could be realized only by the courage of equally fevered, exhausted, and emaciated leaders, who refused to quit.
Two unofficial accounts of the Marauders have proven the most popular works on the operations of the 5307th. Virtually every secondary work examining some aspect of the North Burma Campaign uses one or both of the works as a principal if not the sole source of information. The first, the Marauders, was written by Charleton Ogburn, communications officer for the 1st Battalion. The second, Galahad, was written by Charles N. Hunter, General Merrill’s deputy commander.
The official history of the unit is captured in American Forces in Action account, Merrill’s Marauders. This manuscript rests primarily on the war diary of the Marauder’s command historian and on the interviews he conducted. The command historian, Major John M. Jones, received relatively little other material to use in the preparation of the history. Three reasons explain this. First, because they were traveling behind Japanese lines, the Marauders minimized their record keeping to stay as light as possible. Second, a Japanese artillery round scored a direct hit on the mule carrying the unit records during the Marauders’ second mission. Third, monsoon rains during the third and final mission made record keeping almost impossible. Moreover, all the papers of the Marauders’ intelligence officer were lost when he was killed during the assault on Myitkyina’s airstrip, and the papers washed away before his body could be recovered.
Two other official histories provide a thorough consideration of the Marauders and their operations. Stilwell’s Command Problems, by Charles F. Romanus and Riley Sunderland presents the official story of a commander, his staff, and his soldiers in a theater of war. Published in 1956, the work looks at the drama of high command and leadership in the China-Burma-India (CBI ) Theater. Because the Marauders were an important element of the drama, they receive a correspondingly large representation in the volume. The other official history is Crisis Fleeting, which contains original reports on military medicine in India and Burma in the World War II. Published in 1969, the history includes the reports of two of the Marauders’ surgeons annotated by the editor, James H. Stone. The reports, still bearing the emotion of recently completed battle, detail the experiences and observations of two doctors who marched with the Marauders. Mr. Stone’s annotations add perspective and balance. Taken as a whole, the annotated reports provide a vivid account of combat medicine in the jungle.
A third first-hand account, The History of the 2nd Battalion, Merrill’s Marauders, appeared recently. This work provides a view sharply in contrast to Ogburn’s and Hunter’s, as well as certain aspects of the medical reports in Crisis Fleeting. George A. McGee, commander of the Marauders’ 2d Battalion, details the actions of the 2d Battalion from its beginnings in Trinidad until Colonel McGee’s departure from his unit in July of 1944. This account rests on his personal experience and on his battalion’s combat journal and operations maps. Clearly, McGee saw or remembers events differently from Ogburn and Hunter. McGee purports not to challenge their accounts on matters addressing the first and third battalions but does so by implication. McGee’s account clearly questions Hunter’s actions as deputy commander and disputes Hunter’s account of his importance as the field commander
of the Marauders.
Some indication of McGee’s views on the campaign in northern Burma appeared in 1987 when McGee wrote a letter to Parameters’ editor in response to an article published by the journal. Common Man, Uncommon Leadership, Charles N. Hunter with Galahad in Burma,
written by Scott McMichael, had extolled Colonel Hunter’s leadership of the Marauders. Following the line taken by Colonel Hunter in his book, McMichael depicted Colonel Hunter as the real leader of the Marauders and indicted Generals Stilwell and Merrill as uncaring and inept. Colonel McGee sharply disagreed with McMichael as did the theater historian, Riley Sunderland, who separately chastised McMichael for an unbalanced criticism of Stilwell.
What is the truth? Did failings of leadership occur on a monumental scale? Were the Marauders, as McMichael asked and asserted, unloved, misunderstood, and mercilessly abused, perhaps the most badly handled American force in the war?
These questions have defied historians for a variety of reasons but principally