| Marines in World War II Commemorative Series |
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A DIFFERENT WAR: Marines in Europe and North Africa by Lieutenant Colonel Harry W. Edwards, U.S. Marine Corps (Ret) Assignment to London (continued) 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.
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; deceptive 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 RAF in the Western Desert. Other Marine aviators who arrived in Cairo at this time included Lieutenant Colonels Claude A. Lar kin and Walter G. Farrell, and Captain Perry O. 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 RAF 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 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 night-fighter 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, cool headed but aggressive, and not quick-on-the-trigger or devil-may-care, 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 war. 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 American-made), debriefing bomber crews, and talking with staff officers. They also visited Palestine, Syria, and Cyprus. 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 G. 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 G. 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. 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 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 Achnacarry, 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, map-reading, 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 double-time, 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 downward 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 cross-country. They organized a defensive 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.
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