5 - The China Marines

Summary

Chinese guerrilla warfare would become connected to the United States Marines in two ways: the association of China Marines with Chinese military methods through Evans Carlson and Samuel Griffith, and the connection between the use of lightly armed, but highly motivated, marine units fighting in “guerrilla” style. In the year or so following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, a materially inferior United States Navy and Marine Corps managed narrowly to seize the initiative in the Pacific. Material inferiority required and highlighted the need for intelligent strategy as a force multiplier. In this early stage of the war, for a number of idiosyncratic reasons, a new marine unit, the Raiders, was created to strike back at the Japanese. The Raider Battalions, which would exist for only two years, had three notable military actions: the Makin raid, Edson’s Ridge, and the Long Patrol. As the Marine Corps expanded, and the war shifted, the Raiders were dissolved. Guerrilla warfare gave way to island hopping and amphibious assaults. The brief history of the Raiders was glorious, but, apart from Edson’s Ridge, of questionable value. Unlike Joseph Stilwell, the Raider Battalions took part in the battle for the Pacific that mattered to Americans.