The US Marine Raider was an "elite within an elite." Modeled on British Commandoes, they were the earliest forerunners of the various special operations units of the modern US military. These units would conduct operations with only the equipment they could carry on their backs; their heaviest weapons were light mortars and light machine-guns. Highly trained in close-in fighting, the Raiders were expected to be equally skilled in watercraft, jungle survival, and jungle warfare. This book details the Raiders' experiences through some of the toughest raining ever to be experienced by a Marine and onto combat during the Makin Raid, and through the horrific jungle battles of the Solomon Islands.

The US Marine Raider was an "elite within an elite." Modeled on British Commandoes, they were the earliest forerunners of the various special operations units of the modern US military. These units would conduct operations with only the equipment they could carry on their backs; their heaviest weapons were light mortars and light machine-guns. Highly trained in close-in fighting, the Raiders were expected to be equally skilled in watercraft, jungle survival, and jungle warfare. This book details the Raiders' experiences through some of the toughest raining ever to be experienced by a Marine and onto combat during the Makin Raid, and through the horrific jungle battles of the Solomon Islands.

On October 16, 1942, on Kwajalein Atoll, at the fringe of the Japanese Empire, members of the Imperial Japanese Navy's 6th Base Unit ceremonially beheaded nine Marines from the 2nd Raider Battalion. The captives held no hopes for pardon or for rescue as they walked blindfolded, one by one, to the spot of execution, which also became their burial site. The Marine Corps and their families already thought they were dead, the men knew.Forgotten Raiders of '42 is the account of how these volunteer patriots, unbeknownst to their command, were inadvertently left behind after the Marines' raid on Makin Island in August 1942. The raid, which was a morale boost for the Navy Department and the American public, was hailed at home as a great success even as the condemned Raiders knelt to await their fate. The heroism of the Raiders-under the command of Lt. Col. Evans F. Carlson, who later received the Navy Cross-has been well documented by the press, in books, and in Hollywood. In a country craving good news and heroes, Carlson and the Navy delivered. The details of the raid's shaky beginning and tragic end, however, would not be known until many years later. After a summary of the dramatic raid, Tripp Wiles focuses on the Raiders' withdrawal from Makin and on Carlson's decisions that directly affected the men who were left behind. Wiles also examines the actions, inactions, and conditions that led to their unintentional abandonment. Finally, he reviews the Navy's private reactions and, using new documents and interviews, the Raiders' fate, bringing a measure of closure to the disappearance and execution of the forgotten Raiders.

The Marine Corps began World War II with less than 66,000 officers and men. Yet despite suffering 10 per cent of the overall American casualties, the Marines were able to build on their proud traditions and history to transform a small branch of service into a premier combined arms amphibious assault force. Regardless of its expansion by 750 percent, the Corps was able to maintain its sense of tradition, instill that into thousands of new Marines, and create an elite arm of service. In this book, Gordon Rottman, follows a Marine Corps rifleman through his draft, training and participation in assaults such as: Roi-Namur in the Marshall Islands, Saipan and Tinian in the Mariana Islands, and Iwo Jima.

Under the fiery leadership of Merritt "Red Mike" Edson, the 1st Marine Raider Battalion provided the vanguard of a strategic experiment with seaborne commando units in the Pacific. From 1942 to 1943 Edson's Raiders fought seven critical battles in Tulagi, Guadalcanal, and New Georgia against some of Japan's most experienced jungle fighters. Twenty-four Raiders had ships named in their honor. Col. Joseph Alexander's book presents abundant first-person accounts of the conflicts, from Edson himself to such hard-nosed NCOs as Angus Goss, Walter Burak, and Anthony Palonis.

On August 17–18, 1942, 211 men of the US Marine Corps' 2nd Raider Battalion conducted a daring amphibious raid on the Japanese-occupied Makin Island in the South Pacific. This ambitious but flawed operation was intended to divert Japanese reinforcements bound for Guadalcanal, over 1,000 miles to the southwest, in the wake of the US landings there ten days earlier; the Raiders were to destroy the seaplane base and radio station, take prisoners, and collect intelligence. Although yielding limited results, it was to be an invaluable test of the innovative training and tactics employed by the Raiders, and a crucial boost to national morale at this difficult stage in the war. Featuring specially commissioned full-colour artwork and expert analysis, this gripping account of the fateful Makin Raid tells the whole story, from the plan's conception to its troubled execution and aftermath.

On August 17, 1942, ten days after American marines had stormed Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands, two U.S. submarines secretly delivered a small force from the newly formed 2nd Marine Raider Battalion to Japanese-occupied Makin Island one thousand miles to the north. The raid was intended to gather intelligence and divert attention from the main American attack to the south. News of the success of this special operation took hold of the American imagination and provided a much needed boost to morale. The battalion's leader was Evans Carlson, a forty-six-year-old career marine office who had most recently served in China as a military observer. Carlson was also a friend of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and he had proposed to him the creation of a small elite raider force similar to the British Commandos. Having accompanied Chinese guerrillas in their war against Japan, Carlson incorporated some of their tactics into his raider training, including a method of esprit de corps called "gung ho," a word still used today for loyal enthusiasm.