Elite • 59

US Marine Corps 1941–45

Gordon Rottman • Illustrated by Mike Chappell

CONTENTS

US MARINE CORPS 1941–45

INTRODUCTION

While the US Marine Corps was one of the smallest of American armed services in World War II (only the Coast Guard was smaller), its contribution to the final victory cannot be overstated. The Marines comprised a mere 5 per cent of America’s 16.3 million men and women in uniform, but suffered 10 per cent of the nation’s combat casualties.

On average, among all US armed forces, 73 per cent served overseas, but in the Marine Corps 98 per cent of its officers and 89 per cent of its enlisted men had been deployed abroad by the end of the war. While the Army conducted many more, and sometimes larger, amphibious assaults, the Marines conducted proportionally more. In the Pacific, 18 Army divisions executed 26 landings, compared to 15 by six Marine divisions; these landings were often followed by some of the most brutal combat experienced by US forces. The price of victory was high: the Corps suffered 19,733 dead and missing and 67,207 wounded out of a total of 669,000 who wore the Marine uniform.

At the war’s beginning the Corps possessed 65,881 officers and men: just over 31,000 belonged to the Fleet Marine Force’s ground and air units; some 3,400 guarded overseas naval bases; almost 4,000 served aboard ships of the fleet; and 27,000 manned the shore establishment and guarded Stateside naval bases. By the war’s end there were 485,833 men and women in the Marines, and to place this expansion in perspective, more Marines were wounded in action through 46 months of combat than the Corps had originally possessed on 7 December 1941. Interestingly, over 224,000 conscripts were inducted into the Corps, which prior to 1943 had been solely a volunteer force, and all but 70,000 draftees volunteered to become regulars or active reservists. Although the US Marine Corps is a component of the Navy, it operates autonomously. While its most notable achievements were those of the Fleet Marine Force ground and air combat units, the Marines maintained their earliest role, as that of ships’ detachments and naval base guards.

It must be remembered that the Marine Corps is a self-contained fighting force and possesses its own air component. There is not enough room here to cover Marine aviation, but it is nonetheless a major component of the Corps. At the outbreak of hostilities, Marine aviation possessed only 251 aircraft and 2,766 men (of whom just over 600 were pilots). By 1945 the fledgling air arm had grown to 32 aircraft groups and 145 squadrons, with 125,162 personnel; it accounted for 2,355 Japanese aircraft destroyed in air combat.

Regardless of facts and figures, one single message prevails: whether called a leatherneck, sea soldier or gyrene, it was the individual Marine and his rifle that made the Corps what it remains to this day, one of the world’s elite fighting forces.

The US Marine Corps ‘globe and anchor’, or ‘chicken on a ball’, device was standardised on 16 March 1936 as a cap and collar ornament. It was incorporated into a variety of insignia and borne on unit colours, Its basic design was In use since 1868 and was influenced by the Royal Marine’s badge. Officers wore a silver globe with gilt continents and gilt anchor with silver rope for blues while enlisted men’s were brass. Bronze devices were worn on forest green and khaki uniforms by all ranks. The scroll (not included on uniform insignia) bore ‘SEMPER FIDELIS’–’Always Faithful’, the Marine Corps’ motto. Beneath are the two types of fasteners in use during World War II, pin and screw.