"THE MARINES HAVE LANDED — —The Situation is in Hand"

New Zealand Listener, Volume 7, Issue 169, 18 September 1942, Page 8

"THE MARINES HAVE LANDED — —The Situation is in Hand"

(Standard U.S, Newspaper Headline)

Written for " The Listener"

by

A.M.

R.

ANY of us have been greeting every American bluejacket as a Marine, and making wild guesses about the men inside those khaki-green uniforms with trim leather belts (whom we saw in picture magazines!). Now that the United States Marine Corps has so strikingly put itself on the map (this time of the Pacific) we are not quite sodumb. Nor are we likely to forget what they have done in the Solomons. But we are asking more questions than ever. Fortunately information is not hard to get, if you know where to look for it, for a lot has been written about the Marines. And no wonder, when you realise that the Corps is a pigmy only 16,000 strong in normal times (about ten times that figure to-day) and has to hold its publicity end up somehow between the Army and Navy giants. On board a navy ship the few Marines, hand-picked men each one, were originally supposed to set a standard of spruceness and alertness for the slouchy sea-lubbers. In those harsh old days, too, they performed the unpopular duties of ship’s police. Because Marines berthed in separate quarters and were not required to haul ropes or work the ship, the sailors read the Corps’ initials as "Useless Sons Made Comfortable." The Marines in turn sang how "Ten Thousand gobs laid down their swabs to lick one sick Marine. .. ." In Many Tight Corners The Marine assumption of superiority was self-defence against all this. They do their job without waste words in really tight corners. When the Maine blew up in Havana harbour Private Bill Anthony formally informed his Captain, "Sir, I have to report in course of duty that the ship is blown up and sinking." When the 385 Marines on’ Wake Island’s 2,000acre sandbank, 2,000 miles from Hawaii, ‘had twelve times prevented Japanese landings backed by 200 ’planes and a fleet

with long-range naval guns; when, after a fortnight of this, hardly a man was left effective and had nothing larger than a 30-calibre machine-gun, Major Devereaux radioed "Issue still in doubt." Questions And Answers But now for those questions of yours. "What are they-soldiers or sailors?" Answer: They are an integral part of the U.S. Navy, but specially organised and trained on military lines for landing duties-the taking or spiking of enemy naval bases, the construction of temporary U.S. bases in enemy territory, "commando" raids, or what in) peace-time is euphemistically called "international police work," and " restoring order." Question: "Why do they have so many badges and uniforms?" Answer? The badges represent proficiency in various weapons. Because they may be sent anywhere in the world, and because they are professionals, unit has not only winter "greens" but also summer (or tropical) "khakis" and parade-deck

resplendents-"dress blues" for sea duty and ceremonial purposes. Question: Do they receive different types of training? Amswer: They are divided into highly specialised units — infantry, artillery, aviation, anti-aircraft batteries, chemical warfare, engineers, Pay And Allotments "What ate they paid?" Privates get 50 dollars a month, with 20 per cent. extra if overseas. Other ranks get correspondingly higher. No part of their pay is compulsorily held back till the expiration of enlistment (four years). "Why are they called *leather- g and ‘boots’?" The former from the stiff leather collar that used to keep their ‘eyes level’ during ship-board drill. It is the raw trainees who are ‘boots.’ Any Marine will tell ‘you. why." "Are they ‘suicide troops’?" No, although the Marine Brigade in France, 1917-18, suffered casualties of 108 per cent. (made up by replacements). "Ts that new film To the Shores of Tripoli really an * authentic’ account of the Marines?" Yes, insofar as training, uniforms and esprit de corps are concerned. By and large the story is» improbable, though of course the purpose is to furnish entertainment. "And why the title and the song (the so-called ‘Marines’ Hymn’)-‘ To. the Sffores of Tripoli ’?" A Glance At History To answer that last question demands a new paragraph, with some account of, not sailors on horseback, but Marines on camel-back. The scene was Derna, of ‘all places. And the date 1802 A.D. But first we need to explain who the Marines are when they are,at home, When the American colonists refused ' to drink George III.’s tea, they made permanent and official a small force--of about 800 men who previously had been occasionally recruited ad hoc to do particular jobs of the sort now called "commando." Thus this force, the Marines, are older than either the U.S. Army or Navy. The British (and German, Hes(Continued on next page)

(Continued from previous page) sian) Regulars despised the colonists’ Militia-" who fight like Red Indians" --and at one stage actually dispersed it and would have taken Washington but for the Marines and bluejackets. Their first decisive action afloat, was, strangely enough, on the little forest-locked Lake Champlain where invading forces from Canada were held up. Thereafter they were on all the seas of the world. In 1802 they were hoisting the still-brand-new Stars and Stripes (only thirteen of each) over a Libyan fortress of undiscoverable antiquity. In 1832 they were cleaning out a pirate stronghold in Sumatra, Arrived at 1903, they were sweltering in Abyssinia. By 1940 they were enduring cold glances in Iceland, the first American Republic and now merely the 49th State of the Union (or so its inhabitants complain). Meanwhile they had been everywhere over the two Americas from arctic Behring Strait (1891) to the antarctic Falklands (1831) and in scores of landings and " bamboo wars" elsewhere-Fiji, Formosa, Yugoslavia, Samoa, Sicily, Peking, Mexico, ("The Halls of Montezuma"), Egypt, Nicaragua, Hong Kong, Cuba, the Philippines. ... Many of these landings and interferences were no doubt justified. Some of them were not. But the Recording Angel has probably debited the latter to the American People rather than to their humble servants, the Marines. One "invasion," which He is

paying out on with compound interest at the moment was the forcible "opening up" in 1853 to British and American trade of a Japan that for nearly 400 years had kept strictly to herself. To the humiliation of that day some of Japanese history since may be traced. "Inyasion" of Britain And the Marines have "invaded" the British Isles, too. This is no wisecrack, nor the complaint of an I.R.A. man about Ulster, but sober historical fact. In 1778, John Paul Jones, a pirate, with a pick-me-up squadron of leaky tubs fitted out in a French port, was sinking commerce off the coast of Scotland. Leastwise he was treated as a "pirate" in that the British Government did not "recognise" the rebel flag under which he sailed. To protect himself with a hostage Captain Jones landed on the Isle of May to seize the Earl of Selkirk, his former patron, who had practically forced him into slavery on the Carolina plantations. Lord Selkirk was out, but his lady entertained the visitors. She noted in a letter that "of the two officers, one was a civil young man in a green uniform and an anchor on his buttons, which were white." That uniform of the United States Marine Corps, and its successors, has been on other British islands often since, and will be again, for better purpose and certainly with better welcome.