Merrill's Marauders

Cpl. Ervin (Bud) Frecks (Leona Wudke’s brother), member of Merrill’s Marauders World War II.

One of the benefits of living in a retirement community, like Brookdale of McCook is hearing stories about families of the residents. Since most are of the age when World War II was the all-consuming topic of the news in their youth, we hear a good bit about how things were: “During the war.” You don’t need to ask, “Which war?” — we all know. Recently Leona Wudke passed along the story of her brother’s (Cpl. Ervin Frecks) part in World War II. She said that he never liked to talk much about the war when he came back, but he carried the scars of that experience to the end of his days. When someone would ask him why he volunteered for such service he had no good reply — “One day at roll call they asked for volunteers to join a commando type unit. The fellow on either side of me stepped forward, so I did too. I didn’t think too much about it.” Had he known what lay ahead he might well have acted differently.

Merrill’s Marauders, named after Frank Merrill of Galahad Unit, was a United States Army “long-range penetration special operations jungle warfare unit”, which fought in the China-Burma-India theater of operations during World War II. The unit became famous for its deep penetration missions behind Japanese lines, usually engaging Japanese forces of far superior numbers. At all times they disrupted supply lines and kept large numbers of Japanese troops from fighting MacArthur’s troops who were capturing island after island on their way to Tokyo.

At the Allied Quebec Conference, in 1943, it was decided to form an all-volunteer American Commando type unit (Merrill’s Marauders, nicknamed after the group’s leader, General Frank Merrill) to engage Japanese forces in Burma — to force the Japanese to divert troops from the Islands campaign in the Pacific. The call for volunteers attracted some 3,000 men — some of the volunteers came from Army prisons, where volunteers were promised their freedom after the war for volunteering.

Gen. Stillwell, awarding medals after the battle of Myitkyina.

By 1944, in India, the Marauders were equipped for jungle warfare — machetes for clearing brush, special shoes for the jungle wear, etc. They were issued some 700 horses and mules for carrying communication equipment, provisions and a variety of machine guns and ammunition. The men carried MI Garand (sniper) rifles or .30 caliber MI carbine rifles. (All of the Marauders were qualified as expert marksmen). Since weight was a critical factor, the men were forced to use K-rations, dehydrated food, which was light to carry, but in many cases less than appetizing and all but inedible. While on the march and in combat they were limited to just one meal of these K-rations per day (augmented by occasional air drops of rice and C-rations), which led to serious cases of malnourishment.

In February 1944 some 2,500 of the 3000 Marauders set out on a 1,000-mile march across the Palkia mountain range into the Burmese jungle, behind Japanese lines, to disrupt Japanese offensive forces. While in Burma the Marauders were invariably outnumbered, but succeeded in harassing Japanese supply and communication lines, shot up patrols and assaulted Japanese rear areas. Once they surprised a Japanese unit, believed to be safely behind Japanese lines and killed some 400-500 Japanese soldiers. The Japanese were continually surprised by the heavy and accurate fire they received when attacking Marauder positions.

Though the Marauders were successful in harassing large numbers of the enemy they were by no means devoid of casualties themselves. In May 1944, only 1,300 of the Marauders were fit enough to join troops from the Chinese Army for an assault on the vital Japanese airfield at Myitkyina in Burma. The surprise attack involved a 62-mile hike across the 6,600’ Kuman Mountain Range, using mules to carry their supplies. The attack on the airfield was a complete success, though the town and surrounding area was another matter. The town was defended y a fort of some 600 die-hard Japanese soldiers (plus enforcements) who vowed to fight until they were killed. Not only did the Marauders and their Chinese allies have to fight the Japanese, they were fighting during the worst of the monsoon season. Many of the Marauders suffered from a scrub typhus outbreak, which resulted in attacks of bloody dysentery and fevers, greatly weakening the troops, both American and Chinese.

Marauders rest along jungle trail in Burma.

The battle of Myitkyina waged on, back and forth until August 4th, neither side being able to claim victory. Finally, with the help of Chinese reinforcements, the Marauders were able to claim a victory. It might have been a victory, but it was made with extremely heavy casualties. The Japanese commander escaped with 600 of his men.

Some 3,800 Japanese had been killed and 187 were captured. The Marauders had lost 272 of their men killed, 955 wounded. 980 men, suffering from illness and disease were evacuated by plane back to the United States. Ironically, those evacuated were issued jungle hammocks, with netting and rain covers, which would surely have saved many lives had they been issued to the men earlier in the campaign. A number of the men died later from cerebral malaria, amoebic dysentery, or scrub typhus. Among the casualties was General Merrill himself, who suffered a 2nd heart attack before going down with malaria.

A week after the town of Myitkyina fell Merrill’s Marauders were disbanded as a fighting force in the Army. Just 130 of the original Merrill’s fighters, officers and men, out of the original 2,997, were considered combat effective. Of the 2,750 who had entered Burma, only two had never been hospitalized. None of the horses and just 41 mules were left alive. In a little more than five months, the Marauders had advanced some 750 miles through some of the harshest jungles in the world, fought in five major battles, and had engaged the Japanese Army in 32 separate battles, including defensive battles for which they were ill-equipped. They had fought Japanese soldiers, hunger, fever, and disease. They had traversed through more jungle than any other unit in the U.S. Army.

The Marauders had the rare distinction of every member being awarded the Bronze Star. The Marauders unit was awarded the Distinguished Unit Citation. The Citation read, “The unit must display such gallantry, determination, and esprit de corps in accomplishing its mission under extremely difficult and hazardous conditions as to set it apart and above other units participating in the same campaign.”

As for Corporal Ervin (Bud) Frecks — He survived the war, came home, had a wife and family and lived into his 80s.

He made his living in the construction business, mostly in the Longmont, Colo., area until his retirement. Though he seldom talked about his wartime experience, until the end of his days, he suffered frequent, terrible dreams (nightmares), brought on by his experience with the Merrrill’s Marauders.