Marauders

FROM OUR EDITORS

The Barnes & Noble Review
This is a book for the serious military history buff. First published in 1959, it is a firsthand account of the exploits of the famous Merrill's Marauders, the World War II fighting unit led by Brigadier General Frank D. Merrill.

At the request of the legendary Lieutenant General Joseph "Vinegar Joe" Stilwell, Merrill formed a unit to carry out a true "mission impossible": to penetrate Japanese lines and keep open a supply line between China and Burma during the first months of 1944 -- a link vital to Allied success in the Pacific War.

This hardy band was being asked to engage in a form of fighting previously unfamiliar to U.S. troops -- guerrilla warfare. But staffed with veterans of Guadalcanal and other Pacific battles in which they confronted Japanese guerrilla tactics, the Marauders proved to be more than up to their assignment.

Charlton Ogburn, who served as an officer with the Marauders, recounts in meticulous detail every inch of the unit's progress, setbacks, and constant battles with hunger, fatigue, and disease. His book shows that Merrill's Marauders set a pattern that continues to be played out -- for example, in the post-9/11 antiterrorist campaign in Afghanistan -- with much more support, recognition, and training than this beleaguered, heroic unit had in 1944. Theirs is indeed an epic tale of courage, determination, and mission that fully deserves to be retold. (Linda Goetz Holmes)

Linda Goetz Holmes is the author of Unjust Enrichment: How Japan's Companies Built Postwar Fortunes Using American POWs.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

The Marauders is Charlton Ogburn Jr.'s masterpiece of in-the-trenches warfare—the fascinating yet terrifying true story of a military unit essentially abandoned by the army for whom they fought.

In a time when battles were still fought on the ground, between men who could see their enemies with their own eyes, a wildly assorted band of soldiers volunteer for "a dangerous and hazardous mission" and their exploits end up touching the imagination of the American people, their fate leading to a Congressional inquiry. Three battalions of American infantrymen marched and fought across six hundred miles of northern Burma to drive the Japanese from an area the size of Connecticut and achieve fame as Merrill's Marauders. Theirs was a victory over determined and resourceful enemies—over what Churchill called "the most forbidding fighting country imaginable"—over malaria, dysentery and typhus, but also over mismanagement from above and their own limitations as human beings. In the end, these men won both an extraordinary victory and an enduring place in American legend.

Charlton Ogburn, Jr.'s extensive research coupled with his own experience as a Marauder and an engrossing writing style make for a dramatic and moving narrative. This is jungle combat at its most real, its most adrenaline-pumping and its most terrifying. Merrills Marauder's are real people fighting a real war in the startlingly lush and terrifyingly environment of Southeast Asia. These are the men, faced with incessant rain, hunger, fatigue, pain and a very human fear of what fresh disaster their next step will uncover.
About the AuthorCharlton Ogburn, Jr., (1911-1998) After graduating fromHarvard Ogburn worked as a writer and book-reviewer and then joined the army in 1941. He was a member of Merrill's Marauders and rose to the rank of captain before his discharge. He later served with the State Department, acted as policy planning advisor in the bureau of Far Eastern Affairs, and became chief of the division of research for the Near East, Southeast Asia and Africa. He is the author of three other books and numerous magazine articles.

SYNOPSIS

Reprint of the 1956 account of Merrill's Marauders in which Ogburn served during the 600-mile campaign through Burma in 1944. Annotation c. Book News, Inc.,Portland, OR

FROM THE CRITICS

Time Magazine

A fine book,a counterpoise of violence and reflection.

Chicago Tribune

The raw courage and exaltation of combat life...magnificently told.

St. Louis Post Dispatch

This is a completely honest book; a highly informative evaluation of the American fighting man.

New Yorker

A fine history—sensitive,vivid,funny and tough—of a remarkable fighting unit...The author,who was a Marauder,is rightly proud of having been one of the happy few. He can be just as proud of this book.

Chicago Sun Times