This Day in History: December 4, 1942

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by Simonov

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This Day in History

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On December 4, 1942, Carlson's patrol on Guadalcanal comes to an end. The patrol had begun on November 6, 1942, as the 2nd Marine Raider Battalion under the command of Lt. Col. Evans Carlson entered the jungle beyond the perimeter secured by the United States Marine Corps (USMC) around Henderson Field. The objective of the patrol was to conduct reconnaissance behind enemy lines and to engage Japanese forces they encountered. The Raiders had already gained experience with such operations during the Makin Atoll raid earlier in the year, and now they were to get another chance to prove themselves. The men, inserted by sea at Aola Bay, were to work with native scouts and patrol westward towards Henderson Field. Over the course of the next month, the Raiders would engage in intense combat with a vastly numerically superior Japanese force. Despite being outnumbered, Carlson's men inflicted heavy casualties upon the Japanese while suffering far few casualties of their own. The Raiders claimed to have killed or captured 488 Japanese troops for the loss of 16 of their own men killed and 17 wounded. However, 225 of the Raiders were taken out of the fight due to disease and illness developed while fighting in the jungles of the Solomon Islands. Carlson's men also succeeded in destroying large quantities of Japanese supplies and equipment, including the destruction of artillery that had been used for harassing fire against Henderson Field.

Carlson's unconventional doctrine (which would actually serve as an influence upon the later development of American special forces units) had earned the Marine officer a number of enemies among the older establishment. The Raider battalions would later be combined to form the 1st Marine Raider Regiment under the command of Lt. Col. Alan Shapley while Carlson was appointed as executive officer for the new regiment and later rotated back to the United States. In 1946, Carlson retired from the US Marine Corps as a Brigadier General, promoted for his service in combat. On May 27, 1947, Brigadier General Evans Carlson died from a cardiac ailment at the age of 51. As for the Raiders, Shapley changed to a more conventional doctrine, abandoning the methods and ideas developed by Carlson. In 1944, the Raiders were disbanded and reformed as a conventional Marine regiment due to changing manpower needs withing the USMC. In 2014-15, the Marine Special Operations Regiment, part of the Marine Corps Special Operations Command (MARSOC) was renamed as the Marine Raider Regiment, marking the return of the Raiders as the Marine Corps special operations force.

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Published: 4 years, 11 months ago

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