Galahad Redux

The China-Burma-India Theater was the least decisive major arena of World War II. General Joseph Stilwell was tasked to perform concurrent diplomatic and military miracles in pursuit of Allied victory. His mission of keeping a reluctant China in the war depended upon opening a ground line of supply and communication, to augment the "Hump" air routes that linked India and China. To do this, the Japanese had to be driven from North Burma. Training and equipping Chinese troops to accomplish this mission required several months. On the eve of the Chinese attacks in October 1943, a lone American infantry regiment debarked in Bombay, India. By August 1944, this ill-starred force had won accolade and suffered disbandment. During its brief, frenetic history, this first U.S. ground combat unit to fight on the Asian land mass in World War II, was known variously as Shipment 1688, Force Galahad, the 5307th Composite Unit (Provisional), and Merrill's Marauders. This organization's participation in the North Burma Campaign lasted five and a half months and culminated in the capture of Myitkyina. The seizure of Myitkyina and its airfield permitted Allied transports to fly around the Himalayas instead of over them, and contributed greatly to the success of subsequent offensives to break the blockade of China. Although it was an achievement of high Galahad paid a price. The battles in Burma involved many enemies: the Japanese, the environment, and the morale of the Marauders themselves Galahad Redux is an attempt to analyze the disintegration of Merrill's Marauders, by emphasizing the intangible, subjective factors present in the leadership environment. The focus is on the disbandment of the 5307th in August 1944. The causes of the unit's less of integrity are related through the perceptions of five men who were there.