FORWARDED QUERY: 41 Royal Marine Commando

[Marc James Small <msmall@roanoke.infi.net>]

PLEASE RESPOND TO JAY STONE AT <wjayfa@home.com> AS WELL AS TO THE KOREAN
WAR LIST!
_________________________________________
>From W Jay Stone:

The November edition of American heritage has an article, Chosin, about
the marines there in the Korean War. The author writes of the arrival at
Headquarters, 1st Marine (Colonel Chesty Puller) Regiment at Koto-ri by
41 Royal Commando commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Douglas B. Drysdale.
Colonel Puller attached some USMC units to 41 Commando and ordered him
to fight his way north to Hagaru-ri where they were needed. In the AH
story Drysdale is wounded on the way north.

In another story about this incident that I read, there had been so many
casualties in the 41 Royal Marine Commando Task Force that the commander
of one of its subordinate units, a USMC Infantry company was the
commander of the task force. This would indicate that Drysdale had
become a casualty and unable to command the task force.

I went to this sire:

http://www.rt66.com/~korteng/SmallArms/41RMCpub.htm

This is a good site about 41 Royal Marine Commando. In writing about its
attachment to, and combat with, 1st MarDiv, the author mentions that
Drysdale was slightly wounded. There are subsequent mentions of Drysdale
in the description of the actions of 41 RMC.

So,  does anyone know what happened to or with Drysdale? I find the
story interesting because Drysdale reported in to Hq, 1st Marines with
290 men and departed the next morning with approx 900 men, many tanks
and vehicles all the additions to his force being USMC. I would also
like to know about Drysdale's WWII activity and his post Korean career
in the RM.

I have also sent this to Marc in the hopes that he might have knowledge
of this incident or perhaps be willing to post it to his Korean War
list.

Regards,

Jay


msmall@roanoke.infi.net  FAX:  +540/343-7315
Cha robh bas fir gun ghras fir!