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Vol. III No. 47. Delhi, Thursday, July 26, 1945. Reg. No. L5015
Merrill has been Deputy Commander since Dec. 8, 1944, first under Lt. Gen. Dan I. Sultan, then under Lt. Gen. R. A. Wheeler. Leader of the first American ground forces to fight against the Japs on the continent of Asia, the Marauder chieftain came up from the ranks. He enlisted in the Engineers and was pulled out of the ranks in Panama to attend West Point where he graduated in 1929. When he was selected by Gen. Joseph W. Stilwell to command the Marauders he became one of the youngest ground combat leaders in the U.S. Army. During the North Burma campaign, Merrill led his troops in their 800-mile trek from Ledo, Assam to Myitkyina, Burma, over some of the worst terrain in the world. Following the fall of Myitkyina, Merrill headed the CBI Liaison Group at Kandy SEAC Headquarters. He returned to the U.S. on a special mission and on Sept. 5, 1944, was promoted to his present rank of major general.
Merrill returned to the CBI on September 30 of the same year. He served under Stilwell until after the split of the CBI into two Theaters when Sultan made him I-B Deputy. Merrill was formerly intelligence officer for MacArthur in the Philippines, but was on a mission to Rangoon on Pearl Harbor Day. He acted as Stilwell's liaison officer on the British front, after the arrival of Uncle Joe's mission to organize the CBI. He retreated from Burma with Stilwell in 1942. A fair minded man and a good friend of the enlisted man departed this Theater. He asked us to pass along the following message of au revoir. "There are so many people in the Theater that I should write and say goodbye that if I ever started I would not finish before the war is over. Anyway, I leave it with a sense of regret that many friends are being left here to sweat it out. "To all the numerous people who did the work for which I may have received credit, I extend my thanks for what they have done. There are a great bunch of men in India-Burma who have worked without brass bands playing to get the impossible done. "Particularly to the G.I.'s of the Theater - from the sergeant of the 45th Engineers who showed me how a sawmill could be operated from nothing to the M.P. sergeant in Delhi who arrested me for having my cap on the side of my head - I am saying goodbye with regret." - Frank D. Merrill, Maj. Gen., U.S.A. |
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Roundup Staff Writer |
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Heir Of Magic Tricks Radner, a well-known magician from Holyoke, Mass., was a former protege of Hardeen. "Under a special agreement with Hardeen," Radner says, "the magic effects that Houdini passed on to his brother have been given to me, including Houdini's most famous Chinese underwater torture cell, which I will demonstrate after getting out of the Army." A member of the Army Airways Communication Service in Agra, Radner is now on DS with the Entertainment Production Unit in Calcutta and will soon tour the India-Burma and China Theaters with a magic show Seein' Ain't Believin'. This week's article by Radner, exposing crooked methods used by expert card sharps in the Army, is the first in a series of three which the Roundup will publish. - Editor. In the above photo, Sgt. Stanley Radner demonstrates the old trick of "dealing off the bottom" of a stacked deck. As the thumb slides the top card out and back, the middle finger pushes the bottom card out where it can be easily dealt. Here the Houdini heir shows the "gambler's shift," used to counteract an honest cut of the cards. With his left arm he partially covers his other hand and distracts attention by reaching for an ashtray with his cigar, while his right hand manipulates the "top cut" to its original position on top of the deck. |
G.I.’S BUILD NECK BRACE FOR AILING COMRADE ASSAM - An improvised neck brace was designed and constructed here recently in 40 hours for a G.I. truck driver, who had broken his neck when his vehicle plunged into a sand pit. Sgt. Lloyd V. Oellrick, with the assistance of Pfc. Orville B. Robinson, both Shop Engineers in an Air Service Group, devised the brace from scrap material. At the time of the accident the driver, accompanied by two officers, was driving down a narrow road in Lower Assam. It was late at night and he was in a hurry to get to his destination. He had difficulty keeping awake and, after fighting off sleep time and time again, finally dozed off, the vehicle hitting a soft shoulder and piling up in a sand pit. He woke up two days later to find himself in a traction splint with a broken neck. He was in a cast for several weeks, then sent to a general hospital to convalesce. There the cast was removed and the patient stretched out for the first time in 12 weeks. But he needed a brace to keep his head back so the fractured vertebrae could knit together. That was when the Air Service Group shop engineers stepped in and devised a brace comparable to any built by Stateside manufacturers. Now the patient is going to his home in Springfield, O., thanks chiefly to Oellrick, who says, "The thinking time and labor were well rewarded when we saw the patient walking around with smiles and expecting, through our efforts, to go back to the U.S. soon, where the proper equipment is available to treat him." |
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Who’s Kidding On This Yo-Yo? PSYCHOPATHIC WARD, 10TH AIR FORCE, BURMA - Now that the nasty ole Jap has been chased from Burma skies, many members of the 10th Air Force have taken to more peaceful pursuits to while away the monsoon days. These valiant veterans of the wild blue yonder are playing with their yo-yos. Believing in strength of union, these combat weary transport and fighter pilots, plus a few ground wallahs, have organized the North Burma Air Task Force Yo-Yo Club, Capt. Alan MacMurray presiding. Each evening, members gather in the Operations Office and play with their yo-yos to their heart's content, while President MacMurray conducts his daily class in the varied types of yo-yoing. Cynical kibitzers, attending these nightly meetings, suspect the whole demented display as a plot to get the yo-yoers a ticket Stateside. Some consider it just another form of jungle madness. But even so, as MacMurray explains, "It's oodles of fun." |
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"... their dreams of conquest are shattered." |
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