Uploaded May 2023 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Witness the birth of the USMC Special Operations Force with the Marine Raiders of WW2! Play War Thunder for FREE on PC, Xbox Series X|S and PS®5. Use my link (playwt.link/invicta ) to download the game and get your exclusive bonus: multiple Premium Vehicles, Premium Account, Boosters and more! See you on the battlefield!
In this Units of History episode we explore the vaunted story of the US Marine Raiders which emerged in WW2 to act as the tip of the spear for offensives against Japan in the Pacific War.
We begin the episode with an overview of the state of the US Marine Corps following the Great War. It was in these years that the forces slowly came into play which would eventually birth the Marine Raiders. One major factor was the development of Amphibious Operations Doctrine which increasingly called for the use of special first wave units meant to soften enemy defenses prior to a landing. To this end, the Marine Corps would begin allocating time and resources towards this effort as war loomed on the horizon in the Pacific. Key to these efforts would be two commanders who ended up leading the First and Second Raider Battalions, namely Merritt Edson and Evans Carlson.
We spend time familiarizing ourselves with the careers of both these men and how their particular personalities would end up shaping their units. Our history documentary then covers the equipment, training, and tactics of the Marine Raiders as the came into being in the months immediately after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
We then cover the service history of the US Marine Raiders from the raid on Making Island to the Battle of Bloody ridge on Guadalcanal. In part 2 we will continue this story with the long raid and their continued operations through 1943.
Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
03:40 Origins
07:41 Merritt Edson
09:07 Evans Carlson
11:52 Creation
17:36 Equipment
20:25 Organization
23:56 Tactics
25:45 Service History
27:55 Makin Island Raid
32:28 Battle of Tulagi
34:04 Battle of Bloody Ridge
38:59 Aftermath
Credits
Research = Eric Myers
Script = Invicta
Narration = Guy Michaels
Art = Penta Limited
#history
#documentary
#military
Witness the birth of the USMC Special Operations Force with the Marine Raiders of WW2! Play War Thunder for FREE on PC, Xbox Series X|S and PS®5. Use my link (playwt.link/invicta ) to download the game and get your exclusive bonus: multiple Premium Vehicles, Premium Account, Boosters and more! See you on the battlefield!
In this Units of History episode we explore the vaunted story of the US Marine Raiders which emerged in WW2 to act as the tip of the spear for offensives against Japan in the Pacific War.
We begin the episode with an overview of the state of the US Marine Corps following the Great War. It was in these years that the forces slowly came into play which would eventually birth the Marine Raiders. One major factor was the development of Amphibious Operations Doctrine which increasingly called for the use of special first wave units meant to soften enemy defenses prior to a landing. To this end, the Marine Corps would begin allocating time and resources towards this effort as war loomed on the horizon in the Pacific. Key to these efforts would be two commanders who ended up leading the First and Second Raider Battalions, namely Merritt Edson and Evans Carlson.
We spend time familiarizing ourselves with the careers of both these men and how their particular personalities would end up shaping their units. Our history documentary then covers the equipment, training, and tactics of the Marine Raiders as the came into being in the months immediately after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
We then cover the service history of the US Marine Raiders from the raid on Making Island to the Battle of Bloody ridge on Guadalcanal. In part 2 we will continue this story with the long raid and their continued operations through 1943.
Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
03:40 Origins
07:41 Merritt Edson
09:07 Evans Carlson
11:52 Creation
17:36 Equipment
20:25 Organization
23:56 Tactics
25:45 Service History
27:55 Makin Island Raid
32:28 Battle of Tulagi
34:04 Battle of Bloody Ridge
38:59 Aftermath
Credits
Research = Eric Myers
Script = Invicta
Narration = Guy Michaels
Art = Penta Limited
#history
#documentary
#military
![True Size of a Samurai Army [c. 1600] 3D DOCUMENTARY](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/deV34RTyPO8/mqdefault.jpg "True Size of a Samurai Army [c. 1600] 3D DOCUMENTARY
History documentary on the True Size of a Samurai Army! Watch the Assassin’s Creed Shadows trailer (https://ubi.li/1bL6W) and pre-order the game now (https://ubi.li/qF6Fe)! Thanks to @AssassinsCreed for sponsoring this episode.
In this history documentary we seek to bring to life an army of the Sengoku Jidai. Such a task is quite the undertaking given the poorly documented and fast-evolving nature of the eras military forces. Yet we can nonetheless model a typical Samurai army which captures most of the key themes of the period.
We begin with context on the history of Japan from the early Heian period though the Kamakura, Muromachi, and eventual Sengoku eras. Next we establish the general structure of a Daimyo Kashindan and how this network of vassals mobilized its forces. This includes mobilization records of the Koku based system which give us a sense of each vassals obligations. We then inspect each type of soldier which went to war. This includes peasant non combatants, ashigaru troops, and samurai warriors.
Finally, with all these pieces in place we see how the mustered forces were organized into an army. This begins at the smallest level of the Go (squad) and rises up to the tactical unit of the Sonae (battallion). Multiple Sonae would in turn be configured into the major elements of an army in the field. We conclude with a final positioning of such forces as they may have existed in an actual Samurai battle of the Sengoku Jidai.
Sources:
Samurai Armies of the Late Sengoku Period - Volume I by Till Weber
Samurai Armies of the Late Sengoku Period - Volume II by Till Weber
Samurai Armies 1550–1615 by Stephen Turnbull
The Samurai by Stephen Turnbull
War in Japan: 1467–1615 by Stephen Turnbull
Credits:
Research = Sophia Ware and Paul Liu
Script = Invicta
Narration = Guy Michaels
Art = Penta Limited
Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
02:31 Historical Context
05:17 A Daimyos Kashindan
06:59 Systems of Recruitment
09:01 Troop Types
13:02 Ashigaru Go (Squad)
15:34 Samurai Go (Squad)
16:52 Ashigaru Kumi (Platoon)
18:30 Samurai Kumi (Platoon)
20:22 Sonae (Batallion)
21:09 Combat Units
22:17 Command Group
25:01 Banner Group
26:04 Baggage Group
27:35 Sonae Statistics
29:03 Sonae in Battle
32:40 Samurai Army
35:20 Outro
#AssassinsCreedShadows
#AD")
