The 1st. Separate Marine Battalion on Luzon, P. I. 1941

I haven't found it discussed in any official histories, but the Marine Corps organized an AWG or Aircraft Warning Group in the Philippines during November 1941. At the time, the term RADAR was not yet generally used, but that was what the unit maintained and operated. The Marine unit, a Model 270-B was portable and had a range of 190 NM but was cumbersome and required the use of several trailers and heavy prime movers for mobility. Once calibrated, it was capable only of detecting the azimuth and speed of incoming aircraft. The Army had several more sophisticated units of its own which had been in operation since October of that year. These were both fixed and mobile and the newer units were able to detect altitude in addition to the capabilities of the older units. The Marine unit was under the command of Gunner Barnard and was composed of about thirty enlisted and NCO's. Three soldiers joined the unit after surviving the Japanese attack which destroyed their radar unit at Iba Field on 8 December.

Initial orders fro the Marine unit required that it be operational at Wa Wa beach, near Nasugbu, Luzon and the unit became operational by 3 December 1941 with the mission of providing early warning to the Manila Bay area.

At 0340 on 8 December (East Longitude), the command was advised about the Pearl Harbor attack and placed on a war footing. Unfortunately, the priceless advantage afforded by the radar units was largely neutralized because those units within the command structure that it would have benefitted were unaware of its existence. Gunner Branard learned this when he detected the incoming Jap formations well north of Corregidor and attempted to warn the Harbor Defense Command. Those on the rock couldn't believe that it was possible to detect enemy aircraft at a range of hundreds of miles, so the Gunner's warning was ignored until too late. As a consequence, Japanese bombers were able to destroy the bulk of American combat aircraft on the ground long before they could get airborne.

Once Subic Bay, Cavite, and the Manila waterfront had been neutralized by Jap bombers, the Marines packed-up and joined the long and catastrophic retreat columns attempting to escape being cut off by the Japanese landing at Lamon Bay. Once reunited on Bataan, the unit found that it had no standing in the supply chain because it belonged to neither the Army or the Navy (the 4th Marines had been assigned to Corregidor for beach defense). The unit continued to provide excellent warning service to the surviving US aircraft up until the surrender at Marivelles on 6 April 1942. This was in spite of the fact that it had to provision itself solely by beg, barter or theft.

Sadly about half of the unit died in Japanese captivity after surviving the Death March.