Maurell Buck Crosland
Private Maurell B. Crosland served with Dog Company, 1st Marine Raider Battalion.
He was killed in action in a firefight near Triri, New Georgia, on 7 July 1943.
Branch
Marine Corps Regular
Service Number 335992
Current Status
Remains Not Recovered
Pursuit Category
This case is under Active Puruit by the DPAA.
Capsule History
Pre-War Life
Birth
March 27, 1922
at Monroe, UT
Parents
Willard August Crosland
Reta Allen (Johnson) Crosland
Education
Glendale High School (ex-1942)
Occupation & Employer
Student
Service Life
Entered Service
December 19, 1941
at Los Angeles, CA
Home Of Record
4302 York Boulevard
Eagle Rock, CA
Next Of Kin
Mother, Mrs. Reta Crosland
Military Specialty
Raider
Primary Unit
D/1st Raider Battalion
Campaigns Served
New Georgia
Individual Decorations
Purple Heart
Additional Service Details
—
Loss And Burial
Circumstances Of Loss
Private Maurell Crosland served with Company D, 1st Raider Battalion during the campaign for New Georgia. His outfit landed at Rice Anchorage before dawn on 5 July 1943 and set out to cross the Dragon’s Peninsula. The march was exhausting – “terrain difficult, humidity high, men heavily loaded” in the words of the battalion war diary – and Dog Company was sent on ahead of the main body to secure a crossing at the Giza Giza River. They repeated this feat the following day, capturing a one-log bridge over the Tamoko River: a nine-foot-deep torrent swollen by incessant rain. A vast swamp awaited on the other site. “With weapons held high, we sloshed through knee-deep, and even waist-deep, pools of stagnant water,” recalled Raider Marlin Groft. “By this time our feet, trapped inside socks and boots that had been saturated for days, were turning purple.” Crosland and his buddies spent a miserable night on guard in the swamp.
On 7 July 1943, Dog Company took on the role of advance guard once again. Their objectives were the small villages of Maranusa and Triri: important steps on the road to Enogai. “Terrain worst of trip – swamp, mangrove, banyan, and coral outcroppings,” complained the diary. Maranusa was secured before noon, and a patrol ventured down the trail to Triri. At 1300 hours, the Raiders collided with a Japanese patrol, also heading for Triri. A sharp firefight developed, and the patrol called for backup. Captain Clay Boyd brought Dog Company up to the village, then turned into the underbrush to flank the Japanese. “The enemy was horrified to find a company of Raiders come down on them seemingly from out of nowhere, hollering at the top of their lungs, with weapons blazing,” Groft continued. The surviving Japanese – Special Naval Landing Force troops – retreated towards Enogai leaving ten dead on the ground.
Four Raiders were wounded in the skirmish for Triri, and three – including Private Crosland – were killed in action.
Burial Information or Disposition
The casualties were brought to Maranusa where, in a grass shack converted into a surgery, the doctors treated the wounded and prepared the dead for interment. Father John P. Murphy read the burial services, and the three dead Raiders were laid to rest in a common grave by a big banyan tree. These were the first deaths in the 1st Raider Battalion on New Georgia but, sadly, not the last.
PFC John G. Kingsbury, Jr., Private Lloyd B. Abbott, and Maurell Crosland were buried in the field somewhere in the vicinity of Maranusa. A “big banyan tree” was noted as a nearby landmark – it must have been big indeed to stand out in the jungle – and the common grave was marked with three crosses. Marlin Groft was present for the burial:
I watched as a detail of Raiders buried the three of our men who had died. A large grave was dug by the base of a massive banyan tree, and the three bodies carefully laid inside, each man covered by a rubber poncho. Digging was no problem since the rain of the past few days had turned the earth into a gooey sponge. Then the grave was reverently shoveled closed. Two men had made crude crosses by securing six small logs and tying pairs of them together with communication wire. As I watched the crosses being placed into the ground, a shiver ran down my spine. Getting killed on Guadalcanal was one thing, but I sure as hell didn't want to wait for kingdom come lying in this stinking, rotten place.
However, some primary sources contradict the single grave theory. Data from the battalion’s muster roll places Crosland “near Outpost #2, Enogai Point,” while Kingsbury and Abbott are “Near Outpost #2 Foli.” USMC casualty cards for the three casualties suggest at least two graves – interestingly, Abbott appears to have been doubled up.
Maurell Crosland
“Buried in area of Outpost #2, New Georgia Islands, 7/7/43.”
Lloyd Benjamin Abbott
“Buried 50 feet South of Foli in Outpost #2, Bottom of two-man grave, Enogai Point, New Georgia Islands, 7/7/1943.”
John Gilbert Kingsbury, Jr.
“Buried 150 yards northwest of outpost #2 Foli at Enogai, New Georgia Island, 7/7/1943.”
These discrepancies are difficult to reconcile. If one uses the muster roll, it might be assumed that Abbott and Kingsbury were buried closer together; the Casualty Cards suggest that Kingsbury was the outlier. And neither data set agrees with the eyewitness account from Marlin Groft.
Further complicating matters is the burial data for Private Paul W. Williams (Co. D) and PhM3c James J. Corbett (HQ Co.), killed near Triri on 8 July. Williams and Kingsbury have the exact same location; Corbett matches with Adams (except for the mention of a two-man grave).
In January 1944, the bodies of Kingsbury, Abbott, Williams, and Corbett were recovered from the field and reinterred in the Armed Forces Cemetery, New Georgia. They were eventually processed through Finschhafen Cemetery #3 (Abbott) and Cemetery #4 (Kingsbury) before being sent to their final resting places. Crosland may have been recovered at the same time, but not identified: he had no dental records on file, which would have impeded any efforts in the years after the war.
Memorials
Next Of Kin Address
Address of mother, Mrs. Reta Crosland.
Location Of Loss
Approximate site of Triri, New Georgia.
