Major General Richard Jaquelin Marshall, in Australia during WW2

MAJOR GENERAL RICHARD JACQUELIN MARSHALL
DEPUTY CHIEF OF STAFF
IN AUSTRALIA DURING WWII

Brigadier General Richard Jacquelin Marshall (ASN: 0-4635), Deputy Chief of Staff for General Douglas MacArthur's US Army Forces in the Far East USAFFE, was evacuated from Corregidor on PT 34 captained by Lieutenant Robert Bolling Kelly on 11 March 1942. This was part of the daring evacuation of General Douglas MacArthur, his wife and son Arthur and his party of senior officers on four PT Boats led by Lieutenant John Duncan Bulkeley of Motor Torpedo Squadron 3 (MTB Ron 3). Other members of MacArthur's party on board PT 34 with General Richard J. Marshall were:-

They reached Mindanao Island on 13 March 1942 from where they eventually flew to Batchelor Airfield in the Northern Territory in two B-17 Flying Fortresses. MacArthur and his family flew on to Alice Springs where they stayed the night and caught a train south the following day.

Brigadier General Marshall Marshall flew ahead to get information about the number and kind of American troops, aircraft and ships in MacArthur’s new command area. He met General MacArthur at Kooringa, 80 miles northwest of Adelaide, in South Australia and gave him the bad news that there were only 32,000 troops, including US and Australian available in Australia, mostly inexperienced. And that there was none of the equipment and transport needed for an immediate campaign to regain the Islands. Not even a single tank. Admiral Leary’s Navy had been destroyed in the Battle of the Java Sea and there were less than a hundred planes in flying condition.

General MacArthur eventually arrived in Melbourne by train on 22 March 1942 accompanied by his family and Brigadier General Richard J. Marshall. General MacArthur set up his Headquarters in Melbourne for what would become his General Headquarters, Southwest Pacific Area, GHQ SWPA. On 22 July 1942 General MacArthur relocated his GHQ SWPA to Brisbane in south east Queensland. Because his job was in supply, Brigadier General Marshall had remained behind in Melbourne with frequent trips to Sydney until 14 January 1943, and then was immersed in the day-to-day running of the American war machine in Brisbane.

1. General Douglas MacArthur

2. Lieutenant General George H. Brett, Chief of the Allied Air Forces in the Southwest Pacific

3. Brigadier General Frank S. Clark, Assistant Chief of Staff, Australia

4. Brigadier General Richard Marshall, Deputy Chief of Staff

5. Major General Rush Lincoln, Chief of Air Corps, American Forces in Australia

6. Major General Richard Sutherland, Chief of Staff

7. Lieutenant Colonel Reginald Vance, Air Corps Operations

8. Colonel Charles A. Willoughby, Intelligence

Brigadier General Richard J. Marshall was promoted to Major General on Saturday 22 August 1942.

On Wednesday 30 Dec 1942, Major General Richard Marshall handed commissions as second Lieutenants to 113 newly made officers of the United States Army, all of whom were Enlisted Men. They had graduated from the first special Officer Training Course held in the Southwest Pacific Area.

On 14 January 1943, Major General Marshall looked over a number of possible sites in Brisbane for the USASOS, US Army Services of Supply. He found a mail order store and several department stores which had enough space and light to do the job of supplying the million men who had to be clothed and fed from Australia. General Akin thought most of it must remain in Sydney as the load on signal communications would be too great if all procurement was centralised in Brisbane. It was difficult to place an interstate phone call.

On 17 January 1943, Marshall had to deal with a letter from the Prime Minister of Australia, John Curtin, to MacArthur, protesting the hospitalisation of Americans from the South Pacific in Australia. They were full of malaria, dengue and a host of other diseases, but they had to go somewhere. Who was going to pay? The American Red Cross was complaining that Australian servicemen were crowding out Americans in the US canteen. The head of the canteen wanted 300 more workers.

Since Marshall had arrived in Australia in March 1942, he had been well served by this experienced and capable secretary, Mrs. Louise Mowat, an Englishwoman married to a civil servant in Malaya, Geoff Mowat, who had been captured after the fall of Singapore. Fifty years later, she recalled that Beryl Stevenson and herself had both been working as confidential steno-secretaries in General Wavell’s ABDACOM headquarters in Singapore and moved with it to Java when the Japanese threatened the island. Louise did not want to leave her husband who had been called up in the Straits Settlements Volunteer Force, and posted to Singapore from Malacca. He insisted that Louise go with the headquarters as he would then not have worry about her, and neither of them could help the other if Louise stayed.

On 17 February 1943, General Marshall saw the new quarters at Neville Court, that General Donaldson had picked for him, a house in New Farm. He was one of the rare upper echelon officers to move out of Lennon’s Hotel, but perhaps he hoped to find some relief from being constantly on call in GHQ SWPA office in the AMP building and Lennon's Hotel. Lennon’s was getting a reputation as party central, little more than a brothel according to some, especially the envious and the Navy.

On 2 March 1943, General Donaldson called Marshall about more disturbances on the streets of Brisbane. At New Farm, Marshall was still within easy reach when there was a problem. There was unhappiness between the Australia troops over access to cigarettes and beer, over the quality of uniforms, and over their pay scales.

While the rest of GHQ SWPA was celebrating General Kenney and the Army Air Force’s great victory in the Battle of the Bismarck Sea, General Marshall was dealing with all the nuts and bolts that keep the GHQ SWPA machinery running to make such a victory possible, but seldom getting acknowledged. Kenney and Sutherland flew off to Washington to be congratulated and to consult on the next phase of the war, leaving Marshall to act as Acting Chief of Staff in Sutherland’s office.

On 27 August 1943, Major General Richard J. Marshall accompanied Judge Robert P. Patterson, U.S. Under-Secretary for War to Hangar 7 at Eagle Farm Airfield in Brisbane to inspect a captured Japanese Zero rebuilt by the Allied Technical Air Intelligence Unit.

On 1 September 1943, Marshall moved from Neville Court to Bronte Apartments, where his secretary Mrs. Louise Mowat also lived, and on 3 September 1943 he was relieved of command of USASOS, not in the sense of having failed, but at last someone had been appointed to do one of the fulltime jobs Marshall has been doing for some time.

Major General Richard J. Marshall met a group of five U.S. Senators who were on a world inspection tour of battle zones in Townsville on Wednesday 8 September 1943. Marshall was there representing General Douglas MacArthur, and with him was Mr. J. P. Ragland, the US Consul representing the American Minister, Mr. Nelson T. Johnson and a number of other American officials. The five Senators spent a night in the bush in a tent. They woke before dawn ate a camp breakfast and went on a kangaroo hunt in jeeps. The five Senators were:-

On 2 October 1943, Marshall inspected the 42nd General Hospital at Stuartholme, the Holland Park hospital, Camp Yeronga , Brett’s Wharf, Pinkenba Wharf, Camp Doomben and Camp Ascot, Camp Meeandah, Eagle Farm Airfield and the Allison engine overhaul plant at Breakfast Creek. MacArthur and Sutherland hardly travelled anywhere; if you ever saw an American general around town, it was probably General Marshall. MacArthur and Mrs. MacArthur used American army drivers; while most of the rest used Australian women drivers who were more familiar with where things were and did not mind driving on the left side of the road. There is no record of who Marshall’s driver was.

Major General Richard J. Marshall first appears as Deputy Chief of Staff and Commanding General of U.S. Armed Forces Far East U.S.A.F.F.E. in the Military phone directory for Brisbane in October 1943. He was located in room 52B in the T&G Building in Queen Street, Brisbane. Mrs. Louise Mowat was his secretary in Room 52A. The assistant to the Deputy Chief of Staff, Brigadier General C. P. Stivers was in Room 53 and the Secretary of the General Staff, Lt. Col. L. E. Bunker was in Room 52.

Marshall's days were mostly about real estate. Admiral Halsey wanted office space in the Commercial Bank Building, next to the AMP building. General Akin did not want to move any of his men from the AMP Building. Marshall told Casey that the Engineers would have to leave the Commercial Bank Building. They bounced from the Commercial Bank Building to the T&G Building to Perry House. The Navy went into the 2nd floor of the AMP building. Akin wanted the 7th floor of the T&G building. Navy security was to go in the Old Courier Building. It was all musical chairs, and Marshall was the one lifting the arm of the record player.

Occasionally Marshall mentioned in his diary, “cocktails at Victoria Barracks, dinner at Lennon’s” or a “concert at Raglands”, the American consul Joseph H. Ragland’s home, but he did not seem to have much of a social life. Does that mean those few are the only engagements he had, or does he not record some of them in his office diary? The town is full of generals. At one stage, someone counted 45 of them. He was an ordinary guy who would not be recognised on the street. He could go to a movie, a restaurant and not excite any notice. The Brisbane Club gave honorary membership to all senior US officers when the first Americans arrived, but when GHQ came to town, the scale became impossible to sustain, but the top brass were still welcome. Marshall's job put him in contact with Australian providers, politicians, and General Blamey’s headquarters. He liked an occasional martini and a round of golf.

Major General Richard J. Marshall appears in the May 1944 Military Telephone Director for Brisbane as the Deputy Chief of Staff in Room 620 on the sixth floor of the AMP building where GHQ SWPA was located. General Douglas MacArthur was located on the 8th floor. Secretary to the Deputy Chief of Staff Lieutenant Louise Mowat (now in the WACs) was also located in Room 620. Lt. Col. L. E. Bunker who was in charge of the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff was in Room 955 of the Commercial Bank Building which was adjacent to the AMP building. Major General Richard J. Marshall does not appear in the February 1945 telephone directory.

On 21 June 1944 Marshall inspected the Bulimba Barge Assembly Depot and noted that they were employing some thousand “Chinamen” and more than a thousand US servicemen. They were repairing miscellaneous craft and producing steel barges. It was estimated that Bulimba would turn out 2 ½ barges per week. Only dry cargo barges and water barges had come off the line so far. In future, every fourth barge was to be either a water barge or an oil barge.

On 8 August 1944, the Australian 7th Infantry Division parade through Brisbane and Marshall was “very much impressed by the appearance of their Division. It looks like a fine combat unit.”

On 18 August 1944, Marshall entertained Col. Kramer to lunch. They discussed the general trend of the stock market and Philippine business possibilities. Kramer asked Marshall if he would like to go into business representing American firms in the Philippines. He said that one of the companies, Belding, of which he was a director, was doing a little over ¼ million dollars’ worth of business each year in Manila prior to the war. Marshall did eventually return to the Philippines, to rebuild it, but as an Army officer.

Marshall wrote in his diary:- "20 August 1944: Move to Hollandia – divide HQ into 5 echelons, three to move by 10 September, one to follow as quarters were ready and the last to remain in Brisbane, semi-permanently.”

On 26 August 1944, a Mess party was held at "Craigroyston", before Marshall travelled to the USA to confer and to see his family for the first time since December 1940. "Craigroyston", a Robin Dods creation, was located at the corner of Bowen Terrace and Harcourt St, New Farm. It was headquarters for the SIA, Secret Intelligence Australia, a local branch of MI6 with responsibility for the Netherlands East Indies. They answered to neither the Americans nor the Australians. Their leader, Captain Roy Kendall, lived nearby in a house called "Amity" at New Farm. It was the only mention of SIA in Marshall’s diary, but there must have been other contacts with SIA. Perhaps the need for secrecy was less as the war moved further away from Brisbane.

Marshall returned from the USA to Brisbane in October 1944 and noted that the Far East Air Force would vacate two major buildings at Rocklea soon, and their move would be completed by 1 January 1945.

Never a wordy man, Marshall's last entries in his diary in Brisbane were more brief than usual:-

It was written in a hasty scrawl. In ten days, MacArthur would return to the Philippines, and Marshall would return with him. He did not get to participate in any of the highly publicised landings, instead holding the fort in New Guinea with Willoughby. If things were to go badly wrong and MacArthur and Sutherland were killed, incapacitated or captured, they would become GHQ. Brisbane was no longer the heart of the war effort. It relaxed back into its prewar role as a port for exporting primary products such as wool, coal, and meat.

In the Philippines, the top ranking officers in MacArthur’s headquarters were alarmed to learn that General Sutherland had brought Elaine Bessemer Clarke to the Islands; MacArthur had expressly forbidden him to do this. The engineers have been told to stop their war work and build her a little house. No one wanted to be the one to tell General MacArthur, and everyone asked Marshall for his advice. Marshall’s desire for peace prevailed; let MacArthur find out for himself. He did, and all hell broke loose. Elaine was banished. Sutherland returned to Brisbane due to a toothache. MacArthur was thunderstruck. Elaine was in Brisbane, as well as the dentist! In Sutherland's absence, Major General Richard J. Marshall was Acting Chief of Staff. Louise Mowat was no longer working with Marshall.

Marshall was always regarded as the most approachable of the top administrators in GHQ SWPA. Manchester barely mentions him in his book, almost suggesting that he had no personality at all. Marshall was smaller than Sutherland, stocky with a full face which was tanned. He would be clean shaven in the morning but have a heavy beard by nightfall. His eyes were “sleepy”. His voice “lost the crisp edge of command” and would fall into “conversational drowsiness”. D. Clayton James described Marshall as the peacemaker, or mediator.

Marshall brought a calm, common sense approach and an apparent absence of ambition. He was not seen as a rival to anyone, so everyone tended to like him. Marshall was the only senior officer that Sutherland could relax with. They all worked seven days a week, often 16 hour days, with very few breaks. Conferences in the USA, required many hours of travel in uncomfortable USAAF transport aircraft.

In November 1944 Major General Richard J. Marshall became General MacArthur's Chief of Staff, USAFFE. When General MacArthur became the commander of AFPAC (U.S. Army Forces in the Pacific), Major General Richard J. Marshall became his Deputy Chief of Staff. After the Japanese surrender in September 1945, Major General Richard J. Marshall became Deputy Chief of Staff for Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers (SCAP). On 10 October 1945 Major General Marshall was ordered to Headquarters in Tokyo to take over as the Chief of Staff for General Douglas MacArthur.

From L to R:- unidentified man (behind flowers), unidentified woman, Captain Louise
Mowat, Major General Richard J. Marshall, and Colonel Westray Battle Boyce.
Relaxing during a dinner held in Colonel Boyce's honor in Manila in about October
1945. Colonel Boyce was on a tour of WAC locations in the Pacific Theatre.

I would like to thank Karen Nunan for her kind assistance with this web page. Karen has provided the majority of the information on this web page.

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