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This article is about the World War II military unit. For the film of the same name, see The Devil's Brigade (film). For other uses, see Devil's Brigade (disambiguation).
Properly designated as the 1st Special Service Force, The Devil's Brigade (also called The Black Devil's and The Black Devils Brigade) was a joint World War II American-Canadian commando unit organized in 1942 and trained at Fort William Henry Harrison near Helena, Montana in the United States. The brigade fought in the Aleutian Islands, Italy, and southern France before being disbanded in December, 1944. Many modern American and Canadian Special Forces units trace their heritage to this unit.
[edit] BackgroundScientist Geoffrey Pyke, of the British Combined Operations Command, envisioned the creation of a small, élite military force capable of fighting behind enemy lines in winter conditions. To create a commando unit that could be landed, by sea or air, into occupied Norway, Romania, and the Italian Alps on sabotage missions against hydroelectric plants and oil fields. In Norway, the chief industrial threat was the creation, at Rjukan, of the heavy water used in the German atomic weapon research. In Romania, there were the strategically important Ploesti oil fields that met most of the Germans' needs, and Italian hydroelectric plants powered most of south German industry. Pyke requested that a tracked vehicle be developed especially for the unit, capable of carrying men and their equipment at high speed across snow-covered terrain.[1] In March 1942, Pyke proposed an idea, which he had named Project Plough, to Lord Louis Mountbatten, Chief of Combined Operations Headquarters (COHQ) that Allied commandos be parachuted into the Norwegian mountains to establish a base on the Jostedalsbreen, a large glacier plateau, for guerrilla actions against the German army of occupation. These troops would be equipped with Pyke's proposed snow vehicle. Pyke persuaded Mountbatten that such a force would be invulnerable in its glacier strongholds and would tie down large numbers of German troops trying to dislodge it.[2] However, given the demands upon both Combined Operations and British industry, it was decided to offer it instead to the United States at the Chequers Conference of March 1942. General George Marshall, Chief of Staff of the United States Army, accepted the suggestion for Project Plough. In April 1942, since no suitable vehicle existed, the U.S. government asked automobile manufacturers to look into such a design. Studebaker subsequently created the T-15 cargo carrier, which later became the M29 Weasel.[1] In May 1942, the concept papers for Plough were scrutinized by Lt. Colonel Robert T. Frederick, a young officer in the Operations Division of the U.S. General Staff. His report identified many drawbacks with it, including the unit's organization and how it was to withdraw once its mission had been completed. The first officer picked to lead the unit, Lt. Col. H.R. Johnson, resigned as soon as he met the eccentric Pyke. His replacement was suggested by Mountbatten and assigned by Eisenhower: Lt. Col. Frederick himself was given the task of creating a fighting unit for Project Plough and was promoted to colonel to command it, and by July 1942 had eased Pyke out of the picture. Colonel Frederick enjoyed a very high priority in obtaining equipment and training areas. Originally, due to its winter warfare mission, it had been intended that the unit should be equally made up of American, Canadian, and Norwegian troops. However, a lack of suitable Norwegians saw this changed to half U.S. and half Canadian.[3] In July 1942, the Canadian Minister of National Defence approved the assignment of 697 officers and enlisted men for the project under the initial disguise that they were forming the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion (1CPB). Shortly after, due to the decision to raise a parachute school in Canada under the 1CPB designation, the Canadian volunteers served under the unofficial designation of 2nd Canadian Parachute Battalion. This was in name only, the 2CPB did not legally exist. ( The Canadians would not be legally made into a unit of the Canadian Army until April-May 1943 under the official designation, 1st Canadian Special Service Battalion ) They would be paid by the Canadian government but be supplied with uniforms, equipment, food, shelter and travel expenses by the U.S. They also remained subject to their own army's code of discipline. The U.S. volunteers for the force consisted initially of officers from Fort Belvoir and Benning and enlisted men recruited by advertising at Army posts, stating that preference was to be given to men previously employed as lumberjacks, forest rangers, hunters, game wardens, and the like. Frederick then named this force the First Special Service Force (FSSF). Force members received rigorous and intensive training in stealth tactics, hand-to-hand combat, the use of explosives for demolition, parachuting, rock climbing, amphibious warfare, mountain warfare, and ski warfare. As a light infantry unit destined for alpine or winter combat, it was issued various items of non-standard clothing, equipment, and rations, including skis, parkas, haversacks, and the Mountain ration. From the outset, the 1st Special Service Force was armed with a variety of non-standard or limited-issue weapons, such as the M1941 Johnson machine gun.[4] The Johnson LMG in particular helped greatly increase the firepower of the unit and was highly regarded by those who used it in combat. Frederick himself participated in the design of a fighting knife made exclusively for the Force called the V-42 combat knife, a derivative of the Fairbairn-Sykes fighting knife. The formation patch was a red spearhead with the words USA written horizontally and CANADA written vertically. The branch of service insignia was the crossed arrows formerly worn by the U.S. Army Indian Scouts. The unit wore red, white, and blue piping on their garrison cap and on the breast an oval (or trimming) behind their Parachutist Wings. Members of the unit also wore a red, white, and blue fourragère, lanyard, or shoulder cord made out of parachute shroud lines. Much feared for their fighting prowess, the moniker "The Black Devils" was adopted after the discovery of the personal diary of a German officer referring to "die schwarzen Teufel (the Black Devils)."[citation needed] With blackened faces, small units would often overwhelm German defenders without firing a shot, and then disappear into the night. [edit] HistoryThe 1st Special Service Force was activated on July 9, 1942 as a joint Canadian-U.S. force of three small regiments and a service battalion. Fort William Henry Harrison in Helena, Montana was chosen as the primary training location, due to its flat terrain for airborne training and its close proximity to mountains for ski and winter training.[1] Following its initial training period in Montana, the 1st SSF relocated to Camp Bradford, Vermont, on April 15, 1943, and to Fort Ethan Allen, Vermont, on May 23, 1943. On July 4, 1943, it arrived at the San Francisco Port of Embarkation. [edit] Aleutian Islands, 1943On July 10, the Devil's Brigade sailed for the Aleutian Islands of Alaska. On August 15, 1943, 1st SSF was part of the invasion force of the island of Kiska, but after discovering the island was recently evacuated by Japanese forces, it re-embarked and returned to Fort Ethan Allen, arriving September 9. [edit] Italy, 1943The original operation codenamed "Project Plough," a mission to parachute into German-held Norway to knock out strategic targets such as hydroelectric power plants, was abandoned,[5][6] but in October 1943, the commander of the Fifth United States Army, Lt. Gen. Mark W. Clark, brought the 1st Special Service Force to Italy where its members demonstrated the value of their unique skills and training. The Devil's Brigade arrived in Casablanca in French Morocco in November 1943 and quickly moved to the Italian front arriving at Naples on November 19, 1943 and immediately going into the line with the U.S. 36th Infantry Division. At Monte la Difensa, near which was located the ancient town of Rocca d'Evandro (about 10 miles south east of Cassino) and was part of the Bernhardt Line Defences on the Camino hill mass, between December 3 and December 6, 1943, they immediately earned a reputation for being able to take impenetrable objectives when no one else could. Here, in the dead of winter, the 1st Special Service Force wiped out a strategic enemy defensive position that sat high atop a mountain surrounded by steep cliffs. They climbed the cliffs using ropes only in the dead of night, and caught the Germans by surprise. Previously, American and British forces had suffered many casualties in futile attempts to take the important Camino Ridge. The 1st SSF was successful in taking their initial objective of La Difensa but were delayed in obtaining their actual objective of Monte Remetania (Hill 907). The attack to 907 was halted after the death of the 1st Battalion CO Lt. Col. T.C. MacWilliam. While he desired that the Force momentum continue, Frederick ordered a halt in the advance to 907 in order to wait for reinforcements and supplies. The British were also having difficulties taking the main objective of Monte Camino to the Forces left. The successful assault on Difensa was the basis for the 1968 motion picture titled The Devil's Brigade. The 1st SSF immediately continued its attack, assaulting Monte la Remetanea from December 6 to December 9. It captured Hill 720, starting from Monte Sammucro on December 25, and after difficulties assaulted, almost simultaneously, Monte Majo and Monte Vischiataro on January 8, 1944. During the mountain campaign the 1st SSF suffered 77% casualties. [edit] Anzio, 1944 The Special Force brigade was withdrawn from the mountains in January and on February 1 was landed at the beachhead created by Operation Shingle at Anzio, south of Rome, replacing the 1st and 3rd Ranger Battalions, which had suffered heavy losses at the Battle of Cisterna. Their task was to hold and raid from the right-hand flank of the beachhead marked by the Mussolini Canal/Pontine Marshes. Shortly after the SSF took over the Mussolini Canal sector, German units pulled back up to a half-mile to avoid their aggressive patrols. It was at Anzio that the Germans dubbed the 1st Special Service Force the "Devil's Brigade." The diary of a dead German soldier contained a passage that said, "The black devils (Die schwarzen Teufel) are all around us every time we come into the line."[citation needed] The soldier was referring to them as "black" because the brigade's members smeared their faces with black boot polish for their covert operations in the dark of the night. During Anzio, the 1st SSF fought for 99 days without relief. It was also at Anzio that the 1st SSF used their trademark stickers; during night patrols soldiers would carry stickers depicting the unit patch and a slogan written in German: "Das dicke Ende kommt noch," said to translate to "The Worst is yet to Come", placing these stickers on German corpses and fortifications. Canadian and American members of the Special Force who lost their lives are buried near the beach in the Commonwealth Anzio War Cemetery and the American Cemetery in Nettuno, just east of Anzio. When the 5th Army breakout offensive began on May 25, 1944, the 1st SSF was sent against Monte Arrestino, and attacked Rocca Massima on May 27. The 1st SSF was given the assignment of capturing seven bridges in the city to prevent their demolition by the withdrawing Wehrmacht. During the night of June 4, members of the 1st SSF entered Rome. They are among the Allied units who claim to be the first to enter Rome. After they secured the bridges, they quickly moved north in pursuit of the retreating Germans. [edit] France, 1944On August 14, 1944, the 1st SSF landed at Îles d'Hyères during Operation Dragoon, the invasion of southern France. On August 22, it was attached to the 1st Airborne Task Force, a provisional Seventh Army airborne division, and later made part of the Task Force. On September 7, it moved with the 1st Airborne Task Force to defensive positions on the Franco-Italian border. During the war the 1,800-man unit accounted for some 12,000 German casualties, captured some 7,000 prisoners, and sustained an attrition rate of over 600%. [edit] Disbandment, 1944The 1st SSF was disbanded December 5, 1944 in a field near Villeneuve-Loubet. Villeneuve-Loubet holds a special place in the history of the Force, not only because the unit was broken up there, but also because it is one of the villages that the 1st SSF had the hardest time capturing in southern France, on 26 August 1944. The day the unit was disbanded, the American commander held a parade honouring the unit. To end the ceremony, the Canadian elements were dismissed by being honoured by the American troops with a marchpast, eyes right, officers saluting. After the unit's break up, the Canadians would return to other Canadian units (most of them became replacements for the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion), some American members were sent to the Airborne Divisions as replacements, and others formed the 474th Infantry Regiment, which served with the Third United States Army and performed occupation duty in Norway. [edit] Wartime decorationsA large number of the Devil's Brigade members were honoured for their acts of valour, including Tommy Prince, Canada's most decorated indigenous soldier of World War II. Jim English, a Canadian soldier from British Columbia was honored with The U.S. President's award for his service with The Devil's Brigade in Italy during World War II. Also, U.S. member Wendell C. Johnson (Fifth Company, Third Regiment, serial # 37 168 437), risking his life to save a fellow Black Devil, walked into a mine field area and brought his brigade comrade to safety. When they tried to give him a medal for his act of heroism Wendell declined with the words: "Give it to the man who lost his leg". [edit] Post World War II special forces legacyIn 1952, Colonel Aaron Bank created another elite unit using the training, the strategies, and the lessons learned from the Devil's Brigade's missions. This force evolved into the Army Special Forces (Green Berets). In Canada, today's elite and highly secretive JTF2 military unit is also modeled on the Devil's Brigade, as is Canada's new SOF unit CSOR. As in World War II, Canadian JTF2 members and American Delta Force members were united once again into a special assignment force for the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan. The 1st Special Forces Group traces its origins to the Devil's Brigade.  [edit] First Special Force Memorial Highway and other commemorationsIn September of 1999, Alberta Highway 4 and Interstate 15 in Montana, being the main highway between the cities of Lethbridge, Alberta Canada and Helena, Montana in the United States, was renamed the "First Special Service Force Memorial Highway". This highway was chosen because it was the route taken in 1942 by the Canadian volunteers to join their American counterparts for training at Fort Harrison. The force is also memorialised in a commemorative plaque outside the Protestant Cemetery, Rome, next to the Pyramid of Cestius and another on the Embassy of the United States in Rome, facing Via Vittorio Veneto. [edit] Unique weapons[edit] Combat service[edit] Aleutians campaign, 1943
[edit] Italian (Naples-Foggia, Anzio, Rome-Arno) campaigns 1943-1944
[edit] Southern France, (Alpes-Maritimes) campaign, 1944
[edit] Rhineland campaign, 1944
[edit] Media depictionsThe Devil's Brigade is a 1968 film starring William Holden, Cliff Robertson, and Vince Edwards, focusing on the Force's training and deployment to Italy. Two documentaries have been made about the Force: Daring to Die: The Story of the Black Devils, written and directed by Greg Hancock and Wayne Abbot,[7] and Devil's Brigade, a 2006 TV miniseries produced by Frantic Films.[8] The comic book character Wolverine was depicted as having been a member of the Devil's Brigade in North Africa[citation needed]. Quentin Tarantino's 2009 film Inglourious Basterds features a character named Lt. Aldo Raine aka "Aldo the Apache" played by Brad Pitt. Raine appears to be a member of the 1st Special Service Force, as he is seen wearing the unit's crossed arrows collar insignia and red arrowhead shoulder patch. The character also mentioned being dropped into Italy (where he apparently learned some Italian), a country where the Devil's Brigade was deployed. The inclusion of this detail is likely a nod to the film depiction of The Devil's Brigade which Tarantino cited as an influence for Inglourious Basterds.[9] [edit] Re-enactmentThe First Special Service Force is represented by at least one military reenactment group. The First Special Service Force Living History Group is made up of men from both Canada and the United States within North America and there are also now groups representing the forcemen in Italy, France and Great Britain. Members of this group in 2006 ventured to Monte La Difensa and placed a memorial plaque dedicated to the men of the force. [edit] See also
[edit] Footnotes
[edit] Books
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