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Robert T. Frederick. The 1st Special Service Force was an elite joint American–Canadian commando unit in World War II created and formed by Major General Robert T. Frederick of the Operations Division of the U.S. General Staff. During the Italian campaign of WWII it was commanded by Frederick and attached to the United States Fifth Army.
Oct 31, 2014 · The Devils Brigade was a joint World War II American-Canadian commando unit trained at Fort Harrison near Helena, Montana in the United States. The volunteers for the 1600 man force consisted primarily of 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.
- Bruce Ricketts
- Project Plough and The Formation of The First Special Service Force
- A New Commanding Officer
- Recruiting Canadian and The American Soldiers
- Volunteers Underwent Intensive Training
- The First Special Service Force Arrives in Italy
- Fighting Along The Anzio Beachhead
- Disbandment and Legacy of The First Special Service Force
The creation of the First Special Service Force can be credited to Geoffrey Pyke of the British Combined Operations Command, who wanted to put together a curated, elite force that could operate in winter conditions and behind enemy lines in Norway, Romania and the Italian Alps. He proposedProject Plough in March 1942, with the goal of establishing ...
Despite the Americans accepting responsibility for Project Plough, there was one person who was unhappy about the idea: Maj. Robert T. Frederick of the Operations Division of the US General Staff. He thought the proposed unit wouldn’t do enough damage to warrant its use on the frontlines. He was also concerned that: 1. The US Army had established u...
Robert Frederick quickly took charge. By July 1942, he’d cut Geoffrey Pyke out of the planning for Project Plough and was completing the necessary recruitment for what became the First Special Service Force. While famously a Canadian-American endeavor, Norwegian commandoswere initially supposed to be included, as Norway was among the nations deemed...
Due to the tight timeline to get the First Special Service Force into the field, the training periodin Helena, Montana was intensive. In fact, volunteers began parachuting after only 48 hours. In addition, they became proficient in weapons and demolition, small unit tactics and underwent rigorous physical training. There was also an emphasis placed...
The First Special Service Force took part in four engagements during the Second World War, totaling 22 battles, never losing a single one. Their first mission was to assist in the invasion of Kiska, as part of the Aleutian Islands Campaign. When they landed, however, they realized the Japanese had already evacuated. They subsequently returned to th...
The First Special Service Force remained in Italy for their first major offensive, landing on the Anzio beachhead on February 1, 1944 as a replacement for the 1st and 3rd Ranger Battalions, which had suffered severe losses during the Battle of Cisterna. The unit’s members were tasked withholding the position and raiding when possible, something the...
The final fight of the First Special Service Force was in France as part of Operation Dragoon. At the beginning of August 1944, the unit captured five fortificationson the island of Port-Cros, after which they were attached to the 1st Airborne Task Force, US Seventh Army to defend the border between France and Italy. On December 5, 1944, the 1SSF w...
474th Infantry Regiment. Eighty years ago, July 1942, the history of US and Canadian Special Forces began at Ft. Harrison MT with the creation of the First Special Service Force. The story of this amazing unit, who they were, and the legacy they left transcends state and international borders. Theirs is the untold story of two nations creating ...
The 1st Special Service Force (“The Force” as it is called in this book). It is a superbly researched and well written story of a special operations unit that was unique in World War II. The Force had its origins in the early days of 1942, when the US was just beginning to assemble forces to be used in the ETO while US Army soldiers and Marines
Jun 12, 2006 · The young man wearing two stars was, in fact, Maj. Gen. Robert T. Frederick, creator and commander of the 1st Special Service Force, one of the most feared–and most fearless–fighting units ever assembled. Robert Tryon Frederick, son of a San Francisco doctor, impressed almost no one during his four years at the U.S. Military Academy at West ...
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The Devil’s Brigade, which inflicted an estimated 12,000 casualties on enemy forces and took 7,000 prisoners during the war, gave rise to the U.S. Special Forces. The legendary unit’s exploits were later dramatized in a 1968 film, The Devil’s Brigade.
