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 SF-Sum18 C1 cg_W-May05 C-1 Bookstore 8/31/18 8:24 AM Page 1

SPECIAL ISSUE! Commandos & Rangers of WWII

WORLD WAR II Navy Scouts
WWII HISTORY PRESENTS:

and Raiders
SPECIAL
FORCES
Curtis 02113

D-DAY
WWII HISTORY PRESENTS: WWII SPECIAL FORCES LATE FALL 2018

Commando
Assault
Daring Marine Hitler’s Nazi
Raider Attack Kommandos

Britain’s
Merrill’s “Mad Jack”
Marauders Churchill
Behind Enemy Lines

Army Rangers LATE FALL 2018

Fight at Zerf
W-Gaijin FP SF2018 7/26/18 10:42 AM Page 1
W-WBritain FP SF2018 7/26/18 10:44 AM Page 1
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Features
20 Strike from the Sea
The successful British Commando raid on Vaagso produced
far-reaching consequences in Adolf Hitler’s conduct of the war.
ROBERT BARR SMITH

38 Every Man a Hero

British Commandos paid a heavy price to knock out a key German
installation.
FLINT WHITLOCK

52 Raid on Makin
In a daring, controversial raid on a Japanese-held Pacific atoll, U.S.
Marine Raiders fought for their lives.
DAVID H. LIPPMAN

Departments 60 Deadly Duel for an Italian Mountain

America’s elite 1st Special Service Force gained everlasting fame in
06 Editorial its first combat mission by storming Monte La Difensa in Italy and
Special Forces brought World War II to areas once overwhelming the defenders in a brutal six-day battle.
thought safe from attack and fostered incredible CHRISTOPHER MISKIMON
heroism.
MICHAEL E. HASKEW
72 Still a Splendid Sight
Merrill’s Marauders, ranks depleted by combat and disease, gained
08 Intelligence fame while fighting behind enemy lines in Burma and attacking the
When the U.S. Navy saw a need for beach landings in important town of Myitkyina.
World War II it began an elite scouting force. AL HEMINGWAY
BUD HYLAND

14 Top Secret
80 Commandos Crack Hitler’s Atlantic Wall
No. 48 (Royal Marine) Commando, the last such unit to be formed in
The elite Brandenburg commandos scored many World War II, was one of the first to land at Juno Beach on D-Day.
spectacular successes during clandestine operations. MARK SIMMONS
JON LATIMER

32 Profiles 88 Rangers Led the Way at Zerf

Fighting Jack Churchill survived a wartime odyssey A little-known battle at an important roadblock in Germany was the
beyond compare. perfect assignment for the 5th Ranger Battalion.
SPECIAL ISSUE! Commandos & Rangers of WWII
ROBERT BARR SMITH WORLD WAR II Navy Scouts NATHAN PREFER
WWII HISTORY PRESENTS:

and Raiders
SPECIAL
FORCES
Curtis 02113

D-DAY
Commando
COVER: U.S. Marine Raiders, an Assault WWII History Presents: World War II Special Forces (ISSN 2151-3678) is published by Sovereign Media, 6731 Whittier Avenue, Suite A-
elite force of skilled jungle fighters, 100, McLean, VA 22101-4554. (703) 964-0361. © 2018 by Sovereign Media Company, Inc., all rights reserved. Copyrights to stories and
Daring Marine Hitler’s Nazi illustrations are the property of their creators. The contents of this publication may not be reproduced in whole or in part without con-
photographed in front of a Raider Attack Kommandos sent of the copyright owner. Subscription services, back issues, and information: (800) 219-1187 or write to WWII History Circulation,
Japanese bunker on Cape Totkina, Britain’s WWII History, P.O. Box 1644, Williamsport, PA 17703. Regular issue single copies: $5.99, plus $3 for postage. Yearly subscription in
Bougainville, which they helped Merrill’s “Mad Jack”
U.S.A.: $19.95; Canada and Overseas: $31.95 (U.S.). Editorial Office: send editorial mail to WWII History, 6731 Whittier Ave., Suite
Marauders Churchill
capture. See story page 52. Behind Enemy Lines LATE FALL 2018 A-100, McLean, VA 22101. WWII History welcomes editorial submissions but assumes no responsibility for the loss or damage of unso-
licited material. Material to be returned should be accompanied by a self-addressed, stamped envelope. We suggest that you send a self-
Photo: National Archives Army Rangers RETAILER DISPLAY UNTIL NOV. 26 addressed, stamped envelope for a copy of our author’s guidelines.
Fight at Zerf
 EDITORIAL MICHAEL E. HASKEW

“THE MOST Special Forces brought World War II to

DANGEROUS areas once thought safe from attack and
fostered incredible heroism.
MAN IN
EUROPE” —Winston Churchill T
HE CONCEPT OF ELITE OR
“special” forces matured
during World War II, and the
term became synonymous with
that paid homage to its commander,
Brigadier General Frank Merrill. Merrill’s
Marauders were a long-range penetration
force that originally numbered fewer than
extraordinary heroism, particularly 1,000 highly trained and motivated men.
against long odds. These intrepid Americans fought behind
In the summer of 1940 when Britain enemy lines for days, enduring not only
stood alone against the Nazi war machine, combat with the determined enemy, but
Prime Minister Winston Churchill was also the privations of jungle warfare.
determined to strike a blow and bolster Malaria and other diseases were common,
the morale of his people. The solution, he and there were always shortages of food
believed, lay in the deployment of special and water. Nevertheless, Merrill’s
forces to wreak havoc on the Germans Marauders forged an enduring legacy of
whenever and wherever possible. heroism in their jungle crucible, one that
The prime minister was unaware that carries on in today’s U.S. Army Rangers.
an audacious program of special forces The Rangers themselves had been
development was already in the works, the formed in the summer of 1942, and the
brainchild of army Lieutenant Colonel original recruits trained in Scotland and
Dudley Clarke. Endorsed by Field Mar- Northern Ireland with the British Com-
shal Sir John Dill, chief of the Imperial mandos. They went on to undertake such
General Staff, the effort took shape hazardous operations as the seizure of
quickly. Only three weeks after their initial Pointe du Hoc on D-Day, June 6, 1944,
Thrillingly reassesses the myth discussions, a force of 115 volunteer Com- and the swift capture of Chiunzi Pass in
and the realities of Hitler's mandos motored crossed the English Italy. The U.S. Marine Corps formed a
favorite commando whose Channel on an intelligence gathering foray short-lived but heroic force of Raiders that
exploits influence military near Boulogne on the French coast. The fought with courage in the Pacific theater,
operations to this day. second Commando raid of the war the UDTs (Underwater Demolition
occurred on July 14, 1940, against the Teams) were the forerunner of today’s U.S
ON-SALE: German-occupied island of Guernsey. Navy SEALs. The U.S. and Canada com-
September 18, 2018 The exploits of the British special forces bined army personnel to field the 1st Spe-
in World War II are legendary. From the cial Service Force, the famed Devil’s
$30 US / $40 Can
Royal Marine cockleshell heroes to the Brigade.
9781472829450
raid on St. Nazaire, they indeed wreaked Every major power engaged in the con-
Hardback / 384pp havoc, forcing the Germans to divert flict did organize some type of special
resources to defend against marauding forces. Germany authorized the units led
men who fought a clandestine conflict, a by famed SS Major Otto Skorzeny, and
war of shadow, of hit and run. the Brandenburg Regiment conducted
Following a conference of Allied lead- covert operations in Europe, Russia and
ers at Quebec in the summer of 1943, per- North Africa.
haps the best-known American special The stories of the special forces in action
Available wherever books are sold. forces formation of World War II was make compelling reading, and those in
[Link] born. The 5307th Composite Unit (Provi- this special edition of WWII History are
sional) was better known by the moniker among the best!

6 WWII SPECIAL FORCES

WWII Special Forces
Volume1 • Number 2

CARL A. GNAM, JR.

Editorial Director,
Founder

SAMANTHA DETULLEO
Art Director

KEVIN M. HYMEL
Research Director

CONTRIBUTORS:
Robert Barr Smith, Al Hemingway, Bud
Hyland, Jon Latimer, David H. Lippman,
Christopher Miskimon, Nathan Prefer,
Mark Simmons, Flint Whitlock

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WWII SPECIAL FORCES 7

 I N T E L L I G E N C E BY BUD HYLAND

When the U.S. Navy saw a need for itary began to anticipate large-scale
amphibious landings in Europe. With lit-
tle experience in this area, the military ini-
beach landings in World War II it tiated a series of practice operations to
assess the feasibility of such landings. In
began an elite scouting force. 1941 they formed a Joint Training Force
staffed by the three services—Army, Navy,
and Marines. In March 1942, the JTF
established an Amphibious Boat School at
Solomons, Md., to train crews as small

T
oday’s Navy SEALs (for Sea, Air, and Land special warfare experts) have a history craft operators. Because participants had
shrouded in secrecy. Commissioned in 1962, they are the most elite shore-area Spe- to be physically fit, planners looked for
cial Forces in the world, concentrating on very select and often-clandestine intelli- persons with athletic backgrounds. All had
gence gathering and precision strike missions. For over 50 years it was assumed that the played college or professional sports,
origin of the Navy SEALs was the Naval Combat DemolitionUnits (NCDUs) and Under- mostly football. The group was headed by
water Demolition Teams (UDTs) of World War II. In reality, the Navy’s special warfare boxer Gene Tunney and became known as
activity started in August 1942 with the Amphibious Scouts and Raiders. “Tunney Fish.”
The need for U.S. amphibious capabilities arose in the late 1930s when the U.S. mil- As their experience improved and land-

ABOVE: Specially trained men of the Navy’s Amphibious Scout and Raiders Force move silently along a creek in Japanese held territory in this painting by
combat artist Robert Benney. OPPOSITE LEFT: For landings to be successful, the attackers had to know a great deal. Only men on the spot could stealthily
observe conditions, and they had to be highly trained. OPPOSITE RIGHT: Phil Bucklew was a college and professional football player before the war, and also
served in the Naval Reserve. He joined the Scouts and Raiders as an Ensign in 1941 and served in North Africa, Italy, Normandy and China. He retired as a
Navy Captain in 1969.

8 WWWII SPECIAL FORCES

ings seemed achievable, planners realized The first Allied landings in the European agents on enemy shores, rendezvous with
that for amphibious warfare to be success- Theatre of Operations were on the north- agents or submarines, and receive and
ful, attackers would need all possible infor- west coast of Africa, Operation Torch. relay vital intelligence information.
mation about the beach-landing objectives, S&R crews were assigned scout boat After S&R Class #3 graduated in May
submerged obstacles, hydrographics, and duties, including reviewing beach intelli- 1943 the school was ordered to extend the
the regions just inland from the beaches. gence data, making pre-landing recon- initial eight-week training to 12 weeks, the
An Intelligence Section set up under the naissance runs, and guiding landing craft extra month to be devoted to demolitions
JTF was given the job of developing an to the beaches. Problems there were training. In addition, ATB Ft. Pierce
amphibious reconnaissance capability, with aplenty: fleet communications, coordina- became the focal point for special amphibi-
its first mission to be in North Africa. tion among ships, missed rendezvous ous training for units from the U.S. Army’s
Intense training for the new amphibious points, and timing of scout boat launch- Darby’s Ranger Battalions, France’s Free
reconnaissance group, called the Amphibi- ings. Despite these, the operation was con- French Forces, and Norway’s Royal Nor-
ous Scout and Raider School (Joint), began sidered a military success. Thus convinced wegian Air Force. And in July 1943 the
in the summer of 1942 at Little Creek, Va. of the importance of the Scouts and new Navy Combat Demolition Units
Among the first 10 volunteers was the typ- Raiders, the Navy authorized their further (NCDUs), precursor of the Underwater
ical 6-foot-2, 220-pound Phil Bucklew, development and also recommended mov- Demolition Teams (UDTs), arrived and
who would go on to become known as the ing the training to a location with more established their own shorter training pro-
“Father of U.S. Naval Special Warfare.” suitable weather. gram alongside the S&Rs.
Next, 40 sailors from the Solomons Boat The spot picked was at Ft. Pierce, Fla. The Navy then set up an advanced S&R
School were transferred in. They were told The S&Rs went there at the same time as training base at Port aux Poules, Tunisia,
that they had just volunteered for the the Navy decided to make Ft. Pierce its with the Army and Navy Torch veterans
Scouts and Raiders (S&Rs), which no one Amphibious Training Base (ATB). It was and others from Ft. Pierce. One group
had ever heard of. In fact, few learned of thus commissioned on January 26, 1943. decamped in Malta to train with the
this secret unit until after the war. The The S&R School was headed by two British 4 Commando and other Allied
focus of training for the first S&R class naval officers, and staffed by a mixture of counterpart units, working on night exer-
was recognizing landmarks and silhouettes Navy and Army personnel. They directed cises, launching kayaks from the decks of
ashore at night (because at that time the rigorous physical training, including self- submarines and paddling them in to recon-
Army preferred night landings), judging defense, seamanship, gunnery, radio oper- noiter target beaches. At Port aux Poules
distances, and navigating in the dark from ations, and beach reconnaissance. The the S&Rs trained with the 1st and 4th
scout boats. They also had courses in sig- men learned the use of .50-caliber machine Darby’s Ranger Battalions. There and at
naling, communications, hand-to-hand guns operated from the landing craft. They Bizerte, Tunisia, they improved their beach
combat, and stealthily swimming to and also became rubber boat experts. Each had reconnaissance effectiveness and began
traversing a beach. to be prepared to land special groups or using swimmer Scouts. These wound up

WWII SPECIAL FORCES 9

 guiding Darby’s Ranger Battalions into
landings at Gela and Licata on Sicily.
Following successful landings at Salerno,
the S&Rs moved up the boot of Italy with
the Allied forces for the next objective at
Anzio. Advance intelligence data from aer-
ial photos and submarine periscope obser-
vations were good, but more detailed data
was needed to verify the information con-
cerning probable shoals and sandbars.
S&Rs used PT boats and kayaks to check
them out. Three weeks later they success-
fully guided Army Rangers ashore.
Since late 1943, the Allied amphibious
forces had been gearing up for Operation
Overlord, the invasion at Normandy. Six-
teen Amphibious Bases and Landing Craft
& Repair Bases were set up along Eng-
land’s southern coast. In December 1943,
several S&R officers, including Lieuten-

U. S. Navy
tant Phil Bucklew, one of the first 10 vol-
unteers for Scouts and Raiders training at
Little Creek, arrived at Falmouth to begin ABOVE: An S&R crew trains on a .50 caliber machine gun that they might have to use from one of their
planning for reconnaissance of the Nor- scout boats. BELOW: An Underwater Demolition Team moves against the beaches of Okinawa in 1945.
mandy landing sites.
At the Advanced Amphibious Training
Base at Fowey, England, the S&R crews
were called on to help train NCDUs in
underwater obstacle location and to work
with heavy demolitions to blow up the
replicas of beach obstacles used by the
Germans.
The first critical task undertaken by the
S&R team was to cross the Channel and
clandestinely obtain samples of sand from
the proposed landing beaches. The rise and
fall of the tide there created up to a hundred
feet in width of loose bottom at low tide.

National Archives
Analyzed samples would determine if mat-
ting or other materials would be required
for getting tanks and other heavy vehicles
onto the beaches. A number of these cross- equipped with .50-caliber machine guns the landing parties ashore. They conducted
ings were made, often taking heavy fire mounted amidships, giving them an night operations on the Yugoslav Adriatic
from shore. Arriving in small landing craft opportunity to cover the shorelines as the coast to rescue airmen who had been
or kayaks, the teams sometimes lay in the landings began. The NCDUs took heavy assisted by partisans in evading the Ger-
water in the surf, timing the German sen- casualties before they could clear the mans. Another mission was landing a force
tries along the beach, so they could crawl obstacles. The scout boats shuttled back of commandos and partisans, plus a con-
ashore to complete their tasks. and forth, under heavy fire, trying to res- tingent of Office of Strategic Services (OSS)
On June 5, Scout boats were the first to cue the survivors. Special Reconnaissance personnel, on the
be launched across the Channel. They nav- The S&R teams continued to get a island of Solta, Yugoslavia.
igated to locations a few hundred yards broadening range of assignments. They The next big landing, named Anvil-Dra-
offshore to guide the first waves of the trained French Commandos for amphibi- goon, was planned in southern France for
landing forces. NCDUs went in to clear ous landings on Elba, Italy, scouted poten- August 15. As with previous operations,
obstacles. The S&R scout boats were now tial beaches for landing sites, and escorted this one expanded the S&R experience and

10 WWWII SPECIAL FORCES

applications. S&Rs trained and escorted For landings at the heavily mined Leyte
Army Devil’s Brigade troops ashore at Lev- Gulf, Philippines, Scout officers sneaked
ant and Port Cross Islands to take out Ger- ashore to set up navigation lights, first for
man 6-inch gun batteries that commanded guiding minesweepers several days before
the Anvil-Dragoon beaches. S&Rs led sev- the landings and later for the actual landing
eral French commando forces ashore to craft. At Panay in west-central Philippines,
block roads to and from the beaches. They one Scout team went ashore from PT boats
then directed in the landing waves of the to do beach reconnaissance and depth
full beach assaults. Following Anvil-Dra- soundings before the landings. Another
goon, the Mediterranean S&R crews were Scout group prepared the way for landings
ordered back to ATB Ft. Pierce, some to be on southern Luzon. This team went ashore
reassigned to the Far East. to meet with an Army officer and a band of
In April 1944 a new “Transport Doc- Filipino guerrillas. They gathered informa-
trine, Amphibious Forces, U.S. Pacific tion on nine Japanese coastal defense guns,
Fleet” called for 125 officers and reduced seven of which the Air Force was able to
crews to fulfill a Transport Scout Intelli- knock out before the landings.
gence function. This changed the S&R Navy Scouts train in hand-to-hand combat at
Okinawa was the largest amphibious
crew’s roles from the European operations their base in Fort Pierce. undertaking in the Pacific theater, and the
of scout boat functions. Classes #6 toughest. S&Rs worked as and with
through #8 trained officers and men for Base at Maui. UDT personnel were famil- UDTs, Scout Intelligence Officers, Beach-
the new mission. Class #8 was all officers, iar with the S&Rs because of their similar masters, and Control Officers. The S&Rs
one of which was Ensign Richard Lyon work. Some of them had trained together and UDTs were taken to within a thou-
who, after his service with the S&Rs in at Ft. Pierce, and some had worked sand yards of the beaches, where they
WWII, went on to become Rear Admiral together before. Also, some existing S&R slipped into the water and swam shore-
Lyon, the first designated Special Warfare crews began functioning in parallel to the ward to gather beach intelligence, often
flag officer (Admiral, SEAL Teams) in U.S. UDTs to accomplish the same beach under enemy fire. They then swam back
history. The Class #8 graduates were sent demolition functions. out and were picked up in the reverse pro-
to Advanced Naval Intelligence School in In the southwest Pacific, meanwhile, cedure by the landing craft. This became
New York City, then to the Amphibious MacArthur’s forces had been carrying out the standard mode of advanced recon-
Training Base in Coronado, Calif., for fur- amphibious assaults, including the landing naissance. The men then prepared maps of
ther demolitions training. in New Guinea in September 1943 by the the shorelines and the reef floors, and then
But with the changing plans of war, the 9th Australian Division. The 9th had briefed the Amphibious Forces Intelligence
intended use of these S&R Officers did not established a new unit, the top-secret staffs aboard ship. Returning later with the
reach fruition. The November 1943 land- Amphibious Scouts, for advanced intelli- same “drop-and-pickup” methods, they
ing on island of Tarawa in the Pacific had gence gathering. It included various ser- blew up beach obstacles.
grimly illustrated the need for pre-assault vices volunteers as well as Australian On March 1, 1945 the Ft. Pierce school
reconnaissance. Marines landing on the Coast Watchers. It was, in every respect was renamed Amphibious Scout School. It
atoll were either drowned or made easy except in name, Scouts and Raiders. In also had a new challenge—to train men for
targets for the Japanese when their landing fact, when the original members of this a reshaped S&R role known as Amphibi-
craft hit hidden reefs. Planners recom- group returned to the States, trained S&R ous Roger. The phrase came from the
mended to the Chief of Naval Operations personnel replaced them. phrase “Jolly Roger,” a piratical term, the
that Underwater Demolition Teams be The first Amphibious Scouts’ tasks, in word Roger standing for “raider.”
formed permanently, with six teams preparation for landing at various places Amphibious Roger personnel were trained
assigned to the Central Pacific and three on New Guinea, included being dropped for guerrilla warfare and raiding opera-
to the South Pacific, and that a training offshore by PT boat, and slipping ashore in tions in China. The training was essentially
location be established in Hawaii. Initially rubber boats to gather intelligence on the basic S&R course, but with extra
this meant combining the existing, smaller Japanese installations and movements. By emphasis on demolition and inland recon-
Naval Combat Demolition Units. The July 1944 MacArthur’s troops had made naissance. Added were classes in Chinese
Navy also tapped into the S&R resources. 11 landings on New Guinea, the last of culture and language, and more hand-to-
Beginning in November 1944, the these at Sansapor. In his book, hand combat, judo, boxing, and wrestling
majority of Class #6’s 25 officers joined MacArthur’s Amphibious Navy, Admiral as well as additional weapons and sabo-
the Underwater Demolition Teams and Barbey calls Sansapor “the most thor- tage work.
took further training at the Naval Combat oughly reconnoitered landing ever in the One of the key elements of the war in
Demolition Training and Experimental SWPA (South-West Pacific Area).” China was SACO, the Sino-American

WWII SPECIAL FORCES 11

 Cooperative Organization agreement
signed by the Chinese and the United
States on April 1, 1943. Under the terms of
the Agreement, the United States was to
train guerrillas, intelligence agents,
weather groups, saboteurs, and raiding
squads to set up weather, radio, and radio-
intercept stations using American equip-
ment and mostly Chinese personnel.
The S&R coastal intelligence-gathering
experience, which began in China with
SACO in 1945, lent itself well to hydro-
graphic and shoreline surveillance and
mapping. But here, because of the high
density of Japanese patrols and the safety
concerns regarding submarine operations ABOVE: Navy Scouts attach explosive charges to obstacles, during night maneuvers of the graduating
in uncharted waters, the missions were class, at the Amphibious Training Base, Fort Pierce, Florida, 29 May 1944. This was in advance of the
D-Day landings. BELOW: Underwater demolition team members boarding a landing craft off Saipan.
often conducted over land. A few S&R
Note belt equipment, life belt equipment, life belt and M-1 carbine of man in right center.
officers were pulled out of Class #6 in July
1944 and were sent to train Chinese guer-
rillas at a camp in Teng Feng, China. Oth-
ers followed from Ft. Pierce and the
Mediterranean.
S&R officers staffed a number of SACO
camps in interior China. They made recon-
naissance missions to determine landing
accessibility along the lower China coast.
They also harassed and fought running bat-
tles with the Japanese. They rescued 20
downed pilots. In one mission, dubbed
Operation Swordfish, an S&R team sunk a
Japanese freighter in Amoy Harbor. They
were so effective that at one time the Japan-
ese offered a bounty of $1,000 in gold to
any Chinese person who turned in an S&R.
Amphibious Roger Class #4 was the last
group to graduate from ATB Ft. Pierce.
Class #5 began its training in June 1945.
A contingent from that class had been neered a wide range of tactics and tech- after the war, their lineal descendants, the
taken to Ft. Bragg, NC, for airborne train- niques of amphibious reconnaissance and U.S. Navy SEALs, and other special war-
ing, but the end of the war canceled it. The intelligence gathering. This knowledge for- fare personnel gathered at the Naval
new training would have given the S&Rs tunately was carried along to the UDTs Amphibious Base Coronado, Calif., on
a sea, air, and land capability. One of the serving in the Korean War, and later the January 21, 1987 to honor Captain Phil
members of that class was Rudolph E. UDTs and SEALS for other theaters of Bucklew, USNR Ret., a legendary Scout
Boesch, who went on to become the operation. and Raider officer, by naming the Center
longest-serving enlisted man in the Navy at In November 1985 the UDT-SEAL for Naval Special Warfare after him. And
over 45 years, and the longest serving Museum was commissioned at Ft. Pierce in November 1989 the UDT-SEAL
SEAL. At the time, there were over four to commemorate the many years of service museum at Ft. Pierce chose to include the
hundred officers and enlisted men in of the frogmen and SEALs. As Navy files Scouts and Raiders as part of their Naval
Amphibious Roger duties. were declassified, and the background his- Special Warfare historical record.
When WWII ended, many of the S&Rs tory of the UDT and SEALs was uncov-
who remained in the Navy were trans- ered, the importance of the Scouts and Bud Hyland is a former member of the
ferred back into the fleet. As the first Naval Raiders to the heritage of Naval Special Navy’s Underwater Demolition Team 12,
Special Warfare commandos, they had pio- Warfare was realized. Although disbanded and of the UDT-SEAL reserve.

12 WWWII SPECIAL FORCES

W-Blanchard FP Aug2018 6/11/18 1:14 PM Page 1
 TOP S E C R E T BY J O N L AT I M E R

The elite Brandenburg commandos From the earliest days of the war, the
German high command understood this,
and deceit and infiltration were put to good
scored many spectacular successes use. The essence of blitzkrieg is the dislo-
cation and disruption of an enemy’s defen-
during clandestine operations. sive position rather than the piecemeal
destruction of his forces. If the speed of
advance was to be maintained, then
columns of armor and motorized infantry

W
ar had been raging for 10 days, and Wehrmacht columns were pouring through required control of vital road and rail junc-
Poland in a ceaseless torrent. Thousands of civilians and Polish troops were flee- tions, tunnels, and above all, bridges. The
ing the enemy as fast as they could go. At Demblin, a railway bridge that was use of parachutists could not guarantee
crucial to the Germans’ continued success, remained intact. these objectives. Consequently, by 1939, a
One Polish group, however, maintained a spirit of martial discipline; immaculately number of special organizations were
turned out, marching proudly while singing a Polish Army song, they arrived at the bridge already in existence.
surrounded by panic stricken refugees. Quickly, the noncom in charge found the com- Foremost among them was a group
mander of the pioneers entrusted with the demolition. The latter was not expecting relief formed by the German intelligence and
and tried to phone through to his superior, only to find that enemy action had cut the counter-intelligence service, the Abwehr.
line. Suddenly, a dive bombing Ju-87 Stuka raid sent everyone scurrying for cover. Expanding rapidly from January 1935, the
The kind offer to take over the responsibility for the bridge was hastily and gratefully Abwehr was controlled by Admiral Wil-
accepted, and quickly the guard left. When Germans appeared some five hours later, the helm Canaris, a refined and intelligent offi-
new demolition guard provoked a panic that cleared the bridge, then, having handed cer with experience dating from World War
over control to the advancing panzers, they were left with nothing more to do than to I and an aptitude for languages. By 1939,
change back into their own German uniforms. the Abwehr consisted of three sections.
Thus ended one of the first instances of the use of special forces by Germany in World Abwehr I was responsible for espionage and
War II. The “demolition guard” were all men specially selected from Upper Silesia and intelligence gathering, Abwehr II for sabo-
were, if anything, more fluent in Polish than in German. Operating behind enemy lines tage and special units, and Abwehr III for
requires guile and a spirit of subterfuge that can only come from first-class training and counter-intelligence, although they were in
an unorthodox mind. competition with the security service of the
SS, the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) commanded
by the infamous Reinhard Heydrich.
Within Abwehr II, the first commander
of special forces was a man who had paid
careful attention to the successful use of
commandos in Germany’s African colonies
during World War I, and who had studied
the writings of T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of
Arabia). Captain Theodor von Hippel set
about recruiting a small force of German
fighting men from the border regions such
as the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia or
the Silesian districts of Poland. He also
looked for Germans who had lived abroad,
in Africa or South America; Anybody, in
fact, who had knowledge of the language
and customs of potential enemies. He also
looked for the specific personal qualities
necessary to make a special forces soldier—
self-reliance, imagination, and a spirit of
National Archives

unorthodoxy not normally associated with

a good regular.
Every man had to be a volunteer

14 WWII SPECIAL FORCES

 ABOVE: The Brandenburg commandos included a company trained as Fallschirmjägers, and in November 1943 particpated in the attack on the British held
island of Leros. The Fallschirmjäger company was eventually expanded to a battalion. OPPOSITE: Brandenburg commandos, one armed with a flamethrower,
traverse the span of a destroyed bridge during an assault.

because only a volunteer had the commit- campaign of the war was to guarantee troops and to enable ease of movement
ment to face almost certain execution, them further employment. around the rail network. Immediately after
which was very likely if captured while Just to the east of the border in south- the start of the invasion, they pulled out
taking part in a covert operation. In 1939, west Poland lay the vital railway junction concealed weapons and set upon the
Hippel’s men formed a single unit known of Katowice. Before the invasion had even astounded Poles. So thorough was the
as the No. 1 Construction Training Com- begun, 80 men infiltrated Poland. They dis- deception that one group even persuaded a
pany, whose soldiers were mostly fluent guised themselves as Polish railway work- body of Polish troops to board a train
in Polish, and whose success in the initial ers to avoid drawing attention from Polish which they then drove into a rail siding far

WWII SPECIAL FORCES 15

 National Archives

from the action. aerial and panzer assault, the commandos

The operation was completely success- had another chance to reinforce their Pol-
ful, and German forces began to operate ish success by preventing the opening of the
from Katowice Junction. The facility was sluice gates at Nieuport. During World War
undamaged, and all its rolling stock in per- I, the Belgians had successfully flooded the
fect working order at a time when the Ger- Yser plain and impeded German progress.
man Army relied heavily on the railway It was imperative that this setback not be
system. repeated. The pump houses controlling the
Unfortunately, not all the operations in waters were located south of the river
the invasion of Poland went quite this alongside the Oostende-Nieuport road.
smoothly, and other units failed to prevent On May 27, German forces were close
the destruction of bridges over the River to Oostende and Belgium was close to
Vistula at Dirschau and Graudenz. A total capitulation. Wearing Belgian infantry uni-
disaster almost befell another group sent to forms, 13 commandos infiltrated a chaotic
capture the Jablunka Tunnel where the sol- mass of people in a captured Belgian Army
diers failed to receive an order delaying the bus. They fought their way through the
operation and opened fire some hours morass of humanity until they arrived at
before the invasion was actually due to the bridge around sunset. British troops
commence. The Poles retaliated fiercely, Taking cover during operations against parti- holding the bridge ready for demolition
sans in Russia, Brandenburg commandos pre-
and the Germans were pursued across opened fire, and the Germans quickly took
pare to open fire with automatic weapons
country with the two sides still nominally against an unseen enemy. cover and changed into German uniforms.
at peace. To maintain the air of respectabil- With darkness to protect them, a pair of
ity, the German government was forced to the Dutch border at Gennap in the path of commandos crawled across the bridge, cut-
issue a denial and placed the blame on Slo- 9th Panzer Division, the only armored for- ting the explosive charges as they went
vakian terrorists. mation involved in the invasion of the while machine-gun fire rattled overhead.
These failures notwithstanding, the Ger- Netherlands. On reaching the far side, the two opened
man high command was very impressed The seizure of the bridge was vital, and fire, and their comrades charged the bridge
with the results of these operations and a particularly subtle deception was using sub-machine guns and hand grenades
agreed to expand and develop the concept. planned. A group of seven German pris- to neutralize the defenders, whom they now
The various groups involved were duly oners escorted by two Dutch guards isolated and mopped up. Both the bridge
brought together at Brandenburg-Am- arrived at the bridge 10 minutes before the and the pump houses were captured intact.
Havel at the end of the year and given the planned attack when, after receiving a sig- The Brandenburgers had proved a huge
formal status of Baulehr-Kompanie zbV nal, they attacked the guard post. Firing success, and during the summer of 1940,
800 (800th Construction Training Com- broke out, and three of the Brandenburg- they prepared to make a significant contri-
pany For Special Purposes) on October 25. ers were wounded. The mission, however, bution to the impending invasion of the
Taking the name of the town just west of still had to be carried out, including the United Kingdom. When this operation
Berlin where they were based, the Bran- capture of the post at the far end of the failed to materialize, they moved to Quen-
denburg Commandos were quickly bridge. With their Dutch accomplices, the zsee for a period of intensive training and
expanded to battalion strength and sub- commandos advanced upon it. expansion to regimental strength. New
jected to rigorous training in commando The guards simply did not know how to recruits learned all the skills associated with
and parachute techniques. Their organiza- react, so swift and complete had been the special forces, but with a particular empha-
tion and training were further cemented in surprise. A grenade produced the desired sis on deception techniques. Recruits were
April 1940, when they took part in the effect, and the commandos took control of regularly paraded in foreign uniforms, and
invasion of Norway and Denmark. They the detonator which might have blown the every effort was made to develop cama-
were also to play an important role during bridge just as the first tanks appeared. raderie within their small, tight knit groups.
the invasion of the Low Countries. Unfortunately for the commander, he was Soldiers would greet their officers with a
The Germans could not afford to get mistaken for a Dutchman by the lead vehi- handshake rather than a salute, and disci-
bogged down in Holland and needed a cle and cut down by machine-gun fire, pline was promoted on the basis of trust
speedy capitulation in order to proceed although he survived to receive the Iron rather than obedience. Initiative was also
with the defeat of France. To this end, the Cross later. Further displays of bluff and encouraged from the beginning of a
Brandenburgers were ideally suited, and ferocious aggression resulted in the cap- recruit’s career in the regiment, with exer-
on the night of May 9, 1940, they crossed ture of other vital bridges at Roermond cises such as one group being ordered to
the border. Once more, a railway bridge and Stavelot. obtain the fingerprints of the local chief of
was a principal target, this time just inside With the Netherlands quickly overrun by police without his knowledge. Later in the

16 WWII SPECIAL FORCES

National Archives

maintained pressure on the retreating

troops milling towards the bridge.
Artillery and Stuka bombardment added
to the confusion and panic to produce just
the sort of chaos ideal for such a mission.
The Brandenburgers would shout that they
were being closely pursued by panzers.
While one truck would cross the bridge, the
second would appear to break down on the
far bank, and the Brandenburgers would
attempt to persuade the demolition guard
to delay the destruction of the bridge until
their comrades could cross. In the confu-
sion, they would locate the demolition
charges, and once the second truck had
limped onto the bridge, throw off their
greatcoats and seize the span intact.
Brandenburg commandos cross a lake behind enemy lines on the Eastern Front. The attack was to be heralded with a raid
by Stukas, their sirens wailing to create ter-
program, they would be ordered to capture Soviet forces. ror among the defenders, and the decep-
10 Wehrmacht soldiers within five hours Typical of the actions of the first week tion was further improved by carefully fol-
and bring them to Quenzsee. This appar- was the capture of a key bridge within the lowing the trucks with artillery fire. Despite
ently relaxed and aberrant attitude to mil- Pripet marshes on June 27. The approach setting off at speed, the press of frightened
itary life won them few friends. After mak- of a conventional armored column would bodies close to the bridge slowed the Bran-
ing a contribution to the swift occupation lead the defenders to complete its demoli- denburgers’ approach to a crawl, and many
of the Balkans, and with a strength of three tion, so the requirement for stealth made it of the fleeing Soviet soldiers tried to clam-
battalions and a number of independent a special forces task. Setting out just before ber aboard the trucks. As the first truck
companies, their unconventional methods dawn on June 26, the detachment reached crossed the bridge and the second slowed to
would pay huge dividends in the forth- the panzer regiment to be supported only a halt, the Brandenburgers were ready to
coming and toughest assignment of all— on the following day. fight off the Soviets with their rifle butts.
Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the After an extremely arduous journey in The German leader managed to locate
Soviet Union. Although the operation captured Soviet trucks, the mission that was the demolition guard commander and
would not formally begin until the early outlined was clearly going to be difficult and engaged in a furious argument to prevent
morning of June 22, 1941, many Branden- dangerous. Any sight of the armor would him from blowing the charges while com-
burgers were infiltrated into enemy terri- provoke the bridge’s demolition, and the mandos quickly sought to surreptitiously
tory the day before in what was by now the regimental commander informed the Bran- find and disconnect them. The second
customary fashion. They wore Soviet coats denburgers that he could not approach any truck finally drew close to the bridge, and
over their field grey uniforms and drove closer than 15 minutes driving distance the German now threw off his coat and
trucks captured from the Soviets by the from the objective. It was, therefore, imme- began shooting. He was soon killed, but a
Finns during their war in the previous year. diately apparent that having seized the noncom had cut the wires from the deto-
Despite each detachment being led by a bridge, the Brandenburgers would have to nator. Both groups were now in position at
commando who spoke Russian fluently, hold it for at least a quarter of an hour either end of the bridge and ready to defend
they were unaware of Soviet passwords for against all the surrounding Soviet troops. it for 15 minutes.
the night and the border guards were sus- Even more immediate was the question Two hours later, the objective was finally
picious of a possible German attack. of reaching the bridge. A variation on the secured with the arrival of the main body
Under strict instructions not to open fire traditional deception was planned. The of the armor after fierce counterattacks by
before the main assault began, their only men would drive toward the bridge in two wave upon wave of desperate Soviets, sup-
option was to flee if unable to talk their Soviet trucks. They would be wearing Red ported by mortars and artillery. The
way through, and a number of casualties Army greatcoats and carrying Soviet rifles armored column had run straight into trou-
were suffered when this proved unsuccess- while concealing machine-pistols under- ble with a mechanical breakdown block-
ful. However, many managed to get into neath. By driving out of the sunset at dusk, ing the only approach route. Dense oak
positions to exploit the confusion that they planned to be silhouetted in the long woods on either side prevented speedy eva-
reigned on the morning of the attack and to shadows of a summer’s evening on the sion of the obstacle, and pioneers had to be
join the advance into rear areas of the steppes, while German infantry patrols brought forward to clear a path. The sec-

WWII SPECIAL FORCES 17

 National Archives

the island of Leros. This was garrisoned by

a brigade of British troops and about 5,500
Italians, now on the Allied side. The latter
were extremely low-grade troops who
could not be expected to offer much resis-
tance. Heavy aerial bombardment was to
be followed by a seaborne assault from two
sides with a supporting parachute drop that
would split the defenders.
A parachute company of Brandenburgers
was attached to the 1st Battalion, 2nd Para-
chute Regiment, and these were dropped
after a 12-hour delay at 1 PM on Novem-
ber 12, 1943. They dropped in the face of
heavy antiaircraft fire on a tiny strip of
ground between Gurna and Alinda bays.
This would split the island’s defenses in
two. However, the drop zone was barely
In November 1943, Brandenburg Fallschirmjagers joined other German units in attacking the Greek
island of Leros, held by a brigade of British and Italian troops. Additional Brandenberg troops landed
half a mile wide and defended by the 2nd
by boat and the island was taken after four days of heavy fighting. Battalion, Royal Irish Fusiliers. By drop-
ping from 450 feet, the parachutists were
ond panzer roared past but drove directly Kompanie. It comprised 60 volunteers each quickly on the ground and hastily orga-
into artillery fire that once more blocked with wide experience in Africa and selected nized so that two companies could protect
the way. Two more panzers were lost, and for their personal resilience and as usual, the position from the north and east, while
air support was unavailable while smoke their linguistic abilities. The unit’s intended the other two attacked Rachi Ridge.
laid to cover the advance was dispersed by role was as a reconnaissance unit to make The Eastern task force had a difficult
unfavorable winds. Meanwhile, the Bran- short penetrations of the British front lines. time, and the Brandenburgers’ Küstenjäger
denburgers were close to disaster. Although One spectacular journey was made to (coastal raider) detachments were unable
they had held off the counterattacks against insert agents into Cairo by driving through to land because of heavy fire from Italian-
them, they had suffered heavy casualties some of the fiercest deserts in the area, manned coastal batteries. A concerted
and were almost out of ammunition. across the Great Sand Sea that lies between Stuka raid and smoke screens allowed them
With annihilation looming, a Stuka unit Libya and Egypt. The commandos suffered to get ashore, and they landed on the north
whose original mission had been aborted intense hardship and accomplished the mis- side of Pandeli Bay while the convoy put in
came to their rescue. As their bombs pinned sion, only for British counter-intelligence to for Alinda Bay.
the Soviets in their positions, the panzers rapidly pick up the agents. Despite losing one boat to gunfire, the
moved up to the objective, and two of them With the success of the Axis offensive in Brandenburgers got to the cliffs and scaled
broke through to cross the bridge. As the June 1942, however, plans were made to them successfully to attack their objective,
night wore on, more armor finally arrived seize key bridges on the Nile and Suez Mount Appetici. Close air support was
to secure it. Canal in traditional Brandenburger fash- called but accidentally struck the Germans
Few among the line troops of the ion. The failure to breach the main British before pulverising the defenses. Then an
Wehrmacht were aware of what had hap- defensive position and the subsequent assault went in. Intense fire from mortars
pened as the Brandenburgers collected defeat at El Alamein resulted instead in a and machine guns held the commandos up,
their dead and disappeared into the night. headlong retreat by German forces as far as and all the officers were either killed or
Once more, they had secured the advance Tunisia. The Brandenburgers were wounded. Another air strike was called,
that would drive deep into the heart of entrusted with the task of disrupting British but once more it struck the Brandenburg-
Soviet Russia. After these spectacular supply lines to First Army in western ers and they pulled back to regroup. A
raids in the opening phases of the inva- Tunisia and launched assaults by glider council of war resolved that while the main
sion, the Brandenburgers were used for against two bridges, but the operation objective could not be taken, the Italian
further strikes against targets in the ended in disaster. On May 6, 1943, the spe- battery at Castle Hill could, and this was
enemy’s rear and were employed exten- cialists were ordered out of Africa although swiftly achieved with hand grenades.
sively during the summer offensive of many were stranded due to lack of trans- For three days, the Küstenjägers held
1942, particularly in the Caucasus. portation and finished the war as prisoners. their captured positions. Throughout the
Meanwhile, in the spring of 1941, The Brandenburgers’ most notable suc- nights, the British maintained artillery
Canaris formed the Brandenburg Afrika cess in the Eastern Mediterranean came on harassment, and several attempts to storm

18 WWII SPECIAL FORCES

 National Archives

the German position were driven off. Both landed at 2 AM on the 16th and captured
sides sent out patrols, and the Germans the heights south of Leros town.
were only resupplied by air drops of water, As dawn rose, the Brandenburgers
ammunition, and mortars—a useful addi- looked upon their next objective, Mount
tion to their armament. Reinforcements Meraviglia and the British headquarters.
were brought up to the ridge. The location Despite fearsome losses, they pushed on
of the British headquarters at Mount Mer- across bare, rock-strewn slopes, overrun-
aviglia was known, and reinforcements ning the antiaircraft and field defenses and
were needed to complete its capture. This engaging in further hand-to-hand action
effort proceeded in the face of determined against the stubborn defenders. By 3 PM, it
counterattacks by the British infantry who was over, although the 3rd Battalion’s com-
remained cut off from each other in the manding officer was among the seriously
north and south of the island. wounded. A patrol linked up with the
On the 14th and 15th, the British contin- Küstenjägers on Castle Hill for the final
ued to attack the thin line held by the para- assault on the British headquarters, and the
chutists across the center of the island. The British commander surrendered to these
Küstenjägers held off an attack by three The 3rd Brandenburg Battalion undergoes Brandenburgers.
inspection as several officers pass in the rear
companies with mortar and machine-gun In October 1942, the Brandenburgers had
of the unit’s front flank. The 3rd Battalion
fire, and the British switched their efforts gained fame for its exploits early in the war. expanded to divisional strength, but
to Rachi Ridge and Mount Germano. increasingly, as German advances were
Exhausted by constant Stuka attacks, they but the Germans had a numerical advan- brought to a stop and partisans began to
nevertheless managed to link up and retake tage and forced the British out of the sparse operate in the rear areas, the Brandenburg-
Germano. If the British could wrest control stone houses. With the operation entering ers were engaged in trying to subdue the
of the village of St. Nicola from the Ger- its fourth day, the German command was resistance. The Germans had occupied a
mans, then the German forces around Leros afraid of losing momentum, and the 3rd large area of Soviet territory, and within it
would be bottled up. Battalion of the Brandenburgers’ 1st Regi- the partisans flourished. They constantly
Vicious hand-to-hand fighting ensued, ment was ordered to Leros. The battalion Continued on page 98

WWII SPECIAL FORCES 19

 The Art Archive/Imperial War Museum

Strike from the

hey came out of the sea, out of the darkness, and they officers, a few of them a bit on the eccentric side, but all ready

T brought death, terror, and destruction with them. Leaving

behind towering pyres of oily smoke, they were gone
before their foe could react. Every German soldier would hear
to take on any job that would get them into the war. An exam-
ple was Second Lt. Peter Young, a young officer of the Bed-
fordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment.
about these raiders and remember them. They would fear the Young rode a motorcycle through vile weather to appear at
name Commando. an interview for the brigade, and by the time he arrived, he
The Special Service Brigade, formal designation of the Com- “was in a desperate mood and ready to volunteer for anything,
mando forces, attracted quite a collection of daring, aggressive particularly if it did not involve motor-bicycles. I was an hour

20 WWII SPECIAL FORCES

 Smoke billows from destroyed fish oil
factories and other buildings in the tiny town
of Vaagso in this painting by Richard Eurich.

Sea
The successful British Commando raid
on Vaagso produced far-reaching
consequences in Adolf Hitler’s conduct
of the war. By Robert Barr Smith
late. The interviewing officer, happily, was two hours late. Even- Only later would the youngster realize that the benevolent
tually, I was ushered into the presence of a captain who bore, I captain was his commander, Lt. Col. John Durnford-Slater.
thought, a superficial resemblance to Mr. Pickwick and certainly Special Service Brigade was a different sort of outfit. Each of
looked benevolent. This, I said to myself, will be some staff offi- its Commandos was stationed in some small town. There was a
cer from the War Office…. He asked next if I knew anything headquarters, but individual soldiers lived and ate in private
about small boats; much experience of canoeing on the River Isis homes and received an allowance to cover expenses. In such an
justified me in assuring him that my knowledge was extensive. elite outfit, there was little need for conventional disciplinary
I was in.” measures: the ultimate, dreaded punishment was RTU,

WWII SPECIAL FORCES 21

 “returned to unit,” banishing a soldier
from the Commandos. Once the ranks
were filled in 3 Commando, new men
entered at the lowest officer or enlisted
grade and competed with their comrades
for promotion.
A good many first-class NCOs gave up
their precious stripes to serve as Comman-
dos and won them back by demonstrated
excellence in the unit. Among them were
characters like Corporal Lofty King of the
Rifle Brigade, tall and hard-nosed, very
tough on his men. “It’s good for them,
Colonel,” he told Durnford-Slater. “It
won’t do them any harm.” Lofty King was
one of those happy warriors who actually
love combat; in action he was a lion, but he

Imperial War Museum

was kind to his men. He and his fellows
were Durnford-Slater’s kind of men: in the
colonel’s words, “men of character beyond
the normal.”
Combat training was very tough indeed, ABOVE: A British Commando on a hill above the demolished German barracks on Maaloy watches the action
almost brutal, with much use of live ammu- across the fjord in South Vaagso. BELOW: Commandos on a troop transport bound for Vaagso pass the time
belowdecks by arming grenades with fuses. RIGHT: German troops lie in wait in the Norway snow.
nition. Physical training was equally tough;
when the Commandos were not running
cross-country with full gear, they were bash-
ing each other on the rugby field. Three
Commando was stationed at Largs, on the
River Clyde in Scotland. There its men
trained in the rocky hills and barren uplands
above the river and practiced landing oper-
ations on the beaches along the Clyde itself.
Durnford-Slater drove his men hard:
Every morning they did 20 to 30 landings,
pouring out of landing craft, sprinting for
cover with all their gear and weapons.
Before they were through, 30 men could
exit a landing craft, reach cover 25 yards
away, and do it all in 10 seconds. The days
began early and did not end until dark; on
top of that, the Commandos were out on
night operations at least three nights a week.
Billeted in and around the town, the
young soldiers of the Commando seem to
have gotten on well with most of the local
population, a happy relationship that pro-
duced more than a few marriages. Occa-
sionally, however, high spirits and too
Imperial War Museum

much beer required the intervention of the

Commando’s own police force, led by an
ex-boxer and ex-cop, Sergeant Bill Chitty.
Chitty’s hardcases normally took care of

22 WWII SPECIAL FORCES

 minor disciplinary situations themselves, with what their commanding officer called “a Most of the German crew died or were
good handling,” to the satisfaction of both their commander and the local police. On one wounded. The only British casualty in the
occasion, in fact, Chitty’s heroes took on a whole camp of troublesome imported Irish whole operation was an embarrassed offi-
laborers and whipped the lot, to the intense satisfaction of the local constabulary. cer who managed to shoot himself in the
Still, in spite of hard training and simple off-duty pleasures, the men of 3 Commando leg with his own pistol.
ached for a chance at the enemy. They were about to get their chance, for in November The raiders fired the oil factories,
1941, 3 Commando’s commanding officer, John Durnford-Slater, was called to London destroyed 11 ships and some 800,000 gal-
to report to Lord Louis Mountbatten, chief of Combined Operations. Mountbatten asked lons of oil, and returned to Britain unchal-
his young commander a straightforward question: Could 3 Commando successfully raid lenged, taking with them more than 300
a town in central Norway defended by a garrison and a battery of guns covering the volunteers for the forces of Free Norway.
approaches to the town? They could, said Durnford-Slater, if escorting warships could They also took home more than 200 Ger-
close in and hammer the battery. “You can rely on our men to look after the German gar- man prisoners, including the head of the
rison.” Mountbatten nodded, and the show was on. local Gestapo, some 60 Quislings (Nazi
Adolf Hitler set great store by the German occupation of Norway. He had therefore collaborators), and a captured trawler. And
been furious when the Commandos struck the Norwegian Lofoten Islands in March before they left, Durnford-Slater addressed
1941, inflicting a humiliating defeat on the master race. The Lofotens squatted in the frigid another group of suspected Quislings with
gloom of the North Sea off the Norwegian coast, about due west of Narvik, and on these some terse and ominous advice for the
islands factories produced about 50 percent of Norway’s enormous output of fish oil. This future: “Yeah, well, I don’t want to hear
product was used by Germany in vitamin tablets for the Army and to make glycerine, a any more of this bloody Quisling business.
critical ingredient in the manufacture of explosives. The Lofoten operation—dubbed It’s no bloody good, I’m telling you. If I
“Claymore”—aimed to destroy these factories and to hurt the occupying Germans in any hear there’s been any more of it, I’ll be back
other way that seemed good to the raiders. again and next time I’ll take the whole
The darkness of mid-winter was the perfect time for the Lofoten raid, in spite of the bloody lot of you. Now clear off!”
bitter cold. Most German aircraft were grounded on the north Norwegian airfields— To add further insult to the injury
without ski-landing gear. No plane could take off to interfere with the raid. Armed Ger- inflicted on the Germans, one Lieutenant
man trawlers worked the area, but no heavier naval units were reported. And so, when Wills found the local post office and sent a
the Commandos appeared out of a murky dawn, they were unopposed. A single Ger- wire addressed to “A. Hitler, Berlin.” It is
man armed trawler was quickly battered into surrender by the destroyer HMS Somali. worth quoting: “You said your last speech
National Archives

WWII SPECIAL FORCES 23

 German troops would meet the English Scapa Flow in the far north of Scotland.
wherever they landed stop where are your After the walk-over raids on the Lofotens and Spitzbergen, the Commandos were spoil-
troops? Wills 2-lieut.” ing for a real fight. This time it appeared they might get one. There were perhaps 240
In September, a British-Canadian force German troops in and around the town, plus a tank and about 50 sailors. On Maaloy
struck isolated Spitzbergen, some 350 icy Island, near the town, a four-gun battery of French 125mm guns protected Vaags Fjord,
miles north of the tip of Norway. Again the on which the town lay; the Maaloy garrison also manned an anti-aircraft gun, a search-
raiders hit without warning and got away light, and a couple of machine guns.
clean. Behind them they left towering fires There were two more cannon—liberated 130mm Russian field pieces—on the nearby
consuming almost half a million tons of island of Rugsundo, and a battery of mobile 105mm guns protected Ulvesund, the anchor-
coal and some 275,000 gallons of petro- age where German convoys formed up for voyages down the coast. Two torpedo tubes
leum products, vital resources Germany were trained on the entrance to the fjord. Three Luftwaffe bases were within flying dis-
would never see. More loyalist Norwegians tance of Vaagso—Trondheim, Herdla, and Stavanger—capable of launching about four
went home with the raiders. For the master squadrons of fighters and bombers. However, British planners hoped that the perennial
race, there was still more trouble to come. dirty weather of the far northern winter might give some measure of cover against Ger-
For toward the end of October, leader- man aircraft. In addition, the RAF would do what it could to interdict German aircraft
ship of British Combined Operations had before they could reach the Vaagso area.
been taken over by Lord Mountbatten, The British strike force would number fewer than 600 men, a neat package of 3 Com-
cousin to the king, a dashing Royal Navy mando, a troop and a half of 2 Commando, Royal Engineers from 6 Commando, medics
officer of daring, keen intelligence, and from 4 Commando, some War Office Intelligence officers, and interpreters of the Royal
great energy. Within two months of assum- Norwegian Army. By this time in the war a Commando troop was composed of three
ing command, Mountbatten staged the officers and, in British terminology, about 60 “other ranks,” soldiers and NCOs. Six of
most damaging raid yet, and mightily got these troops, plus a small headquarters, made up a Commando, the equivalent of a very
Hitler’s goat in the process. small battalion.
As Durnford-Slater learned to his delight, In overall charge of the operation was Brigadier Charles Haydon, an Irish Guards offi-
the target was again Norwegian: the little cer given to careful planning of the most minute details of any operation. The better you
port of South Vaagso, some 350 miles planned, Haydon believed and preached, the better the operation went and the fewer casu-
north of Norway’s southern tip and about alties you took. He was the sort of commander junior officers adored, careful of his men
halfway between Bergen and Trondheim. but willing to let them do their jobs without micro-management. Haydon customarily
Like the Lofotens, this area also produced gave great responsibility to his young leaders, issuing mission-type orders, standing by to
substantial quantities of vital fish oil for the help, but otherwise letting his officers get on with the war on their own.
German war machine. The sheltered waters On shore, the landing party would be led by Colonel John Durnford-Slater, still com-
around the town provided a staging area manding officer of 3 Commando. Durnford-Slater, a gunner, was a 30-year-old captain
for German coastal convoys traveling up at the beginning of the war, a veteran of years of service in India. He had volunteered for
and down the Indreled, the Inner Passage, the Commandos when the force was first raised. Like the other volunteers, he did not
sheltered by Norway’s hundreds of off- know what he was joining, but was eager to leave his adjutant’s job at an artillery train-
shore islands. Vaagso lies on spectacular ing post and get into the war. He was both delighted and startled when his orders arrived,
Nordfjord, stretching 70 miles deep into promoting him to lieutenant colonel and directing him to forthwith “raise and command
the hinterland of Norway. It is ice-free number 3 commando.” Suddenly he was part of the war in a big way.
throughout the year, thanks to the waters His executive officer was one of the legitimate characters of an army that abounded in
of the Gulf Stream. them, Major J.M.T.F. Churchill, MC, known to his friends as Jack. Churchill was a born
The operation was called “Archery,” and leader, a ferocious officer who carried a claymore broadsword in combat and roused his
planning and preparation for the raid were own Scots blood by playing on his own bagpipes, a sound not everyone found edifying.
painstaking. Combined Operations spe- Churchill had survived Dunkirk, arriving at the port by bicycle, carrying a longbow with
cialists in London built a detailed model of which, legend tells us, he had dispatched at least one German. He would later win the
the Vaagso area, which Durnford-Slater Distinguished Service Order (DSO) for the singlehanded capture of some 30 Germans,
carried back to Scotland in a packing case, apparently by appearing suddenly out of the night with a great warlike shout and bran-
in a passenger compartment on the train. dished claymore.
Briefings were made from this model, The rest of Durnford-Slater’s officers were unique characters in their own right. Cap-
although nobody but the raid’s leaders tain John Giles, commanding 3 Troop, was a huge man, a heavyweight boxing cham-
knew the actual name of the place they pion, worshipped by his men. On one occasion, during training at Largs, he marched his
were to attack. Successful dress rehearsals troop off the end of a pier carrying full equipment, then ordered “column right,” swam
were run at the Royal Navy anchorage of them back to shore, and marched off. His counterpart in 6 Troop was the inventive Peter

24 WWII SPECIAL FORCES

 Young, now a captain. Mustachioed Cap-
tain Algy Forrester commanded 4 Troop. A
newspaperman by trade, he had trained as
an artilleryman. With no idea of infantry
tactics, he had volunteered for the Com-
mandos and learned to be an expert foot
soldier in a hurry. One Troop followed
Captain Bill Bradley, described as a “tall
and rather wild northern Irishman.”
This collection of free spirits, eager for
action, included three Irish officers who
actually hatched a plan to plant explosives
at the German Embassy in Dublin, an
effort authorized by Durnford-Slater him-
self. The officers were sure the embassy was
a clearinghouse for information about
British convoys, and they felt the building
could first be emptied of innocent Irish
employees by the judicious offer of good
whiskey “and other rewards.” The unit
doctor, Irish Captain Sam Corry, had
arranged leave to Dublin to check out the
target, and supply officer Charley Head
was collecting the requisite explosives when
the word came down. A new operation had
been laid on, and Durnford-Slater’s men
were its spearhead.
Imperial War Museum

Rear Admiral Harold Burrough com-

manded the Royal Navy units involved in
the raid. Burrough, an Oxford-educated
veteran of the great World War I fight at
ABOVE: Commandos move up the beach at Vaagso through a smoke screen laid down by RAF bombers. Jutland, was a career Royal Navy man, a
BELOW: German prisoners are loaded onto a British transport. calm, thoughtful officer of great experi-
ence. Naval support for the raiders came
from HMS Kenya, a 31-knot, 6-inch gun
cruiser that would also serve as the head-
quarters vessel. With Kenya sailed Hunt-
class destroyer HMS Chiddingfold and
three O-class destroyers, Oribi, Onslow,
and Offa. All carried 4-inch armament:
two guns for Offa, four for each of the rest.
The troops were embarked in infantry
assault ships Prince Charles and Prince
Leopold, in civilian life excursion ships in
the Channel trade. Finally, the submarine
HMS Tuna would serve as a navigational
beacon, a sure point of reference in the
gloom outside the mouth of the fjord.
The RAF, operating at very long range,
Imperial War Museum

would furnish such support as it could. Its

bases were a long way from the target:
Wick, far to the north of Scotland, and

WWII SPECIAL FORCES 25

 Sumburgh in the Shetlands. The nearest heavy seas, the little flotilla reached Sollum Voe, and stayed there a day while the storm
base to Vaagso—Sumburgh—was some diminished a little. Prince Charles, helped by Chiddingfold, pumped more than a hun-
250 nautical miles from the target; Wick dred tons of seawater out of her vitals. Meanwhile, on December 26, Boxing Day, a
was about 400 nautical miles away. The diversionary force, 12 Commando, was going ashore in the Lofotens to distract the Ger-
Bristol Beaufighters and fighter-model man command from the real objective. During the diversion, 12 Commando would stay
Blenheims of the cover force, and the Ham- on shore two days destroying German installations without suffering casualties and return
pden and Blenheim bombers would have a with 29 prisoners and about 200 eager recruits for the forces of Free Norway.
long way to fly, a limited time above the In the late afternoon of December 26, the main force sailed for Vaagso from Sollum Voe,
objective, and a very long flight home, espe- making a perfect landfall in the deep cold of the early-morning darkness. The captain of
cially for a damaged aircraft. Kenya had done a spectacular job of navigation in the night, and he had gotten the flotilla
The infantry attack ships, covered by to Vaagso precisely on schedule, even though in these latitudes the winter sun does not rise
destroyers, sailed on Christmas Eve, until about 10 o’clock and the morning sky was clear and spotted with stars. It was 0700,
headed into a Force 8 gale for Sollum Voe and HMS Tuna was precisely where she was supposed to be, her steady signal heard on
in the Shetland Islands. Just before they left Kenya’s asdic before her conning tower came into view in the gloom.
Scapa Flow, Mountbatten spoke to the On board the transports, the landing force was ready. They had been called to break-
raiders. He told the men how proud and fast at 0500, checked their gear and weapons, and now stood by, ready to board the
confident he was of them and their effort, landing craft that would take them ashore.
and he reminded them that when his The task force moved into the mouth of the fjord, cruising slowly, the ships keeping
destroyer, Kelly, had been sunk off Crete, their interval by using the ancient device of the “towing spar,” a white-painted float
the Luftwaffe had machine-gunned the sur- towed behind each ship. The float left a visible wake behind it, and following vessels had
vivors in the water. “There is,” he said, “no only to keep the float in sight to stay on station.
need to treat them gently on my account.” On shore, the Norwegian inhabitants were up and about the day’s business. Daily life
After a very difficult passage through went on, although, with few exceptions, the citizens had no love for their conquerors.
Imperial War Museum

British Bren gunners in action.

26 WWII SPECIAL FORCES

Some of the younger men had already fled to England to join the forces of Free Norway, However, Durnford-Slater’s men encoun-
and those who remained behind dreamed of the day when the hated invader was driven tered tragedy even before they stepped on
out. Patriotic graffiti appeared magically on building walls in Vaagso and other Norwe- shore: not German fire, but an RAF phos-
gian towns. When the Germans threatened reprisals against any property on which the phorus smoke bomb from a Hampden hit
slogans appeared, the graffiti began to appear only on the walls of structures owned by by flak from the German armed trawler
collaborators. Foehn. At least half a Commando troop
This chilly morning, yawning German soldiers were turning out to go to their duty sta- was either killed or burned by the bomb.
tions. Over on Maaloy Island the crews of the four coastal defense guns were having break- Lieutenant Arthur Komrower, trapped
fast; the business of the morning for them was the dreary monthly lecture on military cour- against a flaming landing craft, was pulled
tesy, doubtless as boring to these men as such lectures are to soldiers the world over. from the frigid water by Captain Martin
As the invasion fleet moved into the tight waters of the fjord, sailing in darkness between Linge, a tough Norwegian intelligence offi-
steep, snow-covered hills on either side, the Royal Navy broke out its battle ensigns, cer who had been a well-known actor
enormous flags much larger than the normal White Ensign. Watertight doors were dogged before the war.
shut, and buckets appeared in compartments thereby cut off from the latrines. It was pitch A line of Commandos quickly offloaded
dark, for the first faint light would not come until a little before 9. The attack ships the landing craft of much of its ammunition
dropped anchor in a little bay out of the line of fire of the Maaloy Island batteries. The and pushed it away from shore, out into
landing craft, American Higgins boats, would move from there down the coast and the current to sink. Doctor Corry turned to
around a projecting point of land before running in for the landing beaches. treating the terribly burned survivors of the
The German garrison was both ready and unready. By coincidence, troops in South blazing Higgins boat.
Vaagso were engaged in working on their positions, and thus already almost in a defen- The rest of Durnford-Slater’s men surged
sive posture. However, when a sentry manning a German observation post reported what ashore and went straight into action
appeared to be warships moving down the fjord, he was told it was probably a German against German infantry in the town.
convoy. When he insisted, the man on the other end of the telephone suggested the Vaagso was a long, skinny settlement,
observer might have been celebrating Christmas a little too enthusiastically. The OP sol- about three quarters of a mile of unpainted
dier persisted, however, and alerted the German Navy command of his sighting. Instead wooden buildings stretched out along the
of telling the nearest Army officer of the report, the man on the other end of the telephone, shoreline road, with the cliffs not far
a sailor, found a boat and rowed off to tell his naval superior. behind them. Clearing the town meant
Even then German reactions were slow: they were only finally alerted when shells from fighting house to house for much of the
Kenya’s 12 6-inch guns began to scream into the German barracks area on Maaloy, some length of the village.
400 or 500 shells in less than 10 minutes. Offa and Onslow’s 4-inchers joined in, and German resistance was determined,
the German troops dove into their trenches and bunkers. Out in the fjord the British especially from one large building they had
landing craft headed for shore. made into a strongpoint. And it was fero-
Just before 9 AM, RAF Hampdens roared in from the sea. Hampdens, twin-engine cious. It developed that some 50 men of a
bombers with long, skinny, tubelike fuselages, were surely among the most peculiar look- first-class German regiment had spent
ing aircraft of any war, but they bored in to carry out their mission, to dump smoke bombs Christmas in the town and were still there.
on the selected landing sites covering the landing of Durnford-Slater’s men. At Maaloy Captain Johnny Giles led a wild charge to
Island, standing in the bow of his boat, Major Jack Churchill played his Group 3 ashore carry the strongpoint, crashing through the
with the “March of the Cameron Men” on his bagpipes. Churchill led 105 men, 5 and 6 front door, tossing grenades into each of
Troops, against Maaloy Island. Their objective was the big Mortense herring oil factory, the rooms, and chasing the German sur-
the shore batteries, an antiaircraft position, and any German troops they might encounter. vivors through the back door. Giles was
Lieutenant R. Clement’s Group 1 had the mission to carry the village of Hollevik, then mortally wounded at that door, shot down
form the onshore reserve. Durnford-Slater would lead Group 2, about 200 men of 1, 2, by a wounded German, but the strong-
3, and 4 Troops, against Vaagso itself, while Captain D. Birney’s 30 men of Group 5 point remained British. His brother down
blocked the road south into Vaagso from Rodberg. Group 4, Captain R.H. Hooper’s 65 and dying, Lieutenant Bruce Giles took
troopers, would remain as a floating reserve in Kenya. Clement carried out the first part command.
of his mission easily, then moved north up the edge of the fjord toward Vaagso. Along the waterfront, Captain Algy
Durnford-Slater was in the lead Higgins boat, 10 Verey pistols laid out beside him. Ten Forester led what was left of the troop dec-
flares were the signal for the Navy to cease its bombardment, and Durnford-Slater had imated by the errant bomb, firing his
made the intelligent decision to avoid the delay caused by reloading a single pistol. In the Thompson submachine gun from the hip
event, he got no further than his third Verey light before Kenya and the destroyers ceased and throwing grenades into the houses as
fire. The main force closed the shoreline as planned, at the foot of a sheer rocky cliff, so he passed. Komrower was in the thick of
unlikely a landing place that it was not covered by German defenses. the fighting as well, even though he was

WWII SPECIAL FORCES 27

 hobbling badly, helping himself along with
a stick used as a cane.
The Germans fell back into the
Ulvesund Hotel, and the British twice
attempted to storm the building under
heavy fire. Forester got as far as the hotel
door, an armed grenade in his hand. A
German bullet slammed into his chest,
and he fell on his own grenade as it deto-
nated. Norwegian Captain Linge took
command when all the British officers
were down, led another charge, and in his
turn died at the hotel door.
Other officers were dead or wounded,
depriving the Commandos of many of their
leaders. A veteran corporal called Knocker
White took charge of the handful of men
around him, and the Commandos prepared
again to storm the Ulvesund Hotel, packed
with German defenders. At this juncture,
Captain Bill Bradley appeared with a 3-inch
mortar. The weapon was not official.
Bradley had obtained it and its ammunition
on his own. Such were the tough and
resourceful characters who wore the Com-
mando flash.
Now his Sergeant Ramsey got the
weapon into action. The tube was pointed
almost straight up to fire at minimum
range, and his amateur gunners put their
first round down the hotel chimney, caus-
ing many casualties and setting the place

Map © 2018 by Philip Schwartzberg, Meridian Mapping, Minneapolis, MN

afire. As the mortar continued to drop
shells on the blazing hotel, Knocker White,
a handful of Commandos, and a few Nor-
wegian soldiers carried the place with
grenades and gunfire. White would earn a
Distinguished Conduct Medal for his lead-
ership and courage this day.
The fighting in the streets was confused
and vicious. A Reuters correspondent
accompanying the Commandos wrote
afterward: “Many Germans were roasted
to death in homes they made strongpoints
and from which they doggedly refused to
emerge, even when grenades or a fusillade
of shots had set the rooms about them on the clamour of explosions and the heat of battle.”
fire … Norwegian men, women and chil- During the battle for the hotel, two Commandos, Trooper Dowling and Sergeant Cork,
dren, anxious to go to England, were run- went hunting for the solitary tank known to be part of the German defense force. It was
ning back to our barges, some in tears, some still in its garage next to the hotel. Apparently the crew had been caught in the first attack
laughing, all rather scared…. Heavy gun- and killed or scattered. Sergeant Cork laid plenty of demolition charges to make sure of
fire reverberated down the fjord to add to his quarry, then lit his fuses as Dowling crawled out the garage door. The ensuing thun-

28 WWII SPECIAL FORCES

 rushed the building, where both Shering-
ton and O’Flaherty were badly wounded.
The British finally set fire to the warehouse,
flushing the remaining defenders out into
the fire of a Bren gun. Peter Young led his
men on deeper into the town.
Meanwhile, Luftwaffe fighters swept in
to attack, and the RAF aircraft and the anti-
aircraft guns of the Royal Navy struck
back. The hills sent back the booming echo
of heavy fire from the guns of Kenya and
her destroyers, the hammer of AA from the
ships, and the roar of automatic weapons,
rifles, and grenades from Vaagso itself. As
Imperial War Museum

the Navy fought off German air attacks, the

warships were also dealing with German
shipping. The armed trawler Foehn, bat-
tered by the destroyers’ guns, ran aground,
ABOVE: Three British Commandos make their way carefully through the town of Vaagso. OPPOSITE: Five as did two small cargo ships. Another mer-
groups of British Commandos executed a well-planned attack on Norway’s fish oil factories, which were vital chantman was sunk by Onslow.
to the Nazi war effort.
The British boarded Foehn to find that
derous explosion destroyed the tank, but a piece of debris struck and killed Sergeant Cork her crew had abandoned her and that her
before he could get clear. captain, Leutnant zur See Lohr, had been
As the fighting in Vaagso got heavier and heavier, Durnford-Slater called for help. killed by shellfire before he could throw
Brigadier Haydon immediately committed the floating reserve under Captain R.H. Hooper. overboard his ship’s lead-weighted code
He also called on Mad Jack Churchill, who had by now finished most of his task on the books. The books, taken off by Lt. Cmdr.
island of Maaloy. Sword in hand, Major Churchill had led his men across the island, over- de Costabadie, DSC, one of Mountbatten’s
running the four guns of the German shore battery and capturing most of the garrison … staff, turned out to be a gold mine. They
along with a pair of resident “comfort women,” one Norwegian, the other Belgian. contained a wealth of signs, countersigns,
There had been no substantial organized resistance to Churchill’s rapid advance. The and code words, and the radio call-signs of
German commander was captured along with some 15 of his men, and other prisoners every German vessel in northern Europe.
were collected in ones and twos; those men of the island garrison who tried to fight, died At about 10 AM, Oribi and Onslow
quickly. One tried to disarm Peter Young. Young lived on; the German did not. One hor- destroyed the armed tug Rechtenfleth and
ribly wounded German soldier, writhing in agony, was put out of his misery by a British freighter Anita L.J. Russ, both of which
bullet. With German resistance destroyed, one of Churchill’s officers blew up the Ger- sailed down Ulvesund unsuspecting. A lit-
man coastal defense guns and a dump of mines, while a second officer crossed the sound tle after noon, Chiddingfold and Offa sank
to set fire to the Mortense herring oil factory. an armed trawler and the merchantman
Churchill sent Captain Young over to help out the main force in Vaagso. Young and Anhalt near the mouth of the sound.
18 men joined up with fiery Lieutenant Denis O’Flaherty, who was leading his men in German Messerschmitt Me-109 fighters
point-blank fighting through the town. One of Young’s men wrote later: “Our Captain shot down several Blenheims but were
[Young] led the attack here, and although it was slow as we had to go from house to unable to interfere decisively with the
house, we were able to spot and shoot the snipers who were doing the damage…. One British landing. Onslow disintegrated one
of our sergeants received three shots in the back from a sniper who had let us pass. We German aircraft with a single round from
opened fire on this sniper’s window and settled him. We dashed to the next house…. We an ancient 4-inch gun fitted on the
threw in petrol, set fire to it and went on our way, leaving one man to deal with the Hun destroyer more on hope than faith as addi-
when he eventually appeared.” tional antiaircraft armament. Toward the
Durnford-Slater watched Young and Sergeant George Herbert grenading their way end of the action, three Heinkel He-111
down the main street of Vaagso. “They appeared,” the colonel wrote later, “to be enjoy- bombers and two Me-109s appeared over
ing themselves.” the fjord. RAF Beaufighters promptly
Now, reinforced by Hooper’s men of the floating reserve, Durnford-Slater’s force began knocked two of the Heinkels down, and
to clear the rest of the town. The fighting was especially fierce for the building the British the survivors left in haste.
called the Red Warehouse. O’Flaherty, Peter Young, and a soldier named Sherington The Luftwaffe was less strong than it

WWII SPECIAL FORCES 29

 might have been, for around noon a flight then instantly surrendered. Mills advanced toward the German with his rifle raised,
of Blenheims had attacked Herdla airstrip and the sailor cried out “Nein, nein!”
with 250-pound bombs. The RAF lost two “Ja, ja,” replied the sergeant, and squeezed his trigger. Durnford-Slater only mildly rep-
aircraft to flak, but their bombs cratered rimanded his pugnacious NCO. “Yeah, well, Mills, you shouldn’t have done that.” And
the wooden runway so badly that no air- both men went on with the war.
craft could take off or land. The damage to By noon the fighting came to an end with the destruction of a fiercely defended build-
the strip also took Stavanger airfield’s air- ing by Sergeant Ramsey’s deadly mortar, and the firing died away to a spiteful popping of
craft out of the action, for they could not scattered shots. A little before 2 o’clock, as the arctic winter night settled like a shroud over
fly to Vaagso and return without refueling Vaagso and the fjord, Durnford-Slater ordered his men back to the boats. The mission had
at Herdla on the way. been accomplished, and it was high time to go. The wounded were carefully loaded aboard,
Beyond the cleared Red Warehouse in the and before 3 PM the raiding party was back on board and headed for the open sea.
streets of Vaagso, the British went on, On the way to the boats the British commander was profoundly impressed by the
methodically grenading their way from action of a dying German, whom several Commandos were trying vainly to help. As
building to building. Enthusiastic Norwe- Durnford-Slater passed, the German beckoned to him, and the two enemies shook hands
gian civilians carried sacks of grenades in the midst of the smoke and turmoil of war.
from the waterfront to the Commando Behind the British boats, heading back to re-embark, great towering pillars of smoke
attack parties in the flaming streets. Lead- fouled the sky. Around them, falling like snow from the sky, fluttered thousands of sar-
ing from the front, Durnford-Slater nar- dine can labels from a destroyed warehouse. The Navy had sunk 10 vessels, 18,000 tons
rowly escaped death when a German sailor of shipping, and the Commandos had burned or blown up four oil factories and a num-
threw a stick grenade at him. The colonel ber of warehouses, fuel tanks, vehicles, the Seternes lighthouse, the telephone exchanges,
dove for cover, but both soldiers with him the steamship wharf, and the German barracks. The Commandos had used 300 pounds
were badly wounded. of plastic explosive, 150 incendiary bombs, 1,100 pounds of gun cotton, and 150 pounds
The German attempted to surrender at of ammonal. The results were spectacular.
that point, but Sergeant Mills, an enor- The Maaloy coastal defense batteries were destroyed along with the garrison’s only tank,
mous boxer who guarded the colonel, and much of the garrison had been killed, wounded, or captured. Between 110 and 130
was having none of it. While the British Germans were dead, without counting the crews of the eight ships destroyed. Another 98
took prisoners and treated them well, were prisoners of war. Of the Norwegian population, one was killed and five wounded;
even the tolerant British soldier could not 70 more happily returned to England to volunteer for the forces of Free Norway. The two
stomach an enemy who tried to kill and comfort women were held on board Kenya under the guard of two delighted British sailors.

Imperial War Museum

30 WWII SPECIAL FORCES

 of the Barents Sea to the Russian ports of
Murmansk and Archangel. Hitler could not
know that the British had no intention of
indulging in any fanciful scheme that
involved putting ground troops ashore for
a long-term expedition in northern Norway.
As is common with tyrants, what he did not
understand, he feared.
At Hitler’s command the German Navy
moved its major fleet units north into
Norwegian waters: super-battleship Tir-
pitz, battlecruisers Scharnhorst and
Gniesenau, pocket battleship Luetzow,
heavy cruisers Hipper and Prinz Eugen,
all were sent north, and most of them
Imperial War Museum

stayed there. If in their Norwegian bases

they posed a major threat to the convoys
to Russia, they were at least where the
Royal Navy could watch them and stand
ABOVE: British Commandos display a captured Nazi battle ensign. OPPOSITE: A group of German prisoners, led
a better chance of keeping them out of the
by an officer carrying a surrender flag and closely guarded by British Commandos, makes its way to the beach.
North Atlantic sea lanes.
“Jerry floozies,” explained one of the guards. “Yer can’t keep ’em down.” Apparently you In February, Hitler sent Generalfeld-
could, however, for the story goes that at a later time the only sign of the two sailor sen- marschall Siegmund List to Norway to size
tries was their rifles leaning outside the ladies’ cabin door ... but that is another tale. up the defensive situation. List returned
The raiders had lost 20 dead, 53 wounded, and no prisoners at all. Three of the dead, with a series of recommendations, and Col.
including Captain Linge, were Norwegian. The death toll included four mortally Gen. Rainer von Falkenhorst, command-
wounded men who had died after they had been carried back aboard ship. They were ing in Norway, fell heir to an enormous
buried at sea, and with them the gallant Captain Giles, whose devoted men would not influx of resources. He not only received
leave his body behind in the flaming town. Kenya had been hit by a single shell from 12,000 reinforcements he had earlier
one of the shore batteries; Oribi had several minor casualties; and the RAF had lost requested, but he got another 18,000 men
eight aircraft with their crews. organized into “fortress battalions.” Also
On December 30, the Germans staged a military funeral for the 11 dead of the land- forthcoming were new German coastal
ing force whose bodies had been left behind. Four days later, the Germans also formally defense guns to replace the Russian and
interred the remains of Captain Linge, found in the wreckage of the building he had tried Belgian ordnance used before the Vaagso
to storm, and those of a British sailor recovered from the landing craft set afire by the raid. By early 1942, three more divisional
errant British smoke bomb. commands were set up in Norway, and
At first, the Germans were going to burn the house of any Norwegian who had fled more coastal artillery was delivered. By the
to England, but a local Norwegian official intervened and got the burning order rescinded. time of D-day in 1944, the German garri-
For what amounted to negligible losses, the British had struck a startling blow at a con- son in Norway had swollen to an aston-
fident Nazi Germany, a blow to German arrogance and self-assurance far out of pro- ishing size, almost 400,000 men.
portion to the actual losses inflicted on the Germans. Close to the sea, at least, no Ger- When the Allies struck in France, these
man soldier would sleep as well after Vaagso as he had before. And the consequences ran 400,000, with all their weaponry, were far
far deeper than that. For reasons best recognized by his own twisted view of the world, away from the point of decision, unable to
Hitler considered Norway “the zone of destiny in this war.” News of the Vaagso raid both influence in any way the outcome of the
infuriated and alarmed him, and the consequences were enormous. “If the British go critical battle for Normandy.
about things properly,” the Führer said, “they will attack northern Norway at several They might as well have been on the
points. By means of an all-out attack by their fleet and ground troops they will try to dis- moon.
place us there, take Narvik if possible, and thus exert pressure on Sweden and Finland.
This might be of decisive importance for the outcome of the war.” Robert Barr Smith is a frequent contribu-
Now, Sweden was the vital source of iron ore for the Nazi war machine, and Finland tor to WWII History. A professor of law at
was an ally in the war against Russia. Moreover, Finland and northern Norway provided the University of Oklahoma, he is a retired
bases from which to strike at British convoys hauling north through the murderous cold U.S. Army colonel.

WWII SPECIAL FORCES 31

 P R O F I L E S BY RO B E RT BA R R S M I T H

Fighting Jack Churchill survived Regiments of Foot and had shed their blood
for Britain all across the world. Forty-two

a wartime odyssey beyond compare. battalions of Manchesters served in World

War I alone.
Churchill’s younger brother, Tom, also
became a Manchesters officer, and in time

I
t is not recorded what the German commander said when he learned that one of his men would rise to major general, retiring in 1962.
had been spitted by a broad-head arrow. It was May 1940, and the German officer’s unit His younger brother, called Buster, opted for
was attacking toward a village called l’Epinette, near Bethune, France. Five of his soldiers the Royal Navy’s Fleet Air Arm and died for
took cover behind a farmyard wall, sheltered from the fire of British rearguards covering the his country off Malta during the fierce fight-
retreat of the British Expeditionary Force to the English Channel. Without warning, one Ger- ing of Operation Pedestal.
man crumpled, the feathered tip of an arrow sticking out of his chest. From a small farm That Jack Churchill was a free spirit was
building on their flank, rifle-fire tore into the others. obvious from the beginning of his service,
While he may have known that his enemy were soldiers of the Manchester Regiment, the even in an army rich in such men. For exam-
German leader could not have known that they were led by the formidable Captain Jack ple, while serving in Burma before the out-
Churchill. It was Churchill’s arrow that skewered the luckless German, while his men’s rifles break of World War II, he attended a course
accounted for the rest. However deadly, bows and arrows were surely anachronisms in modern in signals at Poona in India. It might appear
war. They were formidable soldiers and always had been, precisely the sort of men Jack odd to some that Churchill took his motor-
Churchill was cut out to lead. cycle all the way from Rangoon to Poona, but
But then, so was the bowman. it did not seem at all remarkable, at least to
John Malcolm Thorpe Fleming Churchill was a professional soldier, son of an old Oxford- Churchill, to return the 1,500 miles from
shire family. Born in Hong Kong, Churchill graduated from the Royal Military Academy at Poona to Calcutta—whence he was to take a
Sandhurst in 1926 and was commissioned in the Manchesters, a storied regiment with battle ship for Rangoon—riding his bike. Along the
honors dating back to the 18th century. The regiment had been raised as the 63rd and 96th way he lost a contest with a large and hostile
Imperial War Museum

32 WWII SPECIAL FORCES

water buffalo but returned to his unit in time play the bagpipes. And because he had rowed
to serve in the Burma Rebellion of 1930-32. on the River Isis, he won a cameo in A Yank
Unusual hazards and difficulties never At Oxford, in which he pulled the bow oar
meant much to Churchill. On the same in the Oxford shell, with movie star Robert
motorcycle he had traveled the 500 miles Taylor at stroke.
through Burma from Maymyo to Rangoon, Meanwhile, he continued his piping and in
a trip substantially complicated by an absence the summer of 1938 placed second in the offi-
of roads. He therefore followed the railroad cers’ class of the piping championships at
line, crossing the dozens of watercourses by Aldershot. It was an extraordinary feat, since
pushing the bike along a rail while he walked he was the only Englishman among the sev-
on the crossties. Everything in life was a chal- enty or so competitors. During these years out
lenge to him. Included in the challenges to of harness, Churchill practiced another skill
which he rose was mastering the bagpipe, a as well—archery. He had first tried it only
peculiar attachment for an Englishman. His after returning to Britain from Burma. His
love affair with the pipes seems to have orig- expertise with the bow got him work in Sabu
inated in Maymyo, where he studied under and The Thief of Baghdad. And with typical
the pipe major of the Cameron Highlanders. ABOVE: Lt. Col. Churchill photographed in 1971. Churchillian determination, he became so
Back in England in 1932, Churchill kept on He died in 1996 at the age of 90. OPPOSITE: good with the bow that he shot for Britain at
Jack Churchill leads his unit, sword in hand,
studying the pipes, but the peacetime army through the pounding surf during a training
the world championships in Oslo in 1939.
had begun to pale. Churchill was one of those exercise in early October 1941. By then, however, the long ugly shadows of
unusual men designed to lead others in com- war were stretching across Europe. As the
bat, and such men are often restless in time on no doubt through frustration—such as German Army smashed into Poland,
of peace. And perhaps, as his biographer piping the orderly officer to the Guard Room Churchill returned to the British Army and
commented, “certain eccentricities—brought at three o’clock of a morning, and studying the Manchester Regiment, and was shipped
the wrong pre-set campaign in preparation off to France. “I was,” he said later, “back in
for his promotion exam, precluded any my red coat; the country having got into a
chance of promotion for the time being and jam in my absence.” He was obviously happy
made the break, after a chat with his com- to be soldiering again.
manding officer, inevitable.” Patrolling a quiet stretch of France during
When Churchill managed to get himself the pre-blitz “sitzkrieg” of late 1939 and early
reprimanded for using a hot water bottle, a 1940 did not suit a man of Churchill’s warlike
distinctly non-military piece of equipment, he temperament. And so, along with a bevy of
circumvented this nicety of military protocol other free spirits, including the fabulous Mike
by substituting a piece of rubber tubing, Calvert, he volunteered for the force assem-
which he filled from the nearest hot water tap. bling to help the Finnish Army, then under
And then there was the day on which he attack by the Soviet Red Army. That expedi-
appeared on parade carrying an umbrella, a tion was canceled before it could leave for Fin-
mortal sin in any army. When asked by the land, and Churchill returned to the Manches-
battalion adjutant what he meant by such ters in time to meet the German juggernaut as
outlandish behavior, Churchill replied it crashed into Holland, Belgium, and France
“because it’s raining, sir,” an answer not cal- in May 1940. By that time, Churchill was sec-
culated to endear him to the frozen soul of ond in command of an infantry company in
any battalion adjutant. the regiment’s second battalion.
Whatever the reason, after 10 years of ser- During the BEF’s fighting retreat, Churchill
vice Churchill resigned his commission and remained aggressive, unwilling to give up a
turned to commercial ventures. A job on the yard of ground while extracting the maxi-
editorial staff of a Nairobi paper did not mum cost from the enemy. He was especially
please him, and so he turned to other tasks. fond of raids and counterattacks, leading
Among other things, he worked as a model small groups of picked soldiers against the
in magazine ads and as a movie extra. He advancing Germans. He presented a strange,
appeared in The Drum, a movie of fighting almost medieval figure at the head of his men,
on the Northwest Frontier in which he could carrying not only his war bow and arrows,

WWII SPECIAL FORCES 33

 but his sword as well. back to England—so was his Manchester craft as it forged in toward the shore, his pipes
As befitted his love of things Scottish, friend—courtesy of the gallantry of the Royal screaming The March of the Cameron Men.
Churchill carried the basket-hilted claymore Navy and a horde of civilian boats and ships, He then waded ashore at the head of his
(technically a claybeg, the true claymore being and it was there he heard of a new organiza- men, sword in hand, and charged ahead, as
an enormous two-handed sword). Later on, tion being formed. It sounded like precisely one account put it, “into the thick smoke,
asked by a general who awarded him a dec- the sort of outfit Churchill was cut out for. uttering warlike cries.” Maaloy and its bat-
oration why he carried a sword in action, Requests for volunteers for this new duty tery fell quickly. Churchill and his men killed
Churchill is said to have answered: “In my were somewhat vague, but they promised or took prisoner the garrison, including two
opinion, sir, any officer who goes into action aggressive service at least, and that was good women who, as one account of the raid gen-
without his sword is improperly dressed.” enough for Churchill. Whatever a commando teelly put it, “might be described as camp fol-
The war-diary of 4th Infantry Brigade, to was, he would be one. lowers.” While heavy fighting continued for
which Churchill’s battalion belonged, com- His training in Scotland produced an unex- a while in Vaagso itself, the landing force
mented on this extraordinary figure. “One of pected dividend for Churchill. There he met would not be troubled by the cannon of
the most reassuring sights of the embarkation Rosamund Denny, the daughter of a Scottish Maaloy. Churchill’s signal to the raid com-
[from Dunkirk] was the sight of Captain ship building baronet. They were married in mander was terse: “Maaloy battery and
Churchill passing down the beach with his Dumbarton in the spring of 1941, a happy island captured. Casualties slight. Demoli-
bows and arrows. His high example and his marriage that would produce two children tions in progress. Churchill.”
great work … were a great help to the 4th and last until Churchill’s death 55 years later. The Commandos had stung the Germans
Infantry Brigade.” Churchill took to Commando operations badly. In time the Norwegian garrisons would
During the retreat, Churchill took com- like a duck to water, including the icy water be heavily reinforced with troops critically
mand of his company when his company of Scottish lochs. He was at home on the steep required elsewhere. The German garrison at
commander was wounded, and it was during hills, in the rain and the mud. He lived and Vaagso had ceased to exist, and the raiders
this fighting that he spitted his hapless Ger- breathed training, leading, driving, setting the took back with them some 100 prisoners and
man soldier with, as the chronicles of Henry example, praising excellence, and damning about 70 volunteers for the free Norwegian
V’s wars would put it, “a cloth-yard shaft.” sloth and carelessness. His ad hoc lectures to forces. The expedition had also sunk about
One of his brother officers, an old friend, saw his soldiers were couched in the plain lan- 15,000 tons of shipping and destroyed not
him about that time chugging across the Flan- guage his men understood and liked, for only docks and warehouses but the vital fish
ders plain on a small motorcycle, his bow tied instance: “There’s nothing worse than sitting oil plants so important to German ammuni-
to the frame, arrows sticking out of one of on your bum bottom doing nothing just tion production and to dietary supplements
the panniers on the back, a German officer’s because the enemy happens to leave you alone for the German armed forces. And German
cap hanging on the headlight. “Ah!” said for a moment while he has a go at the unit on troops near any coastline would not sleep
Churchill, spotting his friend, “Hullo Clark! your flank. Pitch in and support your neigh- quite as well as they had before Vaagso.
Got anything to drink?” bor any way you can.… ” As the raiders prepared to leave Vaagso and
Once Churchill had dismounted, his friend There was also a bit of a downside to Jack Maaloy, a British demolition charge exploded
noticed dried blood smeared across one ear Churchill. On those happy occasions when so close to Churchill that it “blew him up,”
and asked Churchill about the injury. German the Commandos were not in the field at night, in the words of one account. Another story
machine gun, said Churchill casually. His men he was sometimes given to awakening every- says that a demolitions man “thoughtlessly
had shouted at him to run but, he said, he body in the billet hotel at Largs, Scotland, blew down a wall he happened to be leaning
was simply too tired. He won his first Mili- shattering the night with pipe music. No piper against.” Still another version, which sounds
tary Cross during the retreat to the Channel, could possibly understand why some of the eminently Churchillian, relates he was cele-
when he hitched six trucks together to salvage world would rather sleep than listen to mar- brating the raid’s success with a bit of liber-
a disabled British tank; although in the end tial piping however expert, and he was no ated Moselle wine when the charge went off
he could not save the tank, he did rescue a exception. His comrades could only grit their and a chunk of broken bottle slashed into
wounded British officer. teeth and hope that he would soon tire or Churchill’s forehead.
His close call did not seem to impress think of something else quieter to do. Whatever happened, Churchill had another
Churchill in the least. Then and afterward, he The Commandos’ eternal training ended on wound—or at least a sort of wound—to
seemed to be one of those extraordinary men December 27, 1941, with the brilliantly suc- show for his successful leadership at Maaloy.
who thrive on danger and fear it not at all. cessful assault on the German garrison at As he himself joked later, “I had to touch it
Some fellow soldiers are said to have called Vaagso, the Norwegian town on Nord Fiord. up from time to time with Rosamund’s lip-
him “Mad Jack,” and the nickname was not Churchill commanded two companies in the stick to keep the wounded hero story going.”
altogether undeserved. attack, charged with taking out the German He also had his second Military Cross.
Churchill made it to Dunkirk, allegedly by shore batteries on Maaloy Island, which lay in Commanding Number 2 Commando in the
bicycle, his bow and arrows hanging from the the fiord opposite Vaagso town. In vintage autumn of 1943, Churchill won the Distin-
frame. From that terrible beach he was lifted Churchill fashion, he stood in the lead landing guished Service Order for an astonishing

34 WWII SPECIAL FORCES

 personal weapons and a mortar they were
manning in the village. Churchill and his clay-
more took the surrender of ten men in a
bunch around the mortar. He and his NCO
then marched the whole lot back into the
British lines.
As Churchill himself described the event, it
all sounded rather routine: “I always bring
my prisoners back with their weapons; it
weighs them down. I just took their rifle bolts
out and put them in a sack, which one of the
prisoners carried. [They] also carried the mor-
tar and all the bombs they could carry and
also pulled a farm cart with five wounded in
it….I maintain that, as long as you tell a Ger-
man loudly and clearly what to do, if you are
senior to him he will cry ‘Jawohl’ and get on
with it enthusiastically and efficiently what-
ever the … situation. That’s why they make
such marvelous soldiers...”
Churchill’s next assignment took him to the
Adriatic, where British units and Tito’s
Churchill inspects the wreckage of a German field gun following action against elements of the Yugoslav partisan forces struck at the Ger-
Wehrmacht in France. man garrisons along the Dalmatian coast. In
January 1944, Churchill, leading No. 2 Com-
exploit during the Salerno landings. Ashore this fierce shouting seemed to come from all mando, about 1,000 Yugoslav partisans, and
in command of No. 2 Commando (also pre- directions in the blackness of the night. The some antiaircraft and machine gun attach-
sent were some other Churchills—his brother attack carried all its objectives and bagged ments became commandant of the island of
Tom and Captain Randolph, son of the Prime 136 prisoners. Vis, the last Dalmation island not in German
Minister), Churchill led his men in heavy and Churchill himself was far in front of his hands. From Vis, the campaign against the
confused fighting around the town of Marina. troopers. Sword in hand, accompanied only German-held Adriatic islands was carried on
Their mission was to destroy German ability by a corporal named Ruffell, he advanced at sea by the Royal Air Force and by small
to place artillery fire on the western half of into the town itself. Undiscovered by the boats of the Royal Navy. Ever ready for raids
the Bay of Salerno. Churchill directed the final enemy, he and Ruffell heard German soldiers and excursions, Churchill sent some of his
counterattack, which broke the last German digging in all around them in the gloom. The Commandos along with the Navy as board-
attempt to destroy the Commando beach- glow of a cigarette in the darkness told them ing parties, to swarm over the side of any ship
head. the location of a German sentry post. What carrying supplies to the enemy.
During the ferocious Salerno fighting, followed, even Churchill later admitted, was Small groups of Commandos also landed
Number 2 Commando found itself fighting “a bit Errol Flynn-ish.” by night to harass the German garrisons on
as line infantry, as did its American counter- The first German sentry post, manned by other Dalmatian islands. The commander of
parts, the Rangers, in a role for which neither two men, was taken in silence. Churchill, one such party, Lieutenant B.J. Barton, discov-
Commandos nor Rangers were designed. his sword blade gleaming in the night, ered that the German commandant on the
Casualties were heavy, but the Commandos appeared like a demon from the darkness, island of Brac was much given to mistreatment
beat back every German attack. For ordered “Haende hoch!” and got results. of the island population. Barton, disguised as
Churchill, the high point of the fighting was He gave one German prisoner to Ruffell, a Yugoslav shepherd, hid his Sten gun in pieces
the night attack on a town called Piegoletti then slipped his revolver lanyard around the inside a load of wood on a donkey, slipped
(sometimes Piegolelli). He organized his men second sentry’s neck and led him off to into the German headquarters village, erased
into six parallel columns and, since the heavy make the rounds of the other guards. Each the commandant, and got away clean.
undergrowth ruled out any chance of a silent post, lulled into a sense of security by the A series of successful raids by Commandos
advance, sent them charging through the voice of their captive comrade, surrendered and partisans hurt the Germans, and in May
darkness shouting “commando!” The yelling to this fearsome apparition with the fero- 1944, a more ambitious attack by British and
not only minimized the risk of Commandos cious mustache and the naked sword. Yugoslav personnel was planned on the Ger-
shooting each other in the gloom, but also Altogether, Churchill and Corporal Ruffell man-held Yugoslav island of Brac. It was here
confused the German defenders, to whom collected 42 prisoners, complete with their that Jack Churchill’s amazing luck at last ran

WWII SPECIAL FORCES 35

 out. The operation required attacks on three under Hitler’s foul “commando order” ance he was indeed a British colonel. As he
separate hilltop positions, dug in, mutually through the chivalry of one Captain Thuener later told his old friend and biographer, Rex
supporting, protected by wire and mines, and of the Wehrmacht. “You are a soldier, as I King-Clark, “I couldn’t walk very well and
covered by artillery. Several Allied forces am,” the captain told Churchill. “I refuse to was so out of breath I could scarcely talk, but
would have to work in cooperation. One of allow these civilian butchers to deal with you. I still managed a credible Sandhurst salute,
these, a reinforced Commando unit plus a I shall say nothing of having received this which may have done the trick.”
large contingent of partisans, Jack Churchill order.” After the war, Churchill was able to Churchill was free but frustrated. The Euro-
would lead himself. personally thank Thuener for his decency and pean war was almost over, and he had missed
While partisan attacks on the main German to help him stay out of the merciless hands of much of it, including the chance for further
position got nowhere, 43 (Royal Marine) the Russians. promotion and perhaps the opportunity to
Commando went to the attack on the vital Churchill was flown to Sarajevo and then lead a Commando brigade. Nevertheless,
hill called Point 622. Pushing ahead in clear on to Berlin, there apparently being some hope sprang eternal. “However,” he said to
moonlight through wire and minefields, 43 thought that he was a relative of Winston friends, “there are still the Nips, aren’t there?”
Commando carried the hilltop but was forced Churchill. There is also a story that on leaving There were. And so Churchill was off to
to fall back with heavy casualties. Churchill the aircraft, he left behind a burning match Burma, where the largest land war against
now sent 40 Commando—also Royal or candle in a pile of paper, producing a fire Japan was still raging. Here, too, however,
Marines—in against the hill, and led them and considerable confusion. During the he met frustration, for by the time he reached
himself, playing the pipes. The leading troop inquiry that followed, Churchill innocently India, Hiroshima and Nagasaki had disap-
went in yelling, shooting from the hip, and told a furious Luftwaffe officer that the army peared in mushroom clouds, and the war
overran the German positions on 622. officer escorting Churchill had been smoking abruptly ended. For a warrior like Churchill,
But between casualties on the way up the and reading the paper on board the aircraft. the end of the fighting was bittersweet. “You
hill and more casualties from very heavy Ger- Churchill spent some time in solitary con- know,” he said to a friend only half joking,
man fire on the top, Churchill quickly found finement, and in time he ended up in Sach- “if it hadn’t been for those damned Yanks
himself isolated with only a handful of senhausen concentration camp. That infa- we could have kept the war going for another
defenders around him. There were only six mous prison was only one more challenge to 10 years.”
Commandos on the hilltop, and three of those Churchill, however, and in September 1944, The abrupt departure of Japan from the war
were wounded, two of them very badly. “I he and an RAF officer crawled under the wire was a distinct disappointment to Churchill,
was distressed,” said Churchill with memo- through an abandoned drain and set out to especially since he had risen to command of a
rable understatement, “to find that everyone walk to the Baltic coast. Their luck was not Commando brigade in the Far East. Still, there
was armed with revolvers except myself, who in, however, and they were recaptured near were other brushfire wars still smoldering, and
had an American carbine.” the coastal city of Rostock, only a few miles in November 1945, he reported home from
Still, the little party fought on until the from the sea. In time, they were moved to a Hong Kong, “As the Nips have double-
revolver ammunition was gone and Churchill camp at Niederdorf, Austria. crossed me by packing up, I’m about to join
was down to a single magazine for his car- Here, Churchill watched for another oppor- the team v the Indonesians,” who were by
bine. A German mortar round killed three of tunity to escape, keeping a small rusty can and then casting covetous eyes on Sarawak, Bor-
his little party and wounded still another, some onions hidden in his jacket in case a sud- neo, and Brunei. British and Commonwealth
leaving Churchill as the only unwounded den opportunity should present itself. On an troops killed or expelled the invaders, but Jack
defender on the hilltop. It was the end. April night in 1945, it did. The chance came missed this little war as well.
Churchill turned to his pipes, playing “Will when the camp’s lighting system failed. By the next year, he had transferred to the
ye no come back again” until German Churchill seized the moment and walked Seaforth Highlanders and was looking for-
grenades burst in his position and he was away from a work detail, disappearing into ward to jump school, where, at 40, he qualified
stunned by a fragment from one of them. He the darkness and heading for the Alps and the as a paratrooper. He took a little time off in
regained consciousness to discover German Italian frontier. Liberating vegetables from 1946, this time for the movies. Twentieth Cen-
soldiers “prodding us, apparently to discover Austrian gardens and cooking them in his tin tury Fox was making Ivanhoe with Churchill’s
who was alive.” can, he walked steadily south. Keeping off the old rowing companion Robert Taylor and
Long after the end of the war, Churchill roads, he crossed the Brenner Pass into Italy wanted him to appear as an archer, firing from
was pleased to hear that the German account and headed for Verona, some 150 miles away. the wall of Warwick Castle. Churchill took the
of the fighting for the hill described his lonely On the eighth day of his escape, hobbling assignment, flown off to the job in an aircraft
piping as “the doleful sound of an unknown along on a sprained ankle, Churchill caught provided by the movie company.
musical instrument.” sight of a column of armored vehicles. To his Though Churchill might have thought that
Churchill would play his pipes one more delight, their hulls carried the unmistakable he was through with war, he was not. After
time, at the funeral of 14 Commandos who white star of the United States Army. He man- World War II ended, he qualified as a para-
died on the slopes of Hill 622. He and his sur- aged to flag down one vehicle and persuade chutist, transferred to the Seaforth High-
viving men escaped killing by the Gestapo the crew that in spite of his scruffy appear- landers, and later ended up in Palestine as sec-

36 WWII SPECIAL FORCES

Imperial War Museum

he had only 12 men.

After a discussion with one of the doctors,
as Churchill stood in the open, his offer was
refused. “Thank you very much but we do
not want your help. The Haganah (the Jewish
defense force) will save us.” Churchill walked
down the convoy repeating his offer, but was
uniformly refused. By now one of Churchill’s
men had been mortally wounded, and he ran
back to his vehicles and sent them out of
harm’s way. Returning to Tony’s Post, he sup-
ported the Jewish convoy with small arms fire
until Arab gasoline bombs and rifle fire
destroyed the Jewish vehicles and most of
their passengers. The Haganah had not
arrived to save them after all, and 77 Jews
died in the narrow street.
Later, Churchill engineered the evacuation
of some 700 Jews—patients, staff, and stu-
dents—from the university and hospital atop
Jerusalem’s Mount Scopus. Churchill made
an early run up Scopus in his jeep accompa-
nied by Eli Davis, the deputy medical director
Lt. Col. Churchill speaks during a landing excercise for a commando unit in Gibraltar. of the hospital.
Here is how Davis later told the story:
ond-in-command of 1st Battalion, the High- armed with a machine gun. Leaving his tiny “Major Churchill told me there was slight
land Light Infantry. And it was there, in the convoy and swinging a walking stick, he chance of getting through … because the
spring of 1948, just before the end of the walked calmly into the open and down the Arabs saw the British meant business. He
British mandate over that troubled land, that road to the convoy. agreed to make the trip up to Scopus and
he again risked his life for other people. Marching into the teeth of the battle invited me along. The Major took a Jeep and
Those were dangerous days, with much around the convoy, he must have been quite his driver. I sat while he stood in the Jeep
blood—Jewish, Arab and British—shed by a sight. Since he had just come from a battal- twirling his stick. He looked as though he
Arab terrorists and by Jewish radicals, ion parade, he was resplendent in full dress: were on parade in London...”
notably the so-called Stern Gang. On a day kilt, glengarry bonnet, red-and-white diced Jack Churchill never changed, never lost his
in May a Jewish medical convoy—ambu- stockings, Sam Browne belt, and white spats. flair for the unusual, not to say the flamboyant.
lances, trucks, and buses—was ambushed by And as usual he later made light of this extra- In his later years, passengers on a London com-
Arabs on a narrow street in Jerusalem, not ordinary cold courage: “I grinned like mad muter train were often startled by seeing an
far from a small HLI detachment at a place from side to side,” he said afterward, “as peo- older male passenger rise, open a window, and
called Tony’s Post. Churchill rushed to the site ple are less likely to shoot at you if you smile hurl his briefcase out into the night. The pas-
in a Dingo, a small armored car. This one had at them … [that] outfit in the middle of the senger would then leave the car and wait by
its turret removed for repair, but it gave him battle, together with my grinning at them, the train’s door until it stopped at the next sta-
a semblance of protection at least. may have made the Arabs laugh because most tion. It was Churchill, of course, enjoying his
Accurately assessing the potential for mass of them have a sense of humor. Anyway, they little gesture and reasonably sure that his fellow
murder by the Arab terrorists, he radioed for didn’t shoot me!” passengers could not know he had thrown the
two Staghounds, heavy cannon-armed Churchill spoke to the occupants of one bus case into the garden of his house. It saved him
armored cars, and these were diverted from and offered to drive his big armored personnel carrying it home from the station.
convoy protection and dispatched to him. It carrier down to the convoy and make as many In later years, Churchill served as an
would take time for the armored cars to trips as necessary to evacuate the patients and instructor at the land-air warfare school in
reach him, however, and while they were on their medical personnel. He warned those at Australia, where he became a passionate
their way, Churchill acted. He drove down the convoy that there might be casualties when devotee of the surfboard. Back in England,
to the beleaguered convoy in a large they moved to the British vehicle, and one of he was the first man to ride the Severn
armored personnel carrier covered by the the Jews asked whether he would not first drive River’s five-foot tidal bore and designed his
only escort available, an open-topped Bren off the Arabs. He patiently explained that he own board. He finally retired from the
gun carrier and a small police armored car could not; there were hundreds of Arabs and Continued on page 98

WWII SPECIAL FORCES 37

 Every Man

A HERO

German shells churn the waters of the harbor

and searchlights play across the night sky as the
old destroyer HMS Campbeltown barrels toward
the huge Normandie dock at the French seaport
of St. Nazaire. The only lock large enough on the
Atlantic coast to accommodate the Nazi super
battleship Tirpitz had to be destroyed.

38 WWII SPECIAL FORCES

 B
ritain badly needed a victory.
As if to underline Britain’s diffi-
cult fortunes, on May 21, 1941,
the German battleship Bismarck and
heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen dealt the island
kingdom a serious blow by sinking the
British Commandos paid battlecruiser HMS Hood and severely
damaging the new battleship HMS Prince
a heavy price to knock out of Wales during a furious engagement in
a key German installation. the Denmark Strait.
While the naval clash had been a Ger-
man victory, it left Bismarck badly dam-
BY FLINT WHITLOCK aged and caused her captain, Kapitän zur
See Ernst Lindemann, to sail for St.
Nazaire, France, and the repair docks
there.
The Atlantic port of St. Nazaire is per-
haps best remembered for its heavily
defended submarine pens, but it was most
famous before the war as having the
world’s largest dry dock and repair facil-
ities. In fact, its largest dock was known
as the Normandie Dock because that is
where the world’s largest passenger liner,
the Normandie, docked between cruises.
But Bismarck never arrived at St.
Nazaire. Launched on February 14,
1939, for the anticipated purpose of con-
trolling the seas, the 50,000-ton battle-
ship was attacked on the morning of May
27, 1941, by warplanes from the British
aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal. Aerial
torpedoes jammed her rudder and left her
vulnerable to a pummeling by the British
fleet that included the battleships HMS
Rodney and King George V, plus numer-
ous destroyers and cruisers.
By 10 AM, Bismarck’s guns had gone
silent and she slipped beneath the waves
in 15,700 feet of water about 300 nauti-
cal miles west of Ushant, France. Of Bis-
marck’s crew of 2,200, a total of 1,995
perished.
Worried that Bismarck’s larger and
even more powerful sister ship, Tirpitz,
which was holed up in a Norwegian
fjord, might someday reach St. Nazaire
and use that port as a base for raiding
Atlantic shipping, the British Admiralty,
upon Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s
urging, decided that the facilities at St.
Nazaire must be put out of action. If the

WWII SPECIAL FORCES 39

 port’s repair facilities could be destroyed steadfast courage and nerves of the men who would be asked to carry it out.
or seriously damaged, the Admiralty It was decided to use an old British destroyer, modify it to look like a German war-
believed that Tirpitz would never venture ship, and pack it with commandos and explosives with a time-delay fuse, then ram
out of her protective fjord. the dry dock’s outer gates during the dead of night. The commandos would pour out
Churchill was foresquare behind such an of the ship and onto the docks to gun down German sentries and blow up the vital
action. He knew he needed a major, spec- port facilities.
tacular victory to revive his nation’s flag- This would be timed with an RAF raid to further create havoc and confuse the defend-
ging spirits, and so he decided to rescind ers. Before the Germans knew what hit them, the commandos, their mission accom-
his previously announced ban on “silly plished, would be picked up by motor launches and returned to safety. Later, when the
fiascos” and mount a daring commando Germans would be going over the rammed ship and inspecting the damage to the lock,
raid against one of the toughest targets in the time-delay fuse would detonate the explosives for maximum impact and casualties.
all of Nazi-controlled Europe: St. Nazaire’s As author Ford says, “The plan was full of imponderables and was hazardous in the
heavily defended Normandie Dock. extreme.”
At first, it was thought that an air raid The scheme was initially met by the Admiralty with skepticism and negativity, but
by the Royal Air Force (RAF) could ren- Mountbatten and his men were undeterred; they reworked the details and re-presented
der the port inoperable, but that plan was the plan, dubbed Operation Chariot. On March 3, Chariot was approved.
scrapped. Not only was St. Nazaire pro- An obsolete British destroyer, HMS Campbeltown (which was formerly the USS
tected by a formidable ring of antiaircraft Buchanan, given to the British in the Lend-Lease program) was selected to star in this
weapons that had made a handful of pre- drama.
vious raids ineffective, but a large civilian Commander Robert E.D. “Red” Ryder, 34, was put in charge of the Royal Navy’s role
population lived in the nearby town and in the operation. Ryder had already had a long naval career with service in submarines,
the British were reluctant to risk their an arctic exploration, and a stint as the commander of a frigate. It would be his job to
lives in a raid that might prove to be less transport the Campbeltown and accompanying flotilla of motor launches, similar in
than precise. Another way would have to size and appearance to American PT boats, the 450 miles to St. Nazaire and to with-
be found. draw any surviving commandos back to Britain, all the while fighting off the expected
A sea-borne commando raid was then German counterattack.
considered, but it, too, was seen as a high- On March 10, 1942, Campbeltown sailed for Devonport to be superficially disguised
risk operation––this time for the attackers. as an enemy warship. Two of her four funnels were removed, and the remaining two
As Ken Ford, author of a history of the St. were shortened and cut at an angle to resemble a German Möwe-class destroyer. Extra
Nazaire raid writes, the port “is located armor plating and armament was added in the event the Germans “smelled a rat” and
five miles up the treacherous estuary of the took the ship under fire. Commanding the fake German ship would be a seasoned British
River Loire and is only approachable from officer, Lieutenant Commander Stephen H. “Sam” Beattie.
the sea by a single narrow channel, which, To provide enough explosive power to destroy the target, 24 Mark VII depth charges,
in 1942, was covered by several batteries each filled with 400 pounds of explosives, were loaded into a steel tank installed in the
of coast defense guns.” ship’s forward compartments, then sealed behind a wall of concrete. Pencil fuses with
But, in January 1942, Churchill gave an eight-hour delay were inserted into the charges and would be primed by naval Lieu-
Lord Louis Mountbatten, the British Chief tenant Nigel Tibbits just before the ship rammed the lock. Once activated, the acid in
of Combined Operations, the task of the fuses would dissolve the copper restraining wire, causing the detonators to explode
devising a plan to destroy the facilities. The the depth charges.
plan that Mountbatten and his team con- Meanwhile, a contingent of British commandos would undergo intense training for
ceived was brilliant but would rely on the the mission.

All this careful planning and training rested on several wildly

optimistic assumptions: that enemy opposition would be light or
nonexistent; that the objectives would be identical or similar to the
facilities on which the commandos had been practicing; and that,
once the firing started, everything would go as rehearsed.
40 WWII SPECIAL FORCES
© TopFoto / The Image Works

Nine months after the St. Nazaire raid, an aerial reconnaissance plane snapped this photo of the Normandie of the port.
Dock at St. Nazaire. The Germans have dammed the dock’s lock gate, and the wreck of the HMS Campbeltown In addition to honing their combat skills
still lies inside. and becoming demolitions experts, the
In early 1942, there existed the Special Service Brigade made up of a dozen 500-man commandos spent untold time going over
commando units, all volunteers. From this group of about 6,000 men, more than 200 a detailed model of the port and continu-
of the toughest were chosen for Operation Chariot. ally rehearsing their assignments. No detail
Lieutenant Colonel Augustus Charles Newman, head of Number 2 Commando, was was left to chance, for the raid relied on
selected to command the ground forces. Newman was a building contractor by profes- split-second timing; if one element was
sion and had served in the Essex Regiment of the Territorial Army before the war. At delayed or failed, the entire mission would
38, he was considerably older than most of his subordinates, but his leadership ability be placed in jeopardy.
and the way he related to his men meant that he was popular and well respected. Here is how the whole scenario was sup-
Of primary importance was training in demolition procedures specifically tailored for posed to come together: The Campbel-
the St. Nazaire operation. An expert in dockyard demolition, Bill Pritchard, a captain town, in its disguise as a German ship, and
in the Royal Engineers, was recruited as the instructor. Classes were carried out at the a flotilla of 18 motor launches, motor gun
Cardiff (Wales) and Southhampton docks on equipment similar to what the comman- boats, and motor torpedo boats filled with
dos were likely to encounter. commandos, would be accompanied to St.
Although the teams did not use actual demolitions or live ammunition, their training Nazaire by two Royal Navy destroyers,
was highly realistic. After learning as much as possible about the technical workings of Tynedale and Atherstone. At about mid-
locks, pumps, cranes, electrical equipment, and power stations, they were required to night of D-Day, in late March, the Royal
correctly place their dummy charges in the dark and often with only a few of their mates Air Force, flying from British bases, would
present––the others being considered casualties. bomb the port, diverting the defenders’
While half the force was being turned into explosives experts, the other half under- attention and causing them to seek shelter.
went strenuous training in the techniques of nighttime street fighting; they would act Simultaneously, the Campbeltown would
as the protection squads for the demo men and aid in the force fighting its way out enter the mouth of the Loire and swiftly

WWII SPECIAL FORCES 41

 move the six miles toward the port. lighthouse, then spread south along the East Jetty and onto the docks, where it would
To assure that they could find the Loire knock out the power station and destroy the gun positions, lock gates, swing bridges,
in the dark, a submerged British subma- and lifting bridges that led into the submarine basin.
rine, Sturgeon, would position itself there The second group of five teams would land at the Old Entrance, fan out north
as a navigational beacon. and south, destroying swing bridges, lifting bridges, flak towers, and gun posi-
As the flotilla reached the river’s entrance, tions as they went.
the two destroyers would drop off and the The third group, made up of seven commando assault teams and two protection
force would adopt battle formation, with squads from the Campbeltown, under Newman’s second in command, Major Bill Cop-
gunboat MGB-314 and its radar and echo land, would spread out across the northeast section of the dockyard and destroy the
sounder in the lead, guiding the force across Library of Congress © TopFoto / The Image Works pumping house, both the
the mudflats and shallows. northern and southern wind-
Flanking MGB-314 would be the motor ing sheds, and the northern
torpedo boats ML-160 and ML-270, and southern caissons.
ready to fire their torpedoes at any vessel One of the seven Campbel-
threatening the force. After that would town teams, under Captain
come Campbeltown, trailed by two Donald W. Roy, would head
columns of motor launches on either side west and secure the ren-
and to the rear. The port column would dezvous site at the Old
land its commandos at a lighthouse- Entrance/Old Mole, where
crowned stone pier called the Old Mole, Colonel Newman, brought
where a set of stone steps led down to the to shore by MGB-314,
water; the starboard column would head Bundesarchiv Bild would set up his temporary
for the Old Entrance nearby. headquarters. Roy’s men
Three more motor launches, MTB-74, were to seize a bridge by the
ML-446, and ML-298, would cover the Old Entrance and keep it
rear of the column. MTB-74 would also open for the rest of the
keep station at the rear and, if ordered, raiders as they made their
would torpedo the small lock at the Old way back to the evacuation
Entrance that led into the submarine basin. site, then blow it so that the
Two pillboxes located near the Old Germans could not follow.
Mole would be attacked by teams of com- Another of the Campbel-
mandos landed by six boats: ML-192, town teams, led by Lieu-
ML-306, ML-307, ML-443, ML-447, and tenant Christopher Smalley,
ML-457. Most of the rest of the motor ABOVE: A British commando lies dead in the morning sun after the St. would destroy the southern
launches would then patrol up the Loire Nazaire raid, mute testimony to the bitterness of the fight during the winding shed which con-
to engage shore targets and reduce the predawn darkness. TOP LEFT: Able Seaman William Alfred Savage was trolled the mechanism that
enemy’s ability to concentrate his fire on awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross for heroism during the raid on opened and closed the south-
the commandos. St. Nazaire. Savage fired the deck gun aboard his small boat until he ern lock gates, while Lieu-
was killed by enemy fire. TOP RIGHT: Captain Bill Pritchard served as a
While the commandos were coming dockyard demolition expert for the St. Nazaire raid and was responsi-
tenant Stuart Chant and his
ashore to wreak havoc and confusion, ble for setting explosive charges. team would enter the pump-
the raid’s major act would take place. ing house and blow up the
The Campbeltown would dash at full impeller pumps 40 feet below ground. Such an action would make it impossible to drain
speed toward the southern lock gate of water from the dry dock.
the Normandie Dock and ram the steel Three other teams, under the command of Lieutenants Corran Purdon, Robert J.G.
structure. The time fuse would set off the Burtinshaw, and Gerard Brett, also coming from the Campbeltown, had the farthest to
hidden cache of 9,600 pounds of explo- travel. After exiting the ship, they would move along the dock to the northern winding
sive hours later. shed and caisson where they would destroy them and thus render the northern lock
Colonel Newman’s commandos were gates inoperable.
organized into three groups with three sep- Another team, under Lieutenant John Roderick, was assigned to knock out three gun
arate missions. The first group of six teams positions between the Normandie Dock and the river, then set fire to the underground
would disembark from its motor launches fuel storage tanks.
on the north side of the Old Mole jetty and Once all the operations had been carried out, all the teams were to reassemble at the

42 WWII SPECIAL FORCES

Mary Evans Picture Library / The Image Works

In this charcoal sketch of the St. Nazaire raid, the destroyer HMS Campbeltown has just rammed the Nor- man observers were found, but the crews
mandie Dock and British commandos are shown sprinting from the dock area to attack German installations. of two of the trawlers were taken aboard
Old Entrance/Old Mole for evacuation. the destroyers, which then proceeded to
Protecting the Campbeltown commandos with suppressing fire from their deck guns sink the unarmed boats.
against shore targets would be three of the motor launches, ML-160, ML-270, and At 10 PM that night, the lead boat of the
MGB-314. The motor launches would then pull back and wait in the river until the flotilla spotted the submarine Sturgeon’s
demolition tasks had been completed before moving in to shore to take on the com- light, and Ryder and Newman knew they
mandos and the crew of Campbeltown. were exactly in the right spot. All the ves-
The fact that all of these actions were to be undertaken right in the midst of the well- sels cut their engines and began bobbing
armed German garrison made Operation Chariot not only dangerous and daring in the off the coast of France, waiting for the
extreme, but suicidal as well. opening act to begin.
All this careful planning and training rested on several wildly optimistic assumptions: At about midnight, the Germans at St.
that enemy opposition would be light or nonexistent; that the objectives would be iden- Nazaire heard the low rumbling of a large
tical or similar to the facilities on which the commandos had been practicing; and that, formation of bombers growing ever
once the firing started, everything would go as rehearsed. louder. The air raid alarm was sounded.
With training completed, the Operation Chariot force of three destroyers and 18 Soon came the whistling noise of bombs
motor launches left Falmouth Harbour, near England’s southwest tip, at 2 PM on March plunging downward, and the night lit up
26, 1942, for the open-ocean voyage of over 400 miles. with the flashes of explosions.
The ships and boats sailed a diversionary course to make any enemy ship or aircraft Below decks aboard the Campbeltown,
believe the group might be headed to Gibraltar or perhaps La Rochelle, farther south with its German Navy ensign fluttering at
of St. Nazaire. the aft end, Lieutenant Tibbitts activated the
A U-boat, the U-593, did indeed spot the group at 7 AM on March 27 and radioed its time-delay fuse that was connected to the
position to headquarters but made no effort to intercept it. The flotilla, however, fired 9,600 pounds of explosives, and the flotilla
at the sub and caused it to submerge, then dropped depth charges on it. began moving cautiously forward into the
Shortly thereafter, a group of French fishing boats was encountered. Commander Loire. Tension was building. The destroyer
Ryder sent Atherstone and Tynedale to investigate, for it was known that the Germans and accompanying motor launches slowly
sometimes placed observers on French fishing vessels to spy on Allied shipping. No Ger- passed the radar station at Le Croisic with-

WWII SPECIAL FORCES 43

 © TopFoto / The Image Works

Heavily damaged, the old destroyer HMS Campbel- mander of the 22nd Naval Flak Brigade, became suspicious of the RAF’s odd bomb-
town lies wedged into the Normandie Dock at St. ing pattern. Instead of simply dropping their bombs and heading for home, the planes
Nazaire. Hours after the raid ended, the explosives were circling the port and dropping one bomb at a time. Thinking that perhaps the
packed into the old destroyer detonated and
severely damaged the dock.
bombing signaled the start of a parachute assault, he ordered the gun crews to be on
alert for an airborne raid.
out drawing any reaction. An hour later, a searchlight scanned the water close to the flotilla, but then, just as
It was now 30 minutes past midnight on quickly, was extinguished. No shots were fired at the seaborne raiders.
May 28, and luck was riding with the But Mecke was on the alert. At 1:20 AM, after receiving reports of a mysterious group
raiders. The flotilla quietly passed the half- of approaching vessels that other commands had dismissed as improbable, he sent a mes-
submerged wreck of the British Cunard sage to all units in the St. Nazaire area to be on the lookout for a landing party.
ocean liner RMS Lancastria, sunk by the Now a dozen or more searchlights that lined the banks of the river were switched on
Luftwaffe on June 17, 1940. More than and played across the water. A few shots were fired across the Campbeltown’s bow, and
1,730 people, British nationals and French a signal light on shore blinked out a challenge. Ready for this, the signalman aboard the
troops, two weeks after the Dunkirk evac- ship blinkered back in German, “Wait,” then gave the call sign of a real German
uation, lost their lives on the Lancastria, destroyer. This was followed by a fake message saying that the ship was damaged and
making it Britain’s worst maritime disaster requested permission to proceed “without delay.” The Germans, evidently taking the
of all time. bait, ceased firing and let the ship pass.
Onward the raiding party went, deeper A Royal Navy lieutenant named Frank Arkle, aboard Sub-Lieutenant Mark Rodier’s
and deeper into the river’s mouth, until ML-177, recalled, “At this stage, the [Campbeltown] was flying the German ensign and
they were just two miles from their desti- we were firmly ordered that we must not open fire at all until the ensign was removed
nation. Meanwhile, the German antiair- and we could all fly our white [British Royal Navy] ensigns again.”
craft guns had stopped firing at the planes But only a few minutes went by before the Germans, realizing that they had been
and the searchlights had been switched duped, began bombarding the vessels with fury. The Campbeltown’s signalman flashed
off after Karl-Conrad Mecke, the com- out: “You are firing on friendly ships,” and the guns went silent again, but only briefly.

44 WWII SPECIAL FORCES

 Once more the coastal defense artillery, along with machine guns and rifles, started [John] Donaldson had charge of one of
blazing away, with tracers streaking through the night sky and tall spouts of water jet- them when he was killed. However, I man-
ting into the air from the impact of the shells and bullets. aged to find a length of cable down which
Now the commandos and naval personnel began firing back, the British ensigns we clambered onto the dock gate, covering
appeared, and the captain of Campbeltown ordered full speed ahead. Dead ahead of her, our actions as best we could.
a few hundred yards away, was the lock gate to the dry dock. “There was and had been a hell of a lot
At the outer harbor, a German guardship began pumping munitions at the passing of firing going on that it was difficult to
flotilla when MTB-314, with Ryder and Newman aboard, flashed by and cut loose with pinpoint where it was coming from. I can-
her Oerlikon deck guns at near point-blank range. The German ship went quiet except not remember seeing gunfire coming from
for the sounds of moaning from her wounded and dying crew members. the first gun emplacement. I went forward
Commando Lieutenant John Roderick, aboard Campbeltown, remembered, “The with Corporal Howarth and an explosive
run-in was desperately exciting––the suspense over the haggling about who or what we of some sort passed over my head and
were, the opening fire from the banks, the silence, and then the final opening up of all wounded him in the leg. We finished off
the guns. One was filled with admiration for the [Campbeltown’s] gun crews who suf- the crew and moved on with [Lieutenant]
fered severe casualties. Lying behind them, we were not entirely inactive as our Bren guns John Stutchbury and his section covering
were fitted for this phase, with large pans of ammunition which we fired at as many pos- fire in turn.
sible targets as we could make out.” “We next had to clear the ground lead-
Lieutenant Arkle on ML-177 added, “There were tracer bullets going in every direc- ing to and over the oil storage tanks. There
tion, a very colourful sight because the British tracers were all orange in colour and the was a number of Nissan huts into which
Germans were all a blue green. Very pretty! The shells weren’t quite so pretty when they we threw grenades with the most terrific
started to fly around the place! Anyway, this went on for some time and the destroyer bangs, and in another concrete building we
went to full speed ahead, aiming for the dock gates, but the port line of motor launches killed a further batch of the enemy. There
started turning in towards their landing spot which was mainly Old Mole on the dock- is no doubt we killed two more. There
side, and they started to get into some serious fire, and fire broke out on board on sev- was, I believe, a light gun of some sort at
eral of them, unfortunately. the top but I did not go up and see; by this
“We were in the starboard line and when the destroyer hit the dock gates, which it time we were advancing round the sea-
did very accurately, we passed them to starboard, did a big circle round, and passed them ward side of the oil tanks. John Stutchbury
under their stern. It was our duty to go into the Old Entrance to the dock where we went was being given covering fire as he went
alongside and deposited our commandos.” forward to engage a third group of the
The Campbeltown became the focus of nearly every German gun surrounding the port, enemy. We had quite a large area to cover
and her hull, deck, and superstructure were hit by the combined weaponry. Still, she did and with our reduced numbers it was a
not slow down or falter as her skipper, Lieutenant Commander Sam Beattie, with dead full-time job keeping our eyes open to all
and wounded crew members all around him, plunged forward at 20 knots, heedless of the around us.”
danger. Ahead of him, MTB-314 was still firing back at the port’s defenders until, at the While the Campbeltown had been roar-
last moment, it veered off to the right, giving Beattie a clear run at the lock gates. ing, throttles wide open, for the southern
As author Ford writes, “Suddenly Campbeltown hit the antitorpedo net that pro- lock gate, six motor launches, ML-156,
tected the lock, but the rush of over 1,000 tons of warship tore through the steel mesh ML-177, ML-192, ML-262, ML-267, and
and the destroyer leapt forward unchecked. Seconds later, with a grinding low groan, ML-268, had peeled off from the forma-
the ship struck the center of the massive steel caisson and shuddered to a halt. It was tion and were heading at full speed toward
0134 hours; Campbeltown had reached her target just four minutes late.” the Old Entrance to land their comman-
The destroyer smashed into the steel lock gate with such force that 35 feet of the dos. Confusion, chaos, and disaster would
Campbeltown’s bow was crumpled and the entire ship was stuck in an upward tilt of soon overtake the landing parties.
some 15 degrees. The ship’s complement of commandos began dashing through the As the first boat, ML-192, commanded
smoke of the burning craft and leaping onto the dock, firing away with their Sten guns by Lt. Cmdr. William L. Stephens, maneu-
at anything that moved. vered close to the Old Entrance jetty, a
Lieutenant Roderick recalled, “Following the crash of the bows which came with sur- large shell struck the craft. The explosion
prisingly little jolting, I went quickly forward to reconnoitre the way off the ship; it was disabled the engine room, causing the craft
a bit of a shambles with many wounded chaps lying about the deck. The gun in the bow to drift out of control and eventually come
of the ship was looking somewhat cockeyed and I could see no obvious signs of life to a stop against the East Jetty with several
around it. [Major] Bill Copland gave us his usual morale boosting order as we quickly casualties on board.
made our way off the Campbeltown. Captain Michael Burn, in charge of the
“Our bamboo ladders had been damaged by gunshot prior to getting off; Corporal 13 other commandos on ML-192, man-

WWII SPECIAL FORCES 45

 aged to disembark his men and lead them steps, Tillie’s boat was torn apart by enemy shells and burst into flames, exploding
to their objective, two nearby flak towers, within minutes. Only Tillie and half his crew, along with two of the 18 commandos on
but found them unmanned. board, were able to reach land.
George Davidson, a crewman aboard The fifth boat was Lieutenant Leslie Fenton’s ML-156, but it fared no better than
Stephens’s boat, recalled, “ML-192 was those ahead of it. Fenton was wounded, along with Captain Richard H. Hooper, the
the first ship to be hit. We were about to commander of the 13 commandos aboard. The boat missed its mark and circled
pass the Old Mole when we were com- around again, all the while being subjected to accurate German fire. With the engines
pletely stopped. I mean, the machinery and steering damaged and casualties mounting, Fenton had no choice but to withdraw
stopped––the boat was still moving. The ML-156 from the landing zone and head back down the Loire. The crippled boat
engine room was on fire and, instead of would later be scuttled.
passing the Old Mole, we ran into it. The sixth and final boat to attempt a landing, ML-177, under Sub-Lieutenant Rodier,
“On the Mole itself was the lighthouse, somehow survived the storm of flying lead and dropped off its party of 13 commandos,
at the end, and then a tower with search- led by Troop Sergeant Major George E. Haines, on the southern side of the Old Entrance.
lights and closer to the shore, another flak Haines had orders to link up with Captain Hooper’s group and knock out the enemy
tower. We stopped just short of the flak gun positions between the Old Entrance and the Old Mole, but the sergeant was unaware
tower. The boat listed to starboard, which that Hooper and ML-156 had failed to land. Nevertheless, Haines ran his men through
put the mast over the top of the Mole and the darkened labyrinth of streets, sheds, and buildings, engaging in wild shootouts with
I thought there was a prospect of getting surprised German troops who were doing their best to halt the attack.
ashore there. It was going to be difficult, Braving the fire, Robert Ryder’s command boat, MGB-314, then managed to land
but I thought I could climb the mast and Lieutenant Colonel Newman and his headquarters staff at the steps of the Old Entrance,
drop onto the Mole. So, I climbed it, to a where the bullets and shells were still flying thick and fast. William Savage, an able sea-
point when I could see two heads peeping man aboard 314, was firing a deck gun with great accuracy. Although he had no gun-
out of the flak tower and I thought it was shield and was in an exposed position, he continued blasting away until he was killed
time to make a move. I think they were as at his gun. His actions would earn him a posthumous Victoria Cross.
frightened as I was because they never fired Royal Navy Lieutenant Frank Arkle, aboard ML-177, recalled, “At this stage, Com-
at me. They were not expecting mast- mander Ryder came alongside us in his MGB and gave us the instruction to let go our
climbing folk! lines and to go alongside the Campbeltown and pick up as many crew as we could and
“When I came down again, the ship was take them home to England.”
well on fire and the skipper ordered us to Meanwhile, the commandos that had leaped from Cambeltown were still in the thick
abandon ship. I gave him a hand to launch of the fighting on the docks. Lieutenant Brett (who was shot in both legs before start-
a float and after we launched it for the ben- ing his task) and his men were attacking the southern caisson of the dry dock, trying to
efit of the non-swimmers, I went over the disable it.
bow to swim along parallel to the Mole In their effort to reach the northern lock gate and caisson 300 yards away, Lieutenant
and got up on the beach.” Burtinshaw’s men braved a fusillade of concentrated enemy fire only to discover that its
While this drama was taking place, the design was different from the one on which they had practiced back in England.
third craft, ML-262, commanded by Unable to enter the inner workings of the caisson, Burtinshaw’s men strung the explo-
Lieutenant Edward “Ted” A. Burt, sives as best they could, even while German machine guns and sharpshooters were rak-
approached, carrying Lieutenant Mark ing the commandos. Burtinshaw himself went down mortally wounded. A sergeant
Woodcock’s demolition party, whose mis- named Carr took over for his fallen leader and detonated the explosives, causing seri-
sion it was to destroy the bridge across ous damage to the northern caisson.
the Old Entrance and the two adjacent Lieutenant Chant, who had been hit even before he had disembarked from Camp-
locks. But Burt was disoriented by the beltown, carried on and, with his party, placed their charges 40 feet below ground
blinding searchlights and overshot his beneath the pumping house, destroying it. Lieutenant Bill Etches, in overall command
objective by several hundred yards. of both Lieutenants Smalley and Purdon, saw to it that those teams destroyed the two
Behind him, Lieutenant Eric H. Beart, winding huts.
commanding ML-267, suffered a similar But the Germans increased the intensity and accuracy of their fire. The bodies of
problem, and both craft swung wide and Burtinshaw and six other commandos had to be left where they fell, for the entire group
prepared to come around again. faced annihilation if it did not immediately withdraw and make a run for the evacua-
The fourth craft, ML-268, under Lieu- tion point at the Old Entrance, more than 300 yards away.
tenant Bill Tillie, saw Burt and Beart miss The two launches that had earlier overshot their mark––Burt’s ML-262 and Beart’s
their landing spots but did not repeat their ML-267––returned to the Old Entrance and once again tried to make a landing despite
error. As it got close to the Old Entrance’s the torrent of lead being poured into the confined area. Burt bravely landed Woodcock’s

46 WWII SPECIAL FORCES

© 2018 Philip Schwartzberg, Meridian Mapping, Minneapolis, MN
tered by enemy fire, dallied long enough
for Morgan’s men to jump back on.
At about this same moment, Lieutenant
Smalley’s team appeared, having accom-
plished its mission at the northern caisson.
Smalley and his men, rather than continu-
ing on to the Old Mole as planned, saw
Burt’s craft and ran to it; Burt put back
into the dock and let them scramble
aboard. Trailing a cloud of smoke and
exhaust, ML-262 roared off toward open
water, but it again became the target for
every German gun within range and Smal-
ley was killed. ML-262, although badly
shot up, barely escaped.
During the melee, Beart’s ML-267
approached the Old Entrance to land its
load of commandos, Newman’s reserves,
but no sooner had a few disembarked at
the southern steps than the intensity of fire
forced Beart to back off. The boat burst
into flame and began to drift helplessly,
and those on board abandoned it; many
were raked by machine-gun fire while in
the water. Lieutenant Beart, along with 10
of his crew and eight commandos, were
killed.
Finally, MTB-74, one of the two motor
torpedo boats under Lieutenant Mickey
Wynn, entered the fray. Wynn torpedoed
the lock gates that closed off the Old
Entrance from the submarine basin (the
time-delay fuses in the torpedoes would go
off two days later), then headed over to
assist Ryder (MTB-314) and Rodier (ML-
177) in evacuating the men from the crip-
pled Campbeltown.
Beset by enemy fire and unable to set the
underground fuel storage tanks alight,
Lieutenant Roderick and his team fought
their way toward the assembly point,
Newman’s temporary headquarters near
the Old Entrance.
Aroused German defenders poured heavy fire on the St. Nazaire raiders who were required to execute several
simultaneous attacks on numerous important objectives within the harbor. Primary among these was the “Our movements were obviously being
destruction of the Normandie Dock by the explosive-laden destroyer HMS Campbeltown. watched, as we had to move in between
bouts of fire,” Roderick reported. “It was
demolition team along with Lieutenant R.F. Morgan’s protection squad at the northern while running for cover, carrying the Bren
quay before being forced to cast off. guns, that I was shot through my left thigh.
But Morgan’s squad had gone inland only a short distance when it came running back It came as a complete surprise; I was only
to the quay, demanding to be allowed to reboard the craft; one of the men had seen a aware of being knocked head over heels
German tracer round burn through the air and, mistaking it for the signal to retreat, had and the Bren leaving my hands. I moved
thought it was a flare ordering the landing party to pull back. Burt’s craft, still being splin- quickly behind a stanchion and eventually

WWII SPECIAL FORCES 47

 Both: Bundesarchiv Bild
Only a handful of men were able to make it to the steps; the rest were either killed out-
right by the blast or flung into the dark waters of the harbor where they drowned.
Luckily, Lieutenant Thomas Collier, commanding ML-457, was able to get right up
to the steps and deposit his three teams of commandos. The first was a control party
led by the dockyard demolition instructor, Captain Bill Pritchard, the second was Lieu-
tenant Walton and his four-man demolitions team, and the third was a four-man pro-
tection party under Lieutenant William H. “Tiger” Watson.
Following close behind Collier’s boat was Lieutenant Norman Wallis’ ML-307, car-
rying Captain E.W. Bradley and six commandos. But Wallis struck an underwater obsta-
cle and became grounded; enemy fire now concentrated on the stranded vessel. Wallis
skillfully managed to extricate ML-307 from its perch and, at Bradley’s direction, began
engaging the German guns and searchlights along the quays and jetties that were threat-
ening to defeat the raid.
ABOVE: Minutes before the explosive-laden HMS
In ML-307’s wake came ML-306 under Lieutenant Ian Henderson, followed by ML-
Campbeltown detonated at St. Nazaire, German sol-
diers are shown on the deck of the former Lend- 443, commanded by Lieutenant K. Horlock, and ML-446 with Lieutenant Dick Falconar
Lease destroyer. A number of Germans were killed in in charge. But the waters around the Old Entrance were choked with burning and dis-
the surprise explosion. BELOW: German soldiers abled motor launches, wounded men, and flying lead, and the boats could not approach.
watch British prisoners captured during the raid on The three skippers all made the decision to withdraw in hopes of finding another, less
St. Nazaire. A number of the prisoners heard the deadly place where they could set their commando teams ashore. It was a futile hope.
huge explosion that damaged the Normandie Dock
and rocked the entire harbor. With that, they were
Aboard Rodier’s ML-177, closing in to rescue Campbeltown’s survivors, Frank Arkle
aware that the raid was a success. recalled, “In order to ram the dock gates as it had, the Campbeltown had had to go
through some antisubmarine nets in order to get there, and a lot of these nets were still
hanging off its sides as we were trying to come alongside; we had to be very careful of
this in order not to get them tangled around our own propellers. However, we managed
to get our bow alongside and took off a lot of the crew including the captain [Sam Beat-
tie] and several of his officers, including the medical officer, a lot of the wounded, and
some commandos.”
Backing away from the destroyer’s stern, Rodier headed seaward for safety, but it was
a short journey. Arkle said, “We sped as fast as we could, which was a full 18 knots,
down towards the open sea. We found ourselves coming more and more under fire from
shore-based batteries, so we thought it was time to get our smoke screen working. We
were just working on this when, unfortunately, the first shell hit us, which was into the
engine room. It apparently shifted one of our engines right up on top of the other and
they were both out of action.
“I was on the stern and Mark Rodier was on the bridge with Commander Beattie.
made my way towards Colonel Newman’s Beattie came down towards the funnel and we were standing, the two of us, aft when
assembly point where the rest of my party another shell hit us. I can see to this day the funnel folding apart, what appeared to be
had foregathered.” quite slowly, and the shell bursting in the middle of it. To my benefit poor old Mark was
Landing more commandos at the Old standing exactly between me and the shell, and he took the brunt of the explosion which
Entrance was impossible, so the following would have hit me if he hadn’t been there. I was hit all down my left-hand side, but not
squadron of six motor launches decided to anywhere else particularly, except my face.
land at the nearby Old Mole, but without “I felt my right eye on my cheek and I was convinced that my right eye had been
any better success. blown out of my head and was hanging down my cheek, and I felt there was only one
Lieutenant T.D.L. Platt’s ML-447 thing to do about this, so I plucked it out and threw it overboard. I then went down to
dropped off Captain David Birney’s 14 the wardroom although we were on fire amidships and got something to put round my
men, but they were greeted by a withering head as a sort of bandage over my wounded eye, and I was limping because my left foot
stream of bullets from the bunkers there. was also mucked about quite a bit.”
The launch was hit and its Oerlikon guns ML-177 was burning fiercely. Rodier was dead, as was Lieutenant Tibbitts, the man
and gun crews knocked out. Limping close who had set the time fuse in Campbeltown. Both Beattie and Arkle agreed that nothing
to the Old Entrance, Platt tried to more could be done to save the craft, so the order was given to abandon ship. Arkle and
approach the stone steps, but the craft was a couple of commandos grabbed onto a piece of floating wreckage.
then ripped apart by a large-caliber shell. “We decided to swim for the nearest shoreline,” he said, “but I soon realized that we

48 WWII SPECIAL FORCES

© TopFoto / The Image Works

interspersed with huge blazing pools of

fuel and the floating bodies of dead
sailors and commandos, were eerily high-
lighted by the searchlights.
As more and more groups piled into the
headquarters, it became clear to Colonel
Newman that the commandos were in an
untenable position. Most of those who
arrived were wounded, some badly, and
incapable of being moved. With the undi-
minished volume of fire outside, it also
became clear that escape back to either the
Old Entrance or the Old Mole was out of
the question; Newman’s escape route was
being swept by machine guns and large-
caliber weapons. The only option, then,
was to dash out of the building, cross the
bridge into the city of St. Nazaire, disperse,
and make a run for it and hope to disap-
pear into the countryside. Perhaps some
French underground groups would help
A squad of German soldiers looking for any remaining British commandos passes the lifeless body of one St. the commandos get back to Britain.
Nazaire raider who did not return home.
Newman gathered his men and told
were completely wasting our energy because we were just going round in circles. So I them with typical British aplomb, “Well,
decided to try and get a flask of whiskey out of my pocket, a small pewter flask. I dis- chaps, we’ve missed the boat. We’ll just
covered, in the end, that my hands were so cold that I couldn’t undo the button on my have to walk home.”
hip pocket to get the flask out so I had to give up, and I think after an hour or two in At 3 AM on March 28, the commandos,
the water, although we kept moving to try and keep our circulation going, we were each supporting a wounded comrade,
beginning to get seriously affected by the cold.” dashed out the door and, in one final dis-
At about that time, a large vessel, an armed German trawler, found the floating sur- play of selfless heroism, fought their way
vivors and put scramble nets over the side. Somehow, Arkle managed to climb up and through the warehouses fronting the sub-
get on board. “By this time I think I had lost rather a lot of blood from a large hole I marine bay and over the bridge into town.
had in my left hip. We were told to lie on the deck. There were German sentries with Lieutenant Roderick vividly remem-
rifles keeping an eye on us and eventually one of them came with cups of ersatz coffee.” bered the breakout attempt. He and his
Also taken prisoner was Commander Beattie. men made a dash toward the bridge, with
Scenes of survival were also still playing out near the Old Mole. After abandoning the Captain Roy, Lieutenants Len “Hoppy”
listing ML-192, George Davidson recalled that the Germans captured the crew and Hopwood and Bill Watson, Sergeant Alf
“marched us off in a southerly direction. On the way, there was a lot of gunfire. We were Pearson, and others acting as forward
ducking and dodging, and I spotted some rolls of wire netting, like chicken wire, and section.
so I slid in between them. I just laid doggo and they marched off without me. That was “This stage was particularly exciting and
before two o’clock in the morning and I was still there by daylight. I knew I had to make fraught with surprises,” said Roderick, “as
a break for it, but ran into a bunch of Germans and was immediately taken prisoner. all house and street fighting must be. It was
“I was quite concerned because there were some trigger-happy ones amongst them, during one of these scuffles that Tiger Wat-
but fortunately the officer who was in charge of them seemed to be a steady type and son was shot through the humerus; I gave
ordered me to walk over towards the Mole and made me stand with my back to the him an injection of morphine.
parapet, and I thought it was curtains.” Luckily, Davidson was only taken prisoner “On leaving Tiger as comfortable as pos-
and not shot. sible, Hoppy Hopwood, Alf Pearson, and
Meanwhile, team after team of commandos withdrew toward the Old Entrance one or two others whose names fail me
and, by 2:30 AM they had assembled at Newman’s headquarters, ready for evacua- were searching through some warehouses,
tion by boat. But there were no more boats to be had. The small harbor was already as attempts to get across the bridge at this
a scene of mass devastation. The motor launches that had been lost with their crews time were suicidal. It was about this time
on the way in bobbed helplessly about and burned fiercely. The smoking wreckage, I was wounded in the head by a grenade.

WWII SPECIAL FORCES 49

 “It was decided that we should find a ML-443, ML-446, and MGB 314.
suitable place to hide and this we did, mak- As the commandos who were still alive and had not been evacuated either fought last-
ing a nest of full cement bags high off the ditch skirmishes, eluded the enemy, or were taken prisoner by the Germans, the last and
ground. Alf Pearson had been badly most spectacular act of the operation took place.
wounded through the left shoulder and By mid-morning on March 28, the battered Cambeltown, still beached at its upward
was out of active participation and we angle atop the lock gates had drawn quite a crowd of spectators. Some had even climbed
were, by this time, a pretty ropey lot. We aboard her to marvel at the Brits’ clever handiwork, while others were below decks
did, however, have a very nice hideout and inspecting the thick wall of concrete and no doubt surmising that the concrete was there
on a number of occasions in the next few simply to provide extra strength to the ship’s prow that had been used as a battering
hours, groups of Germans, who were by ram. No one realized that, on the other side of the concrete slab, the acid in the pencil
this time into the area in reinforcement, detonator was about to eat through the last bit of copper wire.
passed us by in their search parties.” While the object of everyone’s attention was drawing bemused glances, it suddenly
By early morning, German roadblocks vaporized in a blinding flash and mighty bang. Pieces of steel and human bodies were
had sealed off the streets and the com- hurled everywhere. The lock gates split open, releasing a tidal wave of seawater into the
mandos, low on ammunition, had run out dry chamber and causing two German tankers within to capsize and sink.
of options. Lieutenant Roderick recalled that he and a few mates were being held captive on a
Roderick said, “It was only in the light small boat in the river when the Campbeltown exploded. “We were left with our guards
of day at about 10:30 AM that a German but everybody else ran to see what it was all about. Shortly afterwards, we were bun-
searching high up in a warehouse on the dled into a truck and taken into the town where we were put into a private house prior
other side of the road saw a bandaged to being moved to the hospital at Le Baule.”
head or limb through some bomb damage The damage was stupendous. For blocks around, windows were blown out and weak
in our warehouse wall and gave the alarm. structures toppled. Vehicles were overturned and people knocked flat. Some buildings
“In next to no time the place was alive caught fire. Of the German defenders, scores were dead or wounded. The Normandie
and we surrendered ourselves. Opposition Dock was a shambles and was rendered unusable until 1947. There was no chance the
would have been simply futile and life was Tirpitz or any other German ship would ever use it.
still very sweet. Our captors were not par- Operation Chariot had been a successful, if terribly expensive, raid.
ticularly pleased and pushed us against a Everyone who took part in the St. Nazaire raid, deemed by the British “the greatest
wall and searched us. We thought we’d raid of all,” covered themselves with glory, even at the cost of their lives. Five Victoria
had it.” Crosses, Britain’s highest award for valor, were earned on the fateful night (by Beatty,
Almost all of the commandos were Newman, Ryder, Savage, and Durrant). In addition, four Distinguished Service Orders,
either killed or captured. Eventually, only 17 Distinguished Service Crosses, 11 Military Crosses, four Conspicuous Gallantry
five men would return to England. Medals, five Distinguished Conduct Medals, 24 Distinguished Service Medals, and 15
After the motor launches had retired out Military Medals were awarded for the action at St Nazaire.
to sea, the German destroyer Jaguar closed But the casualties were heavy. Most of the small craft were sunk or scuttled. Of 611
in to intercept the flotilla some 45 miles soldiers and sailors who took part, 168 were killed and 200 were taken prisoner.
from St. Nazaire. Firing a burst at ML-306 This success, and the commando raid on the isle of Sark in the Channel Islands on
and ordering it to halt, the Jaguar’s com- October 3-4, 1942, prompted a furious Hitler to issue his infamous “Commando
mander was startled by the British reply: a Order.”
blast of return fire from a Lewis gun being It decreed, “From now on, all men operating against German troops in so-called Com-
operated by 23-year-old commando mando raids in Europe or in Africa are to be annihilated to the last man.” The protec-
Sergeant Thomas F. Durrant. tions of the Geneva Convention would not be extended to commandos.
As a one-man assault party, Durrant More than six decades later, the British still consider the raid on St. Nazaire one of
kept the German ship at bay until, after a the most heroic and successful of the war; plaques and monuments in memory of the
running gun battle, the sergeant was killed. raiders have been erected at the port. A third of the British soldiers and sailors killed
His courage earned for him the Victoria during the raid are buried at the Escoublac-la-Baule War Cemetery, 11 miles west of
Cross, posthumously. Durrant is one of St. Nazaire.
very few men to have received their VC on Perhaps Lord Lovat, who would lead British commandos ashore at Sword Beach on
the recommendation of an enemy officer, D-Day, June 6, 1944, summed it up best when he wrote, “St. Nazaire was unquestion-
the destroyer’s captain. ably the most spectacular sea-borne raid carried out in the Second World War.”
Of the 18 original raiding boats, only
five craft were able to rendezvous with the Flint Whitlock, a frequent contributor to WWII History, has authored several books
two British destroyers: ML-306, ML-307, about the war and is editor of WWII Quarterly. He lives in Denver, Colorado.

50 WWII SPECIAL FORCES

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52
Raid on Ma
WWII SPECIAL FORCES
 In a daring, controversial raid on a
Japanese-held Pacific atoll, U.S.
Marine Raiders fought for their lives.
By David H. Lippman

ABOVE: Marine officers Evans F. Carlson and James Roosevelt, son of President Franklin D. Roosevelt,
led the 2nd Marine Raider Battalion on a daring raid against the Japanese garrison on the Pacific atoll
of Makin. OPPOSITE: In this haunting charcoal sketch titled Marines Fall Forward, artist Kerr Eby
depicts U.S. Marines fighting in the Gilbert Islands against the Japanese. The raid on Makin was an
early offensive action that was fraught with risk. Its success is a topic of debate to this day.

n the darkness, the two American submarines moved toward the hostile beach,

I inching carefully through badly marked waters. They surfaced well before dawn,
and the Marine Raiders and submarine crews began bringing up rubber boats
from below, inflating them on deck, installing outboard motors, and filling them
with the Marines’ ammunition and supplies.
It was the early morning of August 17, 1942, and a team of U.S. Marine Raiders,
led by a Corps legend and the son of the president of the United States were going
to launch a raid that would boost morale in America but have an unexpected blow-
back a year later—leading to the deaths or wounding of 3,000 more Americans.

kin
As the invasion of Guadalcanal opened on August 8, 1942, Admiral Chester
Nimitz, Commander-in-Chief of the Pacific, was determined to keep the Japanese off
balance and unable to respond properly. A raid on Makin (pronounced “Muckin”
or “Muggin”), one of the Gilbert Islands, a British colony seized by the Japanese after
the outbreak of war, seemed just the ticket.
Assigned to do the job was the 2nd Marine Raider Battalion, under a colorful, leath-
Both: National Archives WWII SPECIAL FORCES 53
 National Archives

ery, hawk-nosed, 46-year-old major named Colonel Evans F. Carlson (left) confers with Lieutenant Merwin Plumley (center) and Major James Roosevelt
Evans F. Carlson. Son of a Congregational- (right) during training in the days leading up to the raid on Makin Atoll. In this image the officers are consult-
ing a map while the Marines at right are both holding Browning .30-caliber air-cooled machine guns.
ist minister, he had joined the Army at age
16 to fight in the Great War and risen to the third tour in 1937, FDR asked the lean major to provide personal reports to the White
rank of captain. In 1922, he joined the House on the volatile situation. Carlson reached Shanghai on July 7, 1937, a week after
Marines and was commissioned as a sec- the Japanese invaded the city. From the safety of the International Settlement and its
ond lieutenant the following year. Marine Barracks, Carlson had a grandstand seat for the unparalleled savagery of the
At a time when most American troops Sino-Japanese War, writing weekly detailed reports.
were enjoying leisurely peacetime routine, In November 1937, Carlson headed for Yenan in Shensi Province to study the Com-
the Marine Corps was seeing a lot of munist Chinese guerrillas to see if their operations matched their press releases. He
action, fighting in what today would be marched with the legendary 8th Route Army for months and sent home vital informa-
called “peacekeeping missions” in Central tion. The good side was that he reported that the Communists were an outstanding
America and the Caribbean or defending force. The bad side was that he reported that the Communists and Nationalists were
American holdings in China. Carlson was working together to save China. Either way, two things resulted: FDR was able to pro-
in the middle of this, earning his first Navy vide arms to Nationalist China despite the Neutrality Act, and Carlson gained numer-
Cross in Nicaragua fighting “banditos.” ous ideas for developing a Marine force based on the Communists’ guerrilla principles,
He did a China tour in 1927-1929 and down to their slogan of “Gung Ho,” which meant “Everybody works together.”
again in 1933-1935. After that, he was sec- After returning from China, Carlson resigned his commission, wrote two books on
ond in command of the Marine Guard at the China situation, and then rejoined the Corps as a major in the Reserves in April 1941.
the Little White House in Warm Springs, By this time Roosevelt was becoming intrigued by the exploits of the British Comman-
Georgia, where he caught the eye of and dos in Europe and wanted to create similar forces under American auspices. The Army
made a great impression on President was developing the Rangers, but Roosevelt, who regarded the Navy as “us,” wanted
Franklin D. Roosevelt. such a force under its command.
When Carlson was sent to China for his The result was two battalions of Marine Raiders, and the 2nd Raider Battalion would

54 WWII SPECIAL FORCES

be headed by Carlson himself. Another celebrity would be the battalion’s executive offi- Raider created booby traps from cigar
cer, Marine Reserve Major James “Jimmy” Roosevelt, the president’s son, who had boxes loaded with nails, spikes, glass, and
served as assistant naval attaché in London and an observer with British forces in the rocks with a small charge of TNT. They
Middle East. In London, he had had ample opportunity to study British Commandos, could be exploded either electrically or by
while in Cairo he had pored over the work of the legendary Long Range Desert Group firing a rifle at a bull’s-eye painted on the
and the Special Air Service. side of the box. Other Raiders armed them-
Despite this colorful and knowledgeable leadership, the top Marine Corps brass was selves with 14-inch screwdrivers that nor-
not impressed by the new battalions. They smacked of gimmickry, and high-ranking offi- mally were used to repair PT-boat engines.
cers questioned the value of assigning the Corps’ best men to light units that would be A Raider explained that they were “good
sent on near-suicide missions. A strong answer came in the Corps’ own history—its first for the ribs, if you know what I mean.”
action in March 1776 had been a raid against British forces at New Providence Island In the end, though, the preparation
in the Bahamas. Raiding was part of the Marine heritage. proved unnecessary. The Japanese force
The 2nd Raider Battalion got down to business on February 5, 1942, forming up at headed for Midway Atoll suffered a crush-
Camp Pendleton outside San Diego. Three thousand Leathernecks volunteered for 1,000 ing defeat, losing four aircraft carriers and
slots and were hit with Carlson’s tough question: “Could you slit a Jap’s throat with- its air umbrella, and the invaders with-
out warning?” drew, never actually coming ashore. The
Carlson ran a loose outfit, relaxing traditional forms of military command and disci- Raiders left too, returning to Hawaii, and
pline, adopting the communal methods of the 8th Route Army. Fully trained, the bat- Nimitz searched for suitable employment
talion was sent to Hawaii in May, baffling Nimitz, who later said, “Here I was presented for them.
with a unit which I had not requested and which I had not planned for.” That turned out to be Makin, part of the
Nonetheless, he quickly found them a job—sending C and D Companies to Midway Gilbert Islands chain, which was an atoll
Island to defend that atoll from the expected Japanese invasion. Carlson’s Raiders pro- about six miles long and half a mile wide,
vided color and dash to the defense, with their bandoliers of cartridges hanging from 2,000 miles west of Pearl Harbor, guarded
bronzed shoulders, belts bristling with knives, and pockets bulging with grenades. Even by about 45 Japanese troops. In addition
the medics went fully armed. to the usual tasks of intelligence gathering
The Raiders worked hard at everything from hurling knives into trees to display their and installation destruction, Carlson’s raid
prowess to unloading supply ships to manufacturing antitank mines. Demolitions officer would distract the Japanese high com-
Lieutenant Harold Throneson and several Spanish Civil War volunteers developed an anti- mand from the battles on Guadalcanal,
tank mine from dynamite and a flashlight battery that exploded from 40 pounds of pres- making Tokyo think the Americans were
sure. The Raiders delightedly manufactured 1,500 of them in a matter of days. Another opening a new front in the Central Pacific.
Carlson's Raiders pull away from a fast transport (APD) during training for the Makin Raid in early 1942.
Carlson assigned 222 men to the opera-
This exercise was to gain proficiency in the use of small rubber boats. However, heavy seas swamped sev- tion, who would travel to the island on
eral of the craft during the run-in from the submarines to the beach at Makin. two large submarines, Nautilus under
Commander Bill Brockman and Argonaut
under Commander Jack Pierce. Neither
sub had been much of a success so far. In
addition to dealing with misfiring Ameri-
can Mark 14 torpedoes, both submarines
were burdened with slow speed, slow div-
ing, poor maneuverability, and engines
that were at risk for crankshaft explosions.
Argonaut had been designed as a
minelayer and proved a flop in that role.
Nautilus was the only American subma-
rine to strike a blow at Midway, trying to
torpedo the crippled Japanese carrier
Kaga, but two fish missed, and the third’s
warhead did not work. It shattered, pop-
ping loose the air flask, which gave ship-
wrecked Kaga sailors a life preserver. Now
the two submarines were being converted
for use as guerrilla transport and supply
Naval History and Heritage Command

WWII SPECIAL FORCES 55

 National Archives

vessels by having their torpedo racks Staying in shape during their voyage to Makin, a group of Carlson’s Raiders does calisthenics aboard the
removed and extra air conditioning and submarine USS Nautilus. The raid resulted in the gathering of some intelligence and the inflicting of seri-
ous casualties on the Japanese, but 19 Marines were killed in action.
tiers of bunks added. They would build a
fine record in that critical role. intervention, and on August 16 both submarines joined company off of Makin Atoll’s
Commander John Haines would head main island, Butaritari, defended by Warrant Officer Kyuzaburo Kanemitsu and 42
the naval task force. Carlson assigned other Japanese naval troops. For Kanemitsu and his men Makin was a soft billet, far
Company B and his own staff to Nautilus from the war, but a dull place. A few days before the Americans arrived, Kanemitsu’s
and Company A to Argonaut. The two superiors, worried about Guadalcanal, logically ordered a general alert, and Kanemitsu
submarines loaded up at Pearl Harbor on took those orders seriously. Every day his men held maneuvers and built nests for their
August 8, the day after the Guadalcanal rapid-fire Nambu machine guns as snipers prepared to climb coconut trees to eviscer-
invasion, and sailed off. It was an uncom- ate potential enemy invaders.
fortable voyage for everybody. The air The seaward side of Butariti is a fringing coral reef, and Carlson chose at the last
conditioning could not keep up, so Blue- minute to land over the northern reef opposite the principal settlement, which lay on
jackets and Leathernecks sweltered below the lagoon only 1,500 feet across Butaritari. However, Carlson did not pass that on to
decks, unable to sit or stand in the Lieutenant Oscar F. “Pete” Peatross, who led 1st Platoon, Company B, and he and his
crowded spaces. Haines let the Marines go 11 men would head for the southern beach.
topside in small batches for 10-minute In the predawn hours of August 17, the submarines surfaced in position, and the
breaks in the sun. Soon the subs were hot Marines and sailors broke out the rubber rafts, outboard motors, and combat gear for
and fetid from unwashed men and the heat the assault. Before dawn, 15 motorized assault boats were speeding over the reef straight
of cooking—the chefs and stewards were for Government Wharf against no Japanese opposition. Instead, they had to cope with
on 24-hour watches, as it took three hours heavy seas, which swamped the outboard motors. The Leathernecks tied their boats
to feed all hands. together to keep going.
The voyage proceeded without enemy Lieutenant Merwin C. Plumley led Company A southward and ran smack into the first

56 WWII SPECIAL FORCES

Japanese defenders, arriving on bicycles and in trucks. The Japanese gave Plumley’s men ond to crash on takeoff.
a warm welcome with their rifles and machine guns, forming up a skirmish line. With those reinforcements, Kanemitsu
When Carlson reached the beach, eight natives joined him and reported the presence and his men fought back. Japanese snipers
of a Japanese 3,500-ton merchant ship and patrol boat in the lagoon. Carlson radioed in palm groves were hard to find, so Carl-
to Nautilus and Argonaut to shell these two enemy vessels, but the message only got to son pulled his men back to open terrain.
Brockman, skipper of the Nautilus. He promptly turned his submarine’s six-inch guns The Japanese counterattacked three times
on the Japanese vessels and hurled 65 shells at them. Everybody reported seeing the two in the afternoon, and another Japanese air
ships sink, but incredibly Brockman was not given credit for the sinkings after the war. raid hit the Raiders at about 4:30 PM.
Meanwhile, Carlson’s Company A was pinned down by Kanemitsu’s men. Carlson By 5 PM, Carlson figured he had done
wasted no time. He sent Company B into action on the left flank, and Kanemitsu soon enough damage and it was time to break
realized that his 45 men were badly outnumbered. off the action. He sent his boat crews back
“All men are dying serenely in battle,” he radioed to his superiors. Even so, his to the beach to get the boats ready for with-
snipers did their best, shooting at any American operating a radio, and his machine drawal. At 7 PM, Carlson ordered his main
gunners fired their Nambus until they all died at their posts. force to fall back with withdrawal to coin-
At 10:39 AM, a Japanese reconnaissance seaplane turned up to find out what was cide with darkness and high tide. The with-
going on, and the two submarines dived to avoid bombs. The reconnaissance bird was drawal was difficult. The outboard motors
followed at 11:30 AM by two more, which circled over the island looking for targets did not work, and the Marines could not
for 15 minutes. Finally they dropped some bombs on the sand, doing little damage, and paddle their way over the breakers. Boats
headed home. capsized, men lost their weapons, clothing,
Meanwhile, Peatross, having landed on the wrong beach, tried to carry out his orig- and gear, and were hurled up on the beach
inal orders to rendezvous with Company A at the island’s church. While doing so, he exhausted. Only seven boats and fewer
and his men attacked the island’s radio station, destroying the equipment. He found the than 100 men made it back to the sub-
Japanese were between him and the rest of his buddies but thought he could push marines in the dark—45 to Nautilus and
through. He got to within 200 yards of the main Marine force, knocking out a Japan- 25 to Argonaut. About 100 Raiders were
ese machine gun and killing some of the enemy, including two fleeing in a car. But three still ashore, most of them unarmed—all
of Peatross’s men were killed and several more wounded. Peatross moved over the ocean machine guns and most rifles and auto-
side of the island away from the lagoon and decided to wait for the larger force come matic rifles had been lost.
to him. When that did not happen, he and his men withdrew to their boats and Nau- Luckily for Carlson, the Japanese did not
tilus, in that order. pursue the Americans, and that gave Carl-
Back at the main battle, 12 more Japanese planes of various types showed up at 12:55 son time to figure out his next move. He
to bomb and strafe the island with little success. Two Kawanishi “Mavis” flying boats grouped his 120 or so men, four of them
landed 35 troops in the lagoon to reinforce Kanemitsu’s defenders. Alert Marines opened stretcher cases, on the beach. At midnight
up on the huge planes with automatic fire, burning one in the water and causing the sec- Carlson called a meeting of his officers and
some of his men and asked what they
The beach at Makin, as it appeared in 1943, months after the Marine raid, appears tranquil. Makin was
assaulted by U.S. Army troops in November 1943, concurrent with the 2nd Marine Division’s attack on should do—hide on the north end of the
Tarawa Atoll during Operation Galvanic. atoll? Try the surf again? Surrender? The
Marines looked to their commander for a
decision. He gave none. By his creed, all
Marines could make their own choice.
Sergeant Henry Herrero, Major Roo-
sevelt’s runner, found five men willing to
make another try for the submarines. They
boarded a rubber boat and made it to
Nautilus.
Meanwhile, Nautilus blinkered a signal
to Carlson, saying the two submarines
would stay as long as necessary to rescue
the Marines.
During the night, there was only one
skirmish with a Japanese patrol. At dawn
Carlson made a new effort to get off the
beach, sending Major Roosevelt through
National Archives WWII SPECIAL FORCES 57
 the surf with three boats and 15 men. They regrouped his forces and had them sweep the island from side to side. They found 83
succeeded, but Carlson and about 70 Japanese bodies and two live Japanese stragglers, who they promptly shot, near the
Raiders were still on the hostile shore. southern tip. The Raiders collected intelligence from the abandoned Japanese head-
Nautilus sent back a volunteer five-man quarters, destroyed supplies, including 700 barrels of aviation fuel, and finished off the
crew on a boat hoping to get a line through radio station. The burning aviation gas was a fine navigational beacon for the sub-
the surf and two of the remaining boats marines, and they headed for it to rescue the Raiders.
and the Leathernecks back to the sub. One As dusk fell, the Marines carried four rubber boats to a quiet area of the lagoon, lashed
of the five men made it ashore, but a them to an outrigger canoe, and entered the lagoon at 9:30 PM. By midnight all but 30 of
Japanese plane strafed the boat and it dis- the Raiders were back on the submarines. Twenty-one were dead, and nine were missing.
appeared into the brine. Actually those nine were still alive and on Makin. They avoided Japanese capture for
With 70 men left, Carlson believed he a month, but when they were rounded up on August 20, they were flown to Japan’s 6th
had been abandoned and the only human- Base Force Headquarters on Kwajalein Atoll, where they were the problem of the force’s
itarian thing to do now seemed to be to boss, Vice Admiral Koso Abe. The Japanese gave them candy and cigarettes, joked about
surrender. He wrote out such a note, the sights they would see in Tokyo, and put them in a barracks.
handed it to a captain and a corporal, and Meanwhile, Abe asked Tokyo what he should do with his nine captives. Tokyo did
ordered them to find the enemy. Instead, not tell him. He waited for six months, then made a flag decision ordering Kwajalein’s
they found a native islander, who in turn garrison commander, Captain Yoshio Obara, to execute the lot.
found them a Japanese soldier, who took Obara, who had two brothers in America and nephews in the U.S. Army, protested
the note and then disappeared. vehemently against this illegal order, but Abe was adamant. He was also an admiral.
With no answer to the surrender offer, Obara could not find any volunteer executioners, so he detailed four officers and selected
the captain and corporal set off to find the October 16, 1942, the day that coincided with Japan’s annual memorial to departed
Japanese and discovered to their astonish-
ment that there were no longer any Japan- BELOW: A Marine Raider machine-gun crew uses palm fronds to camouflage its position during intense
training prior to the Makin Raid. The Marines fought heroically against a stout Japanese garrison on the
ese troops on the island. Most of the
atoll and withdrew after controversially considering surrender to the enemy. OPPOSITE: After their bap-
defenders were dead, and the rest had fled tism of fire at Makin, some members of the 2nd Marine Raider Battalion bear the stoic gaze of combat
to other atolls and islands. veterans aboard the submarine USS Nautilus as they enter Pearl Harbor on August 25, 1942. A Marine at
Now master of all he surveyed, Carlson left is holding a captured Japanese Arisaka rifle.
National Archives

58 WWII SPECIAL FORCES

Naval History and Heritage Command

the Solomons, where it saw heavy fight-

ing. Eventually all the Raider battalions
became the re-formed 4th Marine Regi-
ment in 1944, which took up the colors
and heritage of the old “China Marines,”
which had been annihilated in the defense
of the Philippines, the only Marine regi-
ment ever to surrender. By then all Marines
were considered to be as tough and flexi-
ble as the Raiders, and there was no fur-
ther need of specialized outfits in the mass
amphibious assaults that were coming.
Nor had the raid succeeded in its origi-
nal intent. The Japanese did not divert
troops from Guadalcanal specifically to
the Gilberts—there was no impact on the
Solomons campaign. American officers
regarded the military impact of the raid as
being “negligible,” although it did provide
the United States with some lessons on
heroes, the Yasukuni Shrine festival, as the day of execution. how to transport raiders by submarine to
That day the nine Marines were led to a large grave and ceremoniously beheaded in and from a defended target.
front of Abe. After the burial, Obara’s men placed flowers on the grave and considered But, tragically, the Japanese did realize
the incident closed. But a Marshall Islands native witnessed the horror from a hiding how weakly defended the Gilbert Islands
place in the bushes. were. A month after the raid, they landed a
After the war, Abe and Obara were tried on Guam for war crimes. Abe was hanged detachment of Special Naval Landing
in 1946. Obara drew a 10-year sentence. Forces on Tarawa, one of the Gilbert atolls.
Meanwhile, Carlson and his merry band headed home. Nautilus reached Pearl Har- These troops, Japan’s version of America’s
bor on August 25, Argonaut a day later. Marines, were ordered to prepare the
At a time when clear-cut American victories were few and far between, this one was island’s defenses, and prepare them they did.
a good boost for national morale. American newsmen shot photographs of the leathery Tarawa alone received 24 coast defense
Carlson and the skinny Roosevelt—he had overcome a stomach ailment to serve in the guns ranging from 5.5-inch to 8-inch, some
Marines—holding up a captured Japanese Rising Sun flag. The flag itself went through purportedly captured from the British
channels to Marine Corps Commandant Lt. Gen. Thomas Holcomb and from him to defenses at Singapore, others incredibly
President Roosevelt in the White House, who put on a show of recoiling from the flag from Russian defenses at Port Arthur, dat-
at a press conference to display it, refusing to touch the “evil banner.” ing back to 1905 but still capable of hurl-
The flag wound up in the Marine Corps Museum. Roosevelt wound up receiving a ing explosive shells at troops. Tarawa
Navy Cross, which helped cut down on Republican Congressional attacks on the four Roo- would also receive 25 field guns, a system
sevelt sons, all of whom while in uniform and on active duty were being accused of serv- of barricades, and bombproof shelters, all
ing in cushy stateside jobs. In fact, all would see considerable combat by war’s end, and defended by 4,500 men. Makin itself would
two of them, because of their Navy assignments in the Pacific, would miss their father’s be defended by 800 men.
funeral in April 1945. When the U.S. 2nd Marine Division
Americans celebrated the raid as yet another tweak to the Japanese, like the Doolit- stormed Tarawa’s defenses on November
tle Raid and the defense of Wake, to make up for the defeats of Pearl Harbor and the 19, 1943, they would pay an immense
Philippines, but military men on both sides took grim note of the bizarre encounter. price for the success of the Makin raid—
Carlson led his Raiders into action on Guadalcanal. In one 30-day, 150-mile armed in 76 hours of bitter fighting they would
reconnaissance, his men killed more than 500 Japanese at a cost to themselves of only suffer nearly 1,000 dead and more than
17 men. Illness sent Carlson home, and he never held another combat command, but 2,000 wounded.
was an observer at Tarawa and at Saipan. There he was injured while trying to rescue
a wounded man, which led to his early retirement as a brigadier general in July 1946 Author David Lippman writes frequently
and his equally early death the following year. for WWII History on a variety of topics.
Roosevelt took over the new 4th Raider Battalion, while 2nd Battalion was sent to He resides in New Jersey.

WWII SPECIAL FORCES 59

 usk came early as they boarded the enemy observers to spot the movement of these new troops to the front. It was Decem-

D convoy of trucks, their olive-drab

forms softened by baggy trousers
and heavy field jackets.
ber 1, 1943, and as the convoy proceeded a cold rain began to fall, drenching the canvas
tarpaulins of the trucks and reducing visibility even further. All that could be seen in the
distance were the stuttering flashes of artillery fire.
The 2nd Regiment, 1st Special Service The trucks arrived in Presenzano at 9 PM. Guides from the 142nd Infantry Regiment
Force (1st SSF) was leaving its barracks at met them and led them into the forested terrain beyond the village. Ahead of them
Santa Maria, Italy, for the village of Pre- lay the imposing bulk of Monte La Difensa, a well-fortified point key to the German
senzano, 37 miles north of Naples and defense of the Winter Line, a series of defensive positions designed to stop the Allied
currently the headquarters of the 36th advance toward Rome.
Infantry Division. It was dark, wet, and cold, but the regiment had to reach its staging area before dawn
The trucks slowly made their way down so the enemy would not know they were there. It was a 10-mile march, and some of
muddy roads using only the dim lights of the men carried close to their own weight in weapons and equipment. They were fit
their blackout drives; no one wanted and tough and up to the task, however. They passed the bodies of Americans killed

America’s elite 1st Special Service Force gained

everlasting fame in its first combat mission by
storming Monte La Difensa in Italy and overwhelming
the defenders in a brutal six-day battle.

60 WWII SPECIAL FORCES Magnum Photo

earlier in the battle and kept going. The 1st Special Service Force had its ori-
Sergeant Donald MacKinnon of the 2nd Regiment’s 1st Company remembered, “There gins in early 1942. The Allies, searching for
was a menacing feeling about the whole thing.… We were so exhausted with the effort ways to strike at a Germany that domi-
to keep up, clawing [and] sliding our way in the very difficult conditions, that we thought, nated the European continent, were look-
if we had to go into action when we arrived, we would be useless.” ing closely at commando forces. The British
Finally, the head of the column arrived at the staging area, although the tail end had experience in creating and employing
would not arrive until nearly sunup. The men took cover in the trees and under- such troops, and the newly arrived Ameri-
growth, hiding themselves as best they could. The rain finally stopped. Behind them cans were eager to incorporate similar units
the rest of the force waited farther to the rear; the 2nd Regiment was the spearhead. of their own.
It would be the unit’s first time in combat, and it had been given a particularly hard The British conceived of creating a com-
task. The now hidden soldiers rested and waited through the day; to pass the time they mando-style force trained for winter war-
cleaned their weapons, ate cold rations, and awaited the coming of nightfall so they could fare that would spearhead a planned inva-
prove the trust placed in them was well deserved. sion of Norway. They named the concept

One of the toughest outfits

in World War II was the
1st Special Service Force,
a combined U.S.-Canadian
commando unit. In this photo
by Robert Capa, members of
the 1st SSF, nicknamed the
“Devil’s Brigade” by the
Germans, man a mountaintop
position near Cassino several
weeks after the Battle of
Monte La Difensa that took
place in early December 1943.

DEADLY DUEL for an

ITALIAN MOUNTAIN BY CHRISTOPHER MISKIMON

WWII SPECIAL FORCES 61

 National Archives

Operation Plough. Toward that end they

researched a tracked vehicle capable of
operating in snow that had been conceived
by a civilian inventor, Geoffrey Pyke.
When they realized they lacked the abil-
ity to develop the vehicle, the British offered
Pyke’s concept to the Americans. U.S.
Army Chief of Staff General George C.
Marshall accepted it and sent the plan to
American auto manufacturers for further
development. Eventually this would result
in the tracked T-15 (later the M-29)
“Weasel” cargo carrier.
Meanwhile, Operation Plough was stud-
ied by Lt. Col. Robert T. Frederick, a West
Pointer (class of 1928), then a staff officer
at the War Department. It called for a
multinational commando force made up of
Americans, Canadians, and Norwegians,
but Frederick was critical of Plough
because it lacked a realistic withdrawal
strategy for the troops. Medical personnel assigned to the 1st SSF practice parachuting from the door of a parked C-47 in Helena,
Montana. The unit was trained for airborne and mountain operations in all types of weather.
Development continued nonetheless,
with the initial idea to form the commando assumed by the United States government. Frederick had the raw clay of his commando
unit using American, Canadian, and Nor- force and set about molding it into a unit worthy of its name.
wegian soldiers in equal numbers. The The 1st SSF’s training was among the most arduous given to any Allied soldiers dur-
Norwegians proved unable to provide suf- ing the war. Physical fitness took a high priority; only men in peak condition would be
ficient numbers of qualified troops, how- able to carry out the demanding task of fighting in the cold and snow.
ever, so the project went forward using Forced marches could span 36 miles with a full load of combat equipment. The
Americans and Canadians. men also received parachute training, though the compressed time available meant
Having already caught the eye of leaders they only made two jumps rather than the normal five. This went on for several
such as General Dwight D. Eisenhower and months; the result was a cohesive unit of tough, resourceful men able to work together
Lord Louis Mountbatten, Frederick was under difficult conditions.
given command of the new force, called the First Lieutenant Bill Story recalled, “We did calisthenics, extended calisthenics…. We
Plough Force. He put out a request for vol- had the usual pushups and running from place to place, but we also did a lot of walk-
unteers—men who were single, between 21 ing, a lot of simply walking over the hills and climbing up the mountains. It was excel-
and 35, and who had had at least three lent conditioning. There was mountaineering, too.”
years of grammar school. Further, they had There was also training in small-unit tactics, weapons to include enemy small arms, and
to have had experience in the outdoors, so survival. The demolitions training was so intense and frequent that several times the men
Frederick required recruits to have worked blew up the wrong targets. Hand-to-hand combat training was provided by Ireland-born
as game wardens, lumberjacks, hunters, Captain Dermot Michael (“Pat”) O’Neill, a martial arts expert and former international
prospectors, explorers, or similar jobs. police chief in Shanghai. O’Neill showed the men how to kill using knives, garrotes, and
The Plough Force was soon renamed the just their hands and feet.
1st Special Service Force and was activated The 1st SSF was organized differently from standard infantry formations, closer to that
on July 20, 1942, at Fort William Henry of airborne or other specialized Allied formations, and reflected its binational origin.
Harrison near Helena, Montana—perfect The basic unit of the organization was the section, composed of 12 men led by a
country for such a force to train in. staff sergeant. The section included demolition specialists, a medic, and a radioman,
That same month the Canadian Army not unlike modern Special Forces teams. There were two sections in a platoon, which
detailed 697 officers and men to the force. also had a mortar team and was led by a lieutenant and platoon sergeant. Three pla-
Technically, they would remain part of the toons made up a company.
Canadian Army, but the cost of all cloth- There were three regiments, but only two battalions per regiment, and a battalion con-
ing, equipment, and expenses would be sisted of three, instead of four, companies. The 1st SSF also had a headquarters that

62 WWII SPECIAL FORCES

included service, maintenance, medical, and communications outfits of various sizes. At quickly formed; along with delaying
full strength there were nearly 2,800 men in the 1st SSF, a robust size for a commando- actions along the Volturno River, this
style establishment. promised to delay the Allied advance until
The service debut of the 1st SSF came in the Aleutian Islands on August 15, 1943, dur- the Germans were ready for them. Together
ing the invasion of Kiska. The 1st Regiment (Lt. Col. Alfred Marshall) led the assault in all these fortifications would be known as
rubber boats while the 3rd Regiment (Lt. Col. Edward Walker) came ashore the next day; the Winter Line.
the 2nd Regiment (Lt. Col. D.D. Williamson) waited offshore as a reserve. The attack The Bernhardt Line was partly com-
proved to be anticlimactic as the Japanese had evacuated three days before, leaving no posed of several mountains that over-
one to fight. looked the Mignano Gap—a route that
The event proved no more than a realistic training exercise, though the men were led into the Liri Valley and Rome beyond.
praised for their professionalism by the invasion’s commander for landing in darkness and Several mountain masses sat on each side
achieving all their objectives on schedule despite the harsh weather and difficult terrain. of the gap; on one side was Monte Lungo,
Colonel Frederick was also singled out for praise. while the other side was covered by
To make use of the 1st SSF’s talents, the unit was quickly brought back to the United Montes Maggiore, La Remetanea, La
States and, by September 1943, was training again at Fort Ethan Allen in Vermont. Difensa, and Camino.
No one told them where their next assignment would be, but they began to receive These mountains made excellent defen-
lessons on Italy and its people, so it was not hard to guess. They soon departed for sive positions and provided observation of
Hampton Roads, Virginia, where they boarded transports and departed for the the entire area. At 1,900 feet high, Monte
Mediterranean on October 28, 1943. Ahead of them lay the Winter Line, a hell of cold La Difensa and its companion peaks
weather and close combat. formed the key to holding the area; with-
From September to the winter of 1943, the Allies struggled to move up the mountain- out them the German defense would even-
ous boot of Italy toward Rome and points north. The Allies made progress, but it was tually crumble. Capturing them would be
tough going. The German commander, Field Marshal Albert Kesselring, was determined no easy task, however.
to make the advancing Anglo-American force pay for every inch of Italian soil it seized. A postwar U.S. Army study of the battle
The restricted and rugged terrain gave advantage to the defense. Kesselring chose to stated, “The Winter Line as an entity was
form a main line of resistance called the Gustav Line that ran from one coast to the other thus a formidable barrier to operations of
through Monte Cassino, but he needed time to construct its defenses. the Allied Armies. There was no single key,
In front of the Gustav Line another defensive work called the Bernhardt Line was no opportunity for a brilliant stroke that
National Archives could break it. Each mountain had to be
taken, each valley cleared, and then there
were still more mountains ahead and still
another line to be broken by dogged
infantry attacks.”
Various Allied units had tried to take
these mountains, but a combination of the
stiff defense, bad weather, and exhaustion
from previous fighting left them unable to
do so. Lt. Gen. Mark Clark, commanding
the U.S. Fifth Army, needed a force that
could break open this mountainous defense
and get the stalled Allied drive moving
again. The 1st SSF was selected for the task
and arrived in the area on November 22.
The force was attached to the 36th
Infantry Division, which had recently
relieved the 3rd Infantry Division along the
Winter Line. The men were assigned to take
1,900-foot-high Monte La Difensa and
move on to seize the adjoining Monte La
Remetanea. Frederick and his men began
The 1st SSF was part of a 35,000-man combined U.S.-Canadian operation to evict a Japanese force from
Kiska Island in the Aleutian chain, but the enemy withdrew just days before Operation Cottage began in
preparing for the difficult task ahead.
August 1943. Here 1st SSF troops service their weapons after a fruitless patrol. To defend the Winter Line, Kesselring

WWII SPECIAL FORCES 63

 Map © 2018 Philip Schwartzberg, Meridian Mapping, Minneapolis, MN

assigned General Fridolin von Senger und

Etterlin’s XIV Panzer Corps. This forma-
tion contained five divisions with differ-
ent levels of combat experience; as Monte
La Difensa was a key point, the veteran
15th Panzergrenadier Division was
assigned to hold it.
They were arrayed in depth with good
artillery support and numerous mortars
that could drop rapid and accurate fire all
along the front. The German observers
quickly registered their guns and mortars
on likely avenues of advance and estab-
lished supply and casualty evacuation
routes. Many positions were formed using
local rock to make bulletproof machine-
gun nests with interlocking fields of fire.
The objective the 1st SSF was assigned to
attack was specifically defended by about
250 men of the 3rd Battalion, 104th Panz-
ergrenadier Regiment. Next to them, about
half of the 3rd Battalion, 129th Panzer-
grenadiers was also in the 1st SSF zone; the
other half was spread into the zone of the
neighboring British 56th Division. The
local reserve for these units was the 115th
Reconnaissance Battalion.
One report put the total number of Ger-
mans defending the mountain at about
340. They were well supported by artillery,
but Allied air strikes and artillery fire made
it difficult for them to get supplies forward. ABOVE: The 1st and 2nd Battalions of the 1st SSF climbed Monte La Difensa’s steep eastern slopes,
By the time of the 1st SSF attack, they had located within the Winter Line, then attacked German positions atop Monte La Remetanea.
OPPOSITE: After battling for weeks on the Winter Line, the 1st SSF was moved to bolster the Anzio beach-
already held off Allied attacks despite being head. A night patrol, with soldiers’ faces blackened, is being briefed behind an Italian haystack before
understrength. moving out, April 20, 1944.
Monte La Difensa is a steep mountain
overall. Its lower slopes are covered in Colonel Frederick conducted personal reconnaissance of the mountain and sent 1st
scrub pine and dotted with boulders, nei- SSF scouts to reconnoiter it as well. They discovered that the position, although formi-
ther of which provided much cover or con- dable, was not without its weaknesses. Frederick flew a number of aerial reconnaissance
cealment. The upper slopes held almost no missions around the mountain and noticed many of the fighting positions were com-
vegetation, and the summit was a shallow pletely focused on the most likely direction of attack and were not situated or constructed
depression. One side contained sheer cliffs to easily defend against an assault from their flanks or rear.
that could not be climbed without special- The Germans themselves later noted this, blaming a shortage of experienced officers
ized equipment and training. and engineers for the shortcoming. Frederick noticed that the sheer cliffs on the moun-
There were many trails that were too tain’s northeast side were a difficult obstacle, but one that his men were trained and
steep even for mules, thus requiring men to equipped to overcome.
be the pack animals. Numerous deep One scouting party was formed by Major Ed Thomas, the executive officer of the 1st
ravines abounded, making any ascent even Battalion, 2nd Regiment. He took two lead scouts from the 1st Company—Staff Sgt.
more difficult. Overall, Monte La Difensa Howard Van Ausdale and Canadian Sergeant Tom Fenton.
appeared to be a natural fortress, almost Van Ausdale soon found a way to reach the base of the cliffs. Private Joseph Dauphi-
impregnable as it towered over the Allied nais of the 1st Company recalled, “Van was a king among scouts. He was a real moun-
lines. tain man; he could read terrain as you could read a book. He found an excellent route

64 WWII SPECIAL FORCES

for us to reach the front of the cliff without being detected by the Germans.” The second pair of men, Private Joseph
Frederick assigned Lt. Col. D.D. Williamson’s 2nd Regiment to lead the attack; they Dauphinais and Sergeant John Walter, fol-
would have to scale the mountain, surprise the Germans, and then continue through to lowed behind the two lead scouts and tied
Monte La Remetanea. The 1st Regiment, under Lt. Col. Alfred Marshall, would wait at their own ropes to the ones already set. The
the base of the mountain as part of the division reserve. three companies of the regiment’s 1st Bat-
Lieutenant Colonel Edwin Walker’s 3rd Regiment was assigned separate tasks for its talion (Lt. Col. Thomas MacWilliam) were
battalions; one would wait at the base of the mountain in support of the 2nd Regiment now set to ascend the cliffs and enter com-
while the other would act as supply carriers and stretcher bearers. Supporting them would bat for the first time. They carried only
be 14 battalions of divisional and corps artillery, including two battalions of 8-inch guns. their weapons, ammunition, and musette
Additionally, two battalions of tank destroyers would lend the weight of their guns to bags, as light a burden as possible to speed
the fight. their rise.
It was a tremendous massing of firepower, all available in support of Frederick and his Behind them, Moore’s 2nd Battalion
men. The mountainous terrain required the artillery to fire at high angles, however, some- waited for its turn to climb, carrying with
what blunting its effect against bunkers. them more weapons and ammunition
The men of the 1st SSF had trained long and hard for their part in the war. They had along with water. Farther down the slope,
been disappointed in the Aleutians but now Canadian War Memorial
had the chance to prove their unit and
themselves worthy of the effort that had
gone into creating it. Frederick was deter-
mined not to let the opportunity slip
through his hands.
As dusk settled over the Winter Line on
December 2, it was now time for the 1st
SSF to make its attack. A heavy barrage
started at 4:30 PM, with some 925 Allied
guns saturating German positions all along
the front line. Thousands of high-explosive
shells slammed into the mountain defenses,
joined by the bursting of white phospho-
rous rounds, which sent burning plumes of
white smoke in all directions.
As the artillery crashed and thundered
above, the men of the 2nd Regiment slowly
made their way up the mountain, trailing
each other in single-file columns along the
trails discovered earlier by the scouts. Some
of them looked up at the barrage and nicknamed Monte La Difensa the “Million Dollar part of Walker’s 3rd Regiment prepared to
Mountain,” estimating the cost of the ammunition being expended upon it. carry out its supply runs, loaded down with
In reply, the German artillery opened fire, using its preplanned targeting to hit the var- food, more water, medical supplies, and
ious trails they suspected the Allied troops might take, as well as the existing defensive ever more ammunition. It was a tense time;
positions of the 36th Division. if any unit were spotted, surprise would be
As a result, the force’s command post, aid station, and supply points all took fire to lost and the whole force exposed to Ger-
varying degrees. This artillery duel, daunting and spectacular as it was, caused little may- man fire.
hem on either side; the 1st SSF was on the move, and the Germans were well dug in. Finally, at 1 AM, Frederick gave the order
Williamson’s 2nd Regiment reached the base of the cliffs on the northeastern side of for the 1st Battalion to begin its ascent.
Monte La Difensa by 10:30 PM; now it was time to begin climbing. Two pairs of men Two at a time, the soldiers made their way
were selected to take the ropes up the cliffs. The lead pair—Staff Sgt. Ausdale and Cana- up the cliff. The tension grew even worse;
dian Sergeant Fenton again—went first, using the best climbing route to the top of the each tiny sound of the ascent seemed to
mountain that they had already scouted. echo loudly, causing the men to wonder if
Stealthily the two men picked their way up the 70-degree slope of the cliff using only the Germans had heard them. A cold rain
their hands and feet for purchase. Upon reaching the summit, they had to dodge a nearby was falling, making the rocks slick but
German sentry but succeeded in tying off their ropes. likely masking what little noise they were

WWII SPECIAL FORCES 65

 National Archives

making. The artillery had shifted fire, but

this was actually good. The rounds striking
the new target, Monte Remetanea, caused
echoes that further stifled the noise of the
Allied climbers.
Two hours later, the 1st Company had
scaled the mountain and all stood at the
top, formed into a rough skirmish line,
creeping carefully to their left. The 2nd
Company was entirely at the summit at
4:30 AM and took its place in the center.
Finally, the men of 3rd Company made
their way up the ropes and occupied the
After the 1st SSF was disbanded in December 1944, Maj. Gen. Robert T. Frederick (left) became CG of the 45th
right flank. In their first combat action, Infantry Division. Canadian Lieutenant J. Kostelec (center) wears the red spearhead patch on his field jacket.
the 1st SSF had achieved complete sur- Sergeant Cyril V. Krotzer of Scranton, Pennsylvania, is well armed with grenade and tommy gun.
prise—the Germans were unaware of an
enemy battalion in their rear, as they had explosions, and screams of pain and rage. Sergeant Joe Glass of 1st Company later
not guarded it sufficiently due to the cliffs remembered, “We got into it right away.… We had fixed our bayonets because we
they thought unassailable. Now it was anticipated hand-to-hand combat, and thank God we did, because we were working
time to attack. real close.… I’m not sure what happened those first few seconds. But in no time at
The 1st Company’s 3rd Platoon was at all, I didn’t have a grenade left.”
the front of that attack, and scout Howard Glass described how he used one of those grenades: “There was a Kraut down below
Van Ausdale was in the lead. Suddenly, as me over a ledge shooting tracers straight up in the air. I just dropped one right down on
he crept forward, a German sentry his head. They’re good weapons, if you know how to use them.”
appeared and saw Van Ausdale. The Amer- The Germans had been taken by surprise, but they were reacting quickly; they had no
ican quickly drew his Fairbairn-Sykes fight- choice if they wanted to survive. The 2nd Regiment men were attacking just as savagely,
ing knife and stabbed his opponent quietly though, pouring fire into the enemy positions. Private Kenneth Betts helped man a
enough so that it did not alert any others. machine gun, firing on any German he could see. Soon the gun was empty, so Betts picked
Not yet dead, the German rolled down up a rifle from a dead comrade and went forward. The Germans turned their own
the slope and landed near a sergeant named machine guns around so they could engage this threat from their rear.
Waling, who watched the enemy soldier Private Joseph Dauphinais found himself close to an MG-42, its crews firing burst after
gasping for air. Moments later, Waling con- burst at him. He had little cover and could only watch the muzzle flashes as the bullets
tinued forward with the rest of the men, sought him out. Finally, one struck him, and he passed out.
now only yards away from their foes. The courageous Sergeant Van Ausdale continued to make a difference wherever he
Suddenly, a German voice called out in went that morning. The last German positions atop the mountain were several machine-
the darkness. Stories vary as to what alerted gun nests, and the crews of the MG-42s within them were pouring a murderous fire into
the German; one version points to some the Allied ranks.
loose rocks, kicked as the men covered the A sergeant named McGinty was leading his section in an attack on one of the machine-
last few feet. Another story points to a hel- gun nests but had become pinned down. Van Ausdale and his fellow scout Sergeant Fen-
met falling off a man’s head. Whatever the ton laid down fire on the enemy until McGinty could evacuate his wounded. Van Aus-
case, just after the German called out he dale then rounded up eight men, called for three rounds from the company 60mm mortar,
was answered with gunfire. and directed a machine-gun team to lay down its own fire onto the Germans, who were
Sergeant Donald MacKinnon recalled, inside a cave.
“That’s when machine-gun fire opened up The incoming fire worked, and Van Ausdale led his section over the ledge and into the
all around us.” It was about 5:30 AM; flares cave, using bayonets and grenades to eliminate the defenders. Another MG-42 farther
soared into the sky, shedding stark illumi- up the mountainside soon fell victim to the same tactics.
nation across the rocky landscape. Mortar Lieutenant Colonel Thomas MacWilliam, the 1st Battalion commander, now sent
rounds flew through the air to land among his 1st Company, under Lieutenant C.W. Rothlin, and Captain Stan Waters’ 2nd Com-
the men, who replied with grenades and pany to take out the remaining nests. They ordered the 3rd Platoon of 1st Company
fixed bayonets. to lay down fire while the rest of the two companies outflanked the machine guns. A
The top of Monte La Difensa erupted platoon under a lieutenant named Kaasch formed a skirmish line while the officer went
into a hell of hand-to-hand combat, ahead with two men.

66 WWII SPECIAL FORCES

 They succeeded in flanking the first gun, causing its entire crew to surrender. The men now led by 1st Lt. Larry Piette, who spread
then advanced on the second gun, but that crew kept firing; a storm of grenades settled his men out to make them less vulnerable
the issue, leaving most of the Germans dead around their weapon. to incoming mortar and sniper fire. “The
With two more machine guns out of action, most of the remaining panzergrenadiers Krauts fought like they didn’t have any
decided they’d had enough. Many began retreating across the narrow saddle that sepa- intention of losing the war,” remembered
rates Monte La Difensa from nearby Monte Remetanea. Those who couldn’t get away another lieutenant. “We didn’t take any
surrendered; for a few minutes the mountainside was dotted with white flags and Ger- prisoners. Fighting like that, you don’t
mans with their hands held high. look for any.” Another soldier was told to
A few panzergrenadiers were still fighting, however, and this led to tragedy. The 1st escort a captured officer back down the
Company commander, Lieutenant Rothlin, was dealing with a group of surrendering mountain. He returned just a few minutes
enemy when he was shot in the face. Accounts vary; some say he raised his head or left later, reporting, “The son of a bitch died of
a position of cover to check on some Germans who had raised their hands. Others claim pneumonia.”
he was escorting some men who had already surrendered. Another story stated the Ger- By 7 AM, Lt. Col. MacWilliam had
mans would feign surrender with submachine guns concealed behind their backs. What- deployed his 1st Battalion in defensive posi-
ever the cause, Rothlin was killed in the chaos of the moment. tions, ready to repel an expected German
In response, several men adopted a “take no prisoners” attitude. The company was counterattack. The men were positioned to
National Archives defend the south and west faces of the
mountain; Monte Remetanea lay to the
west and was still held by the Germans.
The 2nd Regiment’s 2nd Battalion, under
Lt. Col. Bob Moore, had just begun to
arrive on the mountaintop. The fresh
troops began replacing the 1st Battalion
men so they could prepare to push on
toward Monte Remetanea; MacWilliam
wanted to move on Remetanea before the
Germans could regain their balance. The
Allied commander also realized the Amer-
ican 36th Division’s 142nd Regiment was
attacking adjacent to them and would be
hard pressed to hold their gains unless the
Germans were pushed back farther.
The 1st Battalion formed up to
advance, and true to form MacWilliam
and his staff took position at the front,
ready to lead their men forward. German
mortar and artillery fire began landing
among them, and enemy snipers fired at
whatever target appeared in their sights.
MacWilliam, at the head of the 1st Com-
pany, had just given the order to move
out. In the very next moment a mortar
round exploded in their midst, killing the
commander and two others.
One soldier recalled, “I looked back just
in time to see them disappear—it was just
a red mist.” The rest of the staff was
wounded, blast and shrapnel pelting the
entire group.
The much-needed assault, necessary to
The 1st SSF was one of the first Allied units to enter the Imperial City on June 4, 1944. Here the unit’s prevent the Germans from regaining their
command post is set up in the rugged mountains north of Rome. balance, was momentarily stopped in its

WWII SPECIAL FORCES 67

 tracks. Taking MacWilliam’s place was tenant remembered sharing his foxhole with an enemy soldier. “He didn’t bum any cig-
Major Ed Thomas, the executive officer of arettes or anything, because he was dead.”
1st Battalion, 2nd Regiment. At about 8:35 AM, Frederick was given a message from a British liaison officer stat-
Colonel Frederick soon arrived as well ing that the adjacent British 169th Brigade had taken several hills including Monte
and told Thomas to wait until more men Camino. Unfortunately, the Germans actually still had a presence on the northwestern
and ammunition could be brought up. The side of Camino and were using it to direct fire on the 1st SSF. They were also reinforc-
colonel had made his headquarters at the ing the saddle between Difensa and Camino. The U.S. 142nd Infantry Regiment was also
base of the mountain but climbed the ropes pushing forward to its objectives, unwilling to wait for Monte Remetanea to be taken.
to personally see what was happening. The resupply efforts were taking time, so Frederick decided to wait until dawn the next
Frederick moved among the troops, morning for 2nd Regiment’s attack. He told the unit’s leaders to use artillery fire
sending out patrols and slowly expanding overnight against the German positions and to send out patrols to eliminate any Ger-
the patch of rocky ground the 1st SSF held mans to their south. Later, as Walker’s 3rd Regiment began arriving with fresh supplies,
and constantly exposing himself to enemy word came that the British had lost Camino to a German counterattack.
fire to lead the men forward. One captain That resupply effort was almost as miraculous as the successful ascent of the moun-
National Archives tain by the attacking 1st SSF men. Each
man carried a packboard on his back,
loaded with jerrycans of water, packages of
rations, and heavy burdens of ammuni-
tion. Blankets and medical supplies added
more weight. It took eight hours to get up
the mountain with such a load, and snipers
shot at them the entire way.
Once at the summit, their supplies
unloaded, they now had to return to the bot-
tom, usually carrying a wounded man using
a complex arrangement of ropes to lower
him to the bottom. It took 10 hours and
eight men to get one casualty down Monte
La Difensa and to a waiting ambulance.
At first, some of the men grumbled that
acting as supply troops was beneath their
training and skills. Such talk stopped once
they realized that no ordinary medics,
stretcher bearers, or quartermaster men
could possibly have gotten either up or
down the mountain. They were saving
lives no one else could have saved.
Colonel Frederick requested additional
supplies, causing raised eyebrows among
the supporting logistics officers. He
A heavily laden Force man and his buddy take a wanted whiskey and condoms sent to the top of Monte La Difensa, reportedly causing
break during a march near Cevaro, east of Cassino, some to wonder what kind of party was happening far above them. Frederick’s inten-
January 1944. Within a month they would be fight-
ing at Anzio. tions were much less sordid, however; the whiskey was to warm the men, who were suf-
fering in the cold and damp weather. The condoms were to be placed over the muzzles
recalled, “His indifference to enemy fire of their weapons to keep them dry, a trick the 1st SSF picked up in the frozen Aleutians.
was hard to explain, as there were times The unusual request got as far as Mark Clark, who approved it, saying something like,
when a heavy barrage of mortar fire would “They took the mountain, give them what they want.”
send us scurrying for cover only to come The Germans continued to do all they could to prevent the Allied troops from reach-
back and find him smoking a cigarette— ing the top or getting back down again. Snipers used tracer rounds to direct mortar and
in the same position and place we had artillery fire. They knew where the trails were and swept fire back and forth along them,
vacated in a hurry.” concentrating on each end of the paths to prevent easy escape. Many 1st SSF men were
The 1st SSF men grimly held on; a lieu- wounded and the rest exhausted in this deadly and dangerous work.

68 WWII SPECIAL FORCES

National Archives

strength was reduced by 40 percent—a

horrible number of casualties. The remain-
der quickly regrouped, however, and
moved up the trail to join their comrades.
At dawn on December 4, the situation
was still far from clear. There were reports
of strong German positions south of
Remetanea, and Frederick still worried
about a counterattack. He decided to post-
pone his attack another day, until dawn on
the 5th. Throughout the day more patrols
went out; often the 1st SSF men coming
down the slope from La Difensa met Ger-
man patrols coming up from Remetanea.
It was foggy, and the rain continued;
sometimes the mist would clear suddenly,
exposing men to snipers. Men shot at each
other through the fog; if it cleared, all
would take cover and wait for the patrol
leader to decide whether to attack or dis-
engage. Accurate mortar fire made the sit-
uation even worse. A German specialty
was a six-round volley with an adjustment
afterward. Major Ed Thomas, who had
taken command of the 1st Battalion after
MacWilliam was killed, became a casualty
when he jumped into a foxhole during a
bombardment and landed on a soldier’s
bayonet; Major Walter Gray assumed
command.
Besides parachute training, the 1st SSF also became proficient at mountain operations. Here Force men In the afternoon a pair of prisoners was
climb a Rocky Mountain peak at Fort William Henry Harrison, Montana.
brought in by a patrol. In return for a few
As the resupply effort went on, Frederick’s intelligence officer, Lieutenant Finn Roll, boxes of K-rations, these POWs revealed
interrogated 43 Germans taken prisoner atop La Difensa. He learned their enemy was an impending counterattack planned for 3
the 15th Panzergrenadier Division, at least a battalion of which was still dug in at the the next morning. A nearby artillery
top. Roll also knew about 75 enemy dead had been counted from the morning’s assault; observer confirmed the information when
the 1st SSF had lost about 20 killed and 160 wounded in the same period. he saw about 400 Germans gathering
Several men remembered one German medic who had declined to be evacuated with nearby. Artillery was called in to break up
his fellow prisoners. Instead, he stayed at the summit, tending to the injured there. One the concentration, and the men on the
soldier suffered from a sucking chest wound, a serious and often fatal condition that the front lines were told to stay alert through-
Allied medics had been unable to remedy. The experienced German medic treated the out the night.
man successfully; the wounded he treated hoped to thank him later, but his eventual fate A small comfort was gained when the
is unknown. prisoners also revealed the Germans were
After nightfall, rain added to the 1st SSF’s plight. The tired men atop La Difensa peered in a poor state of supply as well. The rain
into the dark and fog, tensely awaiting a German counterattack. Patrols groped around, was flooding their routes, and many of
trying to determine the enemy positions and strengths. their mules had been lost to Allied artillery
While the 2nd Regiment endured, down below the 1st Regiment was released from fire. Eventually the rain ceased but it was
the divisional reserve, and its commander, Lt. Col. Marshall, moved them to reinforce another cold night on the mountain, bol-
their fellow troops on La Difensa. Not long after they started along the route they were stered only by the few sips of whiskey each
spotted by alert German observers, who fell back on their proven tactic of marking the man received, compliments of Colonel
Allied position with tracer rounds. The luminescent bullets were soon followed by a Frederick. The expected enemy attack
heavy barrage of cannon fire that last 20 minutes. In that brief time, the regiment’s never came.

WWII SPECIAL FORCES 69

 National Archives

A 1st SSF man armed with a bazooka (3.5-inch dig in. More patrols went out while most of the troops waited until dark.
rocket launcher) fires at a farmhouse near Anzio Moore’s 2nd Battalion, 2nd Regiment, reinforced by a company from 1st Regiment,
where German snipers are holed up.
moved toward the saddle between Monte Camino and La Difensa at about 4:30 PM, hop-
The next morning, the 1st SSF’s attack ing to crack the German defenses there. Under cover of smoke, the 5th Company, under
was again delayed, but a trio of patrols a Captain Hubbard, led the assault.
went out to gain more information in the When they approached the first of the German positions at a pair of knobs they called
hopes the attack could proceed that after- “warts,” the Germans opened fire. The 1st SSF men lacked cover and had no choice
noon. One patrol sought to find the enemy but to push on or be destroyed by mortar fire. They reached the enemy bunkers and
on Monte Remetanea but found no activ- dropped grenades into the firing embrasures. Lieutenant Wayne Boyce, leading the 1st
ity. The second pushed out toward the Platoon of 5th Company, led his men to flank the enemy on three sides, drawing their
142nd Infantry, but no contact was made full attention in a battle for survival. The first wart was soon in Allied hands.
with them or the enemy. The last patrol Boyce regrouped his platoon and led them on an attack on the second wart. He was
likewise went to find the British 169th hit during this attack but stayed in the fight, refusing to stop or be evacuated. The lieu-
Brigade but could not make contact either. tenant leapt into a German machine-gun nest, using his knife to kill several Germans
Despite not being able to find the flanking until he was caught by a burst from a submachine gun. Still, he stayed in command of
units, Frederick was encouraged that the his men despite serious wounds. Before long the second wart was in their hands, but trag-
enemy had not been contacted either, and ically Boyce died just as his men completed the task.
so he prepared to attack. The 2nd Battalion, 2nd Regiment occupied the warts and dug in for the night. More
At 1 PM, Major Gray moved out with all reinforcements came up, but the night passed without a German counterattack. Some
three companies of 1st Battalion, 2nd Reg- of the men were able to watch the British artillery pounding a German-occupied
iment, bolstered by one company from 3rd monastery on nearby Hill 963.
Regiment. They moved on Remetanea, the The next morning at 10, the 1st Battalion, led by Major Gray, attacked Monte
bulk of the troops along the northern slope Remetanea. They took the now ubiquitous machine-gun and mortar fire from
of the ridge with patrols using the south- nearby hills, but there was little direct opposition. The Germans were retreating
ern slope. The patrols soon came under and had left only a token force as a rear guard. The 1st SSF’s attack came so quickly
mortar and machine-gun fire, which soon that it took many Germans by surprise, in particular a bivouac area where the enemy
spread to the entire attacking force, caus- still had tents pitched.
ing it to stop halfway to the objective and A number of Germans were killed when they came running out of their tents, firing

70 WWII SPECIAL FORCES

wildly. Many more were captured; one 1st SSF captain personally took 19 prisoners. By sions, and fractures, even amputations. It
noon Monte Remetanea was at last in Allied hands. was withdrawn from the line for 11 days
With that objective secured, the unit pushed down toward the valley below, realizing of rest and reconstitution.
that the enemy was in retreat. Frederick wanted to capitalize on the situation but knew Afterward, the 1st SSF went back into
his men were suffering from exhaustion and the cold weather. Snipers were still a prob- the fight, tasked with taking more moun-
lem, and the men noticed every time they were using their radios German mortar fire taintops that other units had been unable
soon fell on the radio’s location. to seize. On one of them, Monte Majo,
Frederick saw a group of Germans coming up a draw southwest on Monte Camino, Marshall’s 1st Regiment ran so low on
and he told the 36th Division commander that, unless the British could take Camino by ammunition that it had to use captured
nightfall, he should let the 1st SSF attack it instead. No such order came, and the men weapons. Despite this, it repulsed more
dug in for another night, enduring more sniper and mortar fire and awaiting a coun- than 40 counterattacks.
terattack that thankfully never came. In February 1944, the unit was sent into
Finally, on the morning of December 7, the Force men linked up with British patrols the Anzio beachhead, the Allied attempt
on their flank. A near-tragedy occurred when a British patrol fired on some 1st SSF men to outflank the Winter Line and expose
in a dense fog. The situation was cleared up before anyone was hit. Another British Rome to capture. There, remnants of the
patrol arrived at the 2nd Regiment headquarters and was surprised by how many majors decimated Darby’s Rangers were sent to
and colonels were present at the front lines. Lt. Col. Williamson told them that the unit the 1st SSF as replacements. The unit held
believed leaders should lead from the front—so that’s where they were. a place in the line and took part in leading
The battle was winding down, but there was still fighting to be done. A platoon-sized the eventual breakout in May.
patrol from 1st Battalion, 2nd Regiment was sent to link up with the British. It instead Later that summer, the 1st SSF would be
came across a strong enemy position defended by 50 Germans. The patrol leader real- incorporated into the First Airborne Task
ized he was ill equipped to take on such a large force of well-armed enemy and wisely Force for the invasion of Southern France.
pulled back. Afterward, however, the unit, which had
Elsewhere, 1st SSF men hunted for the few remaining snipers who still plagued them; accomplished so many arduous missions
most of the snipers were lone soldiers cut off from their comrades. Other Force men at long odds, was simply disbanded. It was
struggled to bring the last of the wounded down the mountain. a common fate for many such units during
Overhead, the weather cleared and Army Air Forces transports tried to drop additional the war. Many senior leaders lacked famil-
supplies, but most fell out of reach. The next day, December 8, Major Gray sent his entire iarity with relatively small, specialized
battalion to take out the German outpost his patrol had found the day before. Plenty organizations that did not easily fit into a
of artillery was laid on, and the clear weather aided in coordinating the attack. conventional order of battle.
The 1st SSF men advanced under the cover of a rolling barrage. Fully half the Ger- In its relatively short life, the 1st Special
man force was killed, and seven were captured. It was the last fighting the 1st SSF would Service Force proved what a well-trained,
do on the mountain. The German troops were found to be part of the Hermann Göring motivated and disciplined group of sol-
Division, sent in to bolster the rear guard. diers could accomplish when they were
That night two battalions of the 142nd Infantry arrived to take over the Monte La well led and given tasks within their broad
Difensa area. The 1st SSF was relieved and slowly made its way back down the moun- capabilities. Frederick was, in time, pro-
tain. Later, in daylight, some were amazed to look at the terrain they had climbed and moted to major general and later com-
attacked through. manded the 45th Infantry Division. He
Their replacements were similarly amazed at the state of the men; many stared at the was one of the youngest generals of the
bloody, filthy, exhausted men who had accomplished in a few days what the regular war, retiring in 1952.
infantrymen had been unable to in weeks. The next day, they boarded trucks for a jour- The exploits of the 1st SSF would be cel-
ney back to where they had started, the barracks at Santa Maria. ebrated in the 1968 war movie The Devil’s
On December 10, Colonel Frederick received a pair of messages. The first was from Brigade, starring William Holden as
the II Corps commander, Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Keyes. It acknowledged the difficult con- Colonel Frederick. A number of books have
ditions under which the unit fought and congratulated them on a mission well accom- also been written on the unit, and a website
plished. The second message was from Lt. Gen. Mark Clark, commanding the Fifth honoring the 1st SSF men ([Link]-
Army. It further noted the difficulty of making a successful night attack in mountain- [Link]) is full of personal pho-
ous terrain against a tenacious enemy. Clark also praised the 1st SSF for doing so well tographs of the men and the locations they
in its first combat action. served in. Both the modern-day Canadian
In six days of combat, the unit had suffered about 25 percent casualties, including 73 and American Special Forces draw impor-
dead, nine missing, 313 wounded, and 116 suffering from exhaustion. The casualty lists tant parts of their heritage from the 1st SSF,
showed the dreadful causes: gunshots, mortar fragments, grenade lacerations, concus- which both still honor today.

WWII SPECIAL FORCES 71

 Still a
Splendid
Sight
Merrill’s Marauders, ranks
depleted by combat and disease,
gained fame while fighting behind enemy
lines in Burma and attacking the
important town of Myitkyina.
By Al Hemingway

rivate First Class Frank Rinaldi cautiously made his way through the

P dense foliage. He and other soldiers were on patrol when they heard the unmis-
takable sound of Japanese voices, and they inched their way forward to inves-
tigate. To their surprise, they had stumbled upon a group of enemy combatants per-
forming close-order drill. Rinaldi and the others had been in the jungles of Burma for
months and had become experts in jungle fighting, and soon learned how to sneak
up on the enemy without being detected. They were members of an elite unit referred
to as Merrill’s Marauders.
As the patrol moved closer, the machine gunner, a Chicago native named Farino,
held up his hand and whispered, “They’re mine.” Suddenly, the air erupted with the
crack of .30-caliber rounds ripping into the Japanese. “After it was over,” Rinaldi later

With pack mules in tow, soldiers of the 5307th Composite Unit, dubbed Merrill’s Marauders by the press,
National Archives

cross the Chindwin River in Burma on a foot bridge, March 17, 1944. The Marauders became a legend but
paid a terrible price in the process.

72 WWII SPECIAL FORCES

 National Archives

said, “we counted 80 bodies.”

Since the outbreak of World War II, the
Japanese had moved rapidly and seized
most of Burma. Lt. Gen. Joseph W. Stil-
well, CBI (China-Burma-India) comman-
der, remarked, “I claim we got a hell-of-a-
beating. We got run out of Burma, and it
was humiliating as hell. I think we ought
to find out what caused it, go back, and
retake it.”
The eccentric British Major General
Orde C. Wingate had organized and
trained a group of jungle fighters in 1942
to take the war to the Japanese deep within
the Burmese jungles. The unit was offi-
cially named the 77th Indian Infantry
Brigade, but everyone knew it by its nick-
name, the Chindits, a mythical beast, half-
eagle and half-lion, that guarded the Bud-
dhist temples throughout the country.
Wingate’s Chindits participated in a raid,
dubbed Operation Longcloth, in February
1943 that really did not accomplish any-
thing militarily. It did, however, excite the
public back in Britain, which was starving
for any positive news from the CBI The-
ater. Because of this, the Chindits’ popu-
larity rose, and they took part in Opera-
tion Thursday in early 1944.
Captivated by the aura that surrounded
the Chindits, President Franklin Delano
Roosevelt ordered that an American unit,
similar to Wingate’s Chindits, be formed
General Joseph Stilwell (left), commander of Allied forces in the China-Burma-India Theater, confers with
to fight in the CBI Theater. It would be the General Frank Merrill during a moment of relaxation
first and only U.S. ground force in World
War II to fight on the Asian mainland. Merrill, sporting his wire-rimmed glasses and clenching a pipe between his teeth,
Volunteers came from various Army resembled a college professor rather than a combat leader. Merrill, however, had gar-
units for a “dangerous and hazardous mis- nered an impressive record since graduating from the United States Military Academy
sion.” Approximately 3,000 soldiers in 1929. He received an engineering degree from MIT and was assistant military attaché
answered FDR’s call, and they created the in Tokyo in 1938, where he studied Japanese and Chinese. Since the start of the war,
5307th Composite Unit (Provisional), Merrill had been enjoying a meteoric rise from major to major general in a short span
codenamed Galahad. The men were split of time and he was assigned to lead the newly organized unit that would bear his name.
up into six combat teams: Red, White, After a long and arduous ocean voyage, the unit disembarked in Bombay, India, and
Blue, Green, Orange, and Khaki; two began jungle warfare training under the auspices of Brig. Gen. Francis G. Brink, who
teams were in a battalion with the remain- had experience training Chinese troops in long-range patrolling and operating behind
der of the soldiers forming headquarters enemy lines. After a 10-day exercise with the Chindits, Galahad was sent to northern
company and air transport units. Burma in January 1944 to link up with Stilwell’s force comprising Chinese, Kachins
This was an odd name for a combat unit, (Burmese natives), Indian, and British forces.
but soon Life magazine reporter James From February 1944 until April of that same year, the Marauders had fought bitter
Shepley dubbed the group “Merrill’s battles at Walawbum, Shaduzup, Inkangahtawng and Nhpum Ga. In addition, they had
Marauders,” after the outfit’s leader, Brig. over 30 minor engagements and inflicted numerous casualties upon the elite 18th Japan-
Gen. Frank D. Merrill. ese Division. The unit had compiled a remarkable record in a short period of time. After

74 WWII SPECIAL FORCES

the Walawbum campaign, where the infantrymen pushed the enemy from their positions enough strength to return to take them
and killed and wounded over 800, Merrill commented, “Between us and the Chinese, another mile.”
we forced the Japanese to withdraw farther in the last three days than they have in the On May 6, the advance elements of K
last three months of fighting.” Force arrived at Riptong, where they knew
Unfortunately, the rigors of jungle warfare had taken their toll on the Marauders. a sizable Japanese garrison was stationed.
Since beginning the campaign, the riflemen had marched an astonishing 750 miles in Colonel Kinnison opted to envelop the
some of the worst terrain in any theater of operations. Disease and battle casualties had enemy. He sent 1st Lt. Logan Weston and
drastically reduced the unit’s combat effectiveness. Out of the nearly 3,000 men, only his platoon to hack at the dense jungle on
1,400 remained— and some of these soldiers needed to be evacuated. Men could barely the south side of the village. While Logan’s
walk and suffered from such severe dysentery that they slit the seats of their trousers so men were establishing their blocking posi-
they could keep moving. Because there were no reinforcements for them, Stilwell aug- tion, the Khaki and Orange Teams pro-
mented the force with Kachins and Chinese troops for a total strength of 7,000. Stilwell ceeded in a wide arc to the south to further
pressed the Galahad force even harder and gave them a new assignment: take the airstrip cut off any escape attempt by the Japanese.
at Myitkyina, code-named Operation End Run. Orange Team arrived on the heels of Khaki
A complete reorganization took place for the Myitkyina operation. The 2nd Battal- and set up its 60mm and 81mm mortars to
ion was the most depleted of the lot after sustaining numerous casualties at Nhpum Ga. support the Chinese infantry ordered to
With just enough men to form two rifle companies, 300 Kachin guerrillas boosted their seize the village.
numbers. This was designated M Force under Lt. Col. George A. McGee, Jr. Enemy snipers soon began harassing the
Colonel Charles N. Hunter was given the 1st Battalion with the Chinese 150th Reg- Marauder’s positions with rifle fire. Private
iment from their 50th Division. Several 75mm pack howitzers were added to Hunter’s Charles A. Page was seriously wounded
command, which was named H Force. and died four days later. Private Anthony
Lastly, the 3rd Battalion and the Chinese 88th Regiment, 30th Division was consoli- Colombo later said, “We knew that he was
dated into K Force and commanded by Colonel Henry L. Kinnison, Jr. They were given going to die. I was 19 years old and he was
the artillery from the Marauders for additional firepower for the upcoming campaign. 18, and from what I understand it was his
Merrill, who had a heart attack after Galahad’s second operation, had recovered suffi- birthday. I just sat and held his hand as he
ciently and rejoined the Marauders. lay there.”
In late April, Stilwell arrived at Merrill’s headquarters at Naubum to confer with him On May 7, the sounds of the Chinese
on the upcoming operation. The plan had H and K Forces traveling north to Taikri, then bugles of the 88th Regiment permeated the
turning sharply east, traversing the Kumon Mountains, and arriving at Riptong. From air as two companies prepared to attack
there, both groups would make their way south all the way to Myitkyina. M Force Riptong. Moving on the village, the Chi-
would move parallel to the others, acting as flankers to stop any enemy troops from nese took extensive casualties as the enemy
advancing northward to strike at H and K Forces. opened up with mortars and automatic
On April 28, K Force began its arduous trek into the Tanai Valley and over the Kumon weapons fire. The Marauders supported
Range. Several days later, H Force jumped off. The march was approximately 65 miles, the Chinese with machine guns and mor-
but one-fifth of it was over the toughest ground ever encountered by the Marauders. To tars but had to be careful not to drop shells
make matters worse, the trail the men were to use had not been traveled in 10 years. A on the advancing Chinese infantry. Japan-
group of Kachins and 30 laborers, under the leadership of Captain William A. Laffin ese defenders assaulted the Marauders’
and 2nd Lt. Paul Dunlap, took the point to clear the unforgiving underbrush for the rest roadblock in an attempt to breach the
of the party. perimeter and make their escape but were
To add to their misery, torrential monsoon rains began. Rain fell every day, and the driven back.
humid tropical air was unbearable. The loads had to be taken off the pack mules and By May 9, the Chinese had successfully
carried by the soldiers up the steeper cliffs for fear that the animals would slip and fall. taken Riptong. One Marauder medical
In spite of this, Khaki Team alone had 15 mules lose their footing and, in some cases, officer estimated that “about one-third of
fall hundreds of feet to their deaths. the two companies of Chinese became
The other Marauders experienced the same harsh elements as they slowly snaked their casualties.” However, it became evident
way toward their objective. In his book, The Marauders, former member Charlton that they had inflicted heavier casualties
Ogburn, Jr., relates the misery of the trek: “We were scarcely ever dry. When the rain on the Japanese when one prisoner said
stopped and the sun came out, evaporation would begin. The land steamed. The com- under interrogation that 90 of his com-
bination of heat and moisture was smothering. You had to fight through it. For those rades were killed and only 40 managed to
most weakened by disease, it was too much. For the first time you began to pass men escape. Later, Marauder patrols would kill
fallen out beside the trail, men who were not just complying with the demands of dysen- 36 of these enemy soldiers.
tery—we were used to that—but were sitting bent over their weapons, waiting for The battle at Riptong had undoubtedly

WWII SPECIAL FORCES 75

 National Archives
alerted the Japanese to a sizable enemy ABOVE: Passing through a Burmese village in March 1944, a group of Merrill’s Marauders emerge from the
force in the area. Colonel Hunter’s H Force thick jungle. Along with the Japanese, disease and harsh climactic conditions often proved to be destructive
attempted to make a dash for Myitkyina, foes. OPPOSITE: Going over final instructions, a squad of Marauders prepares to move out on a mission to
silence a Japanese machine gun position that has been impeding their progress.
a mere 35 miles away. To protect Hunter’s
flank, K Force was ordered to the village As American and Chinese mortars tried to soften the enemy’s defenses, riflemen scur-
of Tingkrukawng, to assist a group of ried to envelop the Japanese but met with no success. By late afternoon, the Marauders
Kachins and Gurkhas embroiled in a bat- located the Japanese fortifications. In his book, Spearhead: A Complete History of Mer-
tle there. rill’s Marauder Rangers, author and former Orange Combat Team surgeon James E.T.
By the morning of May 12, lead elements Hopkins wrote, “The entire battle area was covered by dense jungle with massive hard-
of K Force had reached the outskirts of wood trees and dense low vegetation, including much thick and heavy bamboo. The
Tingkrukawng. One of the scouts erro- Japanese defenses dominated all approaches.”
neously thought he saw a group of Chinese Even medical personnel were susceptible to Japanese fire as Hopkins would soon find
on the trail and he greeted them, only to out when the battle resumed the next morning. As the team of doctors was operating,
find out they were Japanese when they a Japanese machine gun let loose devastating fire on the makeshift operating room.
quickly scattered. Soon Khaki and Orange Hopkins describes the courage of several muleskinners trying to silence the weapon:
Teams, together with the Chinese 89th “Pfc. H.T. Pausch’s heroic action cost him his life, and that of Pvt. Clayton A. Vantol
Infantry Regiment, prepared for the attack. resulted in his being wounded. These two and several other muleskinners worked their
As the infantrymen pressed forward, way toward the gun and, at about fifty yards’ range, a burst from the gun caught Pausch
enemy machine-gun bullets wounded sev- in the chest, causing his instant death.” The deadly machine gun nest was eventually
eral men, nearly killing the cameraman wiped out by the Marauders.
accompanying them. Orange Team’s K and Realizing he could not dislodge the enemy with the troops he had, Kinnison was sat-
L Companies attempted to reach the village isfied that he had held up the enemy long enough, and Hunter’s group was well on its
but met stiff resistance. Colonel Kinnison way to Myitkyina. Under the protective umbrella of an artillery barrage, K Force slipped
soon estimated that well-entrenched battal- away and set out to link up with H Force.
ions of Japanese were in the village. On May 13, Merrill fired off a message to Stilwell that read: “Can stop this show up

76 WWII SPECIAL FORCES

 till noon tomorrow, when die will be cast, if you think it too much of a gamble. Per- duct the main assault, with Colonel Kin-
sonal opinion is that we have a fair chance and that we should try.” Stilwell concurred nison’s K Force on the eastern side.
and penned in his diary: “Hunter expected to give us the 48-hour signal tonight. I told Colonel McGee’s M Force, which had just
Merrill to roll in and swing on ‘em.” arrived after an arduous trek through the
Hunter’s weary H Force, consisting of the 1st Battalion of Merrill’s Marauders, the jungle, was to shield Hunter’s western
150th Chinese Regiment, the 3rd Company Animal Transport Regiment, and a detach- flank.
ment from the 22nd Division artillery, trudged into the village of Lazu where Hunter The Kachin lead scout, trained by OSS
immediately formulated plans for the capture of Myitkyina airfield. H Force would con- (Office of Strategic Services) Detachment
101, led the column on a torturous trail so
they could arrive at their destination
Hopkins describes the courage of several unseen by the Japanese. Misfortune struck
muleskinners trying to silence the weapon: when the knowledgeable guide received a
bite from a venomous snake. When the
“Pfc. H.T. Pausch’s heroic action cost him his life, Kachin’s foot became infected, several
and that of Pvt. Clayton A. Vantol resulted in his Marauders sucked poison from the wound
to save his life. This rudimentary medical
being wounded. These two and several other mule-
practice was successful, and they placed
skinners worked their way toward the gun and, at him on Colonel Hunter’s horse so they
about fifty yards’ range, a burst from the gun caught could continue on to Myitkyina. The
account from the official history states,
Pausch in the chest, causing his instant death.” “Without his guidance, the Marauders
would have had difficulty finding their
way in the dark through the intricate maze
of paths.”
As the group proceeded, Hunter took
every precaution to hide his movements
from the enemy as they neared their objec-
tive. He had his men confine the inhabi-
tants of the village of Namkwi, just four
miles from the airfield, within his own
perimeter. Many of the natives were
known to be loyal to the Japanese.
Prior to the attack, Hunter wanted intel-
ligence on the condition of the airstrip and
the disposition and number of its troops.
Sergeant Clarence E. Branscomb, from
White Combat Team, a savvy veteran of
the Solomon Islands campaigns, led a six-
man patrol to reconnoiter the area. Taking
a radio, Branscomb’s patrol headed out.
On the way, the men “killed a [bottle of]
Canadian Club” given to them by Colonel
Hunter. Upon reaching the field, the
Marauders witnessed the enemy repair
crews leaving. Apparently, the Japanese
customarily worked on the field until mid-
night and then withdrew to their bunkers
to afford them better safety from the con-
stant air attacks.
In 1989, in a letter to The Burman
National Archives

News, Branscomb relates what happened

next: “I picked up the radio and started

WWII SPECIAL FORCES 77

 walking down the middle of the runway,
thinking if those emplacements were occu-
pied we’d soon find out …”
After keying the microphone, because
the radio could only receive but not send
voice traffic, Branscomb notified head-
quarters that the coast was clear to send
in gliders carrying Chinese troops for the
impending assault.
On May 17, Colonel William L.
Osborne was to jump off at 10 am with
the 1st Battalion of the Marauders and the
Chinese in trace. Arriving at the southwest
end of the airstrip, he was to leave the
150th Regiment there to seize the field at
a predetermined signal while he and the
battalion made their way to Pamati to cap-
ture a ferry launch that traversed the
Irrawaddy River.
Within the hour, the Marauders had
secured Pamati and the nearby ferry. Red

National Archives
Combat Team remained at the ferry while
White Combat Team returned to the air-
field to capture Zigyun, the main ferry ter-
minal for Myitkyina. The Chinese, after ABOVE: General Frank Merrill and Colonel Charles Hunter, commander of the Marauders’1st Battalion, observe
seeing the red flare signal, moved on the their troops as they traverse Pangsan Pass on the Ledo Road near the border between India and Burma. Their
airstrip and quickly overran the enemy pack mules are loaded with ammunition and provisions. OPPOSITE: The U.S. 5307th Composite Group, com-
manded by General Frank Merrill, and its British and Chinese allies fought a series of sharp clashes with the
positions. With bugles sounding the
Japanese in Burma.
charge, the Chinese took the Japanese
completely by surprise, and the airdrome troops around the airfield. However, the items most desired by the Marauders—food
soon belonged to the Allies. and ammunition—did not arrive.
After the bridge at Namkwi was blown On May 18, two battalions of the 150th Chinese Regiment attacked Myitkyina itself
by the Kachins, the Chinese established from the north while White Combat Team seized Rampur. The Chinese assault was
defensive positions on the southeast end of moving well as they took a railroad station, but they soon bogged down when they
the field. The code words, “In The Ring,” became involved in confused fighting and had to retire. The Chinese withdrew and set
were sent, informing Merrill that the strip up a perimeter 800 yards west of Myitkyina.
was ready to be used. K Force was moving toward Myitkyina from the north and was ordered to attack the
Communicating between the various village of Charpate, located about five miles from the airfield. After a brief firefight with
units soon became a problem. Seven C- a lone Japanese machine-gun emplacement, the hamlet was secured. K Force’s ranks were
47s, towing gliders with engineering sup- rapidly thinning because of disease. As Dr. Hopkins states in his book Spearhead, “A
plies and soldiers from the 879th Engi- new combination of complaints was now surfacing. Numerous men were complaining
neer Aviation Battalion, began their of severe headaches that persisted in spite of aspirin. The men also had skin rashes and
approach to the airfield with no advance swollen glands in their groins. We suspected that we were now seeing early cases of
warning to the working parties on the scrub typhus, the frequently fatal disease about which we had been warned when we
ground. Gliders landed and skidded in all were halfway across the mountain range.”
directions as men ran to escape injury. Despite the health crisis in the 3rd Battalion, the Marauders patrolled the area and
Luckily, no one was hurt. kept a constant vigil for any Japanese. Merrill and Hunter situated their forces to block
Soon, Chinese units began arriving as the enemy from reinforcing their small garrison at Myitkyina. The 3rd Marauder Bat-
well. The 2nd Battalion, 89th Regiment, talion blocked the north and northwest, while the 88th and 89th Chinese Regiments held
and a battery of antiaircraft guns landed a perimeter that ran from Charpate southwest to the railroad. The 2nd Marauder Bat-
before the rains struck. Again, Hunter talion formed its lines between the railroad and Namkwi to the south. The 1st Marauder
could not reach this unit to disperse the Battalion was protecting the airfield with the 150th Chinese Regiment, which also had

78 WWII SPECIAL FORCES

the responsibility of defending the western side of the city. end, however, the defenders drove the
Merrill disbanded H, K, and M Forces and had the Marauders stay in their own bat- enemy from their position. Five Maraud-
talions under the command of Colonel Hunter, while the Chinese were to operate inde- ers were killed and another six wounded
pendently. When he arrived at the airstrip and saw his men, even Merrill remarked sym- while the Japanese sustained 15 dead and
pathetically, “[They] were pitiful but still a splendid sight.” 35 wounded.
When this was completed, however, Merrill sustained another heart attack and had Soon, the Japanese occupied Namkwi
to be evacuated. Command of the depleted Marauder battalions fell to Colonel John and set out to rebuild their fortifications.
McCammon. Even with some replacements from engi-
Even though the Allies had established blocking positions around Myitkyina, neer battalions, the Marauders were fin-
the Japanese were soon able to bolster their small force near the airfield with an addi- ished as an effective fighting force. Addi-
tional 3,000 to 4,000 men Map © 2018 Philip Schwartzberg, Meridian Mapping, Minneapolis, MN tional Chinese units arrived as the 2nd and
from the surrounding vil- 3rd Marauder Battalions were evacuated.
lages. By the end of May, Only the 1st Battalion, also a mere shell of
the enemy began offensive its former self, remained at Myitkyina until
operations to retake the August 3, when the town was finally wres-
airdrome. tled from the Japanese.
The reason for the rapid Of the nearly 3,000 original Marauders,
buildup of enemy forces only 1,300 were there at the Myitkyina
was simple: the Marauders campaign. Of this, nearly 700 were evac-
were spent both physically uated during the last two weeks of May. By
and emotionally. The med- August 3, when the remnants of the
ical report states, “Many Marauders finally left Myitkyina, only 200
of them were seriously ill were left. Disease and death had taken
and they were so tired, their toll. The Chinese lost 972 killed and
dirty, and hungry that they 3,184 wounded. The Americans had 272
looked more dead than killed, 955 wounded, and 980 medically
alive. They suffered from evacuated for various illnesses. The Japan-
exhaustion, malnutrition, ese fared worse, losing over 3,000 men.
typhus, malaria, amebic The outfit received a Distinguished Unit
dysentery, jungle sores, Citation (renamed Presidential Unit Cita-
and many other diseases tion in 1966) for its outstanding service in
resulting from months of the CBI Theater.
hardship in the tropical The Marauders tallied an impressive
jungle.” record in the nearly five months of jungle
Morale was also ex- fighting in Burma. The unit history
tremely low. In an article proudly states, “The attack on Myitkyina
entitled “Burma Cam- was the climax to four months of march-
paign Phase I,” author C. ing and combat in the Burma jungles. No
Peter Chen noted, “The other American force except the First
harsh conditions the Marauders fought in were made worse by their constant fighting Marine Division, which took and held
in the jungles without adequate rest and recuperation. Colonel Hunter made a report Guadalcanal for four months, has had as
of complaint to General Stilwell, noting that his men had been overworked.... Even much uninterrupted jungle fighting service
promises that they would not be used as spearheads for Chinese troops were broken, as as Merrill’s Marauders. But no other
shown by the current campaign at Myitkyina. Nevertheless, the Marauders stayed in American force anywhere had marched as
the campaign, and fought on valiantly.” far, fought as continuously or had to dis-
On May 23, a company-size enemy force breached the 3rd Battalion’s lines at play such endurance, as the swift-moving,
Charpate. Visibility was made worse by a driving rain, and before the Marauders real- hard-hitting foot soldiers, of Merrill’s
ized it, the enemy was within their lines. Marauders.”
Private First Class Stephen “The Russian” Komar was ripping into the attackers with
his Thompson submachine gun when he was struck in the arm. He was draped Al Hemingway is a frequent contributor
with the intestines of one Japanese soldier as he continued firing. Hand-to-hand to WWII History and a Vietnam veteran of
combat ensued, with a few Marauders being killed by enemy bayonet wounds. In the the U.S. Marine Corps.

WWII SPECIAL FORCES 79

 COMMANDOS
HITLER’S
ATLANTIC WALL
BY MARK SIMMONS

AFTER SUCCESSFULLY FIGHTING most momentous event in the history of

seasickness during the crossing of the Eng- combined operations. This was the day,
lish Channel, Lance-Corporal Ted Brooks since the dark days of 1940, that all the
of Number 48 (Royal Marine) Commando training and previous operations had been
arrived on Nan Red Beach—which formed leading to. Theirs was a crucial mission, for
the left flank of Juno Beach—on the morn- without securing the beaches, the great
ing of June 6, 1944. He had, for much of mass of the Allied armies behind them
that time, avoided feeling “queasy” by lying could not begin their drive through France
on his back—that is, until he stood up to get and into the heart of Adolf Hitler’s Third
ready to land. This was his first time in Reich.
action, but he felt “apprehensive” rather Over 16,000 Royal Marines—less than
than afraid. 10 percent of the entire invasion force—
“It was obviously very noisy during the were about to participate in Operation
approach,” he remembered, “but one thing Neptune, the assault phase of Operation
that stuck in my mind was the silence on Overlord, the largest combined aerial/
the landing craft just as we went in.” amphibious operation in history. Most of
That silence was broken by a burst of the landing craft were manned by Royal
machine-gun fire when Brooks’s landing Marines and all capital ships (battleships
craft was still a few hundred yards from the and cruisers) carried RM detachments.
beach. Ted recalled, “One man shouted Five RM Commandos, grouped with three
with an indignant tone in his voice, ‘Who Army Commandos into two Special Ser-
the f.....g hell’s firing?’” This appealed to vice Brigade units, were scheduled to be
the Commandos’ black humor and some- landed during the assault phase. In addi-
how relieved the tension. Ted felt it was “so tion, the Royal Marines provided a num-
funny at the time.” ber of specialist units, including an
Ted and his mates were taking part in the armored support group, beach clearance

80 WWII SPECIAL FORCES

A patrol of Royal Marine
Commandos in a French
village near the beach take
a moment during a lull in
the action to pose for the
photographer on D-Day,
June 6, 1944. No. 48
Commando was employed
to support the Canadian
Division in its seaborne
assault of Juno Beach.

All Photos: Imperial War Museum

 With one man carrying a small motor scooter on his The men of 48 Commando were part of No. 4 (Special Service) Brigade commanded by
shoulder, men of 48 Commando disembark from Royal Marine Brigadier B.W. “Jumbo” Leicester, along with 41, 46, and 47 Commandos.
landing craft at Juno Beach near St.-Aubin-sur-Mer,
Formed in the spring of 1944 largely from 7th Battalion Royal Marines, 48 Commando
June 6, 1944.
was rooted in a unit that had a checkered history. It had been raised in 1941 and sent to
and control parties, and engineers. South Africa to perform guard duties. It was not in fact needed there and thus was left
The Allied armies taking part in the Nor- idle in Durban. By 1943, it had moved on to Egypt.
mandy invasion were under the overall Later it took part in the Sicily landings (Operation Husky), where it fought against the
command of American General Dwight D. crack Hermann Göring Division. It reached the Italian mainland (Operation Avalanche)
Eisenhower, while the ground commander but was soon ordered home to England to reform as a Commando. There it had a stroke
was British General Sir Bernard Law Mont- of good luck to have Lt. Col. James Moulton appointed as its commanding officer; he took
gomery. The plan for the invasion had been command in March 1944.
drawn up by General Sir Frederick Mor- Moulton was told he could have his pick of men from the 7th Battalion and from the
gan, chief of staff to the Allied supreme Mobile Naval Base Defence Organisation II. Not all the men for the Commando came
commander. from these units; some were seagoing marines from ships of the fleet. All should have been
Early on, Morgan had proposed that the volunteers, but such was not always the case.
landing should take place on a narrow front Tony Pratt was “selected,” as he explains, after having joined the Royal Naval Air Ser-
with three divisions, for he felt constricted vice when he was 17. “After one Sunday church parade,” he said, “we were all lined up
by the limited amount of landing craft avail- and asked for volunteers to join the Royal Marine Commandos. I thought this would be
able. However, to have a chance of success, even worse and, of course, did not volunteer. The sergeant came along the ranks with his
Montgomery believed that the amphibious stick and began saying, ‘You, you, and you’ and passed me by.” Pratt thought he was safe
landing should be expanded to five divi- but the sergeant came back, pointed at him, and said, “And you,” which is how he got
sions and several Commando units. Three into the Commandos.
Army Commandos (Numbers 3, 4, and 6) All the men went to Achnacarry in Scotland’s chilly, windswept western highlands for
and five Royal Marine Commandos (Num- Commando training. Located on the grounds of Achnacarry Castle, the historic seat of
bers 41, 45, 46, 47, and 48) in two brigades the Clan Cameron in the Lochaher region, the Commando Training Center usually ran a
would be landed. six-week course that was reduced to an intensive 18 days for 48 Commando. Colonel
The Commandos had a variety of tasks to Moulton recalled that they went through “the usual torments.” The camp commandant,
perform, but broadly they fell into two Colonel Charles Vaughan, had welcomed them, telling them the instructors were the best
main categories. Initially, they were to take around and, “They will not ask you to do anything that they cannot do themselves.”
and hold the flanks of the main beaches, Sergeant Joe Stringer discovered that the trainees lived in the field, even though it was
allowing other troops to move inland winter and they were “permanently cold, wet, and tired.” Many of them had already
unhindered. Then, with their light equip- experienced active service, but it made no difference to the instructors. Any of the men
ment and ability to move swiftly, they could ask at any time to be released and returned to his unit, but none ever did. At the
would support the airborne troops landing end of training the men were awarded the coveted green beret.
behind enemy lines. Four hundred men started the course, and they finished it together emerging as 48 (Royal

82 WWII SPECIAL FORCES

Marine) Commando. In early April 1944, 48 Commando moved to Gravesend in Kent, crete bunkers and gun emplacements,
where the unit continued training with battle drills, field exercises, physical conditioning, flooded some open fields and studded oth-
speed marches, and assault courses. Ten days were spent on the rifle ranges at Sheerness ers with a forest of poles to discourage glider
honing their marksmanship. On May 20, secret orders arrived that told them that they landings, carpeted the beaches and areas
would be taking part in the long-awaited liberation of France and Europe. Their objec- inland with millions of mines, and placed
tive was to land on a beach code-named Juno, near Nan Red, at the beach resort town of fiendish obstacles along the shoreline to
St.-Aubin-sur-Mer. obstruct, impale, and destroy landing craft.
They would come in behind the Canadian North Shore Infantry Regiment, which was Tens of thousands of German soldiers
supported by the tanks of the Fort Garry Horse, 35 minutes later. Then 48 Commando stood guard all along the coast, which Nazi
would pass through the Canadian beachhead, moving east toward Langrune and taking Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels had
the beach defenses from the rear before linking up with 41 Commando. That unit would called “the Atlantic Wall,” touting it as
be landing on Sword Beach on the right flank and would move west toward Langrune, being impregnable. The area where 48
thus linking Juno and Sword Beaches. Commando was scheduled to land was
The Germans did not know when or where the invasion would come, so Field Marshal guarded by the 736th Regiment, 716th
Erwin Rommel, in charge of Army Group B, did everything possible to fortify the likely Division, backed up by mobile units of the
places along the coast (See WWII Quarterly, Spring 2010). He had his own men, con- 21st Panzer Division.
scripted civilians, and slave laborers brought in for the job, working to exhaustion to make After the invasion was delayed for 24
the French coast impervious to invasion. The workers built thousands of reinforced con- hours due to a fierce storm raging through
the English Channel, 48 Commando
embarked at Warsash, Hampshire, on June
5 and sailed for France.
Moulton’s 48 Commando was trans-
ported across the Channel in LCIs, Landing
Craft, Infantry (small), operated by the
202nd Flotilla from the support craft HMS
Tormentor at Warsash. The LCIs were 104
feet long with a speed of 11 knots and could
carry 96 fully laden troops along with a
crew of 17. These craft had the advantage of
eliminating transfers from larger ships to
smaller assault craft, but that was about
their only advantage. Sea-keeping qualities
were poor, and the LCIs were constantly
rolling even in moderate seas. Made of ply-
wood, they provided little protection from
enemy fire. The engines ran on high-octane
fuel from unprotected fuel tanks.
Colonel Peter Young, commanding officer
ABOVE: Making the initial landing at Nan Red Beach, on the left flank of Juno Beach, Canadian infantry disem-
bark from their landing craft under German fire shortly after 8 AM on D-Day. BELOW: Wrecked landing craft of No. 3 Army Commando, described the
provide mute testimony to the stiff defense put up by German defenders at Nan Beach. No. 48 Commando crossing in an LCI: “The storm which had
suffered heavy losses when two of its landing craft hit underwater obstacles and sank. already delayed us for 24 hours had not yet
abated. All through the night our small craft
pitched and rolled. I found it impossible to
sleep; most of us were seasick, flung about by
the crazy pitching of our craft; it was a mis-
erable night. Breakfast for me was just a mug
of cocoa, which went straight over the side,
but otherwise I was not unwell.”
Colonel Moulton felt that LCIs were the
wrong craft as they were “designed for back-
up infantry, not as assault craft.... You landed
by gang-planks over the bow, quite useless

WWII SPECAL FORCES 83

 for heavily equipped men in rough water.”
“THE GERMANS IN Colonel Moulton had the foresight to train his men
As the Commandos approached the THE STRONGPOINT AT to fire 2-inch mortar smoke from the bows of the craft
beach, they swapped their helmets for their ST.-AUBIN HAD OUR during the run-in to the beach. The smoke screen hid
coveted green berets. To soften up the the craft from direct fire, but beach obstacles and shrap-
enemy, a tremendous aerial and naval bom- RANGE AND BEARINGS, nel holed the wooden hulls, killing and wounding
bardment of the coast commenced at dawn AND THE MORTAR troops and crews.
on D-Day. BOMBS CAME OVER “Intelligence was poor,” said Moulton. “We were
“An enormous weight of bombs and told of a continuous line of fortifications along the
shells was delivered in the space of a few IN REGULAR WAVES. shore, but it wasn’t like that. The Germans built con-
hours,” said Colonel Young. “It was a cru- ONE BOMB LANDED crete strongpoints in the villages, and we landed right
cial phase of the operation and, of course, in front of one.”
RIGHT AMONG US
a tremendous encouragement to the men in Harry Timmins recalled the approach on board his
the landing craft as they ran in, head-on, to AND I WAS HIT BY A craft carrying A Troop: “As we got nearer the beach,
sample whatever the West Wall might have PIECE OF SHRAPNEL the noise was more than you could possibly imagine.
in store for them.” There were explosions all around us in the sea and the
What the West Wall had in store for them
IN MY BACK.” shells and mortars were kicking up sand all over the
—DOUGIE GRAY, B TROOP
was a strong, well-organized defense. At beach. A couple of buildings were on fire and, to add
first, though, as the unit’s official report to the tumult, the Oerlikon guns on our boat also joined
in the barrage and deafened us.”
Most craft did not beach square on the waterline,
exposing troops trying to scramble down the bow gang-
ways that were constantly moving in the swell. Many
marines were pitched into the sea to wade ashore in
waist-deep water, while others were thrown in head-
first and were swept away by the fast-flowing current
and drowned.
Captain Geoff Linnell, commander of the Heavy
Weapons Troop, witnessed a desperate scene: “The
ramps were too light for the ends to sink to the sea-bed;
they floated about in the surf. As each man tried to
come down them, the footway beneath him heaved
alarmingly with each incoming wave. Many men were
thrown completely off the sides and floundered in the
water, dragged down by their heavy packs. When I got
Men from 48 Commando and Canadian infantry with down the ramp, there was a big sea and a great undertow that nearly took my legs away.
their bicycles take cover from German mortar fire in
ditches near St.-Aubin-sur-Mer. “Some men with inflatable lifebelts up around their chests had been knocked over by
the swell and were floating away upside down with their legs in the air, drowning as we
stated, “It appeared that the landing would watched.”
be unopposed and most craft dismounted The official report said, “On reaching the shore, troops made for the cover of the earth
the 2-inch mortars which were prepared to cliff and sea wall. Here they found a confused situation. The cliff and sea wall gave some
cover the landings with smoke. Then protection from small-arms fire, but any movement away from them was under machine-
machine guns opened up from the strong- gun fire. The whole area meanwhile was under heavy mortar and shellfire. Under the sea
point at St.-Aubin, which was almost oppo- wall was a jumble of men from other units including many wounded and dead; the beach
site the easternmost landing craft and per- was congested with tanks, self-propelled guns and other vehicles, some out of action, oth-
haps 2,000 yards from the westernmost, ers attempting to move from the beach in the very confused space between the water’s edge
and the craft were subjected to mortar and and the sea wall. LCTs were arriving all the time and attempted to land their loads, adding
shell fire; the Z Troop craft received a direct to the general confusion.”
hit amidships [killing six men]. The Oer- Confusion reigned on the beach for quite a while. Major Derick de Stacpoole was
likons [20mm automatic cannon normally wounded before he left his craft but managed to make it to shore; Captain Frederick
used aboard ships as antiaircraft weapons] Lennard, a strong swimmer, drowned in the rough surf. Lieutenant Louis Fouche was
replied and the craft put down smoke on already on the beach with orders to direct men along to the right as they came ashore, but
the beach, with 2-inch mortars.” he was hit almost immediately by mortar fragments and seriously wounded; his orderly

84 WWII SPECIAL FORCES

Map © 2018 Philip Schwartzberg, Meridian Mapping, Minneapolis, MN

blowing him off his feet. At first he thought

he had a broken leg, but on closer exami-
nation he saw he had been hit by bomb
splinters in the hand and leg. Shrugging off
his injuries, he was quickly on his feet and
directing his men to the assembly area
inland where he found much of his force
was missing.
Jock Mathieson, a Headquarters Troop
member, got off the beach and made it to
the assembly area where he waited with
others in a ditch close to the coast road. He
said that in the ditch there “was the body of
a young French boy no more than about
eight years old. It looked as though he had
been killed by blast, probably during the
preliminary bombardment. The sight shook
me up considerably.”
Ted Brooks said that in the assembly area
the group came under fire from a sniper in
the tower of St.-Aubin church. However, a
disabled Canadian tank came to their assis-
tance and “obligingly put several rounds
into the tower” and silenced the sniper.
Once Moulton felt he had gathered as
many men as possible, he had a roll call that
told him he had lost about a third of his
men. Lieutenant Harold Smedley then
returned with a situation report from the
North Shore regimental headquarters.
Landing at Langrune-sur-Mer on the left flank of Juno Beach, 48 Commando’s primary mission was to protect
the beachhead from counterattacks and take part in the move inland. After hearing the report, Moulton
decided it was time to advance on nearby
was killed. The landing of Y Troop was slow, and a few men managed to get ashore before Langrune, although it would leave his left
the LCT shoved off, taking with her about 50 men of the Commando back to England, flank open as the Canadian infantry was
despite their energetic protests. Some jumped into the sea in an attempt to join their unit, still trying to take St.-Aubin and the Ger-
but many who did drowned in the surf. man strongpoints overlooking Nan Red
Dougie Gray of B Troop made his way up the beach to the sea wall, picking his way Beach. However, he was sure, now that
through the bodies of Canadian soldiers that had fallen during the first assault. The wall tanks were assisting the Canadians, it was
provided some cover from small-arms fire but not much from mortars: “The Germans in only a matter of time before that position
the strongpoint at St.-Aubin had our range and bearings, and the mortar bombs came over would fall.
in regular waves. One bomb landed right among us and I was hit by a piece of shrapnel Moulton now decided to split his force in
in my back. I found it hard going when I moved down the wall to try and get off the beach; half. He sent B and X Troops along the coast
my wound was slowing me down.” road toward Langrune’s seafront, while he
Gray was later picked up by Canadian medics and taken to one of their aid posts. After took the remainder of the unit, with A Troop
48 hours he was shipped back to England and was operated on at the Canadian hospital leading inland, toward the church of Lan-
in Basingstoke to remove the shrapnel from his back. grune, 600 yards from the sea. Once there
Harry Timmins was surprised to see Colonel Moulton walking on the beach “steadily he would hold the village from counterat-
and steadfastly, bolt upright, despite the shells and mortars dropping all around, and the tack. After B and X Troops had cleared the
ping, ping, ping of the bullets whizzing by. He stopped, looked around and, at the top of coastal area, the reunited Commando would
his voice, cried out, ‘Four-Eight Royal Marine Commando—this way,’ pointing along the move against the strongpoint known as
beach. Everyone within earshot got up and followed him.” Wiederstandsnest 26, or WN 26.
While Colonel Moulton was trying to rally his men, a mortar bomb landed close by, Sergeant Joe Stringer was with B Troop

WWII SPECAL FORCES 85

 as it started its advance but soon suffered
from a “friendly fire” incident. He noted
that the second-in-command was cut down
by a burst of “Orelikon fire coming from
one of the warships off the beach.” They
had to leave the officer there; the gunfire
had also killed another marine and
wounded two others.
However, the Commandos and Canadi-
ans had broken through the outer defenses
of Hitler’s Atlantic Wall and were moving
inland to allotted objectives. Hundreds of
Germans had been taken prisoner and
would be sent to England on LCTs (Land-
ing Craft, Tank).
As the Canadian North Shore Regiment ABOVE: Typically disregarding his personal safety, Lt. Col. James L. Moulton, commander of 48 Commando,
was still trying to take WN 27 at St.-Aubin- watches a Canadian M-10 tank destroyer approaching a disabled Royal Marine Centaur tank (in the distance)
during the attack on the strongpoint known as WN 26 at Langrune. OPPOSITE: Canadian infantrymen from the
sur-Mer, the marines of 48 Commando North Shore (New Brunswick) Regiment cautiously approach another German strongpoint, WN 27, at St.-
moved against WN 26, covering the eastern Aubin-sur-Mer.
end of Nan Red Beach and connected to the
streets and buildings with trenches and wire troops took turns taking the lead and providing covering fire. They cleared gardens and
entanglements. The stretch of coastline climbed over walls between houses until they began closing in on a minefield and wire
between the two strongpoints was lightly entanglements marking the edge of the strongpoint. Here X Troop was forced to ground
held, but the 2,000 yards between them by well-entrenched enemy machine guns protected by concrete.
was covered by interconnecting fire. WN 26 consisted of a block of ordinary houses facing the seafront, all reinforced with
B and X Troops were advancing along the concrete. The doors and windows were blocked up, and the buildings were surrounded
road behind the coastline, but the closer by barbed wire. Covering the landward approach from the town were two machine guns.
they got to Langrune the heavier the enemy Mortars inside the compound covered all approaches. Facing the beach were two guns—
fire became and WN 26 was still under fire a 75mm and a 50mm housed in concrete four feet thick. Snipers occupied many of the
from supporting warships. Ralph Dye, a outlying buildings.
member of the Forward Observer Bom- With two of his Commando troops engaged, Moulton was ready to deploy his remain-
bardment Group, recalled they ranged in ing force. Z Troop and the remains of Y Troop were ordered to defend the town against
the destroyer assigned to them. “The any counterattack from the south.
strongpoint at Langrune was battered with Moulton kept A Troop in reserve, and part of X Troop was ordered to keep the pres-
accurate fire from the destroyer but showed sure on the enemy while the remainder moved against the western end of WN26; B Troop
little sign of giving up,” he recalled. closed in from the south. Moulton then sent A Troop to follow B Troop and complete the
Moulton’s inland group made good surrounding of the German strongpoint from the landward side. Meanwhile, a party from
progress toward the center of Langrune. It Z Troop was ordered to make contact with Sword Beach.
moved in open order taking advantage of About this time, two Centaur (A27L) tanks of the 1st Royal Marine Armoured Support
any available cover. Heavier equipment was Regiment arrived at Moulton’s headquarters. After the colonel sent them down the road
brought up in an odd variety of transport to help B Troop, the first Centaur approached WN 26 from the east, firing its 75mm main
including a stroller and ice cream wagon. gun and two 7.92mm machine guns as it moved and giving cover to B Troop, which took
Reaching the town, Moulton set up his advantage to move in closer. The tank’s fire smashed one machine gun and drove into the
headquarters in a walled manor house that reinforced houses.
he had already identified from aerial pho- Colonel Moulton was up in the thick of the fighting. Marine Jock Mathieson was with
tographs. To the east was the church, him. “I was with the colonel when we went forward to survey the strongpoint,” Math-
beyond which were open fields. Sword ieson said. “He wanted a tank to blast the concrete wall that spanned the road ahead. He
Beach was just three miles farther east. spoke to its commander through the phone on the side, but learned that the tank could
By now B and X Troops were closing in not depress its gun sufficiently low enough to hit the base, so Moulton told him to keep
on strongpoint WN 26 and clearing the pounding the concrete until it broke up.”
shoreline as they went; the Germans fell The Centaur used all its ammunition to little effect. It then pulled out, and the second
back in good order. The two Commando tank came forward. This tank, however, was not so fortunate; it struck an antitank mine

86 WWII SPECIAL FORCES

and lost a track. The crew bailed out and joined B Troop, occupying some nearby houses. bypassed the town and marched to Cler-
For the moment the attack was stalled. With the machine gun at the crossroads of the mont-en-Auge, where the Commandos
outer defenses destroyed, B Troop was able to get closer. However, it could not find a way attacked German field batteries before mid-
into the concrete-sealed houses, and it was coming under accurate mortar fire. B Troop day. They later secured the high ground
withdrew. Time was now running short; in a few hours darkness would descend, and overlooking Dozulé.
losses were mounting. Instead of being withdrawn, the 4th Spe-
Brigadier Leicester, commander of the 4th Special Service Brigade, now arrived at Lan- cial Service Brigade continued with the
grune to confer with Moulton. He told him to call off the attack and dig in to prepare for Allied advance to the Seine. It took part in
a possible counterattack and keep the garrison of WN 26 sealed in. Reports were that the liberating Pont l’ Evêque, Saint Maclou,
21st Panzer Division was on the move, possibly toward Allied positions. Pavilly, Yerville, Motteville, Yvetot,
Thus, the longest day for 48 Commando came to a close. The unit had suffered heavy Bermanville, and Valmont. After 84 days in
casualties. action, 48 Commando came out of the line
The next day the unit succeeded in capturing WN 26 with the aid of more armored sup- in August.
port and the use of Bangalore torpedoes—pipes packed with explosives—to blast a way Finally, 48 Commando returned to Eng-
in. The German defenders fought back tenaciously, but a Sherman tank physically broke land to rest and refit but was back in action
into WN 26, followed by the Commandos. again during Operation Infatuate in early
Marine Jock Mathieson was one of them: “Once we were inside, many of the enemy November 1944 to help liberate the heavily
quickly gave themselves up. I began searching the prisoners. One of them was well over fortified island of Walcheren at the mouth of
six feet tall and wore an overcoat that reached down to the
ground. I put my hand into one of his pockets and pulled out
an English grenade. I nearly shit myself with fright, thinking he
had primed it to explode.” Luckily, he hadn’t.
Thirty-one prisoners were taken at WN 26. For the next two
days, 48 Commando policed Langrune and St.-Aubin and
buried its dead comrades along with some Canadian dead.
Lieutenant John Square was given the task. “We got a group
of our men together and buried mainly men from our Com-
mando,” he said, “but a few others who happened to be about,
including Canadians who were still lying in the garden of a
large house fronting the beach. The garden was supposed to be
mined, but I don’t think it was. We set up a small cemetery in
the garden of another house close by. We wrapped up the bod-
ies in their gas capes and conducted a moving burial service.”
After D-Day, 48 Commando captured the German strong-
point at Langrune-sur-Mer and held it until the rest of the 4th
Special Service Brigade had landed (41, 46, and 47 Comman-
dos). The first two days of the D-Day landings had cost 48
Commando 217 dead, wounded, and missing out of a strength
of around 450. Only five officers were left out of 15. But their
job was not yet over; more battles lay ahead.
After receiving reinforcements on June 9, 48 Commando
resumed patrolling while awaiting new orders. On June 17, the unit joined with 46 Com- Holland’s Scheldt River. Later, the unit
mando to take the German Würzburg radar station at Douvres-la-Delivrande, between remained in the battle in Holland, raided
Juno and Sword Beaches. After knocking it out, the 4th Special Service Brigade moved on across the Maas River in Holland, and took
to the River Orne to join the British 6th Airborne Division in mopping-up operations. part in the occupation of Germany.
Lieutenant D.C. “Tommy” Thomas, a South African serving with the airborne unit, In January 1946, with the war over, 48
recalled, “And were the paratroops glad to see us!” He further remarked that for the next Commando was disbanded along with all
few days none of them knew much of what was happening, and no one knew whether the Army Commandos and some of the
the invasion was a success. Royal Marine Commandos. The men of
On August 20, 48 Commando carried out two attacks on a hill near the town of Dozulé, 48 Commando had done their job to
about 15 miles east of Caen, held by elements of the German 711th Division. After these secure victory for the Allies and had done
attacks were unsuccessful, the unit was reinforced by 46 and 47 Commandos and then it well.

WWII SPECAL FORCES 87

 ithout a doubt, the U.S. Army’s Ranger battalions were considered

W among the elite formations of World War II. Trained to be rough,

tough, and unflinching in the face of insurmountable obstacles and
overwhelming odds, the Rangers were America’s version of the British Com-
mando units.
But one of the major criticisms of the Rangers during and after the war
was that there were too few opportunities for them to use their special skills
to make their continued upkeep and maintenance worthwhile. They drew
off potential leaders from line infantry, artillery, and engineer units, required
constant training, and often required special equipment while rarely finding
a suitable opportunity for their use.
Ironically, therefore, it is strange that when they, in fact, performed as
intended, these instances have often been ignored. While many students of
the war are familiar with the achievements of the 2nd Ranger Battalion at
Pointe du Hoc on D-Day and the 6th Ranger Battalion’s raid on the Japan-
ese prisoner-of-war camp at Cabanatuan on Luzon, other successful Ranger
operations are little known.
Originated by a request from President Franklin Delano Roosevelt for
a U.S Army force modeled on the British Commandos, the first Rangers
were formed in 1942 in England and drawn from U.S. volunteers then sta-
tioned there.
The ruggedly handsome Colonel William Orlando Darby, the originator
and commander of the 1st Ranger Battalion, was born in 1911 in western
Arkansas and enjoyed all the outdoor sports such as hunting and fishing. He
was a 1933 graduate of West Point with a commission in the field artillery.
Darby led the 1st Ranger Battalion in action at Arzew, Algeria, during Oper-

Rangers Led
the Way at Zerf
ation Torch, where his actions earned the Distinguished Service Cross.
Unwilling to order his men to do anything he wouldn’t do, Darby was, and
is, a shining example of an officer who always “led from the front.”
The original Rangers were trained by the British Commandos at their
training site at Achnacarry in northern Scotland. Organized as a battalion,
they adopted the name “Rangers” at the suggestion of Brig. Gen. Lucian K.
Truscott, who had issued the original recommendation to Army Chief of
Staff General George C. Marshall.
Volunteers had to be fully trained soldiers with superior leadership
qualities, initiative, sound judgment, and common sense. They could
Sprawling in a muddy ditch, men of the 94th Infantry Division take cover from German artillery
fire near Sinz, Germany, during the U.S. Army’s push to the Saar River, February 7, 1945. The
understrength 5th Ranger Battalion spearheaded the XX Corps advance east and southeast of
Saarburg.

88 WWII SPECIAL FORCES National Archives

A little-known battle
at an important
roadblock in Germany
was the perfect
assignment for the
5th Ranger Battalion.

By Nathan Prefer

WWII SPECIAL FORCES

89
 Both: National Archives

have no physical defects.

While no age limit was established, the
Commando model of an average age of 25
years was generally followed. Men who
had particular civilian skills, including
marksmanship, scouting, mountaineering,
seamanship, and small-boat handling were
particularly welcome.
Training was strenuous. In the 1st
Ranger Battalion, one in five of the original
volunteers was returned to his unit for not
meeting physical or training standards.
A World War II ranger battalion con-
sisted of a headquarters and headquarters
company and six rifle companies, each of
two platoons. Each platoon consisted of
two assault sections and a 60mm mortar
section. Later the mortars would be
grouped within each individual rifle com- ABOVE: A British Commando demonstrates fighting tactics to a group of Rangers during training at
pany’s headquarters section. An assault sec- Achnacarry, Scotland. Colonel William O. Darby modeled his Ranger battalions after the tough British Com-
tion consisted of a section leader, assistant mando units. OPPOSITE: Wearing World War I-style helmets and carrying British Lee-Enfield .303 rifles, two
muddy U.S. Rangers undergo obstacle-course training in Scotland prior to making a failed invasion at Dieppe,
section leader, two scouts, one automatic
France, in August 1942.
rifleman, an assistant automatic rifleman,
and five riflemen. would be created in the United States, both at Camp Forrest, Tennessee, in April and Sep-
The United States Army’s Rangers’ first tember 1943, respectively.
combat action in modern warfare took Another battalion, the 6th, would be created in General Douglas MacArthur’s South-
place at Dieppe on the French coast on west Pacific Theater of Operations by converting a field artillery battalion staffed with
August 1, 1942. Six officers and 45 enlisted volunteers into a Ranger battalion.
men took part in a British/Canadian Com- Colonel Darby was given command of the 6615th Ranger Force, which consisted of
mando raid on that French port. Two offi- the 1st, 3rd, and 4th Ranger Battalions and the permanently attached 83rd Chemical Mor-
cers and four enlisted Rangers were killed, tar Battalion, a 4.2-inch mortar unit. The Ranger Force fought in Sicily, at Salerno, and
and four enlisted Rangers were captured. throughout Italy. In January 1944, they were part of the assault force at the invasion at
Two months later, in November 1942, the Anzio. Soon thereafter, the three battalions took part in an attempt to infiltrate behind
1st Ranger Battalion entered combat for German lines at Cisterna but were virtually wiped out when they encountered vastly
the first time as a unit at Arzew, Algeria, superior enemy forces containing the Allied beachhead.
during the Allied invasion of North Africa. On June 6, 1944, the 2nd and 5th Ranger Battalions entered combat against the Ger-
The battalion conducted a successful raid mans. Both battalions were a part of the First U.S. Army’s assault landing on Omaha
against Italian Army positions at Station de Beach on D-Day. Three companies of the 2nd Rangers climbed the sheer cliffs of Pointe
Sened in Tunisia. During the battle of du Hoc to capture enemy guns that overlooked the invasion beaches. The remainder of
Kasserine Pass they defended Bou Chebka that battalion and the 5th Ranger Battalion landed across “Bloody Omaha” to reinforce
and conducted aggressive patrols. Later, the Pointe du Hoc task force; heavy casualties resulted. When American commanders
they joined the 1st U.S. Infantry Division in sought to force an exit off Omaha Beach, they turned to the 5th Ranger Battalion and
its attack on the enemy positions at Gafsa, ordered them, “Rangers, lead the way,” which they did, in the process creating the mod-
during which they infiltrated behind enemy ern Ranger motto.
lines and struck from behind as the infantry The Rangers remained in Normandy even after fighting had moved east. In Septem-
attacked from the front. ber, the 5th Ranger Battalion participated as conventional infantry in the reduction of the
The success and popularity of the 1st fortress city of Brest, on the Brittany Peninsula. Other conventional engagements fol-
Ranger Battalion inspired the creation of lowed. At Brest alone the battalion suffered 23 Rangers killed, 89 wounded, and two miss-
more battalions. Two—the 3rd and 4th— ing. Fighting in December cost the battalion another 18 killed, 106 wounded, and five
would be created overseas, drawn by divid- missing.
ing up the original Ranger battalion into Two months later, February 1945, the 5th Ranger Battalion, commanded by Lt. Col.
thirds. Two more—the 2nd and 5th— Richard P. Sullivan, was at Zerf, Germany. How they got there is a tale that goes back

90 WWII SPECIAL FORCES

to September 1944, when the Allied pursuit of the defeated German armies in France Early successes by the 94th Infantry Divi-
reached the German frontier and the West Wall, or so-called Siegfried Line. sion prompted strong German counterat-
Lieutenant General George S. Patton’s Third U.S. Army found itself facing the German tacks by the defending 416th Division.
defenses at Metz, France, which held them up for several weeks. To the south, Lt. Gen. These attacks were unexpectedly reinforced
Alexander M. “Sandy” Patch’s Seventh Army exhausted itself attacking the German lines by the 11th Panzer (“Ghost”) Division,
along the Moselle River in southern France. which happened to be passing in the Ger-
Along the border between these two American armies lay a strong German defense in man rear and was hastily thrown into the
what came to be known as the Saar-Moselle Triangle. From the confluence of the Saar developing battle. As a result, a bitter and
and Moselle Rivers in the north to a base along an east-west line roughly following the bloody battle began, which drew in more
southern border of Luxembourg, the triangle measured more than 16 miles by 13 miles. forces on both sides. Combat Command A
It was defended by a newly built portion of the German West Wall that had been con- (Brig. Gen. Charles F. Colson) of the newly
structed in 1940. Referred to by the Germans as the Orscholz Switch, the Americans arrived 8th Armored Division was briefly
called it the Siegfried Switch. It was specifically designed to prevent the outflanking of thrown into the fray to counteract the Ger-
the West Wall positions protecting Germany’s Saar industrial area. man armor.
The American unit assigned to attack this zone was the XX Corps under the command After two weeks of deadly combat, Gen-
of Maj. Gen. Walton Harris Walker. A Texan and 1912 graduate of West Point, Walker eral Patton ordered a temporary halt to the
had led XX Corps since Normandy. It had earned the sobriquet of “Ghost Corps” because attacks. A brief rest period was planned,
of its rapid movements, which often confused German intelligence as to its whereabouts. and then the assault would be renewed.
In November and December 1944, Walker had been directed toward the Saar River at Just as the new attacks were begun, on Feb-
Saarlautern and had only small reconnaissance forces available to direct against the Saar- ruary 2, 1945, a period of constant rain
Moselle Triangle. began. Foxholes filled with water, and
It wasn’t until the end of November that a combined armor-infantry force had man- roads became streams of mud. Neverthe-
aged a small penetration at the villages of Tettingen and Butzdorf, and even this had to less, the infantry attacked. The attack went
be surrendered when the Battle of the Bulge forced General Patton to turn north and leave slowly, with both the 416th Division and
only meager forces to hold his southern front. the 11th Panzer Division still defending the
In early January 1945, as the Battle of the Bulge was slowly winding down, a fresh Orscholz Switch position to the fullest. To
infantry division joined XX Corps. This was the 94th Infantry Division under the com- make matters apparently worse for Third
mand of Maj. Gen. Harry James Malony. General Malony was a native of New York Army, a new enemy formation, the 256th
and a graduate of West Point in the same class as General Walker. His division had landed Division, was identified.
in September in Normandy but had been kept busy besieging the German-occupied ports Surprisingly, the arrival of the 256th Divi-
on the Cotentin Peninsula. Relieved there shortly after Christmas 1944, the 94th had come sion was actually good news for the Amer-
up to strengthen the Third Army, where Walker directed it against the Siegfried Switch. icans. It signaled the replacement of the
With his strength levels still significantly reduced due to the demands of the Bulge battle, 11th Panzer Division, which the Germans
Walker had little in the way of support to provide the 94th. Nevertheless, he ordered Mal- needed elsewhere. More good news came
ony to probe the German defenses. The first attack was launched on January 14, 1945. when General Walker received the tempo-
rary use of the 10th Armored Division.
With the German armor departing and
the American armor arriving, things began
to look up for the XX Corps. By February
19, the 94th Infantry Division, at a cost of
over 1,000 casualties, had cleared most of
the Saar-Moselle Triangle and opened the
way for the advance of the 10th Armored
Division. The objective now became the
crossing of the Saar River. Reinforced by
the 376th Infantry Regiment of the 94th
Infantry Division, the tankers began to
push forward, while the rest of General
Malony’s division protected the armor’s
southern flank.
Crossing the Saar River would not be
easy. As usual, the Germans had blown all

WWII SPECIAL FORCES 91

 National Archives

bridges. General Walker ordered Maj. Gen. crossing intact, a bridgehead was established.
William Henry Harrison Morris, Jr., to Northeast at Ockfen, the armored division’s assault boats finally arrived in mid-after-
force a crossing with his 10th Armored noon and, pressured by Patton, General Morris ordered a daylight crossing. German
Division northeast of Saarburg while Mal- defenses, and the inability of the 81st Chemical (Smoke Generator) Company to get into
ony’s 94th Division forced another south- position in a timely manner, delayed the crossing again.
east of that town. Quickly the Germans moved elements of the 416th and 256th Divisions into the area
The joint objective was the ancient Ger- to defend Ockfen. Nevertheless, during the hours of darkness, the 376th Infantry
man city of Trier. Besides being a major crossed the river successfully and established a bridgehead for the armor. German resis-
communications center, Trier had been an tance remained heavy, with artillery and mortars pounding the advancing Americans.
assembly point for the massing of German Even with this strong opposition, by nightfall on February 23 Ockfen fell to the 376th
forces for the Battle of the Bulge. Trier lay Infantry Regiment.
behind the usual mutually supporting pill- Despite these successes, General Walker remained concerned. He wanted to move faster
boxes, gun positions, and minefields of the and needed to expand his bridgeheads, join them, and thrust toward Trier with his armor.
West Wall. He reviewed his situation and decided that if XX Corps could block the main German
A New Jersey native, Morris had gradu- supply and communications route to the Saar, he would weaken their defenses and thereby
ated with the West Point Class of 1911 and speed up his own advance.
had taken command of the 10th Armored Behind the German lines ran the main east-west highway in the area—a road lead-
in July 1944, when its previous comman- ing from the enemy’s main lateral route behind the Saar to the settlement of Zerf, then
west to the river at the town of Beurig across from
Saarburg. While he was considering this, he knew of
a special force that he could use to block that criti-
cal road.
By mid-February, when assigned to Walker’s XX
Corps, the 5th Ranger Battalion was seriously under
authorized strength and in a generally weakened con-
dition. Even with receipt of recently arrived replace-
ments, the battalion counted only 20 officers and
378 enlisted men on its rolls, nearly 20 percent under
its authorized strength.
Many of the replacements were recently arrived
volunteers who had little or no Ranger training.
Armed with two light machine guns and two 60mm
mortars per company headquarters, 12 antitank
rocket launchers, and 50 Thompson submachine
guns, the Rangers were still a lightly armed force.
Lieutenant Colonel Sullivan, a graduate of the Mass-
achusetts Military Academy, believed in personal
reconnaissance. Taking his operations officer, Cap-
tain Edward S. Luther and a platoon of B Company
der was killed in a plane crash. He led it under 1st Lt. Louis J. Gambosi as escort, he advanced to the forward positions of the
ashore in France in November 1944 and 302nd Infantry atop Hoecker Hill and conferred with Colonel John W. Gaddis, the reg-
had fought with it during the Battle of the imental commander.
Bulge before joining XX Corps in February. Disappointed that Hoecker Hill was still being contested by the Germans, Colonel Sul-
His first crossing attempt at the Saar livan sent Lieutenant Gambosi and his platoon back to bring up the battalion. The
River failed when the assault boats did not Rangers had been distributed along the front of the 94th Infantry Division’s line with two
arrive at the crossing site. But to the south- companies at Orscholz, two at Taben, and the last two near Wieten. In the time it took
east the 94th’s 302nd Infantry Regiment to assemble the battalion at Wieten, Captain Charles E. Parker’s Company A lost six
crossed successfully near Serrig only to run Rangers killed and 18 wounded by enemy artillery fire.
into stiff German defenses at Hoecker Hill. At midnight on February 22, Sullivan assembled his company commanders for a final
Nearby, the 301st Infantry had a rougher briefing at the 302nd Infantry’s command post. The planned route was unusual in two
time crossing, but despite only one com- aspects. It first required the battalion to penetrate the German defenses diagonally instead
pany, under Captain Charles W. Donovan, of at a right angle. Once past the first enemy defenses, the battalion was to proceed par-

92 WWII SPECIAL FORCES

National Archives

cluded that the Germans were using the

clanking sounds of the antitank mines each
of his men were carrying to zero in on
them. These, however, were vital to estab-
lish the roadblock and to stop any enemy
armor they might encounter.
With nothing available to muffle the
sound, they marched on. Soon thereafter
the advance guard came face to face with a
number of enemy troops that they quickly
captured. Unable to send the enemy back
to American lines, Sullivan was forced to
use some of his declining strength to guard
these prisoners. As daylight approached,
the 5th Rangers found a place to rest and
reconnoiter the next part of their route.
Upon the return of his reconnaissance
patrols, Sullivan organized his battalion in
ABOVE: U.S. soldiers advance under fire to the Saar River, February 1945. The Rangers were vital to the 10th
Armored Division and 94th Infantry Division’s capture of key German territory. OPPOSITE: Darby’s 1st, 3rd, and a square formation with 1st Lt. John M.
4th Ranger Battalions fought in Sicily and Italy in 1943 but were wiped out at Cisterna, Italy, in early 1944. Carter’s Headquarters Company and the
prisoners in the center. Moving off in the
allel to the battlefront. This made the route longer than might seem necessary at first direction of Zerf, Sullivan contacted his sup-
glance and left them vulnerable to discovery for a longer time. porting 94th Infantry Division artillery and
Second, the Rangers were to advance from the front of the 94th Division but were to used spotting rounds to maintain direction.
move northeast, which would place them in front of the 10th Armored Division; it was As they moved, they came upon three
the armored division that was assigned to relieve them. enemy pillboxes from which they extracted
Although complicated, a look at the terrain made it seem more sensible. The area was 30 more prisoners. Moving forward again,
heavily wooded, compartmentalized by steep hills and cliffs. Strong German defenses Company B came under attack from the
stood before the Saarburg-Zerf road, but these faced toward Luxembourg. If the Rangers rear by more than 50 German soldiers. The
instead infiltrated through the heavily forested Waldgut Hundscheid, they stood a better Germans apparently thought they had
chance of remaining undetected. encountered an American patrol rather
While the commanders planned, the battalion assembled and prepared. The men drew than a battalion of Rangers. Charging
extra machine-gun ammunition, antitank mines, and one K- and one D-ration per man. across open ground, they ran directly into
The assembled battalion moved off to the river at 8 PM. After crossing by footbridge at the fire of Captain Miller’s Company D,
Taben under enemy artillery fire, the battalion assembled on Hockerberg Hill, already in which killed 20. The survivors were added
the forested zone. Several more casualties resulted there from German artillery fire. to the Rangers’ prisoners, which now num-
Leading the twin column, with 50 yards between companies, was Captain Jack A. Sny- bered over 100.
der’s Company C on the left and Captain George R. Miller’s Company D on the right. At some point in these engagements the
Each column was led by Rangers armed with Thompson submachine guns. enemy artillery fire, rough terrain, and
As 1st Lt. James F. Greene, Jr.’s Company E and Captain Bernard M. Pepper’s Com- darkness caused Lieutenant Gambosi’s pla-
pany B attempted to follow, they were hit again by German artillery and small-arms fire, toon and half of another of Company B to
which knocked out one of the three artillery forward observer parties from the 284th Field disappear. With another 16 battle casualties
Artillery Battalion under Captain Stephen McPortland. resulting from these fights, the remnants of
This same barrage caused additional casualties in Company B. The battalion became Company B were assigned to guard the
separated while Companies B and E attempted to aid their casualties and reorganize. growing number of prisoners.
Colonel Sullivan, in the lead with Companies C and D, soon became aware of the Captain Potter also briefly lost contact
break in the battalion and had Captain Luther radio back to find out what had happened. between his headquarters and 1st Platoon
A half hour was lost while the battalion regrouped. and Company E but managed to regain it.
Once reassembled, the battalion moved forward again. Under continued harassing fire However, nothing further was immediately
by enemy tanks and self-propelled guns, they moved in complete darkness. Sullivan decided heard from Lieutenant Gambosi and his
that the enemy was firing at the sounds made as his battalion moved through the forest. missing men.
Later, when the Germans continued firing at them in open areas, Colonel Sullivan con- More and more encounters with the

WWII SPECIAL FORCES 93

 enemy occurred as the battalion penetrated wounded they brought in 30 more prisoners. A patrol led by Captain William D. Byrne,
deeper behind German lines. A patrol from the battalion intelligence officer, captured 15 more.
Company E came across a German posi- Although intelligence had reported a German artillery battery in the area, the Rangers
tion and captured 20 of the enemy. While could not find it. Colonel Sullivan then set up his roadblock, the purpose of the mission.
crossing a stream, Captain Parker’s Com- He located it where the Irsch-Zerf road entered the woods, giving his Rangers some con-
pany A was attacked by the enemy, whom cealment. While the battalion moved to the site, Captain Pepper’s Company B, bringing
they chased away, leaving several casual- up the rear, came under enemy fire. Despite this brief delay, the battalion set up the road-
ties on the field. block and prepared to defend itself until relieved.
Soon afterward a German Red Cross Lieutenant Greene’s Company E placed the antitank mines on the road and then estab-
vehicle came along and stopped to view the lished themselves in a position from which they could cover the mines with small-arms
wounded. A German doctor and four med- fire and a bazooka. With Company E’s position as its focal point, the rest of the battal-
ical aid men were captured from the ambu- ion set up an all-around defense. As they did so, a German self-propelled gun came down
lance by Company A. The doctor was the road. Spotting the Americans, the German crew “jumped out and ran like hell”
brought to Colonel Sullivan to whom he according to one Ranger.
complained, “This is 4,000 yards behind After failing to destroy the abandoned gun with the bazooka, the Rangers set it on fire
the lines. No, no—you can’t be here.” with gasoline. This action alerted the Germans that a strong American force was in their
Throughout the day the Rangers contin- rear. As Company A was withdrawing from a forward position, they were attacked by
ued their advance. Each time they encoun- an enemy force that had, unseen, settled in their rear. Several casualties were incurred dur-
tered enemy forces they changed direction ing the two-hour battle before Captain Parker’s men could rejoin the battalion. As the
to prevent them from getting a chance to day progressed, more and more German attacks came against the roadblock, but the
predict the route and prepare an ambush Rangers continued to hold their positions.
for the Rangers. Back along the Saar River, things were not going as well for the other American units.
Company B’s meager force continued to As late as February 24, with the Rangers already on the road, the 10th Armored Divi-
guard a growing number of German pris- sion had not been able to get its tanks across the river. Under constant German counter-
oners. The German doctor, now recovered Map © 2018 Philip Schwartzberg, Meridian Mapping, Minneapolis, MN

from his surprise, was treating both Amer-

ican and German wounded.
On the night of February 22-23, the
battalion alternately moved and rested.
After each halt, patrols were dispatched
to check on the surrounding area for
enemy positions and to survey the route
ahead. Several pillboxes, fortified houses,
and field fortifications were taken by
these patrols, and the number of prison-
ers continued to grow.
As dawn broke on February 23, an
enemy self-propelled gun opened fire on the
battalion but sped off when the Rangers
returned fire. Soon afterward, the battal-
ion arrived at its objective, following the
sound of artillery rounds fired at the
Rangers’ request by the artillery of the 94th
Infantry Division.
Colonel Sullivan immediately dispatched
1st Lt. John T. Reville’s Company F to
search the surrounding area. These Rangers
cleared the area and captured several forti-
fied houses. Second Lt. Oscar A. Suchier,
Jr., and his platoon from Company F
attacked one of these fortified houses; at a
cost of one Ranger killed and another

94 WWII SPECIAL FORCES

 National Archives

ABOVE: U.S. infantrymen and a platoon of Sherman tanks from CCB, 10th Armored Division, advance toward pleased. Determined to thrust his Third
enemy positions hidden in a forest in Germany. OPPOSITE: Elements of Walker’s “Ghost Corps” had to fight Army into the heart of Germany, “Old
their way across and through forests, fields, rivers, towns, and villages.
Blood and Guts” looked about for some
attacks, even the 376th Infantry Regiment was unsure if it could retain its bridgehead; other means of accomplishing this goal.
short some 47 officers and 506 enlisted men, the regiment did not have the strength to What he needed was to retain the 10th
cover its assigned zone. Armored Division, which he had only on
Senior officer casualties began to mount as the Americans tried everything to secure a temporary loan.
bridgehead for tanks, tank destroyers, and artillery. Finally, on February 25, three Amer- Meeting with his superior, General Omar
ican tanks crossed successfully into the 376th Infantry’s bridgehead but were soon N. Bradley, Patton convinced him to let
knocked out by enemy fire as they tried to expand the American holdings. him “unofficially” keep the division until
Frustrated, General Morris organized a task force under Brig. Gen. Edwin William demands for its deployment elsewhere
Piburn, his assistant division commander. A native of Kansas, Piburn had been commis- made it necessary to take it from the Third
sioned into the infantry after graduating from Iowa State University in 1917. Given the Army. Patton’s objective was now officially
three armored infantry battalions of the 10th Armored Division, Piburn was ordered Trier.
into the bridgehead to reinforce the weakened 376th Infantry. Meanwhile, across the Saar River the
Even this didn’t immediately help, for Company B of the 61st Armored Infantry Bat- Rangers were still set up in a narrow strip
talion was surrounded in the village of Schouden and nearly overrun. It wasn’t until Lt. of woods that extended northward from
Col. Russell C. Minor’s 1st Battalion, 376th Infantry, counterattacked that the armored the Waldgut Hundscheid and intersected
infantrymen were able to withdraw. with the Irsch-Zerf road. The point where
By the end of February 27, Generals Malony and Morris agreed that they could wait the road passed through the woods was
no longer—tanks had to go over the bridges at Taben, the bridgehead of the 94th Infantry clearly marked as a “cleft in the wood line”
Division. General Walker quickly agreed to the idea, and the 10th Armored Division and was the Rangers final objective.
tanks crossed through the 94th Infantry Division, taking casualties as they went. As the Rangers waited for relief, Walker’s
Attacking the enemy in front of the 376th Infantry from flank and rear, they joined with XX Corps established Task Force Riley,
their armored infantry battalions and formed their task forces for the push to Irsch. A under Lt. Col. John R. Riley, made up of
linkup between the two American divisions quickly followed. elements of the 10th Armored Division’s
Almost immediately with the linkup of the 10th Armored and 94th Infantry Divisions Combat Command B. Fighting their way
the Germans withdrew. With the American bridgeheads now consolidated, there was no through heavy small-arms, Panzerfäuste,
longer any hope that they could keep the Americans from crossing the Saar River in this and antitank fire, they pushed into Irsch
sector. and secured the town.
At the same time, Sullivan’s 5th Ranger Battalion had cut the enemy’s supply and com- At the same time, the Rangers began
munications line to the rear, threatening them from that direction as well. The Germans experiencing more problems. Their posi-
had no choice but to withdraw. tion was not an ideal defensive one. There
Wearily, the American infantry and tankers loaded up their equipment and moved for- was a crest about 30 yards from their
ward once again. The Rangers were still out there somewhere, and they needed relief. perimeter that blocked their view of any
Despite the success of XX Corps in crossing the Saar River, General Patton was dis- enemy approaching from the west. A Ger-

WWII SPECIAL FORCES 95

 man counterattack could easily approach
to within hand-grenade range of the
Ranger positions on their west-facing side.
To the east, however, the road slanted
downhill toward Zerf, and the Rangers had
a clearer and longer view of any potential
enemy approach. Companies D and E
occupied the east side of the Ranger
perimeter facing Zerf.
Captain Snyder’s Company C took the
west side, while Parker’s Company A had
the south to guard against any Germans
who might come out of the Waldgut Hund-
scheid, as the Rangers themselves did. Pep-
per’s Company B, still missing two of its
platoons, was guarding prisoners in a barn
near the center of the perimeter. ABOVE: German prisoners are marched through Irsch, east of Saarburg, on February 27. Lt. Col. Richard P. Sul-
The Germans still seemed unaware that livan’s 5th Ranger Battalion captured 328 enemy soldiers during their operation at Zerf. OPPOSITE: A Sher-
man tank from the 10th Armored Division moves through Trier, near the Saar River north of Saarburg, a week
the Rangers were in their midst. An enemy
after linking up with the 2nd Ranger Battalion. Behind the tank is Trier’s famous landmark, the ancient Roman
tank destroyer came along and was easily gate known as the Porta Negra.
captured by Greene’s Company E, which
destroyed it with rocket fire. Later, an assaults were repulsed, but the pressure caused Colonel Sullivan to dispatch the rem-
enemy half-track came up the road and hit nants of Company B to reinforce Company E, which also received a platoon from Com-
one of Company E’s antitank mines. The pany F. Rangers from headquarters company took over guarding the prisoners.
German crew joined the group of prisoners Eight enemy prisoners were taken during this attack. After interrogation, it was learned
being guarded by Company B. German sol- that the attacking force was the 136th Regiment, 2nd Mountain Division—a unit that
diers, mostly walking wounded escaping had fought in Poland, Norway, and Finland before arriving on the Western Front. After
from the battles along the Saar River, stum- being badly hurt in the Colmar Pocket in January, the surviving 4,000 men had been
bled into the roadblock and were added to ordered to attack the Rangers “to the last man.” Fortunately for the Rangers, most of
the guests of Company B. the mountain troopers were Austrian and, at this stage of the war, preferred capture to
But all good things come to an end. For death. By the end of the day, another 135 prisoners had been added to the Rangers’ haul.
the Rangers, this happened late on Febru- These latest attacks brought another serious problem into focus. In fighting off the sev-
ary 26 when the German command real- eral attacks on the way to the roadblock, and now repelling two major enemy assaults,
ized they had a significant force on their the Rangers’ ammunition stocks were running dangerously low. A call for a parachute
lines of communication and decided to drop of ammunition was approved, and two light observation aircraft from the 94th
destroy it. Infantry Division artillery attempted several drops. German fire kept the aircraft too high,
At about 3:45 PM, just as Task Force causing most of the drop to fall into German hands.
Riley entered Zerf from the north, the If this operation to hold the roadblock without relief continued much longer, the
Rangers were rocked by a concentrated Rangers could be forced to retire or even surrender, as they would be unarmed. Sullivan
artillery barrage and a two-pronged attack ordered patrols to reconnoiter possible escape routes.
by some 200 infantry, who took advantage While American task forces attacked independently into the German defenses, the
of the concealed approach routes to the Rangers held on and blocked the main avenue of enemy retreat or reinforcement. Con-
roadblock. Company A was the recipient fusion reigned in and around Zerf. Germans were firing from the east and the west.
of both artillery and ground attack. Americans were firing toward the east and the west. The Rangers sat in the middle of the
Coming through the woods from the battle, being fired at from all sides and returning fire when they could.
Waldgut Hundscheid in the south, the 200 They sat in the middle of an artillery bulls-eye of which the Germans took full advan-
Germans hit at the same time as another tage. That night another German attack by some 400 enemy soldiers hit Company E.
force, estimated as 400 more, hit Company These men were part of Kampfgruppe (Battle Group) Kuppitsch. Three 90-man compa-
E from the northeast. Using the trees and nies formed the battle group.
ground for cover, the Germans made a Recently formed in Heidelberg under the command of a Major Kuppitsch, the Kampf-
close approach to the Rangers’ positions gruppe had no formal organization and was composed of miscellaneous companies hastily
before launching their assault. Both formed from convalescent companies and new recruits. Armed only with rifles and

96 WWII SPECIAL FORCES

machine guns, the soldiers made up for any shortcomings with their spirit and intense The Ranger’s final few casualties resulted
mortar and artillery support. Company E was soon in serious trouble. from occasional enemy artillery fire hitting
The German attack pushed into the American perimeter. Captain Parker and 12 men within their perimeter that morning. At 3
from his Company A rushed to assist Company E. Machine-gun ammunition was PM they received word that General Mal-
exhausted. So intense was the fighting that the Rangers had to call down friendly artillery ony had attached them to his 301st
on their own forward positions from which they had just been ejected. Infantry Regiment, which was attacking in
Soon the battle subsided, and the Rangers took stock of their situation. In addition to their direction.
several casualties, 14 Rangers were missing in action, believed captured, while 25 Ger- For the remainder of February 26 and all
man soldiers had been taken prisoner. day on the 27th, the 5th Ranger Battalion
For the remainder of the night, intense German artillery fire hit the 5th Ranger Battal- continued to repel German infantry attacks
ion. In the morning, Colonel Sullivan sent the remaining men of Company F—26 in all— on their positions and ambush retreating
to regain the lost ground. They found the woods littered with enemy dead. Germans withdrawing before the advances
The foggy dawn of February 26 brought the Rangers a sudden quiet. There was no of the 94th Infantry Division and 10th
artillery fire, no mortars fell into their foxholes, no small-arms fire kept them pinned Armored Division.
down. As they relished the calm, the Rangers observed about 200 German soldiers walk- The next few days, reinforced with four
ing along, seemingly lost and unable to see far due to the fog, terrain, and woods. Nois- tanks, four tank destroyers, and two quad-
ily approaching the Rangers’ positions, they were easy prey. .50-caliber machine gun-mounted half-
Setting up a hasty ambush, the Rangers Both: National Archives
allowed the Germans to walk up to the
American perimeter before opening fire.
Many enemy troops were killed, cut down
by small-arms fire. With no escape route,
145 surrendered.
This unexpected victory capped the Rangers’
experience at Zerf. Shortly before noon on
February 26, the 10th Armored Division’s
Temporary Team A came down the road and
was greeted by a Ranger outpost. Later that
same morning, the two lost platoons from
Company B reached the roadblock perimeter.
Last seen two days earlier, the platoons had
become separated from the battalion during
the approach march to the roadblock.
Lieutenant Gambosi had made several
attempts to rejoin the battalion, following the
10-degree azimuth that Colonel Sullivan had
directed as the battalion route, but each time
he was turned aside by German artillery, machine-gun, or mortar fire. Eventually radio tracks, the battalion joined with the 301st
contact was established with Sullivan, but the battalion could not afford to wait while Infantry Regiment in capturing additional
Gambosi’s Rangers caught up. Instead they were ordered back to Taben. ground.
There they found Task Force Riley, the 21st Tank Battalion less Company B, Company During this period came a tragic friendly
A of the 54th Armored Infantry, and a platoon of armored engineers. Lt. Col. Riley was fire incident when a company of Rangers
under orders to proceed to Irsch, where he was to join with the 61st Armored Infantry fired on an American infantry platoon that
Battalion, but he was hampered by a lack of infantry to clear his way. Lieutenant Gam- had failed to give a password when
bosi and his 24 Rangers jumped into six armored half-tracks and led the advance to Irsch. approaching the Rangers’ position.
There the tankers were ambushed by the enemy and five tanks were knocked out. The By the end of a series of ground attacks,
Rangers were ordered to clear the town. In fierce house-to-house fighting, that is just what Lieutenant Gambosi, his radioman, and
they did. Three roadblocks were cleared, and a German heavy tank was forced to with- one other Ranger were all that were left of
draw when the Rangers drove off its infantry support. the 2nd Platoon, Company B, 5th Ranger
The Rangers took 60 prisoners and spotted a second German heavy tank. That night Battalion.
the task force was joined by other elements of Combat Command B and formed into a Having held their critical roadblock,
spearhead—Temporary Task Force A—to relieve the other Rangers at Zerf. Continued on page 98

WWII SPECIAL FORCES 97

 Top Secret Mad Jack Rangers at Zerf
Continued from page 19 Continued from page 37 Continued from page 97

attacked the supply lines of the Wehrma- army, with two awards of the Distinguished which directly aided the XX Corps’ cross-
cht, using hit-and-run tactics and taking Service Order, in 1959. He went right on ing of the Saar River, Third Army’s cap-
advantage of the cover of the forests and working, now as a Ministry of Defense civil- ture of Trier, and the advance to the
marshes. ian overseeing the training of Cadet Force Rhine, the Rangers were back in the role
By the beginning of 1943, the threat was youngsters in the London District. One of for which they were ill suited, that of con-
serious. Regular troops could defend key his old friends wrote later that Churchill ventional frontline infantry soldiers.
points and installations, but chasing the liked the job not only because of his associ- Behind them they left 90 Ranger casu-
partisans into their strongholds and ation with the enthusiastic cadets, but also alties and 399 enemy dead and brought
destroying them seemed an obvious task because the job gave him an office in Horse in 328 enemy prisoners captured in the
for the Brandenburgers, trained as they Guards at Whitehall, and a window from nine-day operation—originally intended
were in irregular warfare. The ranks of the which he could watch troopers of the to last two days. They had penetrated
commandos had been swelled by citizens Household Cavalry mounting guard in a three miles behind enemy lines, blocked
from occupied territories disaffected with courtyard below him. He was older now, a critical road essential to the defeat of
their own political situations. A notable but still the warrior. the enemy, and held that surrounded
band of Ukrainians, the Nightingale Churchill and his wife Rosamund could position until relieved.
Group, had played an important role in the spend more time together now, and they used Finally, on March 4, 1945, the battal-
initial invasion of the Soviet Union by seiz- part of it sailing coal-fired steam launches on ion was relieved by one equally under-
ing the town of Przemysl and the bridge the Thames River between Oxford and Rich- strength rifle company of the 376th
over the San river. Eventually, each Bran- mond, Churchill decked out in an impeccable Infantry Regiment and sent to Schweb-
denburg battalion had a company of “East- yachting cap and Rosamund giving appropri- singen, Luxembourg, for rest and relax-
ern Vounteers” attached to it. But it proved ate sailing orders to her husband. Churchill ation and to rebuild its severely depleted
to be an error to use the Brandenburgers in was also well known for his intricate and numbers.
a counter-insurgency role, despite their accurate radio-controlled models of ships, For the remainder of the war, the 5th
apparent qualifications. mostly warships of course, all so carefully Ranger Battalion was assigned conven-
The commandos had been formed for engineered and built that they were much tional missions, including additional
offensive tasks, and while their skills sought after by collectors. combat missions, guarding prisoners, and
enabled them to score some spectacular Churchill passed away peacefully at his being a part of the military government
successes, time became wasted on incessant home in Surrey in the spring of 1996, but he in and near Bamberg, Erfurt, Jena, Gotha,
patrolling. Morale plummeted, and the left a legacy of daring that survives to this day. and Weimar, Austria. It ended the war at
Brandenburgers could achieve no more One respected publication dealing with the Ried, Austria.
than containment at best. Heavy losses and Commandos features large color drawings From its landing at “Bloody Omaha”
political maneuvering destroyed their cohe- of Commando uniforms, insignia, and on D-Day until the final German surren-
sion, and many of them left to join a com- weaponry—and one of the illustrations is of der in May 1945, the battalion reported
mando unit formed by SS Colonel Otto Mad Jack Churchill, complete with claymore. killing an estimated 1,572 enemy soldiers
Skorzeny in the Waffen SS. Churchill was one of that rare and happy and had taken 4,541 prisoners. The cost
Skorzeny later employed many of the breed for whom war is their element. That to the battalion was 115 killed, 552
techniques used so effectively in the early does not mean that he did not hate the suffer- wounded, and 25 missing in action. Two
part of the war during the ill-fated ing that war caused; it was simply that he Rangers were known to have been cap-
Ardennes offensive in 1944. With the East- thrived on the excitement and relished the tured by the enemy. This casualty rate
ern Front crumbling, so the need for anti- chance to achieve and excel. His whole phi- was in excess of 100 percent of the bat-
partisan warfare receded. In the summer of losophy was pretty well summed up by a cou- talion’s authorized strength.
1944, the Brandenburgers were deployed plet he scribbled on a postcard he sent to a Colonel Darby once said, “Com-
conventionally. Later in the year, the for- friend, a card whose face bore the regimental manding the Rangers was like driving a
mation was disbanded and reformed colors: “No Prince or Lord has tomb so proud team of very high-spirited horses. No
within the GrossDeutschland Division. / As he whose flag becomes his shroud.” effort was needed to get them to go for-
Few of its men survived the final bitter con- He might have been describing himself. ward. The problem was to hold them in
clusion of the war. check.” Had Darby been with the 5th
Author Robert Barr Smith is a retired U.S. Ranger Battalion during its ordeal at
Author and historical researcher Jon Army colonel and serves as associate dean for Zerf, he undoubtedly would have been
Latimer writes from his home in Wales, academic affairs at the University of Okla- immensely proud of his “high-spirited
United Kingdom. homa Law Center in Norman. horses.”

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