Allied Forces. Special Service Force 1st - Storming Monte La Difensa: the First Special Service Force at the Winter Line, Italy 1943

It is common knowledge that the victory over Nazi Germany could only have been achieved by a strong alliance of nations that shared the same goals and war aims. No alliance in history was as strong or as equally committed to one another as the USAnglo Alliance during World War II. In the course of the struggle, this alliance recognized the need for specially trained soldiers that could go above and beyond tasks the standard infantryman could be expected to do, and it would give birth to a fully integrated special operations force combining both Americans and Canadians the First Special Service Force. In doing so, the alliance paved the way for future combined US, Canadian, British and Australian special operations forces that have continued a strong tradition of cooperation in conflicts around the world since the end of World War II.

Special operations forces were born out of the necessity for offensive actions in the early stages of the war. By the summer of 1940, Hitlers forces controlled the continent of Europe with the exception of Great Britain. The need for specially trained soldiers that could conduct raids behind enemy lines was considered vital to the war effort. Not only could these forces disrupt enemy operations by tying down thousand of troops and destroying vital strategic targets, they could also provide a much-needed boost in morale. Winston Churchill stated, Enterprises must be prepared with specially trained troops of the hunter class who can develop a reign of terror down these coasts (Horn and Wyczynski, p.1415). British Lt Col Dudley Clarke jumped at the idea of developing a special irregular force to conduct raids behind enemy lines. Based on the guerrilla concept gleaned from the Boer Kommandos during the Boer War, Clarke began to create his own commando units placed under the British Special Service Brigade. The Commandos would first fall under the Director of Combined Operations Admiral of the Fleet Sir Roger Keyes, who had gained fame for his raid on Zeebrugge during World War I (see Osprey Raid 7). Keyes would be replaced by Lord Louis Mountbatten in 1941 and given the title of Chief Advisor of Combined Operations. Under Mountbatten, the commando program would be expanded to include special operations forces such as the Long Range Desert Group (LRDG) and the Special Air Service (SAS) to perform commando-type operations in North Africa and later in the Mediterranean theater of operations.

US Rangers advance under smoke in the mountains outside of Naples in October of 1943. Prior to the arrival of the Force, some of Fifth Armys most specialized troops were the Rangers. The Rangers were made up of the 1st, 3rd, and 4th Ranger battalions. Just prior to the Forces assault on Difensa, the 3rd Ranger Battalion made a feint towards San Pietro, where it encountered fierce opposition and was ordered to withdraw. The survivors of the 1st, 3rd and 4th Rangers after the assault on Cisterna would end up becoming members of the First Special Service Force in Anzio. (IWM NA 6999)

After entering the war, the United States would soon follow Britains lead by creating its own specialized troops based on the commando model. In June of 1942 the first of the Ranger battalions was activated in Northern Ireland. A month later another very specialized force was created, which would be fully integrated with both Americans and Canadians. Lord Mountbatten needed a special operations force that could penetrate deep behind enemy lines by air, live for months in mountainous snow-covered regions, and destroy key enemy infrastructure. It could possibly be used to halt the German atomic weapons program by destroying the heavy water station at Rjukan in Norway. This commando unit, initially called the Plough Force, would later be called the First Special Service Force (FSSF).

The Allied situation would start to change drastically throughout 1942, as the war would soon turn offensive in nature. By the spring of 1943 the fighting in North Africa had come to an end. The Soviets had been victorious at Stalingrad and were now slowly turning the momentum of the fighting against the German invaders. The tide had also turned against Germany in the Battle for the Atlantic, where the U-boats had become the hunted instead of the hunters. Across the world in the Pacific theater of operations, the Japanese were now on the defensive after the stunning US victories at Midway and Guadalcanal. By the fall of 1943, the Aleutians and New Guinea would be back in Allied hands.

With the defeat of Erwin Rommel and his famed Afrika Korps in the spring of 1943, attention was turned to an invasion of Europe: the question was where and when. President Roosevelt wanted a build-up of men and material in the United Kingdom for the cross-channel invasion known as Operation Overlord. Stalin wanted immediate action in Europe as his forces were still feeling the full brunt of the German onslaught in the Soviet Union. Churchill believed that an invasion of Italy would divert vital German resources and manpower away from the Russian front as well as distract attention from the forthcoming channel invasion. At Casablanca and later at the Trident conferences, the Allied leadership agreed that the invasion of Sicily must take place to knock Italy out of the war and divert as much of Germanys resources as possible away from the Normandy beaches and the Soviet Union.

The change from a defensive strategy of survival to an aggressive offensive posture would also see a change in the nature of special operations forces such as the commandos and the FSSF. The need for guerrilla tactics behind enemy lines to destroy infrastructure and to tie up resources was now overshadowed by the need for large well-equipped armies that could land vast amounts of troops in an effort to beat back the German war machine. This is not to say that special operations forces did not still have an important role to play, but instead they would now be used as a support element for the larger divisions and armies. These groups would still work behind the lines in many cases and be given special assignments, but now in the context of supporting a larger operation instead of being the operation themselves. The SAS and LRDG proved very effective at this in North Africa, but not every commander would use this vital resource effectively. Many old-guard generals who had cut their teeth in World War I never understood or fully recognized the potential of special operations forces. They were uncertain how to deploy or utilize these small groups of highly trained individuals. This would unfortunately be the fate of the First Special Service Force.

A Forceman makes a jump during the winter months at Ft Harrison. Here we can see the deployed white T-5 parachute. During the early days of training, the Forcemen were often referred to as para-skiers due to their paratroop training as well as their ski and winter warfare training. (National Archives)