Devil's Brigade - Background

Background

Scientist Geoffrey Pyke, of the British Combined Operations Command, envisioned the creation of a small, élite military force capable of fighting behind enemy lines in winter conditions. This would have been a commando unit that could be landed, by sea or air, into occupied Norway, Romania, and the Italian Alps on sabotage missions against hydroelectric plants and oil fields. In Norway, the chief industrial threat was the creation of the heavy water used in the German atomic weapon research at Rjukan. Furthermore, attacks on Norwegian power stations, which supplied the country with 49% of its power, might drive the Axis powers out of the country and give the Allies a direct link to Russia. In Romania, there were the strategically important Ploesti oil fields that met one quarter of the Germans' consumption, and Italian hydroelectric plants powered most of south German industry. Pyke requested that a tracked vehicle be developed especially for the unit, capable of carrying men and their equipment at high speed across snow-covered terrain.

In March 1942 Pyke proposed an idea, which he had named Project Plough, to Lord Louis Mountbatten, Chief of Combined Operations Headquarters (COHQ) that Allied commandoes be parachuted into the Norwegian mountains to establish a base on the Jostedalsbreen, a large glacier plateau, for guerrilla actions against the German army of occupation. These troops would be equipped with Pyke's proposed snow vehicle. Pyke persuaded Mountbatten that such a force would be invulnerable in its glacier strongholds and would tie down large numbers of German troops trying to dislodge it.

However, given the demands upon both Combined Operations and British industry, it was decided to offer it instead to the United States at the Chequers Conference of March 1942. General George Marshall, Chief of Staff of the United States Army, accepted the suggestion for Project Plough. In April 1942, since no suitable vehicle existed, the U.S. government asked automobile manufacturers to look into such a design. Studebaker subsequently created the T-15 cargo carrier, which later became the M29 Weasel.

In May 1942, the concept papers for Plough were scrutinized by Lt. Colonel Robert T. Frederick, a young officer in the Operations Division of the U.S. General Staff. Frederick predicted Plough would be a military fiasco on the following grounds. Firstly, he argued that Plough endeavored to achieve unrealistic objectives with the amount of troops that the plan called for. Similarly, he argued that the small, elite division would be outnumbered and overtaken in any defensive attempts to hold an area once it was captured. Furthermore, Frederick concluded that there was no concrete way to evacuate the troops after a mission. Finally, the plan had called for troops to be dropped by airplane to their targets, which Frederick said was impossible at the moment, as there were no planes to fly the men into Norway. Ultimately, he concluded that a small squad of elite men would not do enough damage to justify the risk of putting them into battle and instead proposed a series of strategic bombings to achieve the plan's objectives.

Plough went ahead as proposed. General Marshall and General Eisenhower had already agreed to the operation with the British High Command and were unwilling to compromise a chance to open an American front in Europe. It was believed that Plough offered the possibility of defeating the Germans, and the Americans wanted allied efforts to shift to the Pacific Theater. The sooner the Germans were defeated, it was argued, the sooner this would become a reality.

The first officer picked to lead the unit, Lt. Col. H.R. Johnson, was kicked off the project for not getting along with Pyke and arguing with Mountbatten and Eisenhower about the feasibility of the plan. His replacement was suggested by Mountbatten and assigned by Eisenhower: Lt. Col. Frederick himself was given the task of creating a fighting unit for Project Plough and was promoted to colonel to command it, and by July 1942 had eased Pyke out of the picture.

Colonel Frederick enjoyed a very high priority in obtaining equipment and training areas. Originally, due to its winter warfare mission, it had been intended that the unit should be equally made up of American, Canadian, and Norwegian troops. However, a lack of suitable Norwegians saw this changed to half American and half Canadian.

In July 1942, the Canadian Minister of National Defence, James Ralston, approved the assignment of 697 officers and enlisted men for the project under the initial disguise that they were forming the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion (1CPB). Shortly after, due to the decision to raise a parachute school in Canada under the 1CPB designation, the Canadian volunteers served under the unofficial designation of 2nd Canadian Parachute Battalion. This was in name only; the 2CPB did not legally exist. (The Canadians would not be legally made into a unit of the Canadian Army until April–May 1943 under the official designation, 1st Canadian Special Service Battalion.) They would be paid by the Canadian government but be supplied with uniforms, equipment, food, shelter and travel expenses by the U.S., but nevertheless remained subject to their own army's code of discipline. It was agreed that a Canadian would serve as second in command of the Force and that half of the officers and one third of the enlisted men would be Canadian. However, after Lieutenant Colonel McQueen (the Canadian serving as second in command) broke his leg during parachute training, the highest ranking Canadian in the Force was Lieutenant Colonel Don Williamson who commanded the 2nd Regiment. The U.S. volunteers for the force consisted initially of officers from Fort Belvoir and Benning. Letters of recruitment were posted to all army units in the Southwest and on the Pacific coast. The letters called for single men, aged 21–35 with three or more years of grammar school. Occupations preferred: Rangers, lumberjacks, northwoodsmen, hunters, prospectors, explorers and game wardens. Inspection teams also scoured the western camps for ideal candidates. Those chosen, owing to the secrecy of the mission, were often told that they had been selected to undergo training for a parachute unit. Indeed the unit was so secretive, that many soldiers did not know where they were when they arrived in Helena for training, as the windows of the trains carrying the troops were painted black.

The combat force was to be made up of three brigades. Each brigade was led by a Colonel and thirty-two officers and boasted a force of 385 men. The regiments were divided into two battalions with three companies in each battalion and three platoons in each company. The platoon was then broken up into two sections.

Frederick was greatly admired by the soldiers in the First Special Service Force for his willingness to fight alongside the men in battle. On the beachhead in Anzio, for example, a nighttime Force patrol walked into a German minefield and was pinned down by machine gun fire. General Frederick ran into battle and assisted the litter bearers in clearing the wounded Force members.