The Devil's Brigade

[bluesdog]

Surviving members of the original Devil's Brigade in Washington DC to receive medals

I didn't know any of these heroes were still alive!

 

[Pterodactyl]

I live 13 miles from Fort Harrison, MT. The brigade was formed and trained here before deploying and Ft Harrison is still considered the home of the brigade. They hold a gathering of members of some sort every summer and plan a big shindig this summer to recognize the awarding of the Congressional Gold Medal... attendance is dwindling to be sure.

 

[Panman]

My father in-law left Canada to join the Navy down here (he held a dual citizenship) because he didn't like the Canadian swaby's uniforms. He served four years in the Navy during WW II, two years on a sub chaser and two on a flat top as a gunners mate.

He turned 96 last November, they moved him to a smaller room as his funds are running out and can't get help from the VA. A couple of weeks ago his prostate plugged up and blew out his bladder, my sister in-law still can't get any help from the VA. He will be wearing a life time catheter, makes me sad that we can't do better than that. Maybe he should have stayed in Canada.

 

[Pterodactyl]

Bill Woon holds the Congressional Medal of Honor recently awarded to the First Special Service Force, or Devil's Brigade, in front of a

portrait of Major General Robert Frederick, the unit's commanding officer, Friday afternoon at the Montana Historical Society.

MARGA LINCOLN Independent Record

An elite, daredevil fighting force in World War II that trained in Helena and was beloved by local citizens was honored Tuesday in Washington, D.C., with a Congressional Gold Medal.

Formed in July 1942, the First Special Service Force was made up of U.S. and Canadian mountaineers, loggers, trappers, ranch hands, boxers, a safe blower and a few criminals.

Famous for their stealthy nighttime attacks, they came to be known as the Devil’s Brigade or The Black Devils.

Their specialty was unconventional warfare and everything about them was unconventional, said Bill Woon, whose father, David Woon, was a Canadian serving in the force.

Forty-three Devil’s Brigade veterans and 34 of their wives or widows attended Tuesday’s ceremony in Washington, said Woon, who has headed up work on the Congressional Gold Medal.

Only about 140 Devil’s Brigade veterans are still alive, he said.

They were also honored with a ceremony and medals presented by the Canadian government. The U.S. Army Band composed and played a special march, “The Frederick’s Black Devil's March,” in their honor.

Three members of Helena’s Pipes and Drums of the Black Devils also traveled to Washington, D.C., and were invited to play at the Canadian ceremony.

The Devil’s Brigade was the forerunner of such specialized forces as the Green Berets, Navy SEALS and Delta Force decades later.

Trained in parachuting, amphibious landing, mountain climbing, skiing, winter survival, hand-to-hand combat, demolitions and weaponry of both the Allied and German army, they were experts at the unexpected.

Their physical training and conditioning was phenomenally strenuous, which paid off in one of their most famous campaigns -- the taking of Monte La Difensa, which involved scaling a steep cliff that neither the Allies nor the Germans thought possible and overpowering the crack German Panzer unit entrenched at the top. The Germans had used the mountain top to hold the Winter Line, its main military line of defense outside of Rome.

Not only did the brigade scale the cliff in the dark, but many of them carried 80-to-100-pound packs on their backs as they climbed, said Woon.

They went on to successfully battle the Germans for control of other mountain peaks in the area, as well.

Much of their heroic story isn’t well known, even in Helena, where they trained at Fort William Henry Harrison from August 1942 to April 1943.

“They were told not to talk,” he said, “so they didn’t for 73 years.

“Helena needs to know the significant impact they had on Helena,” said Woon, “and the significant impact Helena had on them.”

As some of the details of the brigade’s escapades leaked out in the years after World War II, the band of courageous misfits became the subject of a Hollywood film and several books.

The Congressional medal, presented Feb. 3, was to closely coincide with one of their missions -- their landing at Anzio Beachhead, Italy, on Feb. 2, 1944.

They were the first troops to march in and liberate Rome on June 4, 1944. They also saw action in southern France, fighting up the Franco-Italian border, and were disbanded to join other military units on Dec. 5, 1944.

“I think it does tell the story,” said Woon of the medal’s unique design, which he worked on with a committee of artists and a historian.

The front shows their distinctive shoulder patch, a spearhead with the letters U.S.A. across the top and Canada spelled vertically down the middle. To the left of the spearhead is a mountaineering scene of men scaling a steep rock face. On the right side of the medal is the profile of a helmeted soldier. Along the bottom is a group of them making an amphibious landing.

On the medal’s flipside is the force’s bi-national flag, the V-42 stiletto knife they carried and a pair of crossed arrows patterned after the early Army scouts of Western history. Around the edge are the names of their campaigns and the medal’s authorization by a 2013 Act of Congress.

“The Congressional Gold Medal is the highest civilian award that Congress can bestow,” Woon said. Only one medal is minted and the veterans will decide where it should be displayed.

Until that decision is made, Woon has placed it in a bank safety deposit box. Those veterans attending the Washington ceremony were presented with replicas of the medal.

“They were highly unconventional in the world of warfare at a time of big armies,” said Woon. “They were created at the insistence of Winston Churchill.”

Their commander in Helena was Col. Robert T. Frederick, who was at first a skeptic, but never wavered in his focus to turn them into fearless fighters.

“It was a perfect fit,” said Woon. “He believed you lead from the front, not from the rear. You didn’t ask your men to do things you wouldn’t do.” He earned a purple heart, with seven oak leaves, indicating he’d received eight combat injuries.

Woon believes Frederick was, and may still be, the youngest major general, at age 37, to ever serve in the U.S. Army.

“These guys were risk takers,” said Woon. “They worked hard. They lived hard. They played hard. They died hard.

“For effectiveness, there was nobody that matched up to them,” he said. “It’s almost not physically possible to do what they did.” They are still admired by modern-day special forces soldiers. “They were in a class by themselves.”

They will return to Helena this summer for their 69th annual reunion and a special medal ceremony.

“Helena took them under their wing,” said Woon, “and they just love coming to Helena.” They were welcomed into Helena homes and invited to dinner and to church. Forty-two came back to Helena to live after the war.

For more information, visit www.firstspecialserviceforce.net.