Mikawa
Joined: Sep 04, 2007
Last Seen: Oct 22, 2009
Hits Total: 2048
Posts: 23
Location: Japan
Badges 01/80 Level 003
Last Shout: pfft.. Teishin Shudan [YouTube]
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 Posted:
Thu Jan 10, 2008 9:09 am |
 
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The 1st Special Service Force, better known as "The Devil's Brigade" was a joint American-Canadian World War II commando unit, trained at Fort Harrison near in the United States. Many modern American and Canadian Special Forces units trace their heritage to this unit. Also featured in the 1968 William Holden movie, The Devil's Brigade.
The 1800-man force consisted primarily of enlisted men, with preference given to men previously employed as lumberjacks, forest rangers, hunters, game wardens, etc. The 1st Special Service Force was officially activated on July 20, 1942 under the command of Lt. Colonel Robert T. Frederick. Much feared for their fighting prowess, the monicker "The Black Devils" was adopted after the discovery of the personal diary of a German officer referring to "die schwarzen Teufeln" (the Black Devils). With blackened faces, small units would often overwhelm German defenders without firing a shot, and then disappear into the night.
Force members received rigorous and intensive training in stealth tactics, hand-to-hand combat, the use of explosives for demolition, parachuting, amphibious warfare, rock-climbing, mountain warfare, and as ski troops. From the outset, the 1st Special Service Force was armed with a variety of non-standard or limited-issue weapons, such as the M1941 Johnson machine gun. The Johnson LMG in particular helped greatly increase the firepower of the unit and was highly regarded by those who used it in combat. Frederick himself participated in the design of a fighting knife made exclusively for the Force called the V-42 combat knife, a derivative of the Fairbairn-Sykes fighting knife.
The formation patch was a red spearhead with the words  written horizontally and CANADA written vertically. The branch of service insignia was the crossed arrows formerly worn by the U.S. Army Indian Scouts. The unit wore red, white, and blue piping on their garrison cap and on the breast oval behind their parachutist wings. Members of the unit also wore a red, white, and blue fourragere, lanyard, or shoulder cord made out of parachute shroud lines.
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