AMERICA’S FINEST A LAND, SEA & AIR AEUROPE, PACIFIC, CBI
ELITE
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LAND: Devil’s Brigade • 10th Mountain
Guadalcanal Raiders & Paramarines
D-Day Rangers • 82nd Airborne in Sicily
SEA: PT Boat Warriors • Submariners
AIR: Eagle Squadrons • Doolittle’s Raiders
Tuskegee Red Tails • Flying Tigers
EXCEPTIONAL
MEN & MISSIONS
Spring 2016
www.AmericaInWWII.com
SPECIAL ISSUE
WWII
AMERICA IN
AMERICAN SPECIAL COMBAT UNITS
The commander of an
82nd Airborne battalion
prepares for his first
combat jump.
WORLD WAR II
WORLD WAR II ELITE 1
R. J. R E Y N O L D S T O B A C C O C O. • P O P U L A R M E C H A N I C S M A G A Z I N E • N OV E M B E R 1 9 4 2
AMERICAINWWIICOLLECTION
A W O R L D W A R I I E L I T E • F L A S H B A C K A
CONTENTS
PART ONE: ELITE ON LAND
8 The Devil’s Brigade They were American and Canadian.
They were paratroopers, ski troops, knife-fighters. But to German
troops, the First Special Service Force commandos were just plain devils.
By Brian John Murphy
16 The Mountain Men The rugged 10th Mountain
Division—skiers trained in mountain-climbing and winter combat—
surprised the enemy on Europe’s high peaks. By Joe Razes
24 How Bloody Ridge Got Its Name 4,000 Japanese
were coming, bent on reclaiming a Guadalcanal airfield. About 800
US Marine Corps raiders and paratroopers aimed to wreck that plan.
By Larry Alexander
34 Rangers on the Roof To save their fellow GIs on the
landing beaches below, US Army Rangers scale the sheer rock wall
of Normandy’s Pointe du Hoc on D-Day. By Brian John Murphy
36 First Jump: Sicily The 82nd Airborne’s paratroopers
had trained and practiced for the day when they would jump into
real combat. For the 505th Regimental Combat Team, that day came
on July 9, 1943. By Éric Grenier
PART TWO: ELITE AT SEA
44 Squadron of Furies Just after Pearl Harbor, a half-dozen
PT boats were the US Navy’s only real fighting force in the Pacific. They
went on their mission with a vengeance. By Joseph Hinds
50 American Sharks in the Pacific When war began,
US submarine skippers were still learning their trade, and bum
torpedoes held them back. But three years later they had sunk half
of Japan’s shipping. By Drew Ames
PART THREE: ELITE IN THE AIR
60 The Early Birds While the United States was still on the
sidelines of World War II, gutsy American fliers became ace fighter
pilots in Britain’s Eagle Squadrons. By William Wolf
68 First Raid over Tokyo Axis Japan sat secure after Pearl
Harbor. What US force was within striking distance? In April 1942,
Lieutenant Colonel James Doolittle’s Raiders were…
By Richard Sassaman
76 Black Eagles In the air in their red-tailed Mustangs,
the all-black Tuskegee Airmen set the standard for protecting
bombers over enemy territory. By Edward G. Longacre
86 Flying Tigers Bite Back! Two weeks after Pearl Harbor,
the Flying Tigers’ shark-faced fighters broke Japan’s winning streak,
shattering an enemy air raid in China. By Daniel Ford
DEPARTMENTS
1 Flashback 4 Publisher’s Welcome
6 12 Ways to be Elite 96 Closing Frame
COVER SHOT: Lieutenant Colonel Charles Kouns of the 82nd Airborne
Division prepares to board a C-47 and drop into Sicily on his unit’s
first combat jump. Kouns and his 3rd Battalion, 504th Parachute
Infantry, landed on target near Niscemi and attacked German forces.
NAT ONAL ARCH VES
THIS SPREAD: Arvid E. Olson, Jr., flashes a smile from the cockpit
of a P-40 Tomahawk bearing the curvy logo of Hell’s Angels, the
3rd Squadron of the American Volunteer Group—the Flying Tigers.
Olson was the squadron leader. COURTESY OF DAN EL FORD
ELITEAMERICAN SPECIAL COMBAT UNITS
WORLD WAR II
ELITEAMERICAN SPECIAL COMBAT UNITS
WORLD WAR II
Jim Kushlan
Publisher/America in WWII magazine
The Elite
TWENTIETH-CENTURY WARFARE WAS A NEW BREED OF COMBAT. As the Great War spread
its misery across Europe in the second decade of the 1900s, it was possible to see the
new side by side with the old on fields of conflict: horses beside tanks, single-cartridge
rifles beside machine guns, observation balloons beside airplanes. Still, much of the
fighting followed an ancient pattern: hurl projectiles at the enemy and then charge.
By the time the 20th Century’s second global conflict began in 1939, military technology
and tactics had raced forward by leaps and bounds, especially in places like Nazi Germany.
But the United States joined the new world war in December 1941 with a military that
was small and frozen in a mindset that seemed to assume war was a thing of the past.
Urgent calls for change arose from imaginative voices within America’s armed forces—
calls for new kinds of warfare, and for new kinds of fighting men to carry it out.
It was in this environment of desperate need and innovative thinking that the US
military created (or in some cases drastically updated) the elite fighting forces we are
celebrating in this special issue.
What makes a unit elite? Literally, the word means chosen, elect. You have to make
the cut to get into such an organization. Elite units stand apart because of their special
training, special skills, and special missions. Today, elite most often connotes units
officially classified as “special forces” or “special operations forces.” Some of the best
known are the US Army Green Berets and Rangers, the US Navy SEALs, the US Marine
Corps Raiders, various US Air Force groups, and joint special ops units such as Delta Force.
Nearly all of our nation’s modern special operations forces owe their origin or at least
their inspiration to the bold experiments carried out more than 70 years ago during
World War II by the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) and the First Special Service
Group. The OSS—though not actually military—trained carefully selected American
personnel in commando skills developed by the British, and deployed these operatives
behind enemy lines on secret missions. In 1942, the same commando training (along
with paratrooper certification and mastery of skiing, mountaineering, and winter
survival) became the foundation of the First Special Service Force, a joint US–Canadian
unit formed to fight behind enemy lines in Europe under harsh winter conditions.
The OSS eventually became the Central Intelligence Agency, and the First Special Service
Force was dismantled in December 1944, its mission fulfilled. But in 1952, these two
WWII organizations would inspire the creation of the US Army Special Forces—
the Green Berets.
The elite fighting units profiled in this issue represent a spectrum of the forces that
fought on land and sea and in the air. There were other elite US forces in World War II,
but space does not allow us to include them this time around.
The fact that we call some units elite is in no way meant to disparage the sacrifice, bravery,
competence, and heroism of the men who served in all the other American combat units
of World War II. The hard-slogging infantryman on the firing line deserves just as much
respect as the man whose abilities and unit membership singled him out as elite.
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EDITORIAL
EDITOR & PUBLISHER
James P. Kushlan
ART & DESIGN DIRECTOR
Jeffrey L. King
EDITORIAL INTERN
Erica M. Roberts
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CIRCULATION
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A Publication of
310 PUBLISHING, LLC
Copyright © 2016 by 310 Publishing LLC.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication
may be reproduced by any means without prior
written permission of the publisher.
Contains some content previously published in
America in WWII magazine, copyright 310
Publishing LLC © 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010,
2011, 2012, 2013 & 2014, used with permission.
World War II Elite and America in WWII
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6 WORLD WAR II ELITE
Activity: Southwest Pacific, Solomon Islands Men Who Served:
approximately 3,000 Casualties: approximately 355 killed,
wounded, or missing Fate: Disbanded February 19, 1944.
US Army Rangers
Founded: June 19, 1942 (1st Ranger Battalion); December 1942
(29th Battalion); April 1, 1943 (2nd Battalion); May 29, 1943
(4th Battalion); September 1, 1943 (5th Battalion); September 1943
(5307th Composite Unit {Provisional}, Merrill’s Marauders); Octo-
ber 3, 1943 (3rd Battalion); September 6, 1944 (6th Battalion)
WWII Home Base: various Nicknames: Darby’s Rangers (1st Bat-
talion); Merrill’s Marauders (5307th) Noteworthy Commanders:
Lieutenant Colonel William O. Darby (1st Battalion); Lieutenant
Colonel James Earl Rudder (2nd Battalion); Colonel Henry Mucci
(6th Battalion); Brigadier General Frank Merrill (5307th) Service
Branch: US Army Specialties: commando tactics Areas of Activity:
1st Battalion—North Africa, Italy; 2nd Battalion—France (notably,
Normandy D-Day and Pointe du Hoc), Germany (Hürtgen For-
est); 3rd Battalion—China-Burma-India theater; 4th Battalion—
Sicily; 5th Battalion—France (notably, Normandy D-Day), Bel-
gium (Battle of the Bulge), Germany (Hürtgen Forest); 6th
Battalion—Philippines (Leyte invasion, Cabanatuan Raid); 29th
Battalion—Great Britain; Merrill’s Marauders—Burma Men Who
Served: Ranger battalions—approximately 6,000–7,000 (3,000
originals plus replacements); Merrill’s Marauders—2,997 Casual-
ties: Ranger battalions—figures unavailable; Merrill’s Marauders
—2,394 killed, died of wounds, wounded, missing, and seriously
ill. Fate: Rangers today serve in the 75th Ranger Regiment.
Airborne Infantry
Founded: August 15, 1942 (82nd Airborne, as airborne); August
16, 1942 (101st Airborne, as airborne); February 25, 1943 (11th
Airborne Division); August 13, 1943 (13th Airborne); April 15,
1943 (17th Airborne) WWII Home Base: 11th Airborne—Camp
MacKall, North Carolina; 13th Airborne—Fort Bragg, North
Carolina; 17th Airborne—Camp MacKall, North Carolina; 82nd
and 101st Airborne—Fort Bragg, North Carolina Nicknames:
Angels (11th Airborne); Golden Talons, Thunder from Heaven
(17th Airborne); All-American Division (82nd Airborne);
Screaming Eagles (101st Airborne) Noteworthy Commanders:
Major General Joseph M. Swing (11th Airborne); Major General
William M. Miley (17th Airborne); Major Generals Matthew
Ridgway and James M. Gavin (82nd Airborne); Major Generals
William C. Lee and Maxwell D. Taylor, and Brigadier General
First Special Service Force
Founded: 1942 WWII Home Base: Fort William Henry
Harrison, Montana Nicknames: Devil’s Brigade, Black Devils
Noteworthy Commanders: Colonel Robert T. Frederick Service
Branch: US Army Specialties: commando tactics; winter, moun-
tain, ski, and parachute infantry operations; amphibious assaults
Areas of Activity: Aleutians, Italy, France Men Who Served:
approximately 2,300 Casualties: 2,700 killed, wounded, or miss-
ing Fate: Disbanded December 5, 1944.
10th Mountain Division
Founded: July 10, 1943, as 10th Light Infantry Division
(Alpine); renamed 10th Mountain Division November 1944
WWII Home Base: Camp Hale, Colorado Nicknames: none
Noteworthy Commanders: Major General George P. Hays Service
Branch: US Army Specialties: mountain warfare; snow and ski
infantry operations; light infantry tactics Areas of Activity: Italy,
Austria, Slovenia Men Who Served: approximately 16,000
Casualties: 872 killed, 3,134 wounded, 81 died of wounds Fate:
Exists as a light infantry division.
Marine Raiders
Founded: 1st Raiders, February 16, 1942; 2nd Raiders, Feb-
ruary 19, 1942; 3rd and 4th Raiders, autumn 1942. Reorganized
as 1st Marine Raider Regiment March 15, 1943. WWII Home
Base: various Nicknames: Edson’s Raiders (1st Raiders); Carlson’s
Raiders (2nd Raiders) Noteworthy Commanders: lieutenant
colonels Merritt A. Edson (1st Raiders); Evans F. Carlson and,
later, Alan Shapley (2nd Raiders); Harry B. Liversedge (3rd
Raiders); and James Roosevelt (4th Raiders). Service Branch: US
Marine Corps Specialties: commando tactics; light amphibious
assault Areas of Activity: Central Pacific, Solomon Islands Men
Who Served: approximately 8,078 Casualties: 795 killed, 69 died
of wounds, 28 missing, 2,253 wounded (some more than once)
Fate: Disbanded January 8, 1944. 1st Marine Special Operations
Battalion renamed 1st Marine Raider Battalion June 19, 2015.
Paramarines
Founded: October 1940 (1st Marine Parachute Battalion);
December 1940 (2nd Battalion); early 1941 (3rd Battalion).
Became 1st Marine Parachute Regiment April 1, 1943. WWII
Home Base: various Nicknames: none Noteworthy Commanders:
Lieutenant Colonel Robert H. Williams Service Branch: US
Marine Corps Specialties: parachute infantry tactics Areas of
WORLD WAR II ELITE
introduction
The units profiled in this issue represent a dozen varieties
of specialized US fighting forces of World War II. Here are some facts and figures.
12 WAYS TO BE ELITE
WORLD WAR II ELITE 7
Anthony C. McAuliffe—acting (101st Airborne) Service Branch:
US Army Specialties: Airborne parachute and glider infantry
assault Areas of Activity: 11th Airborne—New Guinea,
Philippines; 13th Airborne—arrived in France February 1945, no
combat, returned to States August 1945; 17th Airborne—France,
Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Central Europe; 82nd Air-
borne—Sicily, Italy, France (notably, Normandy D-Day and after-
math), Netherlands (Operation Market Garden), Belgium (Battle
of the Bulge), Germany; 101st Airborne—France (notably, Nor-
mandy D-Day and aftermath), Netherlands (Operation Market
Garden), Belgium (Battle of the Bulge), Germany Men Who
Served: approximately 7,000 (not counting replacements) Casual-
ties: 11th Airborne—494 killed, 1,926 wounded, 120 died of
wounds; 13th Airborne—none; 17th Airborne—1,191 killed, 4,904
wounded, 191 died of wounds; 82nd Airborne—1,619 killed in
action, 6,560 wounded, 332 died of wounds; 101st Airborne—
1,766 killed, 6,388 wounded, 324 died of wounds Fate: 11th
Airborne permanently disbanded June 29, 1965; 13th Airborne
disbanded February 25, 1946; 17th Airborne permanently dis-
banded June 19, 1949; 82nd and 101st Airborne still active.
Motor Torpedo Boat Squadrons
Founded: July 24, 1940 (MTB Squadron 1) WWII Home Base:
Motor Torpedo Boat Squadrons Training Center and Motor
Torpedo Boat Repair Training Unit, Melville, Rhode Island
Nicknames: Mosquito Fleet, Devil Boats; squadrons called RONs
or Rons Noteworthy Commanders: Lieutenant John Bulkeley (Ron
3); Lieutenant Commander Murray Preston (Ron 33); Lieutenant,
Junior Grade, John F. Kennedy (PT-109) Service Branch: US Navy
Specialties: fast torpedo attacks on ships (often at night), surface
attacks on small craft Areas of Activity: Pacific, Mediterranean,
English Channel Men Who Served: approximately 60,000–64,000
(Figure includes replacements and support personnel. 37
squadrons saw combat, average 12–16 boats each, 12–17 men per
boat.) Casualties: 331 killed Fate: All squadrons decommissioned
by April 1946 or earlier. Ron 3 destroyed in combat.
US Submarine Service
Founded: April 11, 1900 (purchase of first US modern sub, USS
Holland (SS-1)) WWII Home Base: New London, Connecticut
Nicknames: The Silent Service Noteworthy Commanders: Lieu-
tenant Commanders Dudley W. “Mush” Morton (USS Wahoo
(SS-238)), Richard H. O’Kane (USS Tang (SS-306)), Slade D.
Cutter (USS Seahorse (SS-304)); Commander Eugene B. Fluckey
(USS Barb (SS-220)); and others. Service Branch: US Navy
Specialties: surface and underwater torpedo attacks on military
and merchant shipping; reconnaissance; landing of commandos;
search and rescue Areas of Activity: Pacific; limited Atlantic activ-
ity Men Who Served: approximately 26,423 Casualties: approxi-
mately 3,600 lost Fate: still active
Royal Air Force Eagle Squadrons
Founded: September 1940 (No. 71 Squadron, later US 334th
Fighter Squadron); May 1941 (No. 121 Squadron, later US 335th
Fighter Squadron); July 1941 (No. 133 Squadron, later US 336th
Fighter Squadron) WWII Home Base: various Nicknames: Eagle
Squadrons (unofficial name) Noteworthy Commanders: Colonels
Chesley Peterson and Donald Blakeslee (both later US 4th Fighter
Group commanders) Service Branch: British Royal Air Force
Specialties: bomber escort, aerial pursuit and interception, air-to-
ground attacks Areas of Activity: Great Britain, France, Nether-
lands Men Who Served: 244 Americans, 16 British officers
Casualties: 78 killed, 16 captured during RAF service; 29 killed,
18 captured during US service. Fate: Transferred to US Eighth Air
Force September 29, 1942. Became 4th Fighter Group. Active
today as 4th Operations Group.
Tokyo Raiders
Founded: February 1942 (17th Bomb Group chosen to fly
Tokyo Raid mission) WWII Home Base: Eglin Field, Florida Nick-
names: Doolittle’s Raiders, Tokyo Raiders Noteworthy Comman-
ders: Lieutenant Colonel James H. “Jimmy” Doolittle Service
Branch: US Army Air Forces Specialties: bomb raid on Japan by
16 B-25 Mitchell medium bombers launched from aircraft carrier
USS Hornet (CV-8) Areas of Activity: Japan Men Who Served: 80
Casualties: 3 killed, 8 captured (of whom 3 were executed, 1 died of
illness) Fate: Survivors returned to active duty. 17th Bomb Group
served in North Africa and the Mediterranean; deactivated 1958.
Tuskegee Airmen
Founded: March 22, 1941 (99th Pursuit Squadron); February
19, 1942 (100th Fighter Squadron); July 4, 1942 (332nd Fighter
Group); May 13, 1943 (477th Bombardment Group) WWII Home
Base: Moton Field, Alabama; Freeman Field, Indiana (477th)
Nicknames: Tuskegee Airmen. Actual units were 332nd Fighter
Group and 477th Bombardment Group. Additional nicknames:
Red Tails, Red-Tail Angels. Noteworthy Commanders: Captain
Benjamin O. Davis, Jr. Service Branch: US Army Air Forces
Specialties: bomber escort, aerial pursuit and interception, air-to-
ground combat Areas of Activity: North Africa, Italy, Central
Europe, Southern Europe, Germany (477th Bomb Group was state-
side.) Men Who Served: approximately 1,000 pilots (slightly less
than half served overseas), plus ground crewmen Casualties: 85
pilots killed or died in accidents, 32 pilots captured Fate: 332nd
Fighter Group—inactive 1949–1987 (with integration of US mili-
tary); reactivated 1988 as 332nd Expeditionary Operations Group;
deactivated 2012; reactivated 2014 and remains active. 477th
Bomb Group—became 477th Composite Group January 15, 1944,
trained African American military aviators; disbanded July 1,
1947; reactivated 2005, remains active as 477th Fighter Group.
American Volunteer Group
Founded: April 15, 1941 WWII Home Base: Mingaladon Air-
port, Rangoon, Burma; and Kunming, China Nicknames: Flying
Tigers Noteworthy Commanders: Captain Claire Chennault
Service Branch: Chinese Air Force Specialties: aerial pursuit and
interception Areas of Activity: China-Burma-India theater Men
Who Served: approximately 319 (includes 11 flight instructors
who also flew combat missions; excludes civilians, US and British
military, and 2nd AVG recruits who, unable to reach China, were
diverted to US service). Casualties: 9 killed, 2 died of wounds, 5
killed accidentally, 1 murdered or died in captivity, 1 missing, 4
captured. Fate: D...
