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Congress Honors Historic Devil’s Brigade with Medal of Freedom

Today, the US Congress presented the Congressional Gold Medal in honor of members of the First Special Service Force.

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Founded during WWII, the First Special Service Force was a combined US/Canadian commando unit. Shortlived, the unit was formed in 1942 at Fort William Henry Harrison near Helena, Montana and disbanded in 1944 in France after suffering significant casualties. The casing of the unit’s colors is honored annually by US Army SF and Canadian units during Menton week which commemorates the location of the disbanding at the village of Menton, France.

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Initial unit cadre were trained in light infantry tactics, parachuting, hand-to-hand combat, demolitions and skiing. Unit members also familiarized with enemy weapons. Once deployed, they fought in the Aleutian Islands as well as in the ETO in both Italy and France, earning the nickname, “Devil’s Brigade”. Their German adversaries referred to the Forcemen as “Black Devils” because the used boot polish to camouflage their faces during nighttime raids.

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I consider the First Special Service Force to be one of America’s initial Special Mission Units with specialized training, weapons and equipment including the M41 Johnson Machine Gun, V42 combat knife and Weasel amphibious vehicle.

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As for the sticker, these were placed on enemy casualties and equipment by Forcemen. It depicts the unit patch and the German; “Das dicke Ende kommt noch,” which means “The Worst is yet to Come”. Talk about an effective psyops campaign.

Anyone who has served in SOF has much to owe these trailblazers who did Canada and America proud. In fact, do a little research about this great unit and you’ll learn a lot about your heritage.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 3rd, 2015 at 20:00 and is filed under History. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

18 Responses to “Congress Honors Historic Devil’s Brigade with Medal of Freedom”

  1. defensor fortismo says:
    February 3, 2015 at 20:26

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jTJSzrANyNw

  2. bulldog76 says:
    February 3, 2015 at 20:31

    thats awesome !!

  3. Strike-Hold says:
    February 3, 2015 at 21:01

    Awesome – as a Canadian/American, I thank you for posting this.

  4. Strike-Hold says:
    February 3, 2015 at 21:10

    By the way, this is a documentary about some Force veterans returning to Italy in 2010…

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSFtHIqYB1c&list=UUGovkXbbaoXBGLxIMNDHgUQ

  5. pbla4024 says:
    February 3, 2015 at 22:26

    According to the sources I have seen, they were disbanded in village of Villeneuve Loubet (next to to Antibes on French Riviera). Menton is further east on the border with Italy.

    http://www.firstspecialserviceforce.net/history.html

    https://books.google.fr/books?id=OhVNWqw46ocC&pg=PA70&lpg=PA70&dq=villeneuve+loubet+devil+brigade&source=bl&ots=YSLpQTyCM4&sig=nNSHGcPC0VA7-t-VqIILO2-EN78&hl=en&sa=X&ei=3kjRVMrcC5evad6igdAP&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=villeneuve%20loubet%20devil%20brigade&f=false

  6. Jon, OPT says:
    February 3, 2015 at 23:10

    This is outstanding news. At the SF Symposium in 2009 when they were officially inducted into Regimental lineage with the Alamo Scouts, same night Ross Perot was made an honorary Green Beret. 1st SFG (A) still celebrates Menton Week (in honor of unit deactivation) every year with members of the Canadian Paras. Anyone who wants to read about how an extremely effective DA fighting force can be raised from scratch should know their story. Black Devils!

    Jon, OPT

  7. Al V says:
    February 4, 2015 at 00:51

    The spearhead was worn in Afghanistan when both countries SF worked together again.

  8. Patrick says:
    February 4, 2015 at 01:10

    “The Worst Is Yet To Come” – that is old school ganster right there!

  9. Chris K. says:
    February 4, 2015 at 01:12

    Very nice. Actual translation is “the thick end comes next”, which apparently was a german saying for the worst is yet to come. They really knew their audience with these stickers.

    • PNW_Tree_Octopus says:
      February 4, 2015 at 02:07

      “the thick end comes next”

      So basically the modern version would be “bite the pillow”?

      I dig it.

    • Padawan says:
      February 4, 2015 at 17:13

      I’m German and “The thick end (is still coming/is yet to come)” would be more accurate than “…comes next,” but boy, I never though of this idiom in the “just the tip” context, which is amusingly fitting.

      Apparently it comes from corporal punishment in school, where the application of the thick end of the switch followed that of the thin end, and was considered the worse part. Also a satisfying reading to the sticker.

  10. Matt says:
    February 4, 2015 at 05:48

    I did an exercise at Ft. Harrison, MT in 1993. Some of the original 1st SSF barracks buildings were still there, but in bad shape. They were historic buildings and could not be torn down, but there was apparently little or no budget to maintain them. Great training area! Lots of rattlesnakes!

  11. majrod says:
    February 4, 2015 at 06:43

    I’m glad the unit’s patch lives on today in the form of USASOC’s patch.

  12. Vic Di Cosola says:
    February 4, 2015 at 17:23

    Loved the movie and read the 1966 book. What a great tribute! Thanks for posting this!

    Vic