This week's Canada Day and U.S. Fourth of July celebrations have brought belated recognition to a group of Second World War veterans who served together in the elite commando unit known as the Devil's Brigade — about 175 surviving members of which are to be awarded a U.S. Congressional Gold Medal in honour of their battlefield heroics and sacrifices 70 years ago.
The proposed tribute was approved last week by the U.S. Senate, as it had been in May by the U.S. House of Representatives. The bill conferring the medals now awaits only the signature of U.S. President Barack Obama, who is expected to quickly approve the award to the remaining veterans of the 1939-45 war's eventual 3,000-strong First Special Service Force — including about 60 of the 1,000 Canadians who served in the top-secret unit immortalized in a 1968 film starring William Holden.
The planned U.S. honour for the war's only joint U.S.-Canada military unit follows Canadian government recognition earlier this year when Defence Minister Peter MacKay presented brigade veterans with the Minister's Award for Operational Excellence at a ceremony on Parliament Hill.
"I think that would be great," said 93-year-old Henry Planger, a Devil's Brigade veteran from Pincher Creek, Alta. "Anytime they want to hand out a medal, it's OK with me."
Unit members were selected for their ability to fight in rugged landscapes under difficult conditions — and in the face of extremely long odds. A key tactic was to parachute behind enemy lines to knock out vital defence installations ahead of major Allied offensives.
U.S. Sen. Max Baucus, a Democrat from Montana, and Florida Republican Jeff Miller of the U.S. House of Representatives led the bipartisan bid to bestow "Congress's highest honour" on members of the brigade, whose renowned successes in France and Italy — where Allied special forces captured a key mountain stronghold and led the liberation of Rome — made them a sterling symbol of U.S.-Canada wartime cooperation, serving as a model for joint units and operations in the postwar era.
"They were volunteers, lumberjacks and mountaineers who answered the call to serve and mastered unconventional tactics to do the impossible and help secure victory in World War II," Baucas said in a statement issued Tuesday.
Miller added that the Devil's Brigade was "a truly revolutionary force, and their impact on our military is still felt today. To all of the men and women who have guarded our great nation, in the name of protecting and defending the liberties we hold so dear, thank you."
The two American lawmakers gave credit to Gary Doer, Canada's ambassador to the U.S., for giving vocal support to the proposed tribute.
"We are grateful that the U.S. Congress has recognized the brave accomplishments of the First Special Service Force in World War II," Doer said in Tuesday's statement. "The Devil's Brigade were the first of their kind, and the legacy of bilateral defence cooperation that they inspired continues between our two countries to this day."
The Congressional Gold Medal — distinguished from the Congressional Medal of Honour, which recognizes conspicuous acts of great bravery — is given to those "who have performed an achievement that has an impact on American history and culture that is likely to be recognized as a major achievement in the recipient's field long after the achievement."
While often granted for military actions, the medal has also been awarded to pioneering U.S. astronauts Neil Armstrong and John Glenn, Pope John Paul II, golf champion Arnold Palmer and Peanuts cartoonist Charles Shulz. George Washington was the first recipient of the medal in 1776; in 2011, the victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks of 2001 were posthumously recognized with Congressional Gold Medals.
Planger told Postmedia News on Tuesday that after his enlistment at 21 — "You either joined the army or they conscripted you" — and his basic training at an army camp in Brandon, Man., he and a handful of other soldiers were recruited for the special force being assembled in Montana and which prized the skills of strong, agile young men comfortable in mountainous and backwoods settings.
"I'm a country boy," said Planger. "They left about six or seven of us sitting on the floor (in Brandon) for some reason. They said they were looking for outdoor men — hunters and trappers and fishermen — for a special unit. I said, 'That sounds good. Put my name down.'"
The FSSF volunteers underwent intensive training as paratroopers and sharpshooters at Montana's Fort Harrison, where soldiers from Canada and the U.S. were combined in a single fighting unit under both Canadian and American officers.
"We were sent down across the border to Helena (Mont.)," Planger remembers. "We were put into training and that's where we made our parachute drops and were made into marksmen."
He recalls the unit's deployment Italy, where the 1943 capture of Monte La Difensa and the prolonged battle for Anzio Beachhead in 1944 took place. The assault on La Difensa was the focus of the Hollywood version of The Devil's Brigade, with Holden starring as the First Special Service Force's real-life commander, U.S. Lt.-Col. Robert Frederick.
Planger said he was lucky to escape the war with just "a few little scrapes along the way." But the brigade suffered heavy casualties throughout its wartime service.
Brigade veterans gather regularly for reunions, and the next one is scheduled to take place in September in Windsor — appropriately situated on the U.S.-Canada border and the home of 92-year-old Ralph Mayville, the focus of a poignant fundraising effort last year to send him to the 2012 reunion in Washington, D.C.
But the numbers of those attending — as with all Second World War regiments — have dwindled in recent years, said Planger.
"It's been a long time."
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The proposed tribute was approved last week by the U.S. Senate, as it had been in May by the U.S. House of Representatives. The bill conferring the medals now awaits only the signature of U.S. President Barack Obama, who is expected to quickly approve the award to the remaining veterans of the 1939-45 war's eventual 3,000-strong First Special Service Force — including about 60 of the 1,000 Canadians who served in the top-secret unit immortalized in a 1968 film starring William Holden.
The planned U.S. honour for the war's only joint U.S.-Canada military unit follows Canadian government recognition earlier this year when Defence Minister Peter MacKay presented brigade veterans with the Minister's Award for Operational Excellence at a ceremony on Parliament Hill.
"I think that would be great," said 93-year-old Henry Planger, a Devil's Brigade veteran from Pincher Creek, Alta. "Anytime they want to hand out a medal, it's OK with me."
Unit members were selected for their ability to fight in rugged landscapes under difficult conditions — and in the face of extremely long odds. A key tactic was to parachute behind enemy lines to knock out vital defence installations ahead of major Allied offensives.
U.S. Sen. Max Baucus, a Democrat from Montana, and Florida Republican Jeff Miller of the U.S. House of Representatives led the bipartisan bid to bestow "Congress's highest honour" on members of the brigade, whose renowned successes in France and Italy — where Allied special forces captured a key mountain stronghold and led the liberation of Rome — made them a sterling symbol of U.S.-Canada wartime cooperation, serving as a model for joint units and operations in the postwar era.
"They were volunteers, lumberjacks and mountaineers who answered the call to serve and mastered unconventional tactics to do the impossible and help secure victory in World War II," Baucas said in a statement issued Tuesday.
Miller added that the Devil's Brigade was "a truly revolutionary force, and their impact on our military is still felt today. To all of the men and women who have guarded our great nation, in the name of protecting and defending the liberties we hold so dear, thank you."
The two American lawmakers gave credit to Gary Doer, Canada's ambassador to the U.S., for giving vocal support to the proposed tribute.
"We are grateful that the U.S. Congress has recognized the brave accomplishments of the First Special Service Force in World War II," Doer said in Tuesday's statement. "The Devil's Brigade were the first of their kind, and the legacy of bilateral defence cooperation that they inspired continues between our two countries to this day."
The Congressional Gold Medal — distinguished from the Congressional Medal of Honour, which recognizes conspicuous acts of great bravery — is given to those "who have performed an achievement that has an impact on American history and culture that is likely to be recognized as a major achievement in the recipient's field long after the achievement."
While often granted for military actions, the medal has also been awarded to pioneering U.S. astronauts Neil Armstrong and John Glenn, Pope John Paul II, golf champion Arnold Palmer and Peanuts cartoonist Charles Shulz. George Washington was the first recipient of the medal in 1776; in 2011, the victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks of 2001 were posthumously recognized with Congressional Gold Medals.
Planger told Postmedia News on Tuesday that after his enlistment at 21 — "You either joined the army or they conscripted you" — and his basic training at an army camp in Brandon, Man., he and a handful of other soldiers were recruited for the special force being assembled in Montana and which prized the skills of strong, agile young men comfortable in mountainous and backwoods settings.
"I'm a country boy," said Planger. "They left about six or seven of us sitting on the floor (in Brandon) for some reason. They said they were looking for outdoor men — hunters and trappers and fishermen — for a special unit. I said, 'That sounds good. Put my name down.'"
The FSSF volunteers underwent intensive training as paratroopers and sharpshooters at Montana's Fort Harrison, where soldiers from Canada and the U.S. were combined in a single fighting unit under both Canadian and American officers.
"We were sent down across the border to Helena (Mont.)," Planger remembers. "We were put into training and that's where we made our parachute drops and were made into marksmen."
He recalls the unit's deployment Italy, where the 1943 capture of Monte La Difensa and the prolonged battle for Anzio Beachhead in 1944 took place. The assault on La Difensa was the focus of the Hollywood version of The Devil's Brigade, with Holden starring as the First Special Service Force's real-life commander, U.S. Lt.-Col. Robert Frederick.
Planger said he was lucky to escape the war with just "a few little scrapes along the way." But the brigade suffered heavy casualties throughout its wartime service.
Brigade veterans gather regularly for reunions, and the next one is scheduled to take place in September in Windsor — appropriately situated on the U.S.-Canada border and the home of 92-year-old Ralph Mayville, the focus of a poignant fundraising effort last year to send him to the 2012 reunion in Washington, D.C.
But the numbers of those attending — as with all Second World War regiments — have dwindled in recent years, said Planger.
"It's been a long time."
[email protected]
© Copyright (c) Postmedia News
