World War II

American Paratroopers Assault “The Rock” Corregidor, Feb. 16, 1945

After the fall of the Philippines in early 1942 by the Japanese, recapturing the island was of paramount importance to General Douglas MacArthur. Corregidor, known as “The Rock” to U.S. troops was the last piece to fall and American and Filipino troops wanted their redemption.

During the subsequent invasion to retake it, MacArthur used a two-pronged approach by the sea and thru the air. There, American paratroopers of the 503rd Parachute Regimental Combat Team (PRCT) would drop on top of Japanese defenses on a small drop zone to help drive the Japanese off the island. The fighting would last 11 days and the Japanese garrison was virtually wiped out.

Background:

In the drive to take Manilla, the island of Corregidor had a massive amount of guns that could dominate ships entering into Manilla Harbor. The island was about 11 miles long and shaped like a tadpole. Most elevations at the tip of the tail of the island were only about 25 feet above sea level, but the heights (500 feet) on the far end of the island offered excellent observation of the bay.

The choice to make a combined airborne and naval assault on the island was a difficult one as the small size of the drop zone would offer the paratroopers virtually zero margin for error. Initially, the commander of the 503rd, Colonel George Jones wanted to land at the far end of the island by the tail where his troops had decent drop zones. But he was overruled. The paratroopers would land at “Topside” on the high ground to support the amphibious landing.

Topside was dotted with the old U.S. Coastal artillery batteries that protected Manila Bay. There were 56 gun positions that housed a mix of 12, 10, 8, 6 and 3-inch guns. Captured from the Spanish during the 1898 war, it was here that the U.S. troops exacted a terrible toll on the Japanese landing forces when they invaded in 1942.

As the paratroopers would be taking Topside, assault troops from the 34th Infantry Regiment of the 24th Infantry Division would make an amphibious assault on the southern beaches outside of San Jose, the village nearby.

Topside was littered with the ruins of old buildings destroyed in the Japanese invasion. Jones decided to use two small dropzones consisting of the old parade ground and the golf course, both were only 350 yards long meaning no more than 6-8 jumpers could deploy from C-47s per pass. Each drop zone was ringed by dense vegetation, shell craters and a cliff on the west side of the DZ.

But the saving grace of the plan was that the Japanese would never expect to be hit with a vertical envelopment. However, Colonel Jones did expect between 25-50 percent casualties on the jump in.

The Battle:

After a massive air and naval bombardment, the paratroopers began dropping precisely at 8:33 a.m. just three minutes behind schedule as the C-47s were protected by a virtual umbrella of P-47 and P-38 fighters.

The first pass jumped from 500 feet but the winds were higher than expected and they had to adjust the planes’ altitude to just 400 feet. The parade ground was a mess of shell craters, tree stumps, broken glass, and concrete splinters that made it into a very dangerous landing zone.

The Japanese, although completely taken by surprise, immediately reacted and pitched fighting was taking place. Captain Emmitt Spicer, the doctor for the 462nd Parachute Field Artillery Battalion, was moving under heavy fire to administer to the battalion’s wounded. Finally, he was cut down, when his body was recovered, it was discovered that he filled out his own his own medical tag. Below the normal name, rank, and serial number, Spicer wrote the following under “Injury”: “GSW [gunshot wound].” Under “Prognosis” he had written “Death.” He was posthumously awarded a Silver Star.

Another trooper, Private Lloyd G. McCarter, crossed thirty meters of open terrain, under heavy fire from a machine gun until he was able to silence it with grenades. He was later awarded the Medal of Honor.

The next night near Wheeler Point, the Japanese launched a banzai attack with 500 Marines against a force of just 50 paratroopers. The Americans holding this position, F Company lost 14 men dead and 15 wounded. But because the warships offshore fired illumination rounds all night, the paratroopers exacted a terrible toll on the Japanese landing force. In a single stretch of road 200 yards wide, over 250 Japanese corpses littered the ground. The men held.

Paratroopers had effected a link up with the assault troops who had come ashore and they moved on Malinta Hill, outside of San Jose. For eight days, the infantry used tanks and flamethrowers to burn the Japanese out of the bunkers and tunnels they were dug into. They killed over 300 including another banzai charge.

Then on the night of February 21st, the Japanese inside the tunnel complex blew themselves up by igniting the explosives in the tunnels. Only 50 survived and they immediately launched into a desperate but futile attack. They were all quickly killed.

That was the end of organized resistance, the troops then cleared pockets of isolated troops until Corregidor was secured.

Casualties for the 503rd PRCT were 169 dead, 531 wounded. The 34th Infantry Regiment suffered 38 killed and 153 wounded. Of the 6900 Japanese on the island, 19 were taken as prisoners and another 20 turned themselves in after the war in 1946. The rest were killed or drowned while trying to escape the island.

The airborne, amphibious assault was a very dangerous plan that no doubt today would be canceled over “the culture of risk-taking” that the Pentagon is so down on. But the paratroopers did it and took back the island. The American and Filipino soldiers had their redemption.

Photo: Wikipedia

Wingate’s Chindits Begin Guerrilla Warfare Against the Japanese, Feb. 8, 1943

Under the command of Major General Orde Wingate, the 77th Indian Brigade, also called the Chindits, began to launch guerrilla raids behind Japanese lines in Burma in February 1943.

The Chindits were a long-range Special Operations raiding force organized to conduct deep penetration of the Japanese lines to attack Japanese troops, facilities, and lines of communication. They were the brainchild of Wingate who was a proponent of combined joint special operations forces back before World War II.

Early Childhood and Military Career:

Wingate was born in India, his father was a career British Army officer. Wingate attended the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich which was the training school for the British artillery officers. He graduated and received his commission in 1923.

Soon after, he was recognized as an outstanding horseman and where he was involved with and was successful in races and fox hunting. Because of this, he was assigned to the Military School of Equitation, where he enjoyed challenging the instructors. And if that didn’t make him unpopular enough with the Cavalry officers there, his growing arrogance, which was to mark the rest of his career would.

After learning Arabic and being posted to Sudan, Wingate took over a unit along the Ethiopia border combatting slave traders and ivory poachers. But it was his posting to Palestine that would change his career forever.

Wingate was a forward-thinking, exponent of unconventional warfare. One of the few British officers who supported Zionism, he began his career as a guerrilla fighter when he organized a coalition of British/Jewish troops whose counterinsurgency tactics helped to combat the Arab revolt in British-controlled Palestine in the 1930s.

He created what was termed “Special Night Squads” a combined British and Jewish group who would Arab saboteurs who were attacking oil pipelines. However, due to his unrestrained belief in the creation of a Jewish state which was a political hot potato then, he was considered compromised as an intelligence officer and was hence removed and sent back to England.

Once World War II began, General Archibald Wavell was put in command of the Middle East Command in Cairo. In 1941, Wavell had Wingate create the “Gideon Force” under General William Platt in Sudan. It was a Special Operations Executive (SOE) force composed of British, Sudanese, and Ethiopian soldiers. Wingate even asked for permission from Haile Selassie to invite the Jewish Haganah fighters to serve alongside of them.

The Gideon force was named after the Biblical judge and prophet Gideon who took a small, determined force and defeated the much larger Midianites. His story was encountered in Chapters 6-8 in the Book of Judges in the Hebrew Bible.

Their mission was to drive the Italians out of Ethiopia. Wingate’s men who numbered 1700, harassed and attacked the Italian forts and supply lines. By the end of the campaign, his small force took the surrender of 20,000 Italian troops.

Moving on to Asia and the Japanese Campaign:

When General Wavell was reassigned and given Commander-in-Chief of the India Command, he requested that Wingate be reassigned to his command. Wavell’s plan was to use Wingate’s experience as a guerrilla fighter in both Palestine and in Ethiopia to train and organize the Chindits–a brigade of specially trained Gurkha (Nepalese), Burmese, and British troops, similar to how he led his Gideon Force.

Wingate arrived early in 1942 and tried to see as much of the country as possible, during the Japanese invasion. But he formulated his idea on how to use the guerrilla force that he envisioned. And it was here in Asia, that Wingate would become famous or perhaps infamous with his fellow officers. His service was marked with bad interactions with fellow officers due to his abrupt, direct manner, which many described as arrogant. He had several personal quirks and would frequently greet guests completely naked and against regulations grew a beard in the jungle, allowing his men to do the same.

He briefed his idea to Wavell and the name “Chindits” was chosen. It is a bastardized form of the Burmese mythical beast Chinthé or Chinthay, statues of which guarded Buddhist temples and was chosen by Captain Aung Thin of the Burmese Rifles.

The first Chindit group was formed in June 1942, the 77th Indian Infantry Brigade. It was composed of the British 13th Battalion, the King’s Liverpool Regiment and the 2nd Gurkha Rifles.

Wingate envisioned that the force would be resupplied by parachute and instead of wielding artillery thru the jungles, close air support would be substituted. The unit would penetrate the jungle on foot, using speed, surprise and stealth as the Japanese had already proven to be very successful in Burma.

Each Chindit had a lot of gear to carry and the men would carry a minimum of 72 pounds of equipment, which is more than the mules who supported the unit would be carrying. From Wikipedia, each man carried as the SMLE rifle or Sten Gun, ammunition, grenades, a machete or Gurkha kukri knife, seven days’ rations, groundsheet, change of uniform and other assorted items. Much of this load was carried in an Everest carrier, which was essentially a metal rucksack frame without a pack

Wingate and his brigade entered Japanese-controlled Burma on February 13, 1943, and crossed the Chindwin River, and launched their campaign to be attacking supply lines, and cutting communications of the Japanese. On March 4, one of Wingate’s columns had cut the Japanese railway in over 70 places.

After three months, the Wingate’s surviving men had crossed back into India, having marched about 1000 miles. Of his 3000 men that had begun the mission, 818 of his men were dead (either killed in action or died of disease) or taken prisoner. Of the 2182 remaining troops, 600 were too sick to be ever used again. Wingate hand-picked the hardiest to continue for follow-on operations and the rest were transferred back to the British Army for use in conventional units.

For the next deep penetration mission in 1944, Wingate changed his strategy but also had at his disposal a dedicated air force unit specifically designed to support his guerrilla operations. The American 1st Air Commando Group, mainly consisting of USAAF aircraft.

Lieutenant General Slim, commander of the British Fourteenth Army, and USAAF General George E. Stratemeyer, commander of Eastern Air Command, issued a joint directive in early February 1944 to General Wingate and the 1st Air Commando Group, to conduct operations under the command of the Fourteenth Army carry out the objectives of:

A. Helping the advance of General Stilwell’s Ledo force on Myitkyina by cutting the communications of the Japanese 18th Division, harassing its rear, and preventing its reinforcement.
B. Creating a favorable tactical situation for the Chinese forces to cross the Salween and enter Burma.
C. Inflicting the greatest possible damage and confusion on the enemy in North Burma.

During Operation Thursday, one brigade (16th) crossed into Burma on foot, while others went in on gliders. By the next day, they were able to make the landing strip able to handle C-47s and they ferried 600 sorties of men into the strip until 9000 troops were on-hand.

Fierce jungle fighting at close quarters ensued as Wingate’s forces tried to take Indaw. Several attacks later, the men of the 16th Brigade had to be evacuated back by air. On March 24th, Wingate flew to Imphal to confer with his other commanders. On the return journey, the B-25 Mitchell bomber he was flying in, flew into a thunderstorm and crashed. Everyone on board was killed.

General Slim replaced Wingate with Brigadier Joe Lentaigne. Immediately problems arose with the other Chindit commanders. Wingate, like themselves, were “outside the box” thinkers, guerrilla fighters. Lentaigne was an outsider, a typical conventional officer’s background. He in turn, believed that Wingate’s officers lacked the conventional experience to be effective commanders.

The Chindits had varying degrees of success in their operations. Many British officers believed that their value was overstated. Winston Churchill, a huge proponent of Commando operations and Special Operations, in general, was very complimentary on the Chindits efforts in the Far East. The Japanese commander General Mutaguchi Renya admitted that Wingate’s Chindit operations had stifled their plans for most of 1943.

Part of the British negative criticism of Wingate and the Chindits came from the conventional distrust of Special Operations in general. General Slim in a quote that many American special operators of our last generation will recognize, stated that he was against Special Operations of any kind as it robbed the regular units of their best and brightest.

Historians have been split widely on Wingate, some portraying him as a brilliant, though eccentric unconventional warfare visionary or a mentally unstable, arrogant loose cannon who operated well above his head.

One of Wingate’s Chindits, Sir Robert Thompson, perhaps summed it best by writing in his autobiography, “Every time I look at the picture of General Slim and his Corps Commanders being knighted by Lord Wavell as Viceroy on the field of battle after Imphal, I see the ghost of Wingate present. He was unquestionably one of the great men of the century”.

The people of Israel and the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) remember Wingate fondly, former IDF Chief of Staff Moshe Dayan, has said that “He [Wingate] taught us everything we know.” The National Centre for Physical Education and Sport, the Wingate Institute (Machon Wingate) was named after him. A square in the Talbiya neighborhood of Jerusalem, Wingate Square (Kikar Wingate), also was named after him.

Photo: Imperial War Museum

M-1 Garand, “The greatest battle implement ever devised”, Adopted Today 1936

The United States Army was the only combatant to enter World War II who armed their standard infantrymen with a semi-automatic rifle. The rifle was an iconic image of the American GI of our Greatest Generation during the war. And the Garand served from the steaming jungles of the Pacific to the sands of North Africa and across the countries of Europe.

The M-1 Garand was adopted by the U.S. Army as its main battle rifle on January 9, 1936, and served until 1957 when it was replaced by the M-14 rifle which used basically the same operating system. Over 5,500,000 M-1s were produced and the rifle served as the main infantry weapon of the U.S. in both WWII and Korea.

Near the end of World War II, General George S. Patton called the M-1 Garand, “the greatest battle implement ever devised”. It was simple and inexpensive to produce, (the average cost in 1945 was $26 per rifle), easy to operate and maintain and most importantly rugged and reliable.

Looking To Upgrade Their Infantry:

The U.S. Army had been tinkering with the idea of upgrading their infantrymen with a semi-automatic rifle since 1909. Those plans were delayed by the onset of World War I. They stuck with the standard 1903 Springfield rifle which was a bolt-action, five shot weapon in .30 caliber (30-06).

The Ordnance Department announced that they had eight principal requirements for the next generation of semi-automatic weapons in 1921. This new design was to replace the M1903 Springfield which had been in service since 1903. The Army was looking for the infantry to have more firepower than the standard bolt-action rifle. The Ordnance Department required that any new design would have to:

Weigh nine pounds or less
Be well-balanced and adapted to shoulder firing
Be fed by a magazine for quick reloading
Be simple, strong, compact, and easy to manufacture.
Be entirely semi-automatic
Use the .30 caliber service cartridge (30-06)
Function properly without any need for special oil, grease, or other material applied to the cartridge

Enter John C. Garand. Garand had moved to the United States from Canada as a young child and was working in the Springfield Armory in Massachusetts when he submitted a design entry in for the Army’s Light Machine Gun competition. Although his design wasn’t adopted, he was put in charge of developing a semi-automatic rifle.

Garand’s design utilized a revolutionary a long-stroke gas piston system that trapped propellant gasses which would operate the weapon. Initial testing included a new 7mm (.276 caliber) cartridge because the Army believed that if it were lighter, the average soldier could carry a lot more ammo. (Something that is being revisited in every generation). But that was eventually nixed when then Army Chief of Staff, Douglas MacArthur wanted to retain the .30 caliber ammo since the U.S. had stockpiled so much of it.

Garand’s first design had a gas trap system which was a small device fixed near the rifle’s muzzle captured expanding gases and used the pressure to cycle the rifle’s gas piston that ran below the barrel. This long-stroke system’s piston attached to an operating rod which rotated the M1’s bolt to unlock it and open the action. This allowed spent cases to be ejected and a fresh cartridge loaded.

This, however, was found to be unsuitable when carbon would build up and cause malfunctions. Garand soon replaced the gas trap with a gas port where the firing would push gas directly from the barrel to the gas piston, which was a much more reliable design.

The Garand used .30-06 caliber cartridges in 8-round “en bloc” clips loaded into an internal magazine. When the last round was fired the spent clips would be ejected as well and make an audible pinging sound.

The ping has been the subject of many legends, some claiming that enemy soldiers would wait until they heard the pinging sound to take advantage of American troops out of ammo. While some veterans say that during a pitched firefight it was impossible to distinguish the sound over the din of battle, others claim it to be true.

Several years ago, I happened to be at an event where several members of the “Band of Brothers” were present. While they were being peppered with questions, many of their answers were geared toward humor or tongue-in-cheek.

One paratrooper smiled and said he’d always carry an empty en-bloc clip. And if the shooting was sporadic, he’d bounce a clip of his own helmet when one of his buddies fired, trying to catch a German peering up for a shot. He claimed to nail a German that way… myth or truth? We’ll err on the side of the myth here…

The Garand Goes to War:

The Garand M-1 rifle first saw major action during the latter stages of the American invasions of Guadalcanal in the Pacific and of North Africa in 1942 during Operation Torch. The improved rear sight, a big upgrade over the ‘03 Springfield coupled with the semi-automatic rate of fire increased the firepower nearly double that of the 20-rounds per minute that WWI troops could expect.

The only drawback of the weapon was that it tended to be a bit bulky and heavy. But the troops loved its reliability and rate of fire. American infantry squads could easily put down much more fire than their enemy counterparts from Germany and Japan who were still using the bolt-action Mauser KAR-98 and the Arisaka rifles in their militaries.

Production ceased after World War II but when the Korean War kicked off, production was again started back up. Soon after the Korean War, the Pentagon was looking for a replacement for their workhorse rifle and settled on the M-14. That weapon is just a modernized version of the M-1, using the same basic operating system with a detachable 20-round box magazine.

The Army produced a Sniper variant with a scope mounted on the side due to the brass and en-bloc magazine ejecting straight up as well as a Tanker variant, a shorter barreled rifle more suitable for use in and around armored vehicles.

Having a chance to try all three types, the M-1 in any form is a joy to shoot and many marksmanship clubs still use it today. While it was a touch less accurate than KAR-98, the amount of firepower it generated gave it a clear advantage.

Photos: US Archives

William “Wild Bill” Donovan Born Jan.1, Head of OSS, Forerunner of CIA

William Donovan was a man who many hats, he was a decorated soldier, diplomat, intelligence officer, as well as a lawyer. He’s best known as the founder and commander of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), which was the forerunner to both the CIA and the U.S. Army Special Forces (Green Berets). He is considered the “Father of U.S. Intelligence” and a statue of him resides in CIA Headquarters.

Humble Beginnings:

Donovan was born on New Year’s Day 1883 in Buffalo, New York to American-born parents but came from Irish immigrants. His father, Timothy, moved to Buffalo and for a time managed the railroad yard and later the Holy Cross Cemetery.

Donovan attended St. Joseph’s Collegiate Institute, a Catholic school where he played football, acted in plays, and won an award for oratory. He would then follow on to Niagara University, a Catholic university, and seminary where he studied pre-law. Donovan briefly considered becoming a priest but would ultimately decide against it. While at Niagra, Donovan won another oratorical contest, for presenting a speech warning of corrupt, anti-Christian forces that threatened the existence of the United States.

Looking to expand his personal horizons he transferred to Colombia University to study law but also attended religious services of the Jewish and Protestant faiths to gauge whether he wanted to change his religion. He continued to be a star athlete, starring with the football and rowing teams. He won another award for oratory and was voted the “most modest” and one of the “most handsome” members of Columbia’s graduating class of 1905.

While at Columbia, one of his classmates was Franklin D. Roosevelt. Although polar opposites on the political spectrum, the two would cross paths and have a solid respectful relationship.

Donovan was a partner in a law firm in Buffalo, New York when he decided to help form and lead a unit for the New York National Guard. His unit was mobilized and sent to Mexico during the punitive campaigns to catch Pancho Villa. It was part of the “Fighting 69th, the Irish Brigade” from Civil War fame.

World War I Fame:

When Donovan returned from Mexico, he was promoted to Major and joined the 165th Regiment of the famed “Rainbow Division.” Douglas MacArthur was the Chief of Staff for the division. Donovan was an officer who always led from the front, even as a battalion commander. It was here he developed the nickname “Wild Bill” for his boundless energy. While he publicly claimed to dislike it, his wife would say, that privately, he loved it.

He was wounded by shrapnel and nearly blinded by a German mustard gas attack. He was awarded the French Croix de Guerre for a daring rescue under fire of a wounded soldier.

During the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, the 165th was in heavy action at Landres-et-St. Georges. Donovan, now a Lt. Colonel, led one of three regiments with the objective of capturing an enemy position which was well entrenched on a steep ravine surrounded by machine guns and artillery.

Because of the heavy German fire and strong defensive positions, the other two supporting regiments refused to advance, but Donovan persisted and rallied his regiment and led the advance under absolutely murderous conditions.

Donovan refused to conform to the convention of the times, by not stripping off all of his rank and insignia which was common for officers, he told his men, “They can’t hit me and they won’t hit you!” Wounded three times he refused to be evacuated until his men carried the day. He was eventually awarded the Medal of Honor for his courage and 4000 veterans attended the ceremony in New York City.

At the end of World War I, Donovan was arguably the most decorated man in US military history at that time, having been awarded all of the top awards for bravery in combat. Donovan was awarded the Medal of Honor, the Distinguished Service Cross, the Distinguished Service Medal, and the Silver Star, the Purple Heart, and several foreign awards for valor. Donovan and Teddy Roosevelt started the American Legion after the war was over.

Sowing the Seeds of Intelligence Work Between the Wars:

Despite returning to his law firm in Buffalo, Donovan combined vacation and fact-finding trips to Japan, China, and Korea, and Siberia. He also took an extended trip to Europe, where he conducted work for J. P. Morgan and gathered intelligence about international Communism.

Returning home he was appointed to be the Assistant US Attorney for Western New York and became a dedicated crime fighter, especially against bootlegging which was just recently made illegal. He ran for Lieutenant Governor unsuccessfully in 1924, and Governor in 1932 when FDR left office.

With World War II started and looking like the United States would get drawn into it, President Roosevelt who respected Donovan’s experience called on him in 1940 and 1941. Donovan was FDR’s eyes and ears, but strictly an informal observer to Britain, where he was urged by the President to gauge Britain would be able to stand alone against the Nazis.

Donovan’s travels also impressed upon him that the U.S. needed an intelligence service as the British had. He alone was of the opinion that Britain could withstand the Blitz and urged Roosevelt to help them. Churchill was impressed with Donovan and gave him access to everything, including the intelligence services.

Starting an Intelligence Service From Scratch:

In July 1941, FDR established the Office of the Coordination of Information (COI) and named Donovan as its director. This new title infuriated the Army, Navy, FBI (especially J.Edgar Hoover who hated Donovan) and the State Department, who all had terrible and non-cooperating intelligence services of their own. There WAS no coordination of effort between the agencies.

COI set up shop in NYC in the Rockefeller Center. They were located one floor above the Brits, MI6 shop. Allen Dulles ran the operation, he would later serve as a Chief of Station in Europe and much later as the Director of CIA.

Once the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, the U.S. went to a war footing and COI would soon become OSS in July 1942. Donovan was off and running and tried to recruit agents and operators from every walk of life imaginable. He was initially brought back on active duty at his previous rank of Colonel but was promoted to Brigadier General within just a few months in January 1943.

Unfortunately, his turf wars weren’t just with the other Americans. MI6 and their chief, Stewart Menzies began to try to rein in their colonial cousins, trying to protect the empire for after the war. Regardless, by 1944, OSS had spread its wings to the corners of the earth with the exception of South America, where Hoover and the FBI had insisted remain their turf, and had agents and sources in nearly every capital. One of Donovan’s best sources of information turned out to be Catholic priests who were conduits of information unknown to the Vatican.

With the war turned on the side of the Allies, Donovan went ashore with troops on both D-Day and later into Southern France. He met with the Pope in Italy and with Marshall Tito in Yugoslavia. OSS men in Rumania had found a way to funnel over 1300 downed pilots back to Allied control. With the war winding down, Donovan presented a plan to FDR for a post-war intelligence service. One copy of which ended up in the hands of a newspaper reporter who deemed Donovan’s plan akin to creating an American Gestapo.

However, once Roosevelt died in 1945, Donovan found himself on the outs with the new President Harry Truman who disliked Donovan and the OSS. Truman at the war’s end would dissolve OSS and their agents and operators would be scattered to the winds. Donovan would help in the prosecution of the Nazi war criminals at the Nuremberg trials. He would go back to practicing law on Wall St.

Truman would finally recognize the need for a national intelligence agency that operated abroad and not in the U.S. and signed the National Security Act of 1947, which established the Central Intelligence Agency. Donovan’s dream had now come to fruition. Several of Donovan’s “glorious amateurs” who began in OSS would serve as directors including Dulles, James Jesus Angleton, Richard Helms, William Colby, and William Casey.

In 1953, now President Eisenhower, who was a believer in Donovan and OSS during the war, appointed him as the Ambassador to Thailand. The covert task for Donovan in Thailand was to “quietly” assume command not only of the embassy but also the propaganda, military aid, and CIA operations for Thailand. He was to build “a bastion” for democracy there and use it to fight communists overtly and covertly in the neighboring countries, which included Vietnam. Donovan, already thinking ahead, had conferred with old OSS men who worked in Thailand and had already visited Ft. Bragg, NC to meet with the new Green Berets there, the Unconventional Warfare group, headed up by Aaron Bank was a product of his OSS. He also got the Psychological Operations people involved.

Donovan died in 1959 at the age of 76 from complications of dementia at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington D.C. Upon his death, CIA sent out a message to all Station Chiefs, “The man more responsible than any other for the existence of the Central Intelligence Agency has passed away.”

Donovan was buried in Arlington National Cemetery in Section 2. General Donovan was the only American to have received the nations four highest awards: the Medal of Honor, the Distinguished Service Cross, the Distinguished Service Medal, and the National Security Medal.

After his death, Donovan was awarded the Freedom Award of the International Rescue Committee. He is also a member of the Military Intelligence Hall of Fame. The George Bush Center for Intelligence, inside the CIA headquarters building in Langley, Virginia, has a statue of Donovan in the lobby.

Today we remember General Donovan on what would have been his 136th birthday.

Photos: US Army

January 1, 1962, The US Navy SEAL Teams Are Born

On this day in 1962 is the official date of the beginning of the United States Navy’s Sea, Air and Land Teams (SEAL) as President John Kennedy established the Navy’s Unconventional Warfare unit. SEAL teams are designed to conduct direct action missions from any environment.

Although the official date for the SEAL Teams is in 1962, they were actually tied to units in World War II that they owe their lineage to. Less than a year after Pearl Harbor, the Navy recognized the need for dedicated beach reconnaissance. The Amphibious Scout and Raider School was established at Little Creek, Virginia and contained both Navy and Army personnel. This first group of special operators also contained Phil Bucklew, who is considered the father of all Navy Special Operations.

And while most people think of the work that the Navy’s beach clearing operations in the Pacific, they also conducted operations in every major amphibious landing in the European theater. They were instrumental in leading the way for amphibious forces in North Africa, Sicily, Salerno, Anzio, Normandy on D-Day, and the landings in Southern France.

The Navy also developed Navy Combat Demolition Units (NCDU) which would blow gaps in beach defenses for amphibious forces to breach during invasions. NCDUs suffered a large number of casualties during D-Day. While in the Pacific they created Underwater Demolition Teams (UDT). The UDTs rewrote the manuals of the NCDUs and wore just swimming trunks (UDT shorts), fins, masks, and a combat knife. They, contrary to orders would get out of their boats to conduct their missions and thus became known as the “naked warriors.”

UDT swimmers conducted operations at Eniwetok, Saipan, Kwajalein, Tinian, Guam, Angaur, Ulithi, Peleliu, Leyte, Lingayen Gulf, Zambales, Iwo Jima, Okinawa, Labuan, and Brunei Bay. During the Korean War UDTs would perform operations all long the Korean coastlines and they targeted bridges, mines, and scouted out the landings at Inchon.

It should be noted that OSS (Office of Strategic Services) had its own Maritime Unit. And many of the missions we think of SEALs today were actually conducted by the special operations unit then. The OSS Maritime Unit conducted operations using newly improved fins, masks, SCUBA (self-contained, underwater breathing apparatus), the use of Swimmer Delivery Vehicles and conducted the first submarine lockout.

As the war in Vietnam was still in its infancy stage for the Americans, President Kennedy recognized what kind of a war it would eventually become. He helped get the U.S. Army Special Forces the recognition it needed to expand the Army’s Unconventional Warfare capabilities. He foresaw the same need for the U.S. Navy. While making the speech about putting a man on the moon, he spoke about spending $100 million dollars to strengthen the U.S. UW capability. However, while he was the one signing the SEAL Teams into existence, the Navy had already been working on expanding the role of UDTs for several years.

SEAL Teams One and Two deployed to Vietnam to operate in the deltas and thousands of rivers and canals in the country to try to effectively disrupt the enemy’s lines of communication.

SEALs advised and trained Vietnamese forces, such as the LDNN (Vietnamese SEALs) and conducted their own brand of UW. These Navy commandos also perfected the art of nighttime Direct Action missions such as ambushes and raids to capture prisoners of high intelligence value. These are considered the bread-and-butter of the SEAL forces today.

During the war, the intelligence gathering for the troops was generally poor, it was then that SEALs and Green Berets would begin gathering their own intelligence. It was then that the value of the intel gathered by these Special Operators rose up quickly. Both Army and Navy Special Operators would serve together along with CIA personnel in the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam Studies and Observation Group (MACVSOG).

These men while representing less than 1 percent of the ground forces in Vietnam, produced about 75 percent of all the usable intelligence for the troops in the country.

After Vietnam, the SEAL Teams would expand during the buildup of Special Operations forces in the 1980s. SEALs would serve in the battles in Grenada, Panama, the first Persian Gulf war with Iran, Somalia, Afghanistan after 9/11, Iraq and in Syria. They’ve also been involved in more low-visibility operations in the Philippines, in the Horn of Africa and countless other third-world countries where Special Operations Troops generally work in the shadows.

But two of the missions that SEALs have conducted have become mainstream news items. One was conducted in April of 2009 when Somali pirates took over the U.S. ship the Maersk Alabama. The pirates had taken the Captain of the Alabama, Richard Phillips hostage and they were in a lifeboat being towed behind the USS Bainbridge. SEALs from DEVGRU were alerted and transported to the Navy ships in the Area. Then, in a tremendous feat of marksmanship while on the open seas, DEVGRU snipers took out the pirates, each with a headshot.

During the early morning hours of May 1, 2011, in the country of Pakistan that is where SEALs of DEVGRU (Naval Special Warfare Development Group) were alerted after CIA intelligence pinpointed the location of Osama bin Laden.

In a combined operation with CIA assets on the ground in Abbottabad, Pakistan about 35 miles from Islamabad, Pakistan, DEVGRU SEALs infiltrated into the target area using specially designed “stealth” Blackhawk helicopters landed in the compound that bin Laden had been hiding in, with members of his family. They quickly moved thru the facility and killed bin Laden and brought out his body and several of his computers in a tremendous intelligence coup.

Since the initial Iraq War in Desert Storm and thru the on-going Global War on Terror (GWOT), over 80 SEALs have given their lives in the service of our country. Today, there are 10 SEAL Teams and a SEAL Delivery Vehicle Team deployed everywhere around the globe.

Photos: US Navy

Operation Archery, Brit Commandos Raid Vaagso, Norway Dec. 27, 1941

After the forces of Hitler’s Nazi Germany overran most of Europe in the summer of 1940, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill ordered that the military create a force that could carry out raids against Nazi-occupied Europe. “Enterprises must be prepared, with specially-trained troops of the hunter class, who can develop a reign of terror down these coasts, first of all on the “butcher and bolt” policy…” Thus the Commandos were born.

The Commandos were an all-volunteer outfit that would eventually encompass all services of the British military as well as foreign volunteers from the occupied countries. Their training was hard and nearly always was conducted with live ammunition. Eventually, they would consist of 30 individual units and four assault brigades.

Although they would serve with distinction in every theater it was in Norway where the Commandos would first earn their fame by conducting various raids on German installations and try to get the Germans to divert more troops to defending Norway that may have been used on the Eastern Front.

The raid on the Norwegian islands of Vaagso and Maaloy, codenamed Operation Archery, was conducted to destroy the German fish-oil production facilities there as well as the glycerine production which was used in the manufacture of explosives.

This operation also broke new ground for combined operations. It was the first time air support was integrated into the raiding plans from the outset. So this was a true Special Operations Forces combined organization using air, land, and sea forces.

In overall charge of the operation was Brigadier Charles Haydon, while the raid on the ground was led by John Durnford-Slater and conducted by his troops of No. 3 Commando, two troops of No.2 Commando, a medical detachment of No.4 Commando, a demolition party from 101 Troop (canoe) of No. 6 Commando and a dozen Norwegians from Norwegian Independent Company 1. His raiding force would number 570 officers and men.

The Royal Navy provided offshore gunfire, by the light cruiser HMS Kenya, and the destroyers HMS Onslow, Oribi, Offa, and Chiddingfold. The submarine HMS Tuna was in support as the force navigational check. HMS Prince Charles and Prince Leopold were used to ferry troops into and out of the area. The Royal Air Force (RAF) provided bombers and fighter-bombers for close air support.

Durnford-Slater trained his troops hard. Every morning, they would rehearse 25-30 landings until 30 men could sprint from their landing craft with all of their weapons and equipment, 25 meters to cover and do it within 10 seconds. His second-in-command or 2IC in Brit parlance was Major J.M.T.F. Churchill, MC. Known to his close friends as Jack, Churchill was both a character and a fantastic, fearless leader. He would go into combat with his Scottish Claymore broadsword and play his own bagpipes.

Preparations for the Raid:

At the end of October 1941, Lord Louis Mountbatten took over the British Combined Operations and he alerted Durnford-Slater that they had the most daring plan yet in Norway. Their target was the small port of South Vaagso, about 350 miles north of Norway’s southern coast and about halfway between Bergen and Trondheim. And similarly to earlier raids, the port produced substantial quantities of fish oil that was vital for the German war machine.

Intelligence specialists in London had in a painstakingly detailed effort in building an exact model of the town. Durnford-Slater carried it back to Scotland with him in a suitcase. His officers made briefings to the troops off of this model although only the senior officers knew of the exact location.

They carried out successful rehearsals at the Royal Navy base at Scapa Flow. They set sail in heavy seas on Christmas Eve. The men from 12 Commando would make a diversionary raid on the Lofotens (site of an earlier Commando raid) to distract the Germans. 12 Commando during the diversion stayed ashore for two days destroying German installations without suffering a single casualty and returned with 29 prisoners and about 200 new recruits for the forces of Free Norway.

The raiding force arrived perfectly on time and exactly where they were supposed to be. The troops were on the landing craft at precisely 0700, having been fed at 0500 and checked their weapons and equipment for the final time before the raid.

The Germans, unaware of what was close to their shore, were yawning thru lectures on military courtesy, no differently than soldiers of every army do. That was about to change quickly.

One alert German soldier in South Vaagso spotted the British ships sailing into the fjord and called it in. His superiors told him that it was probably German ships. When he persisted, he was told he probably celebrated Christmas a bit too much. He should have been rewarded. The German at the other end of the phone, however, decided to alert the German naval commander and took a rowboat to alert him, neglecting to alert the Army units in town.

The Battle Begins:

It was then, that the German troops first became aware of the Commandos presence was when the HMS Kenya’s dozen 6-inch guns began shelling the nearby German coastal batteries at Maaloy. With the destroyers, Offa and Onslow’s 4-inch guns joining in, the Germans were ducking into defensive positions having 400-450 shells rain down on them in less than 10 minutes. The Commandos, in US-made Higgins assault boats, were racing toward shore.

RAF medium twin-engine Hampden bombers flew over the landing sites and dropped smoke bombs to cover the assault troops. At Maaloy Island, Jack Churchill played his bagpipes as they approached shore and led his 105 men, 5 and 6 Troops, against the German defenders. Their objective was the big herring oil factory, the shore batteries, an antiaircraft position, and any other German troops.

R. Clement’s Group 1 had the mission to clear the village of Hollevik, then reform and become the onshore reserve. Durnford-Slater would lead Group 2’s, 200 men of 1, 2, 3, and 4 Troops, into Vaagso, while CPT. D. Birney’s 30 men of Group 5 would deploy into blocking positions on the road south into Vaagso from Rodberg. Group 4, CPT. R.H. Hooper’s 65 troops, would remain as a floating reserve on HMS Kenya.

Tragedy and Disaster:

One of the Hampden bombers was flying toward the shore when it was hit by German flak guns onboard the armed trawler Foehn. The bomber was hit and reeling when one of its phosphorous bombs inadvertently hit one of the landing craft. Nearly half of the troop were either killed or badly burned by the unfortunate accident. After offloading whatever ammunition and equipment that they could salvage, the surviving Commandos pushed the craft out into the water to sink.

But the rest of Durnford-Slater’s men surged ashore and immediately set about clearing the town which was long and narrow. The fighting was vicious and house-to-house. The Germans were reinforced by 50 men of a Gebirgsjäger (Alpine, mountain) troops on leave from the Russian front. They barricaded themselves in one large building to use as a strongpoint. The Commandos had to clear each room with hand grenades. CPT Johnny Giles was shot down at the door of the strongpoint but his men took it and his younger brother, Lt. Bruce Giles assumed command.

The Germans had also barricaded themselves in the Ulvesund hotel and they flung back the first two attempts to take it. CPT Algy Forester was killed and then so was Norwegian CPT Martin Linge was also killed trying to assault the front door.

As the Brits were readying for a third assault under the command now of a CPL ‘Knocker’ White, another Captain appeared with a 3-inch mortar, which was unauthorized by had been appropriated. They expertly dropped the first shells straight down the chimney of the hotel, setting fire to it and causing a large number of German casualties. The third assault carried the hotel. White would earn a Distinguished Service Medal for his actions later.

There was chaos in the narrow streets. The Germans used to the no-quarter-given in Russia refused to move out of the buildings they were defending and had to be burned out using hand grenades. Norwegian civilians were streaming down the street heading for the landing craft, anxious to get away from their occupiers.

The British committed their floating reserves and then Durnford-Slater was also reinforced by Churchill’s men who had quickly overrun the guns on Maaloy Island and captured several prisoners, including two “comfort” women who the Germans held there for their troops. Churchill, broadsword in hand, led his men ashore.

As they cleared the town house-by-house, the Commandos encountered several snipers. So they’d just burn them out one-by-one. Durnford-Slater observed two such Commandos who set about their task with a vengeance. He wrote that the men “appeared to be enjoying themselves.” One sniper wounded CPT O’Flaherty thru the eye. He would eventually return to duty with a black eye patch and finish the war as a Brigadier.

CPT O’Flaherty is led to the rear after being wounded in the eye by a German sniper

After the British battered the armed trawler Foehn, the ship ran aground and the crew deserted it. An armed British party found the captain’s codebooks when it was discovered he’d been killed by shellfire. The codebooks contained a wealth of signs, countersigns, and code words, and the radio call-signs of every German vessel in northern Europe. It was a huge intelligence boon for the raiding party.

By noon the town had been secured, the troops, however, continued in town until 1400 when Durnford-Slater ordered his men back to the boats. By 1500 all of the Commandos had been safely transported back to the ships.

The result of the raid was a tremendous success for the Commandos. They sank 10 vessels, 18,000 tons of shipping, and the Commandos had burned or blown up four oil factories and a number of warehouses, fuel tanks, vehicles, the Seternes lighthouse, the telephone exchanges, the steamship wharf, and the German barracks inside of town.

The Maaloy coastal artillery batteries were destroyed along with a tank, while much of the garrison had been killed, wounded, or captured. About 130 Germans were killed, without counting the crews of the eight ships destroyed. Another 98 were captured. The two “comfort” women were guarded by two sailors on board ship. But later reports read that on checking later, one British officer found the hallway empty and “the rifles leaning on the wall outside the doors.” Of the Norwegian population, one was killed and five wounded; 70 more returned to England with the Commandos to volunteer for the forces of Free Norway.

British casualties among the Commandos were 20 dead (which included three Norwegians) and 53 wounded. The RAF lost eight aircraft along with their crews.

The Germans assumed the British would make a major push to retake Norway and thus threaten the German hold on Finland and Sweden. They moved their battleships into Norwegian waters and put additional troops there while beefing up their coastal defenses. By the time of D-Day, there were 400,000 German troops in Norway that weren’t fighting in either Normandy or Russia.

Photos: Imperial War Museum

Marine Col. Peter J. Ortiz, OSS, Career Reads Like Fiction

Marine Colonel Peter J. Ortiz, OSS, Story Reads Like Fiction

The OSS was an eclectic organization; General William Donovan wanted operators, he didn’t care about a soldier’s background or his political beliefs. The OSS wanted as Donovan said, “PhDs who can win a bar fight.” McGeorge Bundy said of the organization, “The OSS was a remarkable institution: half cops and robbers and half faculty meeting.”

But perhaps the most fascinating operator in the OSS was Marine Lieutenant Colonel Peter J. Ortiz. Ortiz’s story reads like a Hollywood fiction story. There were actually two Hollywood films made about Ortiz’s exploits, “13 Rue Madeleine” starring James Cagney and “Operation Secret” starring Cornell Wilde. Ortiz was one of the few Marines who saw combat in Europe during World War II. He was the recipient of two Navy Crosses, an OBE (Order of the British Empire) and numerous French awards. After the war, he became an actor and was in several films.

Ortiz was born in New York to an American Mother of Swiss descent and a French-born Spanish father. He was educated in France and spoke 10 different languages including Spanish, French, German and Arabic.

He did two stints in the French Foreign Legion, the first of which was in 1932 just for the adventure. He father tried to buy his way out once he found out but Ortiz wouldn’t leave. He stayed until 1937 and worked his way up from private to acting Lieutenant. Ortiz was awarded the Croix de Guerre with two palms, one gold star, one silver star, and five citations; the Croix des Combatants; the Ouissam Alouite; and the Medaille Militaire during his first tour and was offered a permanent commission as a Lieutenant if he’d reenlist for five more years and become a French citizen. But he turned them down and returned to the U.S.

He worked briefly in Hollywood as a technical adviser until WWII broke out. With the U.S. officially neutral, he reenlisted in the Legion in October 1939 and by 1940 had gotten a commission again. In 1940 he was wounded and taken prisoner. He escaped 15 months later making his way back to the U.S. thru Lisbon in December of 1941. He was awarded the Croix de Guerre (one palm, one silver star, two citations), Croix des Combattants during his second tour.

He joined the U.S. Marine Corps in June 1942 as a private, but due to his combat experience, his commander at the recruit depot wrote to the Commandant of the Marine Corps about him in July, requesting that he be given a commission. The letter, extraordinary in its own right, considering the subject of it was in boot camp .

Private Ortiz had made an extremely favorable impression upon the undersigned. His knowledge of military matters is far beyond that of the normal recruit instructor. Ortiz is a very well set up an and makes an excellent appearance. The undersigned is glad to recommend Ortiz for a commission in the Marine Corps Reserve and is of the opinion that he would be a decided addition to the Reserve Officer list. In my opinion, he has the mental, moral, professional, and physical qualifications for the office for which he has made application.

With the upcoming invasion of French North Africa looming, the Marine Corps, knowing of Ortiz’s knowledge of French, Spanish, and Arabic, he was offered to the Army to assist in the upcoming campaign. Although he’d only been a 2LT for three months, he was bypassed for 1LT and promoted directly to Captain. He was assigned as the Assistant Naval Attache in Tangiers, Morocco as a cover.

Ortiz organized a patrol of Arabs to scout German forces on the Tunisian front. And while doing so, his men got into a firefight with the Germans. Ortiz was badly wounded in the hand during the action. MG Donovan, Director of OSS, forwarded to the Marine Commandant a message from Algiers which stated, “While on reconnaissance on the Tunisian front, Captain Peter Ortiz, U.S.M.C.R. was severely wounded in the right hand while engaged in a personal encounter with a German patrol. He dispersed the patrol with grenades. Captain Ortiz is making good recovery in hospital at Algiers. The Purple Heart was awarded to him.” Donovan read Ortiz’s after-action report and wrote on it, “Very interesting, please re-employ this man as soon as possible.”

While recuperating in Washington early in May, 1943, Ortiz was reassigned to the Naval Command, OSS. He would become part of the Jedburgh operation.

On January 6, 1944, Ortiz who had over 150 parachute jumps while in the service of the French was air-dropped into the Haute-Savoie region of German-occupied France as part of the three-man “Union” mission, with Colonel Pierre Fourcaud of the French secret service and Captain Thackwaite from the British Special Operations Executive.

Their mission was to evaluate the status of the Maquis and the resistance in the area and impress upon them that to conduct Guerrilla Warfare in their areas, especially after D-Day was the most important factor for everyone involved. But the Maquisards lacked weapons and ammunition. The team arranged several drops of supplies and arms for the Maquis.

Although they jumped into France in civilian clothing, they still carried their uniforms and once there, they became the first Allied troops on the mainland of France since 1940. Thackwaite wrote about Ortiz, that he “knew not fear and did not hesitate to wear his U.S. Marine captain’s uniform in town and country alike” which while it was a morale boost to the French, was infuriating to the Germans.

His team was able to rescue four RAF pilots and Ortiz would accompany them to the border with Spain. Then in an act of derring-do that was particularly amazing, Ortiz raided a German military garage and took off with ten Gestapo vehicles, even snagging a pass which he used frequently. He was awarded the O.B.E. for his action.

His legend grew, there are several stories of him waltzing into German occupied towns in full uniform and having a go with the German troops. While the stories vary, they reinforce the fact that he was not afraid to go anywhere in his operational area. In the book “Herringbone Cloak–GI Dagger: Marines of the OSS” written by LTC Robert Mattingly, perhaps the best version of these events unfolded:

Ortiz, in particular, was fond of going straight into the German-occupied towns. On one occasion, he strolled into a cafe dressed in a long cape. Several Germans were drinking and cursing the maquis. One mentioned the fate which would befall the filthy American swine when he was caught. (The Nazis apparently knew of Ortiz’ existence in the area with the maquis) This proved a great mistake. Captain Ortiz threw back the cape revealing his Marine uniform. In each hand, he held a .45 automatic. When the shooting stopped, there were fewer Nazis to plan his capture and Ortiz was gone into the night.

Operation Union was ended on May 20 and the team exfilled to London. He was then decorated with the first of two Navy Crosses and promoted to Major. Ortiz returned to France on August 1, 1944, the head of a mission entitled UNION II. This OSS mission was no longer a Jedburgh operation but an Operational Group. These were heavily armed teams which were tasked with direct action against the Germans. They were not only to conduct sabotage but they were to also seize key installations to prevent retreating German units from destroying them.

OG members, unlike Jeds, were always in uniform. Along with Ortiz on this mission were Army Air Forces Captain Francis Coolidge, and Marine Gunnery Sergeant Robert La Salle, Sergeants Charles Perry, John P. Bodnar, Frederick J. Brunner, and Jack R. Risler, as well as a Free French officer, Joseph Arcelin, who carried false identification which showed him to be a U.S. Marine.

Things went wrong from the start on the second mission. Perry’s static line snapped causing him to fall to his death on the jump in. The rest of the team buried him on the drop zone. The men were advising the “Bulle” Battalion to support the Allied landings in Southern France. The Army Air Corps dropped 864 bundles of weapons, equipment, and supplies to support the team and their efforts.

The Germans (157th Alpine Division-Reserves) however was on the resistance’s tail almost immediately. On the 14th of August, the Germans shelled the town of Montgirod where they had entered and forced them and the Bulle Battalion into the mountains outside of town. They quickly surrounded them. On the 18th their luck ran out. They ran into a German column of trucks and troops numbering several hundred in the town of Centron.

The Germans kept the men under fire and the fighting was going from house to house. French civilians urged the men to surrender since the Germans had liquidated two entire towns of citizens for reportedly harboring the resistance. Ortiz didn’t want that to happen.

He walked out in full view of the Germans who kicked up the dirt around him with machinegun fire. In perfect German, he asked to speak to the Commander. He agreed to surrender his men if the German officer, a Major Kolb would spare the town any reprisals. Kolb agreed and then he and men were incredulous and then livid when only Bodner and Risler came out. The Germans thought they were in action against a company-sized element, when in fact, the three Marine OSS men held off a battalion.

He spent the rest of the war as a POW but made numerous attempts to escape. His final one in April of 1945 had Ortiz and three others escape and spend 10 days wandering around looking for British Army units. They were starving and eventually went back to their prison of war camp where they were cheered by the other POWs.

On April 29, 1945, the camp was liberated by the 7th Guards Armored Division and the men were returned to Allied control. When he returned to London, Ortiz was given his second Navy Cross. He returned to civilian life and was a technical advisor for Hollywood films. He was good friends with director John Ford and he put Ortiz in several of his films including “Rio Grande” with John Wayne, Maureen O’Hara, and Victor McLaglen. And “Wings of Eagles” also with Wayne and O’Hara.

Peter Ortiz with Maureen O’Hara in Rio Grande

By his own admission, he was a terrible actor but thought that the making of films was a lot of fun. He died of cancer in 1988, the only battle he ever fought and lost.

With the news of last week where certain historians question the legacy of OSS and that of the US Army Special Forces, I wonder if many Marines know the legacy of Peter Ortiz. While so much of the Corps history centers around the island campaigns of WWII, one officer had an incredibly, packed career in just a short amount of time in Europe. And when it comes to Special Operators, he stands among the best.

Photos: National Archives, Republic Pictures

Trapped at Pearl Harbor: Escape from the Battleship Oklahoma

Book Review: On December 7, 1941, Pearl Harbor in the Hawaiian Islands was a quiet place as the sun came up. Many of the sailors along Battleship Row were feeling the effects of being on liberty ashore drinking which ended at midnight.

At dawn, there was a sleepy, Sunday feel to the morning, not much was moving other than the sailors who had the morning duty. The rest were sleeping off the festivities from Saturday night. The battleship USS Oklahoma BB-37 had been preparing for an inspection, which was to take place on the morning of Monday, December 8. As a result, many doors and hatches were wide open on that fateful day.

The Japanese had planned on giving a declaration of war intentions 30 minutes before the attack began but due to the slowness of their code machines and the typists, the message didn’t get to Washington until the attack was over. The Japanese attack force, led by the first wave swept over Pearl Harbor at 7:48 a.m. and achieved complete surprise. Not only were the battleships parked in a row along Ford Island, but the American fighters on Hickam Field were parked wingtip to wingtip.

As the first wave (183 planes) led by the slow, vulnerable torpedo bombers searched out battleships at anchor, dive-bombers hit Hickam and Wheeler Airfields. The second wave (170 planes) attacked American facilities on Ford Island and Bellows Field.

Oklahoma was berthed at Fox 5 on Battleship Row next to the USS Maryland. The officers of the watch called the crew to battle stations having witnessed the attacks beginning elsewhere in the harbor. Ensign Herb Rommel the 4th Division officer, called the crew to General Quarters. Rommel saw the cruiser Helena get slammed with a torpedo and jumped onto the General Announcing System. “This is no shit, God damn it! They’re real bombs, Now get Going!” As another officer fumbled with the keys to the ammunition lockers, the call went out that would live forever. “Air Raid Pearl Harbor. This is no drill!”

At 7:56 a.m. the Oklahoma was hit simultaneously with 2 torpedos, 20 below the waterline between the smokestack and mainmast. She was hit with a third torpedo at 8:00 a.m. which penetrated the hull. Her boilers punctured, she began to list heavily, then two more torpedos slammed into her and she began to capsize. In less than 11 minutes the USS Oklahoma would roll over and sink. But her masts touched bottom in the harbor and her hull was still above water. Of the crew 429 would be killed or missing and many others trapped alive under the water.

Stephen Bower Young was one of those trapped below the decks. He was just 19, from Methuen, Massachusetts and had joined the Navy in the summer of 1940, hoping to go to the Naval Academy.

When the attack began, he was ordered as per SOP to go to his battle station below deck. Young and 10 of his shipmates were at their station inside the No. 4 gun turret, which in the space of fewer than five minutes was now inverted, and beneath the water.

Young authored his book and describes their own terrifying experiences in horrendous detail. His battle wasn’t about the carnage that was taking place all around them in Pearl Harbor. But in a very small, confined space, where he was virtually unaware of anything else other than the Japanese had sunk his ship. The realism and horror at the feeling of his ship being capsized is clearly felt by the reader.

His easy to read but riveting story reads almost like a work of fiction. The reader can feel the cold water slowly but with incredible realism, inescapably rise, the fuel oil taste which would turn stomachs and the nasty fetid air that would soon envelop the men. The young sailors would try to force wisecracks but others would succumb to despair and then finally the men in total darkness would go quietly as a church in an effort to save air.

The men decided to try another room called the Lucky Bag to see if they could stay dry and breathe long enough to be rescued. The room had only one entrance and exit but it was at least dry. The room on the opposite side of the wall held sailors still alive in the #4 radio compartment.

The Japanese attack was over in ninety minutes and immediately Navy personnel and civilian dock workers began the task of trying to rescue men trapped below decks. However, it wasn’t until around 1:00 a.m on December 8, that the rescue crews would be able to get enough air compressors, pumps, chipping tools and torches alongside the hull to begin their work in earnest.

As the men dozed, they were woken to the sound of air hammers in the distance, trying to cut thru the hull to reach trapped sailors. The men began tapping out SOS code to alert the rescuers. Soon the hammering was much closer. Then they’d pause to listen if the trapped sailors were close by.

The men in #4 radio compartment, yelled thru the steel bulkhead that the rescuers were cutting thru to them. Young yelled them to alert them that they were just on the other side of the wall. “Okay!, don’t worry, if they can get to us, we’ll tell ‘em”.

Twenty-five hours after the Oklahoma had capsized, Yard worker Joe Bulgo cut through to sailors in the No. 4 radio compartment. “There are some guys trapped in there,” one sailor said, pointing to the wall behind him. “We’ll get ’em out,” said DeCastro.

Young yelled to the rescue team on the other side. DeCastro’s calm voice came back, promising he would get them out. But as they began cutting through the bulkhead, it was releasing air from the Lucky Bag compartment, and water began rising. There was momentary panic but as DeCastro’s men began their work, the men inside tried in vain to seal the hatch to the Lucky Bag.

It was the longest 60 minutes of Young’s life. The water level had reached their knees but finally, they had three cuts in the bulkhead. And the sweetest words Young had ever heard were Bulgo saying, “Look out for your hands, boys,” he yelled. With a sledgehammer, he pounded in the section of the wall. The sailors scrambled through and were guided up and out by DeCastro’s men. They made it out by 9:00 a.m. and Young recalled the sun was bright and the air smelled fresh. The eleven men in the #4 gun turret had survived.

The sailors on-board the USS Maryland watched it unfold and began cheering as they clambered out of their doomed ship. In all, 32 men would be rescued from the crippled Oklahoma, which would never sail again.

Despite the fact that you obviously know that the author survived the sinking and capsizing of his ship, the account of the author and his shipmates was impossible to put down and very tense. This isn’t a big picture kind of overall look at the disaster at Pearl Harbor but a very narrow view of the author’s quest to survive in a sunken ship. This book was an excellent read and gives the reader the feeling of what it was like to be there in the #4 gun turret as the ship sinks and rolls over and the incredible stress of waiting to be rescued.

Photos: US Navy/author

William “Wild Bill” Donovan OSS, Awarded the Medal of Honor in WWI

When the name “Wild Bill” Donovan is mentioned, most think of the World War II OSS (Office of Strategic Services) which later became CIA and another part of it branched off to later become the U.S. Army Special Forces (Green Berets) of today. But what many people don’t realize is that long before he became the “father of US intelligence”, Donovan was a much-decorated war hero from World War I who was awarded both the Distinguished Service Cross and the Medal of Honor for bravery.

At the end of World War I, Donovan was arguably the most decorated man in US military history at that time, having been awarded all of the top awards for bravery in combat. He was awarded the Medal of Honor, the Distinguished Service Cross, the Distinguished Service Medal, and the Silver Star.

On this day October 14-15, 1918, the United States 69th Regiment (the famed Irish Brigade of Civil War fame), later renamed the 165th Regiment of the 42nd Division was locked in heavy combat against the Germans at Landres-et-Saint-Georges. Donovan’s actions during this action would ultimately result in him being awarded the Medal of Honor.

Duty in Mexico, Fame in France:

After attending Columbia University to study law and being a classmate of the future president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Donovan was a partner in a law firm in Buffalo, New York when he decided to help form and lead a troop of cavalry for the New York National Guard. His unit was mobilized and sent to Mexico during the punitive campaigns to catch Pancho Villa.

Upon returning from Mexico, Donovan was promoted to Major and joined the “Fighting 69th” which became the 165th Regiment of the famed “Rainbow Division.” Donovan was an officer who led from the front, even as a battalion commander.

He was wounded by shrapnel and nearly blinded by a German mustard gas attack. He was awarded the French Croix de Guerre for a daring rescue under fire of a wounded soldier. But Donovan refused to accept it since a Jewish soldier who also took part in the same action was snubbed. After that omission was changed, Donovan accepted the honor.

Donovan refused to conform to the convention of the times, by not stripping off all of his rank and insignia which was common for officers, he told his men, “They can’t hit me and they won’t hit you!”

The brass were expecting up to 60% casualties from this assault, can you say proper planning?. Despite being hit in the knee and two other times during the battle by enemy fire, Donovan refused to leave the field until all of his men were administered to or removed from the battlefield. While he remained, American light tanks were turning back because of the accuracy and amount of fire they were taking.

Because of the efforts of Father Duffy, the erstwhile Chaplain of the regiment and a close friend of Donovan’s, he was awarded an Oak Leaf Cluster (2nd award) to his DSC. The brass was correct in one thing. After the battle was over, 600 of the 1000 men in Donovan’s regiment were killed, wounded or missing in action. They were ripped up in the assault.

After the war, Duffy kept up the pressure on Washington to upgrade Donovan’s DSC to the Medal of Honor. In 1923, he succeeded. Donovan was awarded the Medal of Honor in New York City. In a move that speaks volumes about the men of the unit and how they felt about him, the ceremony was attended by over 4000 veterans.

In another move that speaks more about Donovan than the medal itself, he refused to keep it. He stated that the medal belonged not to him but “to the boys who are not here, the boys who are resting under the white crosses in France or in the cemeteries of New York, also to the boys who were lucky enough to come through.”

Hollywood later made a film about the Meuse-Argonne Offensive and the heroism of Donovan in a classic, “The Fighting 69th” with James Cagney, Pat O’Brien as Father Duffy and George Brent as Major Donovan.

Medal of Honor citation:

Rank and organization: Lieutenant Colonel, U.S. Army, 165th Infantry, 42d Division. Place and date: Near Landres-et-St. Georges, France, 14–15 October 1918. Entered service at: Buffalo, N.Y. Born: 1 January 1883, Buffalo, N.Y. G.O., No.: 56, W.D., 1922.

Lt. Col. Donovan personally led the assaulting wave in an attack upon a very strongly organized position, and when our troops were suffering heavy casualties he encouraged all near him by his example, moving among his men in exposed positions, reorganizing decimated platoons, and accompanying them forward in attacks. When he was wounded in the leg by machine-gun bullets, he refused to be evacuated and continued with his unit until it withdrew to a less exposed position.

World War II and the OSS:

Donovan was contacted by his old Colombia classmate now President, Franklin Delano Roosevelt to help him find out information about the war in Europe which FDR was certain that the U.S. was going to be dragged into.

Despite being complete opposites on the political spectrum, the two remained close friends and Roosevelt trusted Donovan to meet with King George VI and Winston Churchill. Today’s political leaders should take note.

US Ambassador to England, Joseph P. Kennedy’s assessment was that England was finished and would capitulate to Hitler and Nazi Germany. Donovan’s assessment was much more optimistic and he urged Roosevelt to provide resources to assist England. Roosevelt trusted Donovan’s opinion more than Kennedy’s and as a result, the U.S. began sending war equipment thru the Lend-Lease program.

Maj. Gen. William Joseph Donovan the namesake of the prestigious OSS Society award. OSS photo

With a non-existent national intelligence network, FDR knew the United States needed one, not only for the coming war but in the years to come. He selected Donovan first at the “Coordinator of Information” but then in 1942, as the commander of the OSS. And as Paul Harvey said, and now you know the rest of the story.

Photos: US Archives.

“The Catcher Was a Spy” Moe Berg, OSS, A Swing, and a Miss

Like most Special Forces guys, especially of my generation, I can’t get enough of OSS (Office of Strategic Services) from World War II. OSS was the “Greatest Generation” version of both CIA and the U.S. Army Special Forces (Green Berets) as both sprang forth from the extraordinary organization that General William “Wild Bill” Donovan built from scratch. With the help of the British, and learning on the fly, the United States had, for the first time, a professional intelligence organization and a military force that was expert in the art of Unconventional Warfare.

Donovan attracted all types of people, making OSS quite the eclectic organization. He was looking for “PhDs who can win a bar fight.” Moe Berg fit the bill to a tee. A professional athlete, Berg, although far from a star, played major league baseball for 15 seasons as a catcher, no mean feat, as well as being one of the few Jewish players in MLB. He was also a brilliant scholar and could speak 10 languages, seven fluently and graduated from both Princeton and the Sorbonne and studied law at Columbia at a time when Jews didn’t attend in large numbers.

The story of Berg who spied for America before Pearl Harbor on a “goodwill” tour of Japan with other major league ballplayers in the 1930s and joined OSS during the war is well known among the avid readers within the intelligence and SOF communities. But to many, he was an unknown. This film that came out this summer, changed that to a degree.

Director Ben Lewin, based his film off of the bio of Berg, Nicholas Dawidoff’s 1994, The Catcher Was a Spy. He assembled a great cast featuring two of my favorite actors, Paul Rudd, who is fantastic as always as Berg, Mark Strong, and a very good supporting cast with Sienna Miller, Guy Pearce, Connie Nielsen, Paul Giamatti, Tom Wilkinson, who I had the pleasure of working with on a Mossad film (The Debt) and Giancarlo Giannini.

I wanted to like this film, no…I wanted to love this film, as anyone who loves seeing anything about OSS in print or film does. But it doesn’t ever reach that level. In baseball parlance, unfortunately, the film is a “can of corn.”

The film goes out of its way to portray Berg as the enigma that he was. He was an introvert, a scholar and a Jew in the world of professional baseball where those traits were in short supply. But the film takes his solitary life a step farther. Lewin depicts Berg as a closet homosexual, although there has never been any evidence that Berg was.

However, the stretch isn’t too far between being a catcher in the MLB and a spy. After all, catchers are always trying to hide their signals to the pitcher from prying eyes by putting them down between their legs. And if anyone watches games closely, they’ll put down multiple signs to throw off anyone stealing them, in a simplistic but effective code.

Berg, excellently played by Rudd, is finishing up his career with the Red Sox and is ready to go into coaching when the winds of war start to blow before WWII. Touring Japan with other big leaguers, Berg snuck on top of a hospital and filmed the harbor and naval shipyards after reading about the Japanese Empire expanding. His prewar footage of Japan’s military facilities, put him on the radar of Donovan, played by Jeff Daniels. Berg is brought into OSS in early 1943.

After doing deskwork, Berg was assigned to the Special Operations Branch (SO). He was a paramilitary operations officer in OSS that would today be part of the CIA Special Activities Division.

Later he was placed in the OSS Secret Intelligence branch (SI) on the Balkans desk. Berg parachuted into occupied Yugoslavia to evaluate the various resistance groups operating against the Nazis. He met both Draža Mihailović and Josef Tito.

In the film, they touch on his next assignment. While the US is rushing forth with the Manhattan Project, the government is worried about the Nazis getting the bomb first. Werner Heisenberg (Strong), is one of the leading scientists in Germany’s quest for the bomb. While the threat is significant enough, there is some doubt about how close the Germans are. So, if they are close, Berg’s mission is to assassinate him.

He travels with another scientist (Giamatti) and a military escort (Pearce) to Zurich where Heisenberg is and he has to make a determination whether or not to kill him

Miller is cast as Berg’s long-time girlfriend, whom he keeps, like everyone else at arm’s distance. When asked point blank by Daniels if he is “queer”, Rudd/Berg answers, “I’m good at keeping secrets.”

When Berg finally meets Heisenberg, the two dance around in a nicely crafted scene where neither is willing to give much. Berg is looking for anything to confirm that the Nazis are ready to construct the atomic bomb and he’ll be tasked with killing him. While a great scene and expertly played, the film lacks the suspense we’d normally see in a spy film.

The aloofness and repressed part of his supposed homosexuality is the basis for Lewin’s assertion of proof of Berg’s bona fides as a spy. The scene where he sings the Battle Hymn of the Republic was a good one, Berg, despite his closeted personal life, is a patriot and that explains part of his motivation.

But overall, the film was too thin and it could have been much, much better. Especially with the outstanding cast that they surrounded the director with.

Berg was an intriguing character. He was intensely personal and tried to go to work for CIA after the war, but then only getting one contractor type of assignment. He never married and lived with his brother for several years before he was asked to leave, He then moved in with his sister, where he stayed until passing away at the age of 70 in 1972.

He was described as moody and snappish by his family. After WWII, he felt he lost the ability to follow his calling for his second career in the CIA. He was quoted however that, “I’d rather be a ballplayer than a justice of the U.S. Supreme Court” when someone accused him of wasting his talents on baseball.

He was awarded the Medal of Freedom for his service in OSS, but he turned it down. His sister eventually accepted it on his behalf.

He was cremated after his death and had his ashes scattered over a mountain in Israel. His baseball card is on display at CIA Headquarters.

Photos: Wikipedia/IFC Films