The Field Special Service Force was an American response to the British experience with the deceptively-titled Special Air Service, Long Range Desert Group, Popski’s Private Army, and similar special ops services. As such, it is recognized as a direct antecedent to the American Green Berets.

Perhaps best known from a mildly accurate movie with William Holden, “The Devil’s Brigade”, the group’s members derived their nickname from the Germans defending their lines in Italy against the Allied onslaught.  The movie makes them look like the friends of the Dirty Dozen. However, although numerous Army post commanders did use the opportunity to clean out their stockades, most of the people who made up the FSSF were tough guys, which the organizers were after. Lumberjacks, trappers, wilderness guides, very tough, very macho.

It is an axiom that the conventional army has always had trouble using unconventional units properly. That’s gotten some people killed through improper use.

Like most special forces units, the FSSF was misused after drawing attention for its one major accomplishment that utilized its special talents to the utmost. With their esprit, they tackled each tough mission as if it was something designed for their particular skills.

The big event was capturing a mountaintop defense position that was chewing up Allied soldiers working their way up the Italian boot. As depicted in the movie, the Black Devils climbed an unclimable cliff, went over the top and took the higher of the ridge-linked twin peaks, then moved on to take the second peak. It was a masterful accomplishment.

After that, they were plugged in at Anzio like regular troops to defend a line that a division would normally handle. There they earned the German nickname, Black Devils, by making up for their low numbers by nighttime raids to destroy enemy positions and creating a larger and larger buffer line.

The FSSF also spearheaded the advance into Rome, General Mark Clark (obviously not one of the author’s favorite people) anxious to grab headlines for conquering an Axis capital before the D-Day landings in Normandy took all the attention.

The FSSF was disbanded late in the war once the combat approach of mass armies with close air support made their specific type of contribution obsolete, in the eyes of the military planners.

The final chapter follows the Black Devils after the war, up to a poignant moment when an elderly Force veteran gets an unexpected call from another who is quietly dying in a nursing home. “We really took that mountain, didn’t we?” his friend asks.

A worthy account of the Black Devils. With a photo insert