Soldiers Attempt To Recreate Famous WWII Mission - Devil's Brigade 102 - Practice Mission

in combat the first thing to die is often the plan and on this mission things have gone wrong from the start I already got nothing they're not moving anymore these men are Canadian and American soldiers on a training exercise in Montana they're here to learn how to fight like the first unit of Special Forces troops did back in 1942 the army called those men the first Special Service Force but history remembers them as The Devil's Brigade [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] summer 1942 The Devil's Brigade arrives in Helena Montana the soldiers were a mixed group of Canadians and Americans some were outcasts from their regular units others had more ambition than brass button army life could satisfy I didn't like the army they didn't like officers said they didn't dislike our officers don't get me wrong they dislike officers that work we called rear echelon officers within a few months the training would turn the men into an aggressive hunter-killer unit who in Churchill's words would leave a trail of German corpses behind oh it scared the hell out of them they were just scared of what really scared of us the basic weapon of The Devil's Brigade was designed by a Canadian John garand in fact the garand m1 became the standard rifle of the US Army the garand was widely considered the most effective infantry rifle of the Second World War a semi-automatic thirty-aught-six with eight rounds in the magazine the clip ejected when the last round was fired with a 24 inch barrel and weighing just over 9 pounds the garand was deadly to a range of 3,000 meters I liked the grand very much the idea of putting a clip of eight bullets into that rifle and squeezing the trigger eight times but then after the eighth round was expended the block would stay open and reload quick another clip of ammunition to it and start firing away again the mauser 98k was the german counterpart to the garand first adopted by the verm act in 1934 14 million mousers were used by the German army the bolt-action five-round had a slower rate of fire than the grand but weighing just eight pounds it was lighter and easier to clean with an attachable high-powered scope the Mauser became the weapon of choice for German snipers chris bird is one of the best shots in the unit okay left to right question - right and give me three more up the instructors think he has the potential to become a sniper probably a year or so before I would say anything because to recommend him forward but if he maintained that we got him out and did some more skill sets got him to see how he handled situations put a little stress on him he deprived to sleep put him out for three or four days working carrying and bouncing just going different missions and just see how he handled the stress for about three four or five days if he handled that he'd recommend it forward Chris can hit a target on the range but he's never fired in combat and a sniper must be willing to do the unthinkable and then do it again everybody will shoot once but will they shoot a second one first time can they live with that fact when what we were taught if you see a young child walking across the bridge at ten o'clock in the morning and new orders are that no one should cross that bridge what should you feel and the answer proper answer was recoil because no one crosses recoil the men of the devil's Brigade may not have agreed but they would have understood I think it was um Eric Blair you know his opinion was George Orwell right and he said that I'm paraphrasing but we sleep soundly at night because rough men stand ready to do violence in our behalf so that's um that's a key part of being a soldier you have to be ready to you have to be ready to take another person's life and of course there's there's nothing morally wrong with a soldier doing his job most of these soldiers have taken leave from their units to do this training this is their vacation they've come out of respect for the men who ran this course a lifetime ago but they've also come to test themselves scott-young a Canadian private from the Queen's York Rangers has pushed himself too hard I slid down the rope to first was cleaned up and then I went down mine I guess I went too fast and I didn't feel that oh no I didn't know that I was hurting chosen and yeah I looked at my hand the brigade was ruthless in cutting men who missed training even a small injury like this meant a ticket home two months after pitching their first tent 259 Canadian officers and men had been returned to their units almost half their original number many went home on stretchers it didn't matter who you were if you had a broke broke a leg or broken arm or something you were gone our commanding officer Colonel McQueen he was a great guy and he made his first jump and broke his leg oh it was the end of him where the time you would have healed the training was gone I was on to something else [Music] Scott's injury means he too will miss training so the instructors have decided to send him home yeah it makes sense to me but you know it blows kids like I was so stupid for doing that like I don't know I'm just such a bad man been a bad man since it happened sucks very disappointed I'm really disappointed that happened in the first place you know if I could turn back time and change it I definitely win because it really hasn't I don't know it's really been big disappointment let's split it shut up I'm gonna go get my other stuff and I'll see you guys later as the summer of 1943 war on the devil's Brigade created to destroy the Nazi heavy water project a mission canceled at the last minute spent its days keeping fit and doing public relations although the men had developed a strong affection for Helena where many would settle after the war explaining the flamethrower to housewives was not what they'd send up for a nice I'm sure that our commanding officer was afraid that if he didn't find us something for us to do we would you know we'd lose it we'd lose the esprit de corps or we'd lose the desire this etc he had he had to find something for us to do but matters would take a life of their own courtesy of the Imperial Japanese Navy following their victory at Pearl Harbor Japan expanded aggressively across the Pacific sending occupation forces as far west as the Aleutian Islands off the coast of Alaska as this Japanese newsreel shows the next stop was San Francisco these Japanese commandos were the first invaders to set foot on American soil since Canadians did in the war of 1812 [Music] the occupation of the Aleutians was a propaganda victory for Tokyo and a humiliation for Washington The Devil's Brigade was ordered to get them back [Music] Allied intelligence estimated as many as 12,000 Japanese troops held the main island of Kiska with the memory of the bloody battle at Guadalcanal on their minds the brigade expected a fight to the death and we were we were quite prepared that we would lose a lot of people if the Japanese put up the same kind of fight at the spearhead of the invasion The Devil's Brigade first regiment led the assault in an armada of rubber boats while the second regiment the airborne unit waited it nervously the second regiment was to make a parachute jump on the Kiska in support of the Seaborn landing and I was in the second Regiment so we prepared for the jump we got on the planes around 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning waiting for the the dawn and the call to come so he paddled ashore and in the dark and it's crazy enough just before we got to this to the shore the moon came out the first time we'd seen it in about 2 weeks up there attendance it displayed a a whole lot of rubber rubber boats if somebody was looking we were really sitting ducks most of the time on the water [Music] and on the way up we passed a Japanese machine gun position which had been vacated and I thought as we went by it thank God there isn't a Japanese machine gunner in there because we'd all be dead the only enemy soldiers the men came across were casualties of the naval bombardment after all those months of training the devil's Brigade took Kiska without firing a shot the Japanese were gone leaving still warm coffee and boxes of weather equipment the call came that the Japs had gone and we did not need to make this jump which was very good news because I pictured myself floating around in the cold Bering Sea once the beachhead had been secured other units came ashore less well trained and expecting to find an enemy behind every rock they fired on themselves that first night after we were relieved we pitched our pup tents and we're trying to get to sleep and we heard all this machine-gun fire all night long and and you know it was dark and foggy and and these guys up above that are taken over from us we're just trigger-happy they've shooting their own people I counted 13 corpses come down the next morning but there are a lot more than that 32 men died on Kiska victims a friendly fire The Devil's Brigade took no casualties but lessons were learned but I I took away from Cuzco is that you eat no matter how careful the planning is there's always the unexpected although the unit was still not bloodied the Kiska adventure served the men well in the months to come they would meet an enemy who would not cut and run but would engage the brigade in some of the bloodiest combat of the Second World War ten days into training and the squad has moved from the base to the bush the instructors hope a few nights under the stars will help the team come together so they've laid on a meal of Montana elk there are two things guaranteed to get all soldiers talking and one of them is food my favorite meal was in it wasn't basic training we already were in advanced infantry training well I remember it being it was a little chilly but it was just downpour and we had eggs and everything that was great but when your tray starts filling up with water and you're trying to eat it sit under a tree shiver and that was about my best one the best one I can think of is it was in the field for us but it was in the home of a of an Afghanistan local and it was it was goat and rice and flatbread and tea it was pretty good I've also had goat at a different place which was total opposite gamey you know disgusting my hands smelled like goat for six days no matter how much I washed him but this one time I went they actually prepared it real nice what's the the spices in there anyway it's good living off the land is all part of Special Forces training but for the men of the brigade cooking bushmeat over an open fire was nothing special they were looking for individuals that had experienced being on their own under unfamiliar circumstances for people who had outdoor experience ranchers trappers prospectors woodsmen hard rock miners they're looking for individualistic personal who were outdoors people these men are also tough soldiers they can handle hard work but soldiers need leadership and in this group leadership is lacking joe/george is the only officer in the unit some of these things that we're learning our skills that aren't taught in a modern army you know we we we depend a lot on technology we depend a lot on our GPS on our aircraft for for insertions on our Humvees from moving around and we don't spend a lot of time just out light infantry on the ground moving from one place to another and I think that hurts us Joe is a left tenant in the National Guard who fought in Iraq before coming home to teach economics the instructors are not sure he's the right man to lead the group j-rod however has caught their eye a third generation Green Beret Jay has no doubts we have made it in the force still a soldier doesn't matter 2006 or 1942 leadership was never an issue in the devil's Brigade as all the officers led from the front Colonel Robert Frederick the man who built the unit was wounded nine times the officers did not hold their rank nor did the NCOs because of any service time or any pull or anything else they all had to earn it the officers went on the route marches with us carried the packs got wet and cold and still led from the front tomorrow these soldiers will face the most dangerous part of their training they're going mountain climbing to do it safely they'll have to work together a cliff face is no place for debate the first Special Service Force was trained to fight anytime anywhere and hanging from the side of a mountain was all part preparing for the unexpected they find us a nice nice cliff and we had skilled instructors and we we'd learned how to claw our way up and then they lay down again the mountain climbing actually was a little scarier to me than the parachuting because you're learning how to rappel down cliffs and and climb places seconds didn't look like they could be climbed most of these soldiers do know how to climb but none have climbed under fire in the case of a unit this size they're going to have to identify who's the best climbers and who's got the strongest back to carry the supplies and but that you're gonna have to switch out those positions because that lead climber is going to get tired after a while so everybody needs to know how to do this because you never know when you're gonna be put in that position where you need to go up and you know scramble through the rocks when the Devil's Brigade trained here the menu if they couldn't make it up cliffs like this they were out these soldiers are also climbing under pressure the instructors have told them they'll cut any man who can't scale this face is not a word Brian Haines would choose I have a very very bad fear of heights and it was just no some people were afraid of spiders I'm afraid of snakes or afraid of heights Haines is a drill sergeant in the US Army who's been in many high-stress situations but feel like this good every time I lose my feet I think I'm gonna fall tension every time I jump out of an airplane or rappel or climb that's overcoming their fear of heights part of the reason have such a hard time climbing committing myself to see no moving it's very hard to move when you're afraid soon I didn't like it it frightened me climbing was to jump parachute on me never bothered me but the rock climbing I found scary as hell I could vision myself visualize myself lying at the bottom of the hill but you know with my head little tension tension 60 feet up Brian Haines knows the feeling [Applause] [Music] I don't know what techniques I used to overcome my fear I just to do it I just you just kind of reach down inside yourself and say no matter what I'm going forward assaulting a cliff face in wartime takes more than courage it takes careful planning who carries the water the extra ammo the machine gun how will the wounded get down and where are the enemy centuries they had a Scouts which they relied on to go ahead and scout out the battlefield and I'm I'm sure that they identified they're the best climbers in the group and they sent those people out as the lead climber Chris Byrd is everyone's choice for lead climber in this group he's the type of soldier who'd have been at home in the brigade strong agile but most of all Chris is fearless it's actually the first time I've actually climbed a rock or a face like this kitchen the only other practice or experience I've ever had was on a climbing wall in Regina which is pretty flattering in 1942 lead climbers had no second chances Chris does he has one small safety rope I think most of the difficulty was in the mental aspect of it the idea of going up the hill with no protection immediately no fear the concern you take your steps a little bit slower you make sure you tie the knots properly Chris Brian and the others all made it up this cliff but most had to for every inch when the brigade climbed here each man carried his rifle his water and a 60 pound combat pack I think it's part and parcel of the whole package you know the training package you it's kind of all integrated together and the end product just comes out as a guy who do anything he's told to do and do it well and part of that training were combat patrols like this the soldiers have been ordered to scout a local bridge but the bridge is defended by a unit of the National Guard familiar with these hills and the squad is aware of the potential for an ambush [Music] but these are experienced soldiers who've patrolled enemy territory before they know the key to avoiding detection is in how you read the land well this terrain I don't think is any more or any less dangerous than other train we've got good cover and concealment the trees are giving us concealment as well as the thicker trees will give us cover we are moving up ground or uphill so we have the low ground but it's relatively relatively safe we go undetected I think for the most part Special Forces missions are built on four principles planning reconnaissance assault extraction [Music] these rules are the same today as they were in 1942 technology can provide an overview but there is no better way to evaluate an enemy position than by putting human eyes on the target [Music] my better we're gonna send a couple people left right before we need as much ties on as we can and here we can see three-quarters of the bridge but not the first quarter so we're gonna send somebody on our left flank so they can observe at a better angle and somebody out our right fight we're looking at composition of the bridge of the size dimensions length construction back housing and if it's defended the men survey the bridge without incident Brian Haines takes notes from which a sand table model will be built to plan the attack and the squad withdraws [Music] this patrol has gone well they have been both skillful and lucky you were shooting from buddies these soldiers all know their way around guns some have fired in combat a few have killed each man thinks he's the best shot in the unit the instructors have decided to find out they will test them first up is the Green Beret J bud the men will fire seven shots with their 45s from about 15 feet killing range next is a Canadian soldier Scott Hollywood who as a Winnipeg police officer carries a pistol every day as I said we uh we don't really train for groupings we space him out cuz if you hit a guy numerous times in one spot all the trauma is in that area so he doesn't know he's been shot though he knows he's been shot but you probably thinks he just got shot one time whereas if you space him out across the center of mass of his body it's more trauma more stopping power because he realized he's got multiple wounds in him and you probably won't want to fight anymore that one missed the target loosen your grip and regroup here there's oil all over the handle that's as good excuse as any okay yes I think your buddies got you on that one holy smokes next Chris Byrd who's out to prove he says handy with a pistol as he is with a rifle Verger hell of a climber you can't hit the broad side of a barn that's better good job good job oh man not good thinking the only one to hit the center though this is my first three that I pulled and then these are my last poor and which one my shoe [Music] [Music] [Music] you know it's kind of a contrived situation you know and uh in a combative situation you want to quick draw and put some rounds downrange try for two in the chest and one in the head Joe George the thinking man soldier has found an advantage he's realized there is no time limit between shots he seems very focused what are you thinking about when you squeeze that trigger my next tour in Iraq you start to breathe next time I go to Iraq hopefully I'm the commander of Alpha Company first to 163rd infantry I'll be carrying a 9-mil okay shooting here Joe uh one you threw up here I think there's an extra one in there either that have you missed altogether when I was looking I think you put two right in here so I thanks you think you got a third one there please yeah that's uh that's not how's it look so far bill all average mister average yeah nothing super no bill wolf the hand-to-hand combat instructor has gone along with this competition reluctant he believes soldiers should be taught to shoot by instinct to kill by reflex stuff say it's not you trained soldiers that's how you train people to die okay cuz you don't have that much time to stand and take a sight picture all day long you know bullets coming at just so you gotta be quickly ain't got to be more sting short what we did here is a target shoot but it's not the way to survive in combat all right you all know that we've talked about it you did your instinctive shooting with pistols that's the way you survive a shootout one of our best scorers here was the LT or Joe George it took you three minutes to fire off seven rounds you know three seconds is a lifetime in a firefight okay alright guys so uh I guess our winners would be who's the top dog surgeon wolf did you decide out of this mess LT Beauty LT y'all follow you anywhere morale is crucial in any group of soldiers and Joe's victory is met with humor and respect for out-thinking them all the bridge assault is on for tonight Joe George has been given a chance to prove he can lead it so our demo plan is first of all to crush or use cutting charges on the bridge on this span at this Junction this Junction here and here that will separate the top part of the bridge from this support the team won't actually destroy anything but they will have to overpower the sentries and plant dummy explosives on the trestles when the brigade did this type of training in 1942 most of Montana knew the force meant business we done we you know we'd had intensive demolition train learned how to place charges and we also learned the use of TNT and the use of dynamite sticks there dynamite was soon replaced with a new an experimental explosive RS the RS the the Ryan special which is long sticks of explosive and it was joined by a product called primer port which was an explosive core our s was a first generation plastic explosive easy to use hard to forget when the men attacked the bridge they'll have to wire replicas RS to the trestles but the instructors have introduced the last-minute twist the squad will have just one hour to neutralize the sentries and plant the charges before a train crosses the ravine if the train arrives before the explosives are in place the mission will have failed but tonight is to be a night of cross and double cross these men are special for soldiers who rarely play by the rules they've decided to do what the devil's Brigade would have done adapt afraid the instructors that tipped off the National Guard the squad has begun the attack early and Scott Hollywood disguised as a jogger has ambushed the National Guard centuries I played Joe jogger freaking out what the hell's going on when he turned his attention away from me I drew my pistol from my back fired took his weapon in his ammo so now I got a little more firepower and I linked up with my boys [Applause] let's go underneath her to me I got my fingers under there [Applause] the men are only firing blanks but their surprise has worked the National Guard is beaten it's ready to go the squad is now fighting the clock the one-hour time limit is tight so Jose elaborate demolition plan is dropped in favour of simply getting the job done just getting it lined up already I think we're gonna have some Swedish up top Charlie's gonna derail the Train I'll restate up top he lifts that when the train was two minutes out and it was a woman a few so to go off one minute before the train hits the rail no time to stop its gonna derail charges on the trestles where I have a little bit of a problem with but we still got him in in time but not as pretty as we hoped but they're gonna work and fuses are burning untrusting where's Albert at 3:00 [Music] okay no more Spencer no more go where's Spencer no more talking go I left Alvar you're 12 let's go we're good [Music] I guess it would be going off like right now we're clear the objective and looking forward to a long march home so it looks like anyway not too bad we had we had a couple machine-gun nests that we were surprised by so Murphy kicked in kind of like I expected but what we still made time yes men are really soldiers and their training kicked in the mission was a success the aftermath of combat is always the same no matter time or place moments of reflection and a thankfulness that it's over [Music] some of these men have fought in firefights in Afghanistan or Iraq and although tonight's battle was only a war game no soldier likes to lose especially not this squad who are men of courage and Men of Honor men determined to earn the respect of the devil's Brigade [Music] by the late summer of 1943 The Devil's Brigade had become a superb fighting unit Colonel Frederick had done his job but earlier in the year The Devil's Brigade had been locked in purgatory without a mission of their own so Frederick had done the one thing fighting men hate to do he'd written a memo unless employment is found in the near future the force should be discontinued Frederick's memo had ricocheted from Washington to London where it landed on church's desk long the supporter of special operations Churchill was not happy he wrote on no account dissipate the force it may alter the whole strategic position of the war to which Roosevelt himself responded proceeding vigorously Frederic's gamble had paid off The Devil's Brigade was going to GI heaven bomber crew on a GI vacation arrives at an Air Force stress camp on the Italian seashore listen the Air Force has always had it easy or so the infantry says America's newsreels made the Italian campaign seem like one long vacation son no time gurgle gurgle gurgle those with boots on the ground who otherwise Infantryman of the first Special Service Force carry out a successful daylight raid on an advanced German position in the Anzio area men surround the German outpost in Norman this position is 400 yards in advance of the enemy line in the mud and blood of Italy in a dozen battles over a hundred hilltops the men of The Devil's Brigade would earn their medals and build their reputation but they would pay a terrible price and the fog lifted a minute and there was nothing but bodies around who hadn't even been able to remove them all going past those dead guys was I think the sobering moment for everybody then as when you started realizing the hey that could be me yeah I sort of went this way and he went that way I knew he was dead God gets hit with a closed mortar bomb and he open you don't need to look for a pulse next time on Devil's Brigade Anzio the brigade goes into action what are all those things coming in they said those are Cheryl's from the Germans oh I volunteered for this these were the helmet that they apparently issued and the squad takes parachute training Devil's Brigade style so we got up in this damn c-47 in me guy said stand up hook up stand in the door we went getting to the door that was the big scare that's where I got the serious butterflies jump or go home that's next time on Devil's Brigade [Music] [Music] [Music]

Channel: TOP BOX TV

Views: 103,238

Keywords: Syndicado, Films, TV, History, Canadian History, World War Two, WWII, Veterans

Id: HIk_N6CpU3Y

Length: 47min 27sec (2847 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 28 2019