The First Special Service Force on the Anzio Beachhead
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- Опубликовано: 23 янв 2024
- The First Special Service Force on the Anzio Beachhead
With Brad St.Croix
Part of Anzio Week on WW2TV
• Operation Shingle (Anz...
The First Special Service Force (FSSF) landed at Anzio on 1 February 1944 and moved into defensive positions within twenty-four hours. Their mission was to protect the right flank of the beachhead and where they fought for 99 days.
Dr Brad St.Croix, has a PhD in history, and is best known for creating many types of videos about military history with a strong emphasis on Canadian military history on his channel
/ @otdmilitaryhistory
His last WW2TV appearance
The Royal Canadian Regiment in Italy - September 1943, Side-stepping South of Salerno
ruclips.net/user/live3cQtqMKb2jw
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Thanks for having me on the channel again Woody! Appearing on WW2TV is always a treat for me.
Any time!
Their commander was a amazing combat leader. At the end of the war he went home on leave. While drinking in the No Name Bar in Sausalito California two city cops came in looked at his generals stars and ribbons and accused him of being a fake veteran. He promptly beat the crap out of both of them. The bar is still there and has excellent food.
Brad is brilliant historian and he has opened my eyes to the Canadian contribution to WW2, which had been to me forgotten in the past and is now being highlighted. Thank you Brad and Paul a great presentation, any more from Brad in the future, bring him back when you can
Great show! Thanks Woody and Brad!
hi Woody from Florida, The battle of Italy was the longest running and one of the hardest fought campagne' of the war.
Thanks for posting this. My Grandfather told me about his time in this Unit. He passed away in 2008 🙏
An excellent presentation from Brad. One of my mother’s close friends was in the FSSF and he was killed the day Rome fell. He is buried near my grandparents and my mother and I always stopped by his grave when we visited the cemetery. She hated the Hollywood film on the unit because it depicted all the US members as drunks and troublemakers.
another great presentation from two emminent historians, what a treat. still ruminating all the new interesting and new facts about anzio breakout feb 1944. superb.
This is simply a brilliant presentation! I hope you will find a reason to have Mr. St Croix back on your channel at a later date. His enthusiasm is contagious, I'll have to read up on Canadas contributions to this part of WWII.
I'll come back any time Woody will have me haha
Woody/Paul, Thank you for such an interesting presentation. I always learn so much from Brad’s Canadian input! FYI - the Canadians who were disappointed would have been facing Italian Social Republic Forces loyal to Mussolini. Regards, Bob
Great show. I’d never heard of the FSSF until now. Except in portrayed in movies. Inaccurate of course because it’s Hollywood… these guys like the Rangers were the best of the best. Initiative, critical thinking, observant.. sad early on they weren’t used what they were highly trained for. Sitting in trenches / static warfare against Italian marines. Really? Finally used properly later on. Interesting their patch shape was taken on by the US Special Forces. Once again Paul- a very good and interesting topic. Well done.
thanks for an interesting presentation of a very little known unit
Tommy Prince, Ira Hamilton Hayes Heroes sullied by the indifference or hostility of the nations they fought for. Ira Hayes was made a hero by his deeds and immortal by Johnny Cash.
You should have a listen to "The Ballad of Tommy Prince" by J.D. Gordon which is available on RUclips. It's nowhere near as well known as "The Ballad of Ira Hayes" but a reasonably good song nonetheless.
1:22:07 - The best book on the FSSF, at least from the Canadian perspective, is Ken Joyce's obscurely titled PROJECT PLOUGH AND THE JUPITER DECEPTION which gives no hint at how good a resource on the FSSF it actually is. I discuss some of the historiography of the FSSF on my own channel - much of the Force's actual history has been deliberately obscured by conventional histories and hagiographies of the Force for decades. ruclips.net/video/c7tBLItjQLc/видео.html
Very different front, but when the Australians started aggressive patrolling against the Japanese in PNG, it helped shift the initiative in their favor. Maybe it helped a lot in Italy, too.
The whole Italian champaign was nothing more than a holding champaign to keep several large German units tied down in Italy so they could not back up German units fighting in Normandy. That is why things were so on again off again until D-Day.
The unit did not exist in the early days of planning for Overlord. Consequently, the unit's capabilities were not included in the Overlord planning where they may have been very effectve. So, they were just used as spares. The British were never known for thinking out of the box and they dumped on the Canadians and other Commonwealth nations whenever they could because they thought they were inherently superior to their "colonials", much as Americans dumped on our negro and Japanese troops who were some of our best troops when they were turned loose.
Thanks for the comment, although I disagree with some of your points
@@WW2TV Not Churchill's soft underbelly I hope. But, I am curious as to what you disagree with? Italy's importance to the Allies as a strategic target expired when it capitulated during the Sicily champaign. There was some strategic concern for Germany about the Allies coming up from the south through the Brenner Pass. However, considering the WWI experience in that area such an attack would be contraindicated, the Allies simply did not have the manpower or the logistical structure to support two such simultainious, extensive and widely separated major attacks. Seriously, please share your ideas, I really am interested in your POV.
1 The FSSF was formed in summer 42, so you're wrong about them not existing when Overlord was planned.
2 The Italian campaigning was absolutely not just to tie down German units. You're forgetting the 12th and 15th Airforces and the Strategic bombing
3 The tired old myth that the British always gave crap jobs to DUKE forces, is nonsense
4 Strongly disagree the British never thought out of the box. What about Commandos, codebreaking, deception campaigns, use of double-agents, SOE, Hobarts Funnies, the Gloster Meteor jet?
I would argue that the British were the most radical and inventive Allied nation in WWII and that's not even talking about bold and radical ground campaigns like Arakan and indeed most of Slim's campaigns
@@WW2TV Thank you for your reply and I must apologize and agree with you that there were some very bright and innovative Brits involved in intelligence, special ops, code breaking, and engineering, radar, sonar/asdic, hedgehogs, etc., Operation Fortitude, et.al. And, the British Tommy, and their naval and RAF commrads were all among the bravest and loyal warriors in the war. My problem is with arrogance of some of the high muckety-mucks like "Boy" Browning and Montgomery, "Bomber" Harris, Spatts, Eakers, Patton, etc. who expended lives for so-called glory although "Dempsey, Bradley, etc. seem to be pretty solid.
Please pardon my ignorance but I am not familiar with the term "DUKE FORCES."
With regard to the air forces there I must agree with you. Our air fields in Libya and Southern Italy were indispensable for the bombing of the Romainian oil fields and interference with Germany's wartime activities in the Balkans and Eastern Europe but you Brits had already secured the territory we needed in southern Italy.
I just don't think it was necessary to expend the lives of all those men slugging our way up all those rocky hills, rivers and mountains just to get to Rome.
Dominion, United Kingdom and Empire