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Originally Posted by CaberTosser
Yep  . Black Devils, Devils Brigade, etc. That movie from the '60's about the unit was all Hollywood and little to do with the FSSF save for that it had both US and Canadian soldiers in it. The film portrayed it as consisting of various misfits and ex-cons, lol. The mountain climbing aspect where they scaled the backside of Monte Cassino to take the Nazi stronghold was true though. |
Back in the early '80's when I was serving in the Canadian Airborne Regiment I was fortunate enough to be selected to participate in the First Special Service Force reunion celebration in Helena, Montana. The Veterans that I met and talked to there were phenomenal! As a young paratrooper I was in complete awe to be able to talk to legends openly about their experiences. Really interesting stuff.....complete with shirt lifting to show bullet wounds!
The Veterans, both Canadian and American, told me that the events in the movie were pretty much historically accurate EXCEPT the way that the American troops were depicted in the movie......they were pretty ticked off with that! In reality the Soldiers selected for the FSSF were all hand picked, the best of the best, and not the undisciplined bunch of misfits that the movie made them out to be.
It was an amazing experience and I respect the hell out of those guys.