The 1st Special Service Force gained its place in history with daring exploits in combat in France and Italy. This article appears in: August When General George C. Later that same year, the Allied high command decided to go ahead with Project Plough, which called for covertly training and inserting a 1,man sabotage force into Norway to wreak havoc on German occupation forces. The volunteers came from many walks of life, but most were hardy outdoorsmen who had been told only that they were joining an elite unit.
There were also teachers, farmers, Sunday school teachers, choristers, political bosses, and former bodyguards for Hollywood stars. The commander of the force was year-old, San Francisco-born Lt. At the time that Dwight D. Tall, slender, and mustached, Frederick was soft-spoken, dynamic, and incisively intelligent.
He was to prove fearless in combat, and by the end of the war he would become the youngest major general in the Army Ground Forces. His Canadian regimental commander was year-old Lt. Jack F. Frederick and his officers organized the men of the SSF into a brigade-size unit comprised of three regiments of two battalions each.
Organization and training proved to be the easy part of forming the SSF into an effective fighting force, though.
Building team spirit proved much more difficult, and there were initially many barracks and barroom brawls among the 2, men of the U. Over time, though, they grew to respect each other and idolize their commander. The next day, this too was canceled. Frederick was now told that the brigade would take part in a planned invasion of the Aleutian Islands in the Northern Pacific the following spring. On Army Day, April 6, , after marching in dress parade through Helena attended by the governor of Montana, Frederick and his men headed for Camp Bradford at Norfolk, Virginia, for training in amphibious tactics.
