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The OG concept was based on General Donovan's belief that
American soldiers with foreign language skills and training
who, if organized in small groups and trained with commando
capabilities could be parachuted into enemy occupied
territory to harass the enemy and to encourage and support
local resistance organizations.
With a Joint Chiefs of Staff directive of 23 December 1942,
which provided that OSS should organize "operational nuclei"
to be used in enemy occupied territory, a recruiting program
was initiated. Line outfits, officer candidate and specialty
schools were targeted as pools for candidates who, at a
minimum, had already received basic training. Infantry and
engineer units were sources from which most OG candidates
were sought; with radio operators coming from the Signal
Corps and medical technicians from the Medical Corps.
Working knowledge of a foreign language was a priority
consideration advanced in the recruiting promotions, though
candidates with other special skills or foreign area
knowledge were also considered for recruitment. Soldiers
with language skills in Norwegian, Italian, French, Greek
and German were the primary languages being sought.
Prospective candidates were given the opportunity to
volunteer for "hazardous duty behind enemy lines."
Interested individuals were interviewed, and possible
operational situations were presented to enable the
candidate to have an understanding of potential personal
dangers. Only men with a real desire for such duty were
chosen. Approximately ten percent of those interviewed
volunteered.
Soon after interview, those selected received orders to
report to OSS Headquarters at 2340 E Street in Washington,
D. C. In the complex located there was the OG HQ unit in "Q
Building". Most recruits then, after processing in, were
transported to "Area F" (the Congressional Country Club in
nearby Potomac, Maryland) The Club, which had been taken
over by the OSS for its use during the war, served as a base
for several different OSS activities. Except for the OGs,
most of those persons went home off base after their days
work Apart from a base headquarters unit which included an
MP detachment; the OGs were the only military personnel
living there.
It
was late summer of 1943 when the 99th Mountain Battalion
arrived at Area F (Congressional Country Club) for basic OG
training. The battalion, which had been stationed and
trained at Camp Hale Colorado, had been recruited as a unit
to form the Norwegian Operational Group (NORSO). Discipline
and professionalism were readily demonstrated in the manner
these officers and men responded to the OG training
exercises and field problems that were given and in December
1943 the Norwegian Operational Group of about 100 officers
and non-commissioned officers transferred to England where
they were attached to the OSS Special Operations (SO)
Headquarters, Scandinavian Section. In anticipation of
possible operations in Norway the unit then underwent
additional training in Scotland.
Come summer of 1944 with no approved missions in Norway, the
Norwegian Operational Group was committed to operations in
France and became the major component of the UK-to-France
unit of the French Operational Group. The first contingent
of some 200 volunteers who had been selected to form the
French Operational Group completed OG training at Area F in
the fall of 1943, and Major (later Lt. Col.) Alfred T. Cox
who had been the Chief of OG training at Area F was then
designated commanding officer of that Group.
In filling out the projected T/O for overseas assignment for
the unit, Major Cox included many of the personnel from the
Area F teaching staff, the quartermaster/supply unit,
communications unit and medical unit to establish a complete
operational group to include a Field Service Headquarters
Unit (FSHQ). The French OGs were ready for deployment. But
circumstances similar to those which the Italian OGs
experienced before they embarked in August 1943 were again
causing delays, while the military leaders in each command
needed to be briefed and familiarized with the OG
operational concept. As a part of that process to “sell” the
OG concept, a section of the French OGs participated in a
combined Airborne manoeuvre in North Carolina in December
1943 as a demonstration.
Meanwhile, to utilize the extra time to advantage and to
avoid a waning of morale, the group was sent to Area B, a
CCC Camp near Quantico Virginia which had been taken over
for wartime use by OSS. Training at that site provided
opportunity to use operational practices they had earlier
worked out but in a different locale and environment. Also
further concentration was given to physical fitness as well
as giving special attention to what could be used in that
locale if necessary to "live off the land."
In
December the Group went to Camp Hale, Colorado for ski
training. Upon their arrival at Camp Hale word was received
that the group had been ordered for attachment to the
Seventh Army in Algiers. On 1 January 1944 Major Cox and his
executive officer departed by military air transport as the
advance party to establish facilities for the Group to be
near that headquarters in Algiers.
Crossing the Atlantic by ship convoy, the Group found its
North African base in February 1944 at Domaine de la Trappe,
a site near Algiers where Trappist Monks had managed
extensive vineyards at an earlier period. While there
awaiting operational deployment the group undertook
parachute jump training at the nearby OSS parachute school,
using both American and British equipment; and to practice
jump techniques for parachuting from bombers through an
opening in the airplane belly where normally the gunner's
turret would be. Major Cox was concerned and very mindful of
the need to keep the men active to avoid any drop off of
morale, and as a part of such effort organized additional
field training for the Group in the Atlas Mountains. Plans
were also being explored to conduct operations with the
French Foreign Legion at its base in that area, but before
the latter could be arranged, the call came to prepare for
the first OG operation into France in support of the June
6th Normandy invasion.
Soon thereafter, two additional French Groups arrived in
Algiers for parachute jump training at the OSS parachute
school before proceeding to England where, under the command
of Lt. Colonel Serge Obolenski, they would join the
Norwegian OG unit stationed there under administrative
control of OSS Special Operations. Working together they
would become the second French OG unit to operate in France;
and on August 1, 1944 their first section parachuted into
France.
For some years now the FAAA have had an interest in the
American OSS Special Operations and have re-enacted this
unit several times since 1994. While the group is actively
working on its First Special Service Force impression, it
acknowledges the fact that this unit although superbly
trained, never did realise its full potential as a Special
Forces unit and was instead deployed as an elite infantry
unit. We share the opinion of many that it was in fact the
uniformed OSS Operational groups who can really lay claim to
being the predecessors of the Green Berets and American
Special Forces.
To complete its weekend of Special Forces impressions the
group geared up to represent one such OG unit prior to and
during an Operational Group mission behind the lines in
France.
Pictures by Lee and Ade of
this units Signals Corp Photo unit
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