Special Forces, tactics and weapons through the ages.

The General assumption is that Special Forces units are primarily a modern phenomenon emerging in the early 20^th century, with a significant growth in the field during the Second World War and whose modern father was David Stirling. It was David Stirling who set up the LRDG (Long Range dessert patrols) in the Western Desserts during Second Wold War and would later become the SAS (Special Air Services). But ancient armed forces also had their “Elite units” in fact it’s probable that every well-established army that has fought since time immemorial had some form of a “Special Forces” component attached to it.

Prior to WW11 special operations were usually undertaken by conventional forces who had undergone dedicated training to accomplish a specific military objective. One the mission had been completed, the individual soldiers often than not returned to their parent units. WW11 saw the birth of dedicated, permanent , SOF, SAS, SBS, LRDG, British Commando’s, US army Rangers, USMC raiders, Chindits as well as Multi –national Jedburgh teams as well as German Brandenburgers. These units were more or less permanent and would undertake missions/operations as the need arose.

“What are Special Forces”? Well the generally accepted definition is that they are “Highly trained military men or units that perform unconventional, high risk missions”

Having recently watched a noteworthy programme on this subject, it piqued my interest and I decided to spend some time researching  as to educate myself regards this subject and via the Blog, others who may take the time to read it.

So for me the first question was “what was the first mention of the use of Special Forces in History and here I decided to ask Google the question (as my wife did not have the answer) so as to point me in the right direction. I also started to troll through a number of books that sit on my book shelves about Special Forces and see what information that I could find in them as well as to see what information could in fact be verified. I found an interesting article that listed the top 5 elite warrior classes with number 5 being the best.

1)    Janissaries - The Janissaries were the elite warriors of the Ottoman Empire for over five centuries. They served the Sultan directly, acting both as his personal bodyguards and his fiercest warriors. A typical Janissary soldier got his start in a most unlikely place, however: most were Christians who converted to Islam (sometimes under coercion) after being taken as slaves. They were impressed into service, but subsequently well-paid and rewarded with a respected rank in society, thus most became committed, even fanatical devotees of the Sultan. Early Janissaries were skilled archers, but their ready adoption of firearms in the 1400s cemented their status as the elite warriors of the day.

2)    Batavi Warriors - A comparison between Batavi warriors and modern Navy SEALs is not that far from accurate. Batavian warriors, Germanic by descent, served with the Roman military in the early centuries of the common era (when not rebelling against Rome, of course), but they preserved many of their “barbarian” tactics even when in the service of the Empire. The favoured attack of the Batavi was to swim across rivers others thought impassable—while wearing armour and carrying weapons, by the way—and to attack armies while their guard was down. Oh, and they trained their horses to do the same, so a Batavi surprise cavalry attack was common.

3)    Sacred band of Thebes - How badass were the warriors of the Sacred Band of Thebes? Badass enough to beat the hell out of the Spartans, usually considered the ultimate warriors of the Ancient Greek world. This crack unit was made up of only around 300 men, and served from the year 378 BC until it was entirely wiped out by a massive Macedonian army forty years later. During its four decades of service, though, the Sacred Band were arguably the finest, fiercest warriors on earth. Their skill came from constant training in armed combat, wrestling and horsemanship. Their devotion came from the fact that the group consisted of 150 pairs of devoted lovers, so each fought both for Thebes and for his beloved.

4)    Shaolin Monks - One normally doesn’t associate monks and monasteries with warriors and the planet’s ultimate hand-to-hand combat training… unless, of course, one is talking about Shaolin monks. Then prayer and combat go together like peas and carrots! The Shaolin Monastery dates back nearly 1,500 years now, and its tradition of martial arts can be traced to accounts of combat against marauding bandits in the year 610. While trained never to use force when not needed, the Shaolin Monks certainly found themselves kicking a lot of ass over the centuries. They battled everyone from roving thieves to corrupt emperors to Japanese pirates, always using their distinctive combat style: Shaolin Kung Fu.

5)    Ninjas - Ninjas were every bit as skilled, silent and deadly as popular culture has made them out to be. It was a ninja’s adaptability, though, that truly made him an amazing warrior. They trained with myriad weapons, were adept at stealth and sabotage, and would kill with savage efficiency. For centuries, when warring shoguns pitted armies of samurai against one another, the ninjas too joined the fight, but rarely in pitched battles. Rather they would be used for special missions of espionage, kidnapping or assassination… just like the elite Special Forces of today.

The Bible has no great set-piece battles like those of Alexander or Napoleon - if they happened, the Bible does not describe them, or at least not in detail. Very little is known about the deployment of troops during any  particular battle - the Bible describes the reasons for the battle, who was involved, and what the result was, but it tells us virtually nothing of the strategies used by the opposing generals.

We do know that before King David (then man who killed Samson) came to the throne that fighting took place mainly in the form of skirmishes or raids. In this era the Israelite s were expert in guerrilla fighting and relied on surprise attacks to panic their enemies. Initially the Israelite army was a militia provided by the various tribes.  The advantage of militia is that the men will fight passionately for their home and families. The disadvantage is that they cannot be held for long-term wars or fighting. At harvest time, for example, men often simply downed their weapons and returned home to bring in the harvest.

When King Solomon took the throne, there was a dramatic change. He began to copy the strategies of his enemies. He formed regular armies with full-time trained soldiers. He also used new strategies and tactics, things that he could see worked well for his enemies - for example, laying siege to a city. But he also held onto the tactics that had worked for them before: surprise attacks, psychological warfare, propaganda.

The bible also gives us an insight about elite warriors and the man that springs to mind is Goliath who was slain by David (the man who would become King) with a slingshot. Now some may regard the bible as nothing but fiction but fact is that people like Goliath did exist.  Huge heavily armed men (the bible says that Goliath was 9 feet tall) would stand in front of his army and call on challengers from the opposing forces to fight him man to man. It’s said that Goliath who was the “Champion” of the Philistines taunted Saul’s (King of Israel’s) army for 40 days before David brought him down with a single blow to the temple from a stone slung at him.

The Bibles top 10 warriors are probably

·         Samson

·         David

·         Joshua

·         Gideon

·         Maccabees

·         Jephtah

·         Omri

·         Ahab

·         Saul

·         Barak

Another false impression is that Shock troops (assault troops), “Men that had been specially chosen, trained, and armed to lead an attack to penetrate the enemies defences and cause havoc in its rear areas are also a 20^th century concept, not so as evidence shows that during medieval times armies were regularly using this tactic against their enemies. Today you hardly hear the term as the strategic concepts behind the use of such units have become standard military thinking.

In a book called “Six Secret Teachings” a Chinese strategist (Jiang Ziya) details recruiting highly motivated and talented men to serve in specialized units that could make rapid long-distance advances as well as take and hold onto imposing heights that would put them in a commanding position and in 249 BC a man called Hamilcar Barca (situated in today’s Sicily) had men that were specially trained to launch several offensives per day against the enemy. 

Examples of shock troops use from around the mid-17^th century are as follows. Grenadiers were trained as specialized assault soldiers that would be used for siege operations. These men would throw grenades and then storm any breaches, even after the original black powder grenade was abandoned the Grenadier companies utilized by armies around the world were retained as Specialist assault troops.

During the American Civil war (1861 – 1865) both the Union and Confederate armies used shock troops with the Iron and Irish Brigades spearheading the Unions efforts with the Texas and Stonewall Brigade functioning similarly for the Confederates. All of these units suffered heavy casualties during the 5 years of brother killing brother.  

The Paraguayan war (1864 - 1870) between Paraguay, Brazil and then from 1865 Argentina and Uruguay, the Paraguayans used shock troops with great effect. The unit composed of a mixture of dismounted cavalry and fit men who were able to row and swim, armed with sabres, cutlasses, knives, bayonets, pistols and hand grenades. They were used to attack small, fortified positions and to board Brazilian river steamers.

Here are other examples that I researched of units or men that were utilized by Commanders in chief to achieve certain objectives

The Welsh and English Longbow men at the battle of Agincourt on 25 October 1415 are well remembered for the devastating affect that their use of the longbow had on the attacking French Knights. 

We all know the name Ninja is synonymous with stealth and cunning and in Japan their purpose was for reconnaissance and espionage but they also had a role as “silent assassins”. The Ninjas were multi – functional as they could act as personal bodyguards or even protect fortresses, but they were also able to fight alongside conventional soldiers.

Napoleon was very fond of “Special units” and apart from his own Imperial guard , who were all handpicked he also set up sapper and rifle units who’s function/s where reconnaissance and skirmishing and were not committed to the formal battles. 

The Zulus had units of men who would take mind altering drugs (usually magic mushrooms) and would be used to breach the enemy’s defences allowing the rest of the Impi to rush into the gap and create chaos amongst its enemies.  This tactic they used very well and was one of the reasons (amongst a few) that on the 22 January 1879 they managed to give the British army its biggest defeat at the hands of a native army.  Having decided that they would forgo their normal close quarter shoulder to shoulder tactics and spread themselves thin in an extended skirmish line the 22 000 Zulus sent in their ‘Special suicide squads”  and we all know the outcome. What was to be a decisive win for the Zulus over the British was also to be their eventual downfall and saw the end of the Zulu nation as a military threat.  

Sparta was unique in  ancient Greece for its social system and constitution, which completely focused on military training and excellence? Its inhabitants were classified as Spartiates (Spartan citizens, who enjoyed full rights), Mothakes (non-Spartan free men raised as Spartans), Perioikoi (freedmen), and Helots (state-owned serfs, enslaved non-Spartan local population). Spartiates underwent the rigorous agoge training and education regimen, and Spartanphalanges were widely considered to be among the best in battle. Spartan women enjoyed considerably more rights and equality to men than elsewhere in the classical world. In the Second Messenian War Sparta established itself as a local power in Peloponnesus and the rest of Greece. During the following centuries, Sparta's reputation as a land-fighting force was unequalled. In 480 BC a small force of Spartans, Thespians, and Thebans led by King Leonidas (approximately 300 were full Spartiates, 700 were Thespians, and 400 were Thebans although these numbers do not reflect casualties incurred prior to the final battle), made a legendary last stand at the Batle of Thermopylae against the massive Persian army, inflicting very high casualties on the Persian forces before finally being encircled. The superior weaponry, strategy, and bronze armour of the Greek hoplites and their phalanx again proved their worth one year later when Sparta assembled at full strength and led a Greek alliance against the Persians at the battle of Platea.

Berserkers of the Vikings whose name derives from the Old Norse berserkr . This expression most likely arose from their reputed habit of wearing a kind of shirt or coat (serkr) made from the pelt of a bear (ber-) during battle. In pre-medieval and medieval Norse and Germanic history and folklore, a member of unruly warrior gangs that worshipped Odin, the supreme Norse deity, and attached themselves to royal and noble courts as bodyguards and shock troops. The berserkers’ savagery in battle and their animal-skin attire contributed to the development of the werewolf legend in Europe. It is unclear whether the berserker warriors wore bear and wolf skins into battle or fought bare-chested (i.e., without byrnies or mail shirts); tapestries and other sources represent both possibilities. The berserkers were in the habit of taking on all comers and when the Saxon King Harold smashed the Vikings at the battle of Stamford Bridge in 1066 the battle nearly swung back the Vikings way after a Berserker took up station on the narrow bridge that crossed the river Derwent and managed to hold off the entire Saxon army, giving the Vikings an opportunity to re-group. He was only killed after a soldier in Alfred’s army managed to get under the bridge and killed the berserker with a fatal thrust of his spear to the groin.

Praetorian Guard: in 31 BC, Augustus Caesar decided a formation of a “special handpicked guard” was useful not only on the battlefield but in politics also. Thus, from the ranks of the legions throughout the provinces, Augustus recruited the Praetorian Guard.  He allowed only nine cohorts to be formed, originally of 500, then increased to 1,000 men each, and only three were kept on duty at any given time in the capital. A small number of detached cavalry units (turmae, sing. turma) of 30 men each were also organized. While they patrolled inconspicuously in the palace and major buildings, the others were stationed in the towns surrounding Rome; no threats were possible from these individual cohorts.  While campaigning, the Praetorians were the equal of any formation in the Roman Army. On the death of Augustus in 14 A.D., his successor, Tiberius, was faced with mutinies among both the Rhine and Pannonian legions. The Pannonian forces were dealt with by Tiberius' son Drusus, accompanied by two Praetorian cohorts, the Praetorian cavalry and some of the German bodyguard. The German mutiny was put down by Tiberius' stepson Germanicus, his intended heir, who then led the legions and detachments of the Guard in an invasion of Germany over the next two years. The Guard saw much action in 69, fighting well for Otho at
the first battle of Bedriacum.

The final act of the Praetorians in imperial history started in 306, when Maxentius, son of the retired emperor Maximian, was passed over as a successor: the troops took matters into their own hands and elevated him to the position of emperor in Italy on October 28. Ceasar Flavius Valerius Severus, following the orders of Galerius, attempted to disband the Guard but only managed to lead the rest of them in revolting and joining Maxentius. When Constantine the Great launching an invasion of Italy in 312, forced a final confrontation at the Milvian Bridge, the Praetorian cohorts made up most of Maxentius' army. Later in Rome, the victorious Constantine definitively disbanded the Praetorian Guard. The soldiers were sent out to various corners of the Empire, and the Castra Praetoria was demolished. For over 300 years they had served, and the destruction of their fortress was a grand gesture, inaugurating a new age of imperial history and ending that of the Praetorians.

The Romans in around 320 AD also used small, fast camouflaged ships with specialized crew that were used for scouting and Commando missions, a tactic the Muslim forces around the same era also employed and they had several trained units that specialized in naval operations with one in particular that would camouflage their ships to gather intelligence and launch raids if the opportunity arose. Another Muslim unit would dress up as Crusaders and would then board enemy ships and either capture them or destroy them.

And while I am discussing the Romans it seems that they also used war dogs and had a special K9 unit of men that would be responsible for around 5 to 6 dogs. But the Romans were not the first or the only of ancient armies to use dogs in a military capacity. War dogs were also used by the Egyptians, Greeks, Samartians, Slavs, Britons. The Molossus dog of the Molossia region of Epirus was the strongest known to the Romans, and was specifically trained for battle. Among the Greeks and Romans, dogs served most often as sentries or patrols, though they were sometimes taken into battle. The earliest use of war dogs in a battle recorded in classical sources was by Alyattes of Lydia against the Cimmerians around 600 BC. The Lydian dogs killed some invaders and routed others.

Often war dogs would be sent into battle with large protective spiked metal collars and coats of mail armour. Attila the Hun used giant Molosser dogs in his campaigns Gifts of war dog breeding stock between European royalty were seen as suitable tokens for exchange throughout the Middle Ages. Other civilizations used armoured dogs to defend caravans or attack enemies. The Spanish conquistadors used armoured dogs that had been trained to kill and disembowel natives.

Later on, Frederick the Great used dogs as messengers during the Seven Years war with Russia. Napolean also used dogs during his campaigns. Dogs were used up until 1770 to guard naval installations in France. The first official use of dogs for military purposes in the United States was during the Seminole wars. The American Pit Bull Terrier was used in the American Civil war to protect, send messages, and as mascots in American World War I propaganda and recruiting posters.

Contemporary dogs in military roles are also often referred to as police dogs, or in the United States as a Military Working Dog (MWD), or K-9. Their roles are nearly as varied as their ancient cousins, though they tend to be more rarely used in front-line formations. As of 2011, 600 U.S. Military dogs were actively participating in the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Traditionally, the most common breed for these police-type operations has been the German Shepherd, in recent years there has been a shift to smaller dogs with keener senses of smell for detection work, and more resilient breeds such as the Belgian Malinois and Dutch Shepherd for patrolling and law enforcement. All MWDs in use today are paired with a single individual after their training. This person is called a handler. While a handler usually won't stay with one dog for the length of either's career, usually a handler will stay partnered with a dog for at least a year, and sometimes much longer.

The first modern frogmen were the World War II Italian commando frogmen, of Decima Flottiglia MAS (now "ComSubIn": Comando Raggruppamento Subacquei e Incursori Teseo Tesei) which formed in 1938 and was first in action in 1940. Originally these divers were called "Uomini Gamma" because they were members of the top secret special unit called "Gruppo Gamma", which originated from the kind of Pirelli rubber skin-suit nicknamed muta gamma used by these divers. Later they were nicknamed "Uomini Rana", Italian for "frog men", because of an underwater swimming frog kick style, similar to that of frogs, or because their fins looked like frog's feet.

So while frogmen only came into their own during the Second World war the forerunners of the Navy Seals were the men that during the siege of Constantinople (now Istanbul) by the Romans. Specially trained swimmers who could hold their breaths for more than 6 minutes or longer swam out to the ships and attached ropes to the hulls so they could be pulled towards the besieged city, they could then attack the ship and take the provisions, many of the men died, but they did succeed in the mission of attaching the ropes.     

The United states Army Rangers have their origins in the 17^th Century, the first military company commissioned as Rangers were English soldiers fighting in King Philips war(1676) and from there the term came into common official use in the French and Indian Wars. There have been American military companies officially called Rangers since the American Revolution. Rangers were full-time soldiers employed by colonial governments to patrol between fixed frontier fortifications in reconnaissance providing early warning of raids. In offensive operations, they were scouts and guides, locating villages and other targets for taskforces drawn from the militia or other colonial troops.

In the First World War the Germans used Stormtroopers (in German Sturmtruppen; the term "thrust troops", Stoßtruppen was also used) were specialist soldiers of the German Army in World War I. In the last years of the war, Stoßtruppen were trained to fight with "infiltration tactics", part of the Germans' new method of attack on enemy trenches. Men trained in these methods were known in Germany as Sturmmann (literally "storm man" but usually translated as "stormtrooper"), formed into companies of Sturmtruppen ("assault troops", more often and less exactly "storm troops"). The infiltration tactics of the stormtroopers are still in use today, in one form or another. Other armies have also used the term "assault troops", "shock troops" or fire teams for specialist soldiers who perform the infiltration tasks of stormtroopers.

The Germans during World War 1 also saw the benefits of Machine guns units long before the British did and their use caused thousands of deaths amongst the British and French soldiers. Seeing the havoc that these units reaped upon advancing forces across no man’s land the British formed their own elite machine gun corps in 1915 and close to 170 000 men were given specialist training, of those 170 000, 12000 would lose their lives. The unit only lasted 7 years before it was disbanded; the Vickers machine gun that they used however saw service in the British army until the 1960’s and was used in various armies and wars across the world after that.     

In the introduction  of  this Blog I mentioned  the  German Brandenburger units. The units of Brandenburgers operated in almost all fronts - the invasion of Poland, Denmark and Norway, in the Battle of France, in Operation Barbarossa, in Finland, Greece and the invasion of  Crete, Romania, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia. Some units were sent to infiltrate India, Afghanistan, Middle East countries and South Africa. They also trained for Operation Felix (the planned seizure of Gibraltar), and Operation Sea Lion (the planned invasion of Great Britain). The unit had stunning successes early in the war acting as advance units that captured strategic bridges, tunnels and rail yards in Poland and the Netherlands.

The unit was the brainchild of Hauptmann (Captain) Theodor von Hippel who, after having his idea rejected by the traditionalist Reichswehr, approached Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, commander of the German Intelligence Service, the Abwehr. Regiment Brandenburg evolved out of the Abwehr's 2nd Department, and was used as a commando unit during the first years of the war. Initially the unit consisted mainly of former German expatriates fluent in other languages. Until 1944 it was an OKH unit rather than a unit of the regular army (Heer). The unit steadily expanded until it was reallocated to the GroßdeutschlandPanzer Korps to be used as a frontline combat unit.

Deception was used as a military tactic long before the Greeks slipped their wooden horse into Troy, but it didn't really come into its own, in a systematic and organized way until World War II. The advent of sophisticated reconnaissance and intelligence techniques, together with unprecedented battlefield mobility, put a new premium on the possibilities of tactical deceiving.

Perhaps the best kept secret and most unusual regards the use of a “Special Force” was the formation and existence of the 23^rd Headquarters Special troops of World War 2. It was only in 1996 that the existence of this unit was revealed, so who were these men?

In 1941, the U.S. began to form a hand-picked army to fight in Europe. What made it different is that its troops were composed of artists, designers, actors, meteorologists, and sound technicians, and their true mission was not to fight, but to deceive the German army. Their props were inflatable tanks and pyrotechnics; their tools camouflage, "spoof" radio plays, special effects, and sonic deception. Their last "disappearing act" was to vanish from history. Officially they were designated as the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops, the first and last battlefield deception outfit ever authorized by the U.S. Army. From Normandy to the Rhine, with four American armies in five countries, they put their own lives on the line to save the lives of their comrades.

German soldiers referred to them as the "Phantom Army," because one moment they were in one place, and the next, they were attacking their flanks or from the rear. This small army deceived the Germans successfully in 21 separate operations during World War II, many of which took place within a few hundred yards of the front lines. Using their tactics and technology, more than a thousand secret soldiers served in this ghost army. Many of the new recruits were already famous; others would win celebrity stripes after the war. Among them were abstract expressionist Ellsworth Kelly, whose paintings hang in the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan; Olin Dows, a prominent artist and personal friend of President Franklin D. Roosevelt; artist Harold Laynor; fashion designer Bill Blass; movie star Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Amelia Earhart's publicist, the debonair Hilton Howell Railey; George Diestel, a Hollywood set designer; and Art Kane, a fashion photographer.

Still, almost nothing has been written about the Ghost Army and story of ingenuity, resourcefulness, artistry, comradeship, hard work, patriotism and courage. In the words of one veteran who served alongside them in their crowning performance at the Battle of the Rhine, "These men are real heroes-- not heroes because they killed a lot of Germans: heroes because they saved thousands of American lives."  

Stephen Dunkley

4 May 2014