HELENA — "An inspiration to see and terror to their enemy" is what Sholto Watt of the Montreal Standard said about the First Special Service Force (FSSF).
The first-of-its-kind military group — that was a combination of two countries — held a ceremony to signify that they completed their missions 80 years ago, on December 5.
"There was no US. There was no Canadian. It was just the force," said Bill Woon, a First Special Service Force Association member.
The FSSF was a group of hundreds of men specializing in dangerous missions during World War II.
"They didn't know what they were going to run into, so they just trained them for whatever, but it all started right here in Helena," Woon said.
The men — including Woon's father — spent nine months of intense training at Fort Harrison.
"Dad never said a word. I think it's what they experienced. If we weren't there to experience it with them, then we are not going to understand. I think that's even truer today with our veterans," Woon said.
According to the Montana Military Museum, "the force never failed a mission."
They spent 251 days in combat and had over 2,000 casualties, 134% of its combat strength. The FSSF captured 30,000 German prisoners.
"They would sneak into camps and kill three or four of them with their knife quietly and put a sticker on the body that said in German, 'Das dick ende kommt noch,' which in English means the worst is yet to come," Woon said.
That is where the military group got the name "The Black Devils" because they often went unseen or unheard but left a deadly scene.
The military group — which won five U.S. campaign stars and eight Canadian battle honors — held its final formation and deactivation ceremony on December 5, 1944.
"The skills that they learned here in Helena had been so diluted with replacements, but they were still being given those almost impossible missions," Woon said.
Today, Woon says only four men in the FSSF are living; two are in the US, and two are in Canada. That is down 68 members from 2018.
Woon says the FSSF Association has helped him foster a deeper connection to his father, who has passed away.
"Now getting a better understanding of what they experienced to survive, to get home, gives me a better understanding of who he was," Woon told MTN.
