As we said in a previous video, “special forces” is an umbrella term for distinct and specially
selected, trained, and equipped military units that employ unconventional tactics.
In that video, we covered the German Brandenburgers and SS-Jager-Battalion 502,
the British Commandos and SAS, and the US Marine Raiders and First Special Service Force. But what
about World War II’s smaller belligerent nations? Did they field special units too?
Absolutely they did. And the men from these units were some of the toughest in the world.
In this video, we share their stories.
Prior to the Soviet Union’s invasion of Finland in November 1939, the Soviets believed Finland would
be a walk in the park. Reflecting on the Soviet perspective during the war, military leader Nikita
Khrushchev said, “All we had to do was raise our voices a little bit and the Finns would obey. If
that didn’t work, we could fire one shot and the Finns would put up their hands and surrender.”
As Khrushchev came to learn, this was far from the truth.
The Finns made the Soviets pay a heavy toll for every inch of ground during the Winter War.
And among the Finnish forces that exacted these tolls were the ad hoc units known as Sissi units.
While “Sissi” translates roughly to “guerrilla,” these units were
actually composed of army reservists and trained by the Finnish Army.
Due to limited supplies and the nature of the war that these men waged, they carried
only light infantry weapons and a variety of mines, including the TM 65 Track Mine. They also
made good use of skis. Sissi units fought the Soviets in Finland’s vast swamps and forests,
employing hit-and-run tactics and taking advantage of their high manoeuvrability to isolate groups of
enemy troops. The pockets they created as a result of such tactics were known as motti.
After the Winter War, when fighting between the Finns and Soviets resumed in the Continuation War,
the ad hoc Sissi units were replaced with better-organised Independent Battalions, such as
Detached Battalion 4. This particular unit played a major role in the 1944 Battle of Ilomantsi,
severing the supply lines of the Soviet artillery and thus denying the Red Army artillery support.
Among the Finns to fight in this battle was the famous Lauri Törni, who ended the war having
fought for Finland, Germany, and the United States. This man killed so many Soviets in
the Battle of Ilomantsi that they placed a 3 million Finnish mark bounty on his head.
We’ve mentioned the Goumiers in a previous video,
but we could never shine enough light on these devastating Moroccan warriors.
While Finland’s Sissi units were thrown together in response to the Soviet invasion,
Moroccan Goumiers had been fighting as tribal irregulars under the French Army since the early
1900s. During World War II, some 12,000 Goumiers fought for the Free French and their allies.
These warriors — named after the curved daggers they carried into battle — were masters of night
raiding operations and rough terrain. No one could traverse mountains as well as the Goumiers.
They fought against the Axis powers in North Africa, Italy, France, and Germany,
sustaining more than 8,000 casualties and 1,600 deaths throughout the war.
Putting the Goumiers’ reported war crimes aside for the time being, their performance in the
Italian campaign is legendary, especially during Operation Diadem and the Battle of Monte Cassino.
US Lieutenant General Mark W. Clark had this to say about the Moroccans after
they penetrated the Aurunci Mountains to outflank the Germans in May 1944:
“In spite of the stiffening enemy resistance, the 2nd Moroccan Infantry Division penetrated
the Gustave Line in less than two days [of] fighting. The next 48 hours on the French front
were decisive. The knife-wielding Goumiers swarmed over the hills, particularly at night, and General
Juin's entire force showed an aggressiveness hour after hour that the Germans could not withstand.”
After the war, the Goumiers fought for the French in Indochina from 1949 to 1954. With Moroccan
independence, they ceased serving the French and joined the Royal Moroccan Armed Forces.
Now, we’ve already published a full video on the Gurkhas, but we simply cannot make
this video without paying these indomitable Nepalese warriors the respect they deserve.
After all, as Indian Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw put it,
"If a man says he is not afraid of dying, he is either lying or he is a Gurkha."
Some 250,000 kukri-wielding Gurkhas served in the British Indian Army during the Second World
War. While not strictly special forces, these warriors fought with unmatched ferocity in many of
the war’s theatres, most notably in North Africa, Italy, Malaya, Burma, and India. All in all, the
Gurkhas were granted over 2,700 awards for bravery in World War II, including the Victoria Cross.
In the mountains of Italy on the 10th of November 1944, for example, a Gurkha named Thamung Gurung
earned a posthumous Victoria Cross for rushing a German machine-gun nest that was about to make
mince meat of his section. The Germans in the nest surrendered to Thamung, and he then proceeded to
run along the mountain like a madman, firing on the Germans until he’d spent his Tommy gun.
Snatching up a nearby Bren gun, he stood in full view of the remaining German forces,
and sprayed and prayed until he’d emptied two magazines. Thamung was ultimately gunned down.
But his bravery in this engagement allowed his fellow Gurkhas to withdraw to safety, regroup,
and capture the German position a few days later.
In the 1944 Battle of Imphal, another Gurkha further cemented the Gurkhas’ reputation. This
was Agansing Rai, an acting Naik of the 5th Gurkha Rifles. Fighting at a position called
Mortar Bluff, he charged a Japanese machine-gun position under a hail of bullets to take the
heat off his men. Entering the Japanese bunker, Agansing Rai personally cut down three of the
four men manning the position. Throughout the day, the Naik spearheaded another two charges.
In both, he cleared the Japanese positions almost entirely alone, bursting into the third Japanese
bunker with a Tommy gun in one hand and a grenade in the other. According to his VC citation,
“The enemy, demoralized by Agansing Rai’s complete contempt for danger, fled before the onslaught.”
Of course, those were just two anecdotes about Gurkhas
who served in the Second World War, among many.
In 1901, the US Army formed the Philippine Scouts in the Philippines. This military
organisation was largely composed of Filipinos and Filipino-Americans,
and commanded by American officers. On the 7th of December 1941, the same day as Pearl Harbor, the
Japanese began their invasion of the Philippines and went toe to toe with the Philippine scouts.
It did not go well for the defenders.
By March 1942, the Japanese had overrun most of the Philippines. A defending force composed
primarily of Scouts was still holding out in Bataan, but the Japanese had established a
naval blockade, and supplies were wearing thin. Still, the Scouts fought bravely.
Back in January, for instance, Jose Calugus of the Scouts’ 88th Field Artillery Regiment earned
a Medal of Honor for one particular daring action. Busy working as a mess sergeant,
Calagus noticed that enemy artillery had obliterated the crew of a nearby
75 mm M1917 artillery piece. Understanding the importance of the gun, Calagus made a
900-metre (or 1,000-yard) sprint across a shell-swept battlefield to man the M1917
with a squad of volunteers. For the rest of the afternoon, Calagus rained hell on the Japanese,
allowing his fellow Scouts to dig in and make a stand against the Japanese onslaught.
Calagus was among the Scouts captured by the Japanese on the Bataan Peninsula in April.
Those Scouts who managed to avoid capture or escape joined the Philippine resistance.
If you’re looking to take a deep dive into the Philippine resistance, we’ve got a great
pair of videos on the subject. One is an overview, while the other explores the complicated logistics
of the resistance and how it collaborated with the Allies outside of the Philippines.
For now, we turn to Juan Pajota, who epitomised the Scout experience during World War II.
After the mass surrender on the Bataan Peninsula, Juan fell in with the famous
US Major Robert Lapham (who was also a Scout) and founded a guerrilla unit on
the Luzon Central Plains. Put in charge of his own group of men, Juan went on to participate
in the Raid at Cabanatuan in January 1945. Working with the US Rangers and Alamo Scouts,
Juan and his guerrillas decimated the Japanese 359th Independent Infantry
Battalion and liberated more than 500 Allied POWs from the barbaric Japanese camp. Juan’s
knowledge of the terrain and enemy activity made him an invaluable asset in this operation, which
likely would have failed without him. According to Lapham, “[Juan was] a very unflamboyant guy
with a natural bent for leadership. He was resourceful, organized and extremely imaginative.”
After the Americans returned to the Philippines and converged with the
resistance to liberate the islands in 1944, many of the Scouts-turned-guerrillas re-joined US Army,
and several new Scout units were established. These “New Scouts” fought to extricate the
Japanese from North Luzon and, after Japan capitulated, served as part of the Allied
occupation forces on the Japanese Home Islands. How the tables had turned.