Hi, I’m the History Guy. I have a degree in history and I love history,
and if you love history too, this is the channel for you.
If you're a fan of history then you probably know that D-Day was the Allied invasion of
german-occupied France on the Normandy beaches in June of 1944. But many people don't know that
D-Day was actually intended to coincide with another invasion of southern France in what
was called Operation Anvil. And because of various problems, largely because the world
wasn't progressive as quickly as we thought it would in Italy, that operation had to be
put off until August of 1944. But in August of 1944 there was essentially a second D-Day,
called Operation Dragoon, that involved more than a half million Allied troops, and it is nearly
forgotten next to the larger D-Day invasions. And that's too bad because it was really a very
successful operation. Operation Dragoon liberated southern France, captured or killed more than
150,000 German troops, and most importantly opened up the French ports of Marseilles and Toulouse for
Allied supply all in a period of just about four weeks, for a loss of about 20,000 allied
casualties. And like Operation Overlord, the D-Day invasion, Operation Dragoon had a number
of interesting stories that could be told but one really stands out, not just because it represents
an operation that really changed the nature of warfare, but because the person at the center of
that operation was a very famous person, who had starred in more than 50 major Hollywood films.
Lots of movie stars saw service in the Second World War, but few saw service as interesting
as that of movie star Douglas Fairbanks Jr, and it is a story that deserves to be remembered.
Douglas Fairbanks is one of the first true movie icons, starring in adventure roles in
the silent films period, playing characters like Zorro, Robin Hood, and Don Juan. He was
so famous in the silent film era that he was often called the King of Hollywood,
and hosted the first Academy Awards in 1929. Douglas Fairbanks married his first wife,
Annabeth Sully in 1907, and in 1909 they had a son whom they also named
Douglas. Douglas Fairbanks Jr would be his father's only child from his first marriage.
Douglas Fairbanks Jr got his first film contract with Paramount Pictures at the age of 14,
largely due to his father's famous name. He went into motion pictures against his father's wishes,
later explaining that, “I did it for the money. When my parents separated it was hardly amicable,
and mother and I needed to eat. Movie companies were willing to exploit my famous name. I didn't
really understand that at the time”. His first film role was in the movie Stephen Steps Out
in 1923. He played many successful roles in the latter part of the silent film period,
starring alongside stars like Greta Garbo and John Gilbert, and briefly marrying fellow movie
star Joan Crawford. Unlike his father, he successfully made the transition to talkies,
and starred in a slew of successful films, both in romantic comedies, and swashbuckling adventure
roles. With his biggest hit co-starring with Cary Grant and Victor McLaughlin, in Gunga Din in 1939.
As war loomed on the horizon, he enlisted in the US Naval Reserve
in 1940, alongside fellow movie star Robert Montgomery. He was commissioned a lieutenant
junior grade in the US Navy Reserve in 1940. In an interview in 1993 he said,
“My theatrical career was fairly flourishing at the time but I wanted to go into the reserves,
and take on Adolf Hitler.” Many stars served in the military in the Second World War,
with some fighting in combat. Actor Jimmy Stewart commanded a bomber squadron flying combat missions
for the US Army Air Force, and eventually made the rank of Brigadier General in the Air Force
Reserve. Actor Clark Gable likewise, flew combat missions with the Army Air Force. But Douglas
Fairbanks Jr was one of the few who chose to keep a low profile, and not to seek special treatment
due to his fame. He served aboard a number of Navy ships, including the battleship USS Washington,
heavy cruiser USS Wichita and aircraft carrier USS Wasp, seeing combat in the North Atlantic
against German U-boats. In 1942, he was given a temporary duty assignment in England with the
combined operations commando headquarters, under Vice Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten.
This was the sort of temporary duty exchange, where an allied officer is
expected to observe allied training and tactics, but Fairbanks decided that he
would go through full commando training and ended up participating in a number of cross
channel commando raids. There he developed an appreciation for the military art of deception.
When his duty assignment returned him to the United States, the brash lieutenant made a
pitch to his commanding officer Admiral Kent Hewitt, and then to Chief of Naval Operations
Admiral Ernest Young, to create a US naval unit specializing in tactical cover diversionary and
deception operations. His idea would come to life, as the US Navy Beach Jumpers program.
Authorized in 1943, the program called for the recruitment of 180 officers and
300 men who had met four basic requirements: no seasickness, experienced handling small boats,
enough understanding of electronics to fix a home radio, and a basic understanding of
celestial navigation. The Navy advertised, “We are seeking volunteers for prolonged,
hazardous, distant duty, for a secret project”.
The Beach Jumpers were assigned 63 foot, air-sea rescue boats, each with a crew of one officer
and six crew. The small plywood hulled boats were armed with twin 50 caliber machine guns,
rocket tubes, and electronics deception equipment and gear. The Beach Jumpers job
was to confuse the enemy into thinking that an amphibious landing was coming,
far away from where the real landing was going to be. Using smoke, projected sound, rocket attacks
and balloons that gave a radar signature that looked like much larger ships, the Beach Jumpers,
with just a few small boats, could convince the enemy that they were facing a full-scale invasion.
First used in the invasion of Sicily in 1943, the Beach Jumpers sowed so
much confusion among the enemy, that the real landing accomplished almost complete surprise.
While he was not a senior enough officer to actually command the Beach Jumpers program,
Fairbanks was given command roles that had him involved in nearly every layer of training and
planning for Beach Jumper operations. He earned a Silver Star for leading a group of
Beach Jumpers in the invasion of Italy. For Operation Dragoon, the invasion of
southern France in 1944, Fairbanks was given command of a Beach Jumpers unit, assigned to
simulate an invasion in the area of Nes Cannes, a hundred kilometers from the actual landing.
It was during that operation that the largest naval engagement of Operation Dragoon occurred,
when one of Fairbanks small boats accidentally ran into two much larger, and more heavily armed,
German Corvettes. Fairbanks rushed in the rest of his small boats, and deftly using their rockets,
managed to sink both Corvettes, and then to direct the operation to rescue their crews. For the
action, Fairbanks was awarded the Legion of Merit, and the Beach Jumpers were awarded a Presidential
Unit Citation. Their efforts were considered to be instrumental in the success of Operation Dragoon.
The Beach Jumpers continued their operations throughout the Second World War in both the
Mediterranean and in the Pacific, where they performed another important diversionary
operation during the Battle of Luzon, in 1945. They were deactivated after the Second World War,
but were reactivated again for both the Korean Conflict and the Vietnam War, were they also
engaged in psyops, or psychological operations. One of the Beach Jumper units in Vietnam was
awarded the Navy Unit Commendation. While their role has changed over time, they still exist
today as the Navy's Fleet Tactical Deception group. There are a number of stories for how
they got the name Beach Jumpers, including one that said that it was a play on the word bejesus,
because they were supposed to scare the bejesus out of the enemy, but in 1993 Douglas Fairbanks
Jr put and end to that speculation, and said that it was just a cover name that Lord Mountbatten
made up. Douglas Fairbanks Jr continued to serve throughout the war and was in fact,
planning Beach Jumper operations to support the planned British Invasion of Singapore,
when the war ended. He continued to serve in the Naval Reserve and retired as a full
captain in 1954. In 1993 he wrote a memoir about his experiences in the Second World War called,
A Hell of a War. After the war he tried to revive his film career, and he played Sinbad
opposite Marine O'Hara, but he never quite achieved the same level of success that he had
before the war. Still he continued to perform, on stage, on television, and in movies, and his last
full-length feature role was in the movie Ghost Story, in 1981. He passed away in the year 2000
at the age of 90, and despite a life that had earned him so much fame that he had not one,
but three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, in 1993 when he was asked how he ranked his military
career in the context of his extraordinary life, his answer was, “Very high. Very high indeed.”
I’m the History Guy and I hope you enjoyed this edition of my series, five minutes of history,
short snippets have forgotten history, five to ten minutes long. And if you did enjoy it please
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