MovieChat Forums > The Devil's Brigade (1968) Discussion > Lol devils brigade

Lol devils brigade

posted 12 years ago by shaints4
7 replies | jump to latest

Ok I'm sorry but here's a fact of truth, My grandfather was the Staff Sergent of the platoon. And No, they weren't called the "black devils" it was plain old "The Devils Brigade". I have 2 of the orginal movies OF this unit. The entire story behind THESE soldiers are all hidden by the state of department of defence. The government hide it. It wasn't a bunch of Misfits who got jailed here and their... lol. what an outragous lie that was. and this movie is fake. dont ever believe 1/2 of what they say. These guys were 100 times better than what we have now "Green berrets". These guys were trained in 5 different weapons, close quarter combat, and take no prisoner alive that includes women and children. The only time they took prisoners is if they were TOLD to. Other than that, they shot them even if the enemy gave up.

[–] coolspot18 12 years ago

Black Devils was the name given to the brigades by the Germans.

[–] pfreeman99 12 years ago

While it's true this unit wasn't made up of "misfits" (it was a mostly made up of volunteers who were then highly trained) i wouldn't say they were 100x better than green berets.

These guys were a precursor to Spec Ops. SEALs, Special Forces, etc.

[–] foster1234 10 years ago

Read a book by the "Colonel"

And you're right, they weren't misfits, or displininary cases per say, but the first job they were scheduled to perform was a suicided mission in norway no one was expected to return.

they were the best trained raiders that the allies used in combat, crosstrained in all enemy weapons, most had equivalent medic training, and explosive training, they could kill with anything

They were sent into battle when there was any kind of resistance that normel troops could not dislodge,

their casulty rate was well above 39% it states in the trivia section usually 50+%

They did not give quarter nor ask for it, they took no prisoners unless ordered to I can't say about women and children the book didn't mention it

You don't have to stand tall, but you have to stand up!

[–] dannieboy20906 9 years ago

Apparently some of the American soldiers were "dumped" on the brigade by base commanders looking to rid themselves of their problem cases. That continued to happen even through the Vietnam era and all volunteer units still need to look out for problem children that they don't want.

"The Dirty Dozen," an entirely fictional unit with a fictional mission was a huge hit the year before. I am not surprised that the executive producer or someone like that pushed to emphasize a handful of potential problems to make the image of a unit that was heavy on "criminals." Historic accuracy suffers hugely when the power people smell money.

[–] shaints4 9 years ago

There was no "personel" dumped onto this unit. It was a volunteered joint commando unit between 600-1800 men (cant remember how many)of America and Canadian forces.

How I know this is that my Grandfather was the Staff sergeant of this platoon. We have 2 documentaries of about this unit, and what they did etc..

[–] dannieboy20906 9 years ago

I was not there, so I cannot comment from first hand experience. I will say that whenever the opportunity presents itself, commanders will take advantage to rid themselves of unwanted soldiers. They may be discipline problems (we are usually talking not murderers, thieves, or deserters, but people who have failed to "get with the program" at their current unit) or soldiers who just do not mesh with their current unit. From such kernels legends grow of "miscreants." A special, all volunteer unit is often just what such a soldier needs to find home. The description of the American make-up of the FSSF sounds a lot like the 1st Cavalry Regiment of the United States Volunteers popularly known as the Rough Riders.

Also, with all due respect to your grandfather, this was not a platoon. It was nominally a brigade but manned at the regimental level. It was made up of three regiments with two battalions each and each battalion made up of three companies. The companies were small relative to a standard light infantry company with only 60 men instead of the more common 130 to 150. For comparison a platoon has roughly 40 men in it and there are three in a standard light infantry company. There were only two platoons in each of the (3 x 2 x 3) 18 companies in the FSSF and 36 platoons, not counting battalion regiment or brigade level headquarters support platoons. In other words, there would not have been "a personnel staff sergeant" in the unit. There would have been more than 50 staff sergeants in the brigade and 10 to 20 of them would have been working personnel issues. It is unlikely that your grandfather had eyes on the 201 file of every soldier in the brigade.

Each platoon would have a senior NCO at the sergeant first class level as platoon sergeant and a 2LT or 1LT as platoon leader. I expect that a platoon of 30 men probably had three or four SSG's and as many SGT's in the TO&E. The unusual TO&E of the FSSF would allow a rank heavy structure with more officers in the unit than a comparable light infantry unit.

[–] dalbrech 8 years ago

Using a Call to "send us some of your best men for a new unit" has been used as an way to get rid of the f--k ups in your unit has been an old Army trick forever. I have no doubt that since time began Unit commanders have been using that trick.