Show Heroic Job Done By Secret Force FeLts Feats in Italy Clear the Way For Taking Rome and Invading France F ance NEW YORK The The first compre- compre com pre pre- hensh o story of the now fabulous first special spec service force which opened the tb e way for the conquest of Rome and cleared the way for the invasion of southern France long veiled under one of the strictest pub pub- publicity publicity publicity blackouts of the European war has just been made known accord accord- according according ing to the New York Times The first exploit of the hundreds of ol specially trained Canadian and American fighting men in the force was the scaling of the foot peak of La Defensa south of Cassino on ona ona ona a December night in 1943 paving the way for the Fifth army's march on Rome The chapter of heroism closed nine months later when they stormed the held German islands of Port Cros and Levant Leva t and thus en en- enabled enabled enabled the American Seventh army to invade France from the south Because of its fighting prowess imagination organization and train train- training training training ing the force is without precedent in all military history according to the Canadian wartime information board Training Is Varied The force originally was assem assem- assembled assembled assembled bled in 1942 to invade held German-held Norway the Norway the venture later was abandoned and abandoned and every man was a aI volunteer and a potential leader Not I until the Canadian contingent of 47 officers and men joined their American counterparts at Helena I Mont did the two groups learn that they were to be organized trained and sent into lOto action as a mixed I United Canadian-United States force Schooled in mountain warfare air air- airborne airborne airborne borne operations commando tactics and all the tumble rough of modern war they became a corps of super-specialists super in knock em drag down-drag em out fighting They had hoped to test their train train- training training training I ing at Japanese-held Japanese Kiska when they stormed ashore on the beaches in 1943 but the Japanese had fled The real thing came three months later in Italy There the Fifth army had been stopped in its tracks by a series of heavily fortified mountains most formidable of of- which were the peaks of Camino and La The was ordered to scale La and wrest it from the vet vet- veteran veteran veteran eran Fifteenth Panzer Grenadier division solidly entrenched on the top The German commander had dis dis- disposed disposed dis- dis disposed posed his troops to cover every ap ap- approach approach ap- ap approach to the top except one This was a track so narrow and steep that not even mules could use it and so heavily mined that every foot of the way had to be explored with detectors But the men attacked caught the enemy off of bal bal- balance balance balance ance captured 14 machine-gun machine nests within four hours and by dawn the heights were in Allied hands Christmas Day Attack Two T vo weeks later the men were on the move again assigned to wipe the enemy off of Ridge a trouble spot on Mt that was holding up the Allied advance Just before a dawn on Christmas day the force attacked and in one hour of fierce to hand-to-hand fighting drove the enemy from the ridge Third and most formidable of the German mountain strong points to tofaU fall faU to the in Italy was Mt Majo key to all the territory north and south of its towering peaks and pivot for maneuvers in an attack on Cassino itself Intervening strong points had to be stormed and cap cap- On New Years Year's Day 1944 the force moved d up in a blinding snow snow- snowstorm snowstorm snowstorm storm to a point close behind the forward Allied infantry lines Two nights later it slipped through on its greatest venture of the campaign One group under command of Capt D. D P. P Gallagher of Chicago found itself at 3 a. a m m. within 30 yards of the summit of a held German peak For two hours his force of 59 men huddled in the bitter cold old waiting Then they struck ferociously with witha a grenade attack and only a hand hand- handful handful handful ful of the Germans on the peak lived long enough even to surrender der de |