It's 1942 and Hitler's armies stand astride Europe like a colossus.
Germany is winning on every front. This is the story of how one of
the world's first commando units, put together for the invasion of
Norway, helped turn the tide in Italy.
1942. When the British generals recommend an audacious plan to
parachute a small elite commando unit into Norway in a bid to put
Nazi Germany on the defensive, Winston Churchill is intrigued. But
Britain, fighting for its life, can't spare the manpower to
participate. So William Lyon MacKenzie King is contacted and asked
to commit Canadian troops to the bold plan. King, determined to
join Roosevelt and Churchill as an equal leader in the Allied war
effort, agrees.
One of the world's first commando units, the First Special Service
Force, or FSSF, is assembled from hand-picked soldiers from
Canadian and American regiments. Any troops sent into Norway will
have to be rugged, self-sufficient, brave, and weather-hardened.
Canada has such men in ample supply.
The all-volunteer FSSF comprises outdoorsmen -- trappers, rangers,
prospectors, miners, loggers. Assembled at an isolated base in
Helena, Montana, and given only five months to train before the
invasion, they are schooled in parachuting, mountain climbing,
cross-country skiing, and cold-weather survival. They are taught
how to handle explosives, how to operate nearly every field weapon
in the American and German arsenals, and how to kill with their
bare hands.
After the Norway plan is scrapped, the FSSF is dispatched to Italy
and given its first test -- to seize a key German mountain-top
position which had repelled the brunt of the Allied armies for over
a month. In a reprise of theaudacity and careful planning that won
Vimy Ridge for the Canadians in WWI, the FSSF takes the twin peaks
Monte la Difensa and Monte la Remetanea by storming the supposedly
unscalable rock face at the rear of the German position, and opens
the way through the mountains.
Later, the FSSF will hold one-quarter of the Anzio beachhead
against a vastly superior German force for ninety-nine days; a
force of only 1,200 commandos does the work of a full division of
over 17,000 troops. Though badly outnumbered, the FSSF takes the
fight to the Germans, sending nighttime patrols behind enemy lines
and taking prisoners. It is here that they come to be known among
the dispirited Germans as Schwartzer Teufel ("Black Devils") for
their black camouflage face-paint and their terrifying tactic of
appearing out of the darkness.
John Nadler vividly captures the savagery of the Italian campaign,
fought as it was at close quarters and with desperate resolve, and
the deeply human experiences of the individual men called upon to
fight it. Based on extensive archival research and interviews with
veterans, A Perfect Hell is an important contribution to Canadian
military history and an indispensable account of the lives and
battlefield exploits of the men who turned the tide of the Second
World War.
"From the Hardcover edition.
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