Shadow Warriors

The Untold Stories of American Special Operations During WWII

Dick Camp

• Publisher: Zenith Press
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9780760344293
• eBook ISBN: 9781610588256
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Military & Maritime History
• Index: History

In the nearly seven decades following World War II, the heroes of the Allied Forces have been rendered ageless through portrayals transforming their overseas triumphs into household tales. Books, films, and video games have reiterated the stories of such famed American units as Merrill's Marauders and Darby's Rangers. Some of World War II's most important missions, however, were also the most secretive: they have only recently been declassified by the U.S. government. Now, for the first time, a single volume describes many of them in detail. In Shadow Warriors, military historian and retired U.S. Marine Dick Camp illuminates the untold history of American special operations units in World War II. The book's action-packed narrative, rooted in a time before organizations like the CIA even existed, describes the adventures of those who paved the way for the special operations forces we know so well today—the U.S. Navy SEALs, U.S. Army Special Forces, and U.S. Marine Corps Special Operations Command (MARSOC). Split into two parts covering the war's European and Pacific theaters, it features elaborate spy networks, covert parachutists, island assaults, amphibious raids, and the occasional catastrophic mission failure. Bolstered by an in-person interview with World War II veteran Sgt. Jack Risler (U.S. Marines Operation Union II) and a collection of rare black-and-white period photographs, Shadow Warriors is not only a gripping account of top-secret exploits: it is an homage to some of the brilliant, courageous, and previously unacknowledged heroes of World War II.

PART I

European
Theater

CHAPTER 1

Spy Master

Colonel William A. “Bill” Eddy, the recently assigned naval attaché in Tangier, was ordered to London to brief Maj. Gen. George S. Patton Jr. and other high ranking generals on the situation in North Africa. The officers were gathered in a hotel room, when Eddy, wearing his Marine Corps uniform with its two rows of World War I ribbons, limped through the doorway. Among the ribbons on Eddy’s blouse were the Navy Cross and the U.S. Army’s Distinguished Service Cross (both the second-highest decorations for bravery in action within their respective services), the Silver Star with Gold Star indicating a second award, and the Purple Heart for being wounded in action—the cause for his limp—with Gold Star.

Taking care of introductions, Col. Edward Buxton asked Patton, “Do you know Bill Eddy?”

Patton looked at all the ribbons on Eddy’s chest. “Never saw him before in my life, but the son of a bitch’s been shot at enough, hasn’t he?”

William Alfred Eddy was born in 1896 in Sidon, Syria (present day Lebanon). His parents were American Presbyterian missionaries, who insisted their son immerse himself in the local culture, a decision that would have important consequences in his later life. Young Eddy took advantage of the local traditions and customs and was soon comfortable in the bazaars and souks, sampling the local cuisine of sheep’s eyes and couscous. He spoke colloquial Arabic like a native, enabling him to make friends with the tribal chieftains and move among them like few Westerners of the time could do. A 6 November 2008, article in The Economist titled “An Earlier Envoy” noted that, “If anyone could have been America’s Lawrence of Arabia it was Colonel William Eddy.” Anthony Cave Brown in Wild Bill Donovan: The Last Hero wrote of Eddy, “As a personality, Eddy was difficult, a man of pronounced likes and dislikes, trusts and distrusts … extremely clannish … who had powerful vocal cords and was a large, tall football player type, rarely minced words.”

After completing middle school Eddy was sent to the United States in 1908 to complete his schooling. He attended the College of Wooster, a Presbyterian school in Ohio, until his sophomore year when he transferred to Princeton. Upon graduation, Eddy surprised his family by applying to become a Marine officer. On 6 June 1917, he was notified that “he had successfully passed the examination for appointment as a temporary second lieutenant” and was ordered to report to the new Marine Corps base at Quantico, Virginia. Three months later, he sailed for France with the 6th Marine Regiment as intelligence officer.

Devil Dog

Second Lieutenant Bill Eddy and the two enlisted Marines of his reconnaissance patrol lay concealed in the uncut field, heavy with the smell of clover, just a few feet from a gravel road. The crunch of hobnail boots, guttural commands, and the muffled sound of engineer tools drowned out the night sounds. Eddy carefully recorded the activity and then the three silently withdrew into the darkness. They slipped back through the German lines and reported their observations to the regimental commander, Col. Albertus W. Catlin. “The Germans are organizing in the woods and consolidating their machine-gun positions,” Eddy said, before describing his observations in more detail. The report impressed Catlin. “Eddy did some remarkable work with the patrols,” he noted. “He was a daredevil, who loved nothing better than to stalk German sentries in Indian fashion and steal close to their lines. The Marine service has always attracted men of this type.”

Eddy’s actions that night earned him both the Navy Cross and Army Distinguished Service Cross. The citation read in part: “Near Torcy, France, on the night of June 4, 1918, at a great personal risk, he led a reconnoitering patrol of two men into the enemy’s lines and established the location of those lines. At one time he and his patrol were between two bodies of the enemy, remaining there for more than an hour. The information which he brought back proved of great value in determining the disposition of the enemy, and he was in imminent risk of capture during the greater part of his journey.”

The Marine Brigade, consisting of the 5th and 6th regiments and 6th Machine Gun Battalion, moved into attack positions, and at 1700 on 6 June 1918 assaulted the heavily defended “Bois de Belleau,” wrestling it from the German defenders in a horrific month-long battle and earning the nickname “Devil Dogs” from their enemies. Thereafter, the wood was known as the “Bois de la Brigade de Marine.” During the action, Eddy and Sgt. Gerald C. Thomas (later General) made a personal reconnaissance in front of the lines to judge the effects of Allied artillery. Thomas recalled: “We worked forward slowly through the dense wood. Eddy climbed a tree to get a better look. He had no more gotten up there when he came down with a thump. ‘My God,’ he whispered, ‘I was looking square at a German in a machine-gun nest!’” After several more close personal observations, they returned to friendly lines. Both Marines were awarded the Silver Star for their actions, the first of two for Eddy.

Catlin noted, “Eddy’s conduct was distinguished to a degree by unerring judgment, immediate action, and a remarkable sangfroid.” His luck finally ran out on 25 June, when he was wounded in the leg by a high-explosive shell. After recuperating, he rejoined the brigade as its intelligence officer and aide-de-camp to Brig. Gen. Wendell C. “Buck” Neville. Three months later Eddy was evacuated to the U.S. Naval Hospital, Brooklyn after contracting a near-fatal case of pneumonia. In his weakened condition, he contracted a severe infection in his right hip, which resulted in complete loss of motion in the joint that caused him to walk with a limp for the rest of his life. The Marine Retiring Board found that he was “unfit for active service” and placed him on the retired list with the grade of captain. In a letter to his mother, Eddy expressed concern for the future. “It is a real question what [I] will do after I leave the hospital. As you know, I will be a cripple all my life. There will be something I can do, I know.”

“A profession with which I am definitely out of love”

Eddy decided to pursue his education by entering the Princeton graduate program, earning an MA in 1921 and a PhD in philosophy the following year. In 1923, he took a position with the American University in Cairo, a private institution that offered him an opportunity to return to the Arab world. His old commander General Neville gave Eddy a ringing endorsement. “I know of no man whose personal qualifications so appeal to me as did those of Captain Eddy in the short time we were together. Captain Eddy’s personal character is all that could be desired. His capacity for leadership, his influence upon others, and his ability for efficient administration are beyond praise. To me he showed intelligence, energy, judgment, and knowledge far beyond that warranted by his age and length of service.” Neville’s commendation highlighted the character and ability of the man and, seen in hindsight, offered a remarkable insight into Eddy’s future influence in the Middle East.

In 1928, he returned to the United States as a professor of English at Dartmouth, and in 1936 he became the first non-clerical president of both Hobart College and its sister institution, William Smith College, on Seneca Lake in upper New York State. Major General John H. Russell sent a letter of congratulations. “As Commandant of the Marine Corps, and speaking for your friends, it gives me distinct pleasure to offer you congratulations and best wishes for every success in your new assignment.” One of his first official acts as president of the colleges was to ask that Hobart be included in providing candidates for the Corps’ Platoon Leaders Class. In 1936 Eddy was promoted to major on the retired list. At a chance meeting with the commandant, Lt. Gen. Thomas Holcomb, Eddy volunteered for active duty “if his services could be profitably utilized.” He wrote a friend, “I shall welcome active service with the Marines if that comes next summer, and, if not, I shall ask for it a year later if the world emergency continues to be acute.” He applied for a leave of absence from Hobart but told the friend that he was unwilling to return to the school because it was “a profession with which I am definitely out of love.” In view of Eddy’s impressive background in the Middle East, Holcomb discussed his request to return to active duty with the director of Naval Intelligence. A short time later, he sent a personal note to Eddy. “I am writing to find out how quickly you can report for duty, should your services be required, which I am inclined to think will be the case.” In mid-May, Eddy received the orders: at the end of the college year, he would report for active duty.

Naval Attaché, Cairo

“All U.S. Naval Attaches were involved in counterintelligence in various forms.”

—Marine Corps Counter Intelligence Association

On 23 June 1941, Eddy was formally designated as Naval Attaché and Naval Attaché for Air in Cairo. The Unites States would not officially enter the war until the attack on Pearl Harbor later that year, but U.S. support for its allies was steadily building behind the scenes. The embassy’s Chief of Mission was informed that, “Major Eddy, you will find, is more than a Naval Attaché. The Navy Department envisages using [him] not only in Egypt but in nearby Arabic speaking countries such as Saudi Arabia, Palestine, Syria, and Iraq. From our own point of view we not only see no objection to such an arrangement, but heartily approve of it. Major Eddy has many close friends among high-placed Arab officials and Arab families throughout these territories, and I believe he can make contact with these groups that would be impossible for almost any other American. We should like to have him have as much opportunity as possible to travel around freely, make contacts and observations and submit reports.” A month later Eddy, now a lieutenant colonel, reached Cairo and immediately got to work. In a letter to his wife, he wrote about his duties. “The nature of the information on naval matters which I seek (and sometimes find) concerns the enemy more than the allies and covers: naval operations, trade, merchant marine, suspects and agents, technical devices and inventions … bases, mine fields, mutinies or disaffection among personnel in ports, contraband being shipped to enemy by or thru neutrals, arrivals and departures of all vessels, volume of supply going to for example Dardanelles or North Africa, sailing routes.”

There was another part of his job that he was particularly suited to because of his many Arab connections. “[A]s you know, I am charged with political errands too, counter-espionage, study of Axis propaganda, personnel, organization, sabotage, blacklists … I have developed sources of information in several cities.” He went on to caution his wife about the danger inherent in the assignment. “Nothing on this sheet should ever appear in print unless you are in a hurry to become a widow.” The chief of mission disapproved of his counter-espionage function, saying “it would end diplomatic immunity, but I had other instructions from my primary boss, the director of Naval Intelligence, and I went on my own way.” Many of Eddy’s intelligence and political reports were read at the highest levels of government, including the newly assigned coordinator of information, William J. “Wild Bill” Donovan, World War I hero and prominent New York City lawyer.

COORDINATOR OF INFORMATION

The Office of the Coordinator of Information (COI) was founded 11 July 1941 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt at the prompting of William J. Donovan. The COI was the U.S. government’s first centralized propaganda and espionage agency. In 1940 and 1941, Roosevelt had sent Donovan to Britain to assess the country’s ability to fight Germany, and Donovan’s experience with British military intelligence convinced him the United States needed a similar organization.

Donovan’s proposal created a bureaucratic firestorm, particularly with the FBI’s J. Edgar Hoover and the U.S. Army’s Gen. George C. Marshall. Both looked upon the COI as a naked ploy to usurp their power. Despite their heated opposition, Roosevelt approved its formation. Initially the agency had the “authority to collect and analyze all information and date, which may bear upon the national security … correlate such information and data … [and make it] available to the President and to such departments and officials of the Government as the President may determine.” However, Donovan soon expanded the agency into a worldwide fiefdom that not only collected intelligence but organized a force of agents who conducted espionage activities behind enemy lines.

Spies and Lies in Tangier

“[Tangier] might have inspired a chapter from a … spy novel, with its walled Arab quarter and narrow streets where veiled women, camels, smugglers, and spies plied their trade. … It was Bill Eddy’s kind of place …”

—Hal Vaughan

In late fall 1941, the president approved a plan Donovan had proposed to conduct undercover intelligence activities in North Africa. A principal feature of the plan was the designation of a coordinator of information (COI) representative to coordinate and direct the clandestine operations. Donovan selected Eddy based on his knowledge of the area, his language capability, and his high level contacts among the Arabs. The appointment as naval attaché in Tangier became official in December 1941. In a letter to his wife, Eddy wrote, “I returned from my two weeks observation cruise with the Navy to find a bombshell in the form of telegraphic orders awaiting me: ‘Immediate return to Washington for instructions regarding other foreign duty.’ …” In early December, he met with Donovan at the new COI headquarters in the Apex Building in downtown Washington and was given his marching orders. “That the aid of native chiefs be obtained, the loyalty of the inhabitants be cultivated; fifth columnists organized and placed, demolition materials cached; and guerrilla bands and daring men organized and installed … [and] to maintain a line of demarcation in so far as practicable, between operations and intelligence.”

Eddy arrived in Tangier in late January 1942 with a two-fold mandate: “Prepare a network of agents and seven clandestine radio stations to (a) leave behind in case the Axis occupies North Africa (b) to prepare intelligence and sabotage in case the Allies should land an expeditionary force.” Eddy was well aware that Tangier’s reputation as a spying and smuggling center made it a unique destination for many European and American diplomats and spies. Eddy wrote that the city “was full of persons who had been, or ought to be, in jail. As Lisbon was for Europe, Tangier was for Africa—the escape hatch from prison, banking laws, justice, persecution, morality (there was no neighborhood without sin fit to cast the first stone).” The city, located on the North African coast at the western entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar, broiled with intrigue, swarming with Allied and Axis agents, spy vs. spy, who rubbed shoulders in its watering holes and bistros.

By the time of Eddy’s assignment the situation in North Africa had deteriorated. With the entry of the United States into the war after Pearl Harbor, the collaborating French Vichy government imposed severe restrictions on Americans and carried out reprisals against any Frenchman who associated with them. Americans were denied access to docks, airfields, and other militarily significant installations. Gestapo agents who had previously maintained a hands-off policy now began to apply political and strong-arm methods against them. Journalist Thomas Lippman noted, “Eddy and his agents were engaged in serious and sometimes deadly business. Smuggled weapons blew up. People disappeared. At one point Eddy began to carry a pistol … against the possibility of an attack on the street.” Unscrupulous double agents thrived by passing information to the highest bidder. “Dirty work” abounded: car bombings, sabotage, assassinations, and intimidations. One night Eddy’s assistant, 1st Lt. Franklin P. Holcomb, USMC, son of the commandant, was accosted by a group of Italian thugs. In the ensuing brawl, Holcomb upheld the highest traditions of the Corps. President Roosevelt learned of the Marine “victory” and directed that Holcomb be immediately promoted to captain.

Eddy was concerned that the Axis powers, assisted by the Vichy government, might act before he could carry out his mission. The Vichy government had changed hands, the new prime minister, Pierre Laval, was friendlier toward Nazi Germany than in the past. This cozy relationship offered advantages to the German and Italian agents in the duel of intrigue that was playing out. The two Axis powers enjoyed a near-monopoly on intelligence and propaganda because of the wave of anti-British sentiment as a result of their attack on the French fleet at Mers-el-Kebir and Dakar in July and September 1940. Vichy then severed diplomatic ties and ejected the British from North Africa. Two powerful collaborationist organizations, the Service d’ordre legionnaire (SOL) and the Parti Populaire Français (PPF) supported the Axis and made Eddy’s undercover work even more difficult. The United States continued to have diplomatic relations with the Vichy government and maintained a consulate in the Tangier International Zone of the old city, where it enjoyed extra-territorial rights under a 1786 agreement with Sultan Sidi Mohammed (which remained in effect until 1956, when Moroccan independence was attained).

One important factor was in Eddy’s favor. An economic pact between the United States and Vichy France, known as the Murphy-Weygand Agreement, had been signed allowing twelve U.S. vice-consuls, dubbed the “Twelve Apostles,” to oversee the allocation of humanitarian aid. The twelve men were in actuality undercover intelligence agents that Eddy “was to be given appropriate authority over …” As Kermit Roosevelt wrote in War Report of the OSS (Office of Strategic Services), “The agents were recruited from all walks of life, principally for their knowledge of the French language and their experience abroad. Most of them had seen service in World War I; several had served with the French Army prior to the entry of the United States into that conflict.” They were stationed in the port cities of Tunis, Oran, Algiers, and Casablanca. In Cloak & Gown: Scholars in the Secret War, 1939–1961 Robin W. Winks wrote, “… the group was dismissed by the Germans as representing ‘a perfect picture of the mixture of races and characters in that savage conglomeration called the United States’ … The group proved quite effective … because they were wisely chosen and because Colonel Eddy was extraordinarily competent.” Eddy immediately began the process of setting up a coordinated intelligence and special operations system to meet the possibility of an Axis invasion. One of his first steps was to route all the agents’ intelligence reports through his office to ensure proper dissemination. The vice-consuls, with their diplomatic immunity, were able to routinely make courier trips to Tangier to deliver their reports to him without raising too much suspicion.

Eddy was particularly anxious to establish a clandestine radio network in the event of a diplomatic rupture or Axis military action. He tasked the vice-consuls to recruit pro-Allied locals to man the stations. The “recruits” were secretly transported to Gibraltar for training by British radiomen. By the summer of 1942, the secret network was up and running. Washington was given the code name VICTOR, the base station in Tangier was MIDWAY, with YANKEE at Algiers, FRANKLIN at Oran, PILGRIM at Tunis, and LINCOLN at Casablanca, which had to be mobile because the Germans had a triangulation unit that could zero in on the station’s location. The base station in Tangier was in the naval attaché’s office, across a narrow street from the Consulate. Carleton Coon, who considered Eddy “one of the greatest men he had ever met,” noted in Adventures and Discoveries, “Soon Mrs. Childs, a White Russian lady who had no knowledge of what we were doing, complained that the bussing and crackling of our radio transmitter spoiled her sleep, and it had to go. It is idle to point out that the success of the invasion was more important than Mrs. Child’s sleep. Colonel Eddy moved the set to a small r...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Contents
• Preface
• Part I: European Theater
• Part II: Pacific Theater
• Bibliography
• Index
• Dedication
• Photo Insert
• Copyright Page