Army & Navy - OPERATIONS: The Black Devils

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After Rome, Forceman Frederick became a major general (at 37) and took the airborne command for the invasion of southern France. Colonel Edwin A. Walker, one of the regimental commanders, took over, led the outfit in its toughest fight yet, a landing in rubber boats on Levant Island, which guarded the approaches through Cavalaire Bay.

The Cost. Before the S.S.F. reached Rome, it had lost more than half the men who sailed from Kiska, including two regimental commanders and nearly all battalion C.O.s. At Levant, where the Germans fought bitterly from their camouflaged hideouts, the casualties struck deep again. By then, because Canadian replacements were fewer, the outfit was more than two-thirds U.S. and many of its officers were ex-noncoms commissioned on the battlefield.

Forcemen were satisfied with the job the outfit had done. Beyond its combat deeds, the inspiration it had given to other outfits could not be measured. But fighting men had a word to explain the outfit's success. The word was "guts."