First Service Special Force (FSSF) Memorial Plaque - Menton
Details:
The plaque is in a small memorial garden with a number of other memorials on the right side as you face the garden.
A white marble inscribed plaque mounted to a pole standing several feet off the ground.
The plaque remembers the First Special Service Force (FSSF), a joint US-Canadian unit, which liberated Menton during Operation Dragoon.
From the First Special Service
Force Association Website:
On August 14, 1944, the 1st SSF landed at Îles d'Hyères during Operation Dragoon, the invasion of southern France. On August 22, it was attached to the 1st Airborne Task Force, a provisional Seventh Army airborne division, and later made part of the Task Force. On September 7, it moved with the 1st Airborne Task Force to defensive positions on the Franco-Italian border. During the war the
1800-man unit accounted for some 12,000 German casualties, captured some 7,000 prisoners, and sustained an attrition rate of over 600%.
From the Special Operations Website:
The 1st Special Service Force was deactivated on 5 December, 1944, in Menton, France. The dissolution of he unit hit many of its members hard. As the Canadians were loaded onto trucks, according to a 1SSF veteran, “some of the toughest SOBs broke down in tears. When the Canadians pulled out, some of us Americans ran alongside them and behind their trucks with tears in our eyes.”
The reason for that deactivation has been debated, but historians generally agree that Allied leadership realized that the American and Canadian armies couldn’t easily maintain the ranks of the 1SSF, especially since the end of the war seemed near, and, thus, chose to deactivate the unit. American “Forcemen” were transferred to other Airborne and Ranger units in the Army. Some Forcemen later helped to form U.S. Army Special Forces
1st Special Service Force, along with the OSS, Army Rangers and Alamo Scouts, led the way for modern U.S. Special Operations, what would eventually lead to the creation of, and are in essence the founding fathers of, the U.S. Army Special Operations Command.
Monument Text:
The text is written in French and reads:
A FIRST SPECIAL SERVICE AMERICANO-CANADIENNE
LIBERA MENTON LE 8 SEPTEMBRE 1944, PRECEDANT TROIS MOIS
DE DIFFICILES COMBATS A LA FRONTIERE FRANCO-ITALIENNE
POUR SOUTENIR LE FIANC DROIT DES ARMEES ALLIEES.
AU COURS DE CES OPERATICNS POUR LA
LIBERATION, DU SUD DE LA FRANCE 66 SOLDATS
FURENT TUES ET PLUS DE 200 GRAVEMENT BLESSES.
CE MÉMORIAL LEUR EST DEDIE EN TEMOIGNAGE
DE RECONNAISSANCE ET PDUR NE PAS LES OUBLIER.
FIRST SPECIAL SERVICE FORCE
8 MAI 1995
The translation in English;
THE FIRST SPECIAL AMERICAN-CANADIAN SERVICE
LIBERATED MENTON ON 8 SEPTEMBER 1944, FOLLOWING THREE MONTHS
OF COMBAT DIFFICULTIES ON THE FRANCO-ITALIAN FRONTIER
IN SUPPORT OF THE ALLIED ARMIES.
IN THE COURSE OF THESE OPERATIONS FOR THE LIBERATION OF THE SOUTH OF FRANCE 66 SOLDIERS
WERE KILLED AND MORE THAN 200 SERIOUSLY INJURED.
THIS MEMORIAL IS DEDICATED TO THEM IN TESTIMONY
OF RECOGNITION AND SO WE DO NOT FORGET THEM.
FIRST SPECIAL SERVICE FORCE
8 MAY 1995
Commemorates:
People:
Units:
1st Special Service Force
Canadian Army
First Special Service Force (FSSF)
Wars:
WWII
Battles:
Operation Anvil Dragoon
Other images :