Composition : 99.99% silver
Mintage : 20,000

United against a common foe - The First Special Service Force (1942-1944)

During the Second World War, Canada and the U.S. forged an elite combat unit from their respective forces to mounta cooperative offence against their common enemy. It was the first and only time that soldiers from the two nations would be seamlessly combined in this manner - training, equipment, uniform and all.

Of the 2,100 men, roughly 40% were from Canada; a land well-known for its rugged explorers, hunters and woodsmen who would be perfectly suited to the intense training and dangerous missions of the First Special Service Force (FSSF) - stealth airborne, mountain, ski, amphibious, demolition and hand-to-hand tactics carried out on difficult terrain in order to neutralize the enemy'skey positions and infrastructures.

The FSSF's first deployment was to the Aleutian Islands of Alaska in August 1943, and by November, it was fighting its way north through the mountains of Italy, performing such death-defying acts as scaling up 90 m (300ft) cliffs at night to seize the enemy-held summit of Monte la Difensa. Other missions included the defence of the Anzio beachhead where the men fought for 90 days conducting deadly nightly raids that soon inspired the nickname "Black Devils." Heavy fighting and casualties during the breakout from Anzio (May) led to the advance on Rome and the capture of six Tiber bridges (June). In August, the FSSF carried out anamphibious assault in support of Operation DRAGOON in southern France before clearing the French coastline east towards Italy -its final major mission before being disbanded on December 5, 1944. The FSSF was operational for only two years, but it demonstrated the power of uniting national forces against a common foe with a level of skill, versatility and spirit that would reverberate among future elite forces like the US Army Special Forces and Canadian Special Operations Regiment in decades to follow.
 

DEVIL'S BRIGADE - 2013 CANADIAN COINS is categorised COINS AND PAPER MONEY / 08- ROYAL CANADIAN MINT / 18- MILITARY and sold by l'Imaginaire, a store and specialised website.