BANK’S BANDITS

The Untold Story Of The Original

Green Berets

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10th Special Forces Historical Note

After World War II, the Korean War drew this country once again into another armed conflict overseas, and at that time the regular U.S. military forces had no existing organization or units equipped to conduct guerrilla warfare “behind the lines” in areas controlled by the enemy (to insert in teams to conduct intelligence gathering, the rescue and evacuation of downed airmen, the destruction and harassment of existing forces and facilities, and to prepare key sectors for the ultimate invasion of our own forces).  The regular military knew little about unconventional warfare and special operations, and what they did know was obtained in an indirect manner. 

During WW II, following the lead of the British (who had a greater and more direct experience in such matters), we formed the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). Under the command of Medal of Honor winner General “Wild Bill” Donovan, a between-wars lawyer who had been reactivated by President Roosevelt for this very purpose, a guerrilla warfare capability was speedily constructed—but the work was done outside of regular military channels and most of the regular military who dominated the chain of command of our conventional forces had only the barest inkling of the wide scope of intelligence-gathering activities actually conducted by the OSS during the war in both Europe and Asia.  The personnel chosen to staff the overall intelligence gathering and evaluation operations of the OSS, and to conduct the “behind the lines” insertions in the pre- and post-invasion days, were “borrowed” from both the regular military and directly from civilian life, particularly from academia and from the community of displaced persons who had fled the Nazis or the Japanese, many with a price on their head, many with previous “partisan” experience.  Some maintained their military rank while in OSS, others were given “rank” (non-coms and officers), but all worked in great secrecy and outside of the regular military channels (a fact positively resented by many of the regular military brass who feared what they saw as an erosion of control over military activities).

One such OSS agent was Aaron Bank, an officer recruited from the Army because of his courage, athletic skills, and intimate knowledge of Europe and the French and German languages (having lived and worked in pre-war Europe). Bank parachuted into wartime France to conduct special operations behind the lines (using a cover story that he was born on Martinique of French parents) to help organize and train partisan resistance, to raise a resistance “army” (i.e., to act as a “force multiplier”), and to conduct pre- and post-invasion operations against the Nazi forces.

As the Western Front collapsed and the German army retreated into its homeland, Bank took on a little-known special operations mission—that of training a company of expatriate German soldiers with the goal of directly parachuting in to the Eagle’s Nest to capture Hitler himself and other members of his Senior Staff. Those in command of Allied Forces, however, for a number of reasons—political and otherwise--scrapped this mission (called “Iron Cross”). A daring and unique plan devised by Bank, one that might have delivered Hitler to the allies, was ordered abandoned.  It was Aaron Bank who, in June 1952, was given the task of organizing and making operational the first “special forces,” and this was to be the first guerrilla warfare unit ever to become part of the regular military forces of this country. The unit he formed, led and gave early direction to, originally the U.S. Army’s 10^th Special Forces Group (Airborne), has validated the wisdom and foresight of Colonel Bank by its proliferation in the army and by its overwhelming success in the missions it has undertaken--causing Bank to be justly know as “the Father of the Green Berets.”

When the then-nineteen year old author of Bank’s Bandits volunteered for this newly formed outfit, he was fresh out of the three-decker apartment houses of his Dorchester (Boston) neighborhood, and he found himself reporting to Fort Bragg in early 1953 after first completed the prerequisite of Jump School. When he joined the ranks, the small outfit was  filled with combat veterans of WWII and Korea, with sergeants and master sergeants, with officers ranging from lieutenants and captains right up to the Colonel himself, and with Lodge Bill volunteers who were European expatriates driven from their homelands by war and politics and were then seeking U.S. citizenship by army service. The author found himself one of the youngest, most inexperienced and most junior (in rank) members of this very unique outfit.

This fictionalized but authentic memoir of those experiences introduces us to world filled with the arts of unconventional warfare—of men training in communications and explosives, intelligence gathering techniques, unarmed combat (combat judo), rucksacks, “grease guns” (a type of machine gun), swamp and snakes, C-rations and C-3 explosives, parachutes, night jumps, C-47s and flying boxcars, combat villages, aggressors hot on your heels, exploiting “targets of opportunity,” stealing rations and vehicles, running for their lives, getting caught and jailed, and generally irritating the regular military brass and troops beyond belief.   Going into the field with the 10^th became a series of hilarious escapades and escapes—an experience unlike anything a draftee in 1952 might have expected to encounter upon entering the army during a shooting war. It was into this new and unique military life, however, that the author almost accidentally tumbled, and which, as this book recounts, were the very things that led the Colonel’s hand-picked and uniquely-trained “originals” of the 10^th to earn from the frustrated regular army brass the title, Bank’s Bandits.   

Colonel Aaron Bank shortly after his 101st birthday receiving the first printed copy of the book from the author, Dec 10, 2003.