Commandos, Paras, and Ghurkas - spec war origins?

Rusty

Rusty

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When sent into Kosovo, it was the Paras and the Ghurkas who were the first in.

US Special Forces were, as I understand it, modeled after the Commandos and later the SAS/SBS and our own Navy frogmen.

But I have to wonder what and where the Brits used the Ghorkas and how much influence they had on the development of special forces. Like N2S pointed out on another thread, the Nepalis recruited for the British Army would have regarded themselves as the best of the best. As they should have. And have received extra training.

It makes me wonder how they were employed and what their use taught the Brits. Does anyone know the history or origins of Special Forces in the early part of the 20th century as opposed to the history of Ghorka troops prior to WW2?

Sounds like a fascinating story that should be told, don't you think?
 
I'll bet Ghostsix could enlighten us some on this subject but as we all know he's not around anymore.
 
Rusty,

The special forces really evolve from a different direction.

You may want to start by reading through William H. McRaven's, SPEC OPS - Case Studies in Special Operations Warfare Theory and Practice (Presidio Press, ISBN 0-89141-600-5, 1996).

Special Operations is a very recent term which came in to vogue during the 60-70s (depending on the country). Spec Opts units are a recent development, and can trace their heretage to tactics which started to evolve during the early part of the Second World War. The technology to support and deploy small raiding units over vast distance during quick strikes/intelligence gathering missions really did not exist before then. Even the word "Commando" stems from the Boar War (1899-1902), and refers to the small self supporting gorrilla units used by the South Africans.

The Gurkhas represented an elite, but traditional, military infantry formation. The units that would have been closer to the role of the modern Spec opts formation would have been the calvary, riflemen (i.e.the original snipers), and sappers.

n2s
 
Thank you N2S. Any idea how the difference in the Navy frogmen/seals, vs. the Army's philosophy of using it's spec. forces as cadre to train indiginous troops as in the postwar Greek theatre came about?
 
I would like to expand a bit on N2S post. Spec Ops or unconventional warfare in the new world was started by Maj. Robert Rogers in 1756, the French and Indian Wars. His methods of warfare were adopted by the SEALS and at least in part by the Special Forces.
Rus, the Navy SEALS are trained in close knit platoon size unit made up of smaller two man teams which always operate together. They train to the point of knowing what each other is thinking. So bringing in an "outsider" tends to throw the team off. SEALS came from the Navy hardhat divers to Frogmen to UDT to SEALS.
 
OK, now we have it going back to Rodger's Rangers.

I'm curious, as I had gathered from WEB Griffin's Brotherhood of War series that to some extent the concept of sending in "advisors" came out of the post-WW2 Communist/Greek fighting ( The Lieutenants, The Berets ).

It seems incongruous to see the same people used as spec-ops and as enablers for indigenous defense. Other than both needing flexibility.

And where did people like Skorzeny of Germany come out of the European tradition?

I know it's all a hodge-podge, but it just interests me to try to make sense the roles that each ( Paras/Ghurkas/SAS-SBS ) play.
 
Rus, the Special Forces are big on sending in key "advisers" to a theater of operation and using the indigenous populace, as compared to the SEALS who do not, to give them the man power to accomplish a given objective. So without drawing attention to a particular area of operation if they had to import the number of troops needed. So they supply the locals with know how and weapons and both sides, hopefully, accomplish there objectives. I guess the theory being fewer men to run more ops. The SEALS tend to run ops with fewer men compared to the Special Forces greater manpower ops, I'm generalizing here. There are obviously exceptions.
 
With warfare I suspect it's very true about there being nothing new under the sun.
 
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