Special Operations Branch

Special Operations Branch
Agency overview
Formed1942 (1942)
Dissolved1945 (1945)
Superseding agencies
HeadquartersWashington, D.C.
Agency executive
Parent departmentDeputy Director Strategic Services Operations
Parent agencyOffice of Strategic Services

The Special Operations Branch (SO) was a branch of the Office of Strategic Services during World War II that "pioneered" many of the unconventional warfare, counter-insurgency (COIN), and foreign internal defense tactics and techniques used by today's US Military Special Operations Forces (SOF).[1][2] Special Operations was the American equivalent of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) of the United Kingdom.[1][3][4][5][6]

The Chief of SO, Millard Preston Goodfellow, reported to the deputy director of Strategic Services Operations.[7]

In the Special Operations Field Manual, OSS Director William Donovan writes;

"The mission of the Special Operations Branch is to carry out that part of the OSS mission which can be accomplished by certain physical subversive methods as contrasted with the operations of the Morale Operations, the Operational Groups, and the Maritime Unit. The primary objective of the Special Operations Branch is the destruction of enemy personnel, materiel, and installations." [8]

Special Operations operators and agents trained first at Camp X, then at Camp David, and several National Park Service properties around the Washington, D.C. area.[9]

The concept of OSS Operational Groups (OG) began as Special Operations units within SO Field Bases, but eventually outgrew the SO, where the newly established Operational Group Command was granted Branch status.[1]

  1. ^ a b c "Special Operations". www.soc.mil. Retrieved 2024-06-26.
  2. ^ Balestrieri, Steve (2017-05-10). "How the OSS Shaped Special Operations Forces and CIA of Today". SpecialOperations.com. Retrieved 2024-06-26.
  3. ^ "University Library Microform: OSS/London: Special Operations Branch and Secret Intelligence Branch War Diaries". www.albany.edu. Retrieved 2024-06-26.
  4. ^ "Fake News for the Resistance". www.usmcu.edu. Retrieved 2024-06-26.
  5. ^ "https://discovered.ed.ac.uk/discovery/fulldisplay?vid=44UOE_INST:44UOE_VU2&search_scope=UoE&tab=Everything&docid=alma9920787533502466&lang=en&context=L&adaptor=Local%20Search%20Engine&query=sub,exact,World%20War,%201939-1945%20--%20Secret%20service%20--%20Great%20Britain". discovered.ed.ac.uk. Retrieved 2024-06-26. {{cite web}}: External link in |title= (help)
  6. ^ "OSS Agents: Kill or be Killed". Warfare History Network. 2021-09-21. Retrieved 2024-06-26.
  7. ^ "HyperWar: Office of Strategic Servcices (OSS) Organization and Functions". www.ibiblio.org. Retrieved 2024-06-26.
  8. ^ Donovan, Willian J. "Special Operations Field Manual - Strategic Services" (PDF).
  9. ^ Whiteclay, John Chambers II (2010). Training for War and Espionage: Office of Strategic Services Training During World War II. Center for the Study of Intelligence, Central Intelligence Agency, Washington, DC, 20505 (Vol. 54, No. 2 ed.). Studies in Intelligence.