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I've been looking for a reference for ww2 US Elite units. SO far I found Airborne, Rangers, 1st Special Service Force mentioned as famous elite units of ww2. Heck, but as I'm not an expert on the field I've been wondering whether this elite soldiers got any equipment that differentiated them from other US troopers?

Depends on your definition of elite.

For the most part what separated the units you mentioned from the rank and file so to speak was training as they filled specific roles in combat.

Airborne are as the name implies, light infantry that jump out of planes behind enemy lines to disrupt them with the intention that they are very closely followed by a conventional offensive. They are trained to jump from the plan, organize on the ground, and take and hold their objective until relieved. Airborn had a lot of special gear though I'm not the guy to realyl go through a rundown. Any book on their history will give you a good overview.

The Rangers in WWII were the precursors to the later US Army Special Forces. They were proposed as the American equivalent to British commandos and the Brits played a big role in training the early Rangers who were trained to acheive difficult goals via speed, infiltration, etc etc. They got screwed through most of the war however as American commanders tended to deploy them as general infantry, which they were not intended to do.

I'm unfamiliar with 1st Special Service Force.

Another 'elite' unit you could look up were the US Army Tank Destroyers, battalion units specially trained and equiped to destroy tanks. They got their own vehicles (M10, M36 etc) and were the first true combined arms units in the US Army with their own supporting infantry, artillery, and anti-air units.

thx for pointing ne to US Army Tank Destroyers . Those will be super cool for the project I'm working on.
I'm looking for parts of equipment that would characterize those elite units best (and, yeah, I know - typing airborne in the first post was pretty dumb as it is so obvious . Shame on me - result of copy/paste). Something that would be clear enough when I field such themed miniature on the battlefield .
Damn, shame I lost all those Ospreys when we've been moving workshop.

 LordofHats wrote:
Airborne are as the name implies, light infantry that jump out of perfectly good planes behind enemy lines to disrupt them with the intention that they are very closely followed by a conventional offensive.

It takes a special kind of crazy to jump out of a perfectly good flak sponge

Marines as a whole would fit the Bill nicely.

There were several:
Kelly's Heroes
the Dirty Dozen
the Inglorious Basterds

and also US Navy frogmen.

 LordofHats wrote:

The Rangers in WWII were the precursors to the later US Army Special Forces. They were proposed as the American equivalent to British commandos and the Brits played a big role in training the early Rangers who were trained to acheive difficult goals via speed, infiltration, etc etc. They got screwed through most of the war however as American commanders tended to deploy them as general infantry, which they were not intended to do.

I'm not sure this is accurate. We still have a Ranger regiment today, filling the same purpose and role they did then alongside Special Forces (aka Green Berets).


Don't forget about the OSS, also the Alamo Scouts (6th Army Special Reconnaissance Unit), Merrill's Marauders (5307th Composite Unit (Provisional)), Marine Raiders, 1st Marine Parachute Regiment, Castners Cutthroats (1st Alaskan Combat Intelligence Platoon), Joint Assault Signals Companies (JASCO's), and Army Pathfinders.

The best part about this thread is knowing at some indeterminate point in the future, knowing we're going to see some kickass minis based on this discussion.

chaos0xomega wrote:


I'm not sure this is accurate. We still have a Ranger regiment today, filling the same purpose and role they did then alongside Special Forces (aka Green Berets).

We do but their role today is different. When WWII ended, the Rangers were disbanded, resurrected during the Korean War, and disbanded again. Then in Vietnam, the modern 75th Infantry was formed, giving birth to today's Rangers which as much as they like to pretend, are more of a highly trained rapid response force than a full blown special forces unit. They kind of straddle the gray area between general infantry and special forces, usually filling in where needed. In WWII, they were originally envisioned as a special forces unit, a role that was eventually given to the US Army Special Forces aka Green Berets.

Marine Raiders, airborne (most famous being the 82nd and the 101st screaming eagles), army rangers, definitely more, but those are all I could think of.

USMC Raiders. I can't remember the name, but there were a lot of units that were essentially ANGLICO, who usually scouted the beaches and gave initial intelligence reports of surface activity prior to a landing and directed naval gunfire. Best example I can think of is before Operation Iceberg, when they a recon team almost a month before the landing even began.

I guess you could say that that would be closer to Recon. I'm not entirely sure what Recon even does anymore, in complete honesty.

All US paratroops carried a pistol (M1911A1) as well as a standard weapon.

Their version of the M1 carbine had a folding stock.

 Captain Fantastic wrote:
USMC Raiders. I can't remember the name, but there were a lot of units that were essentially ANGLICO, who usually scouted the beaches and gave initial intelligence reports of surface activity prior to a landing and directed naval gunfire. Best example I can think of is before Operation Iceberg, when they a recon team almost a month before the landing even began.

I guess you could say that that would be closer to Recon. I'm not entirely sure what Recon even does anymore, in complete honesty.

Well someone needs to be the human face of Skynet

ideas keep coming ....

@Ouze: