First Special Service Force
6th CO, 3rd REG
Living History Group Member: HRS

Photo Unit – First Special Service Force

Stationed at Fort William Henry Harrison

July 20, 1942 to April 11, 1943

By: Thomas W. Hope

August 2003

Lt. Photographic Officer. A request went to the Signal Corps Photographic Center in the Army Pictorial Center, Astoria, Long Island City, a suburb of New York City, for a still photographer and a motion picture cameraman.

With the activation of the First Special Service Force July 20, 1942, the organizational plan called for a photographic unit to be established to assist just in the training phase. A Signal corps photographic officer, 2nd LT Ferris P. Copper, was assigned to established the Photo Unit

In late July Pvt. Thomas W. Hope and Pvt. Lewis J. Merrim were called into the office of Major Arthur Gaskill, commander of the Photographic Schools, Pvt Hope was a student in the Motion Picture School. Maj. Gaskill told the two men they were being assigned to a special Army unit based in a region where it could be extremely cold.

The Written orders assigned them to the First Special Service Force, whatever that was, in Helena, Montana. It was a 48 hour train trip arriving in Helena, the two soldiers asked someone in the station if there was a Fort nearby, “Yes” was the answer, “Fort William Henry Harrison,” Out in front was an Army truck. The driver told the men to throw their barracks bags on the back and hop on.

A short ride took them out of town into the valley. The men could see dust in the distance. It proved to be graders (bulldozer did not yet exist) clearing land where typical Army tarpaper huts were being built. The truck took them to a tarpaper hut already built, the Force headquarters building. Shortly after reporting in, Lt Copper showed up. His “troops” had arrived!

Photo Unit would be to operate 16mm sound motion picture projectors that would be used by the officers in training classes. This would require several more men in the Photo Unit to run the projectors. Therefore, one of the first tasks for Lt. Copper and his two photographers was to add men to the Photo Unit. The three spent several hours going through the Force personnel records to find men who had some form of photographic experience. Five were found – Irwin Cinatl, Edward gallows, Bernard Kassoy, Frank Lenon and Burton Wollenzien. A sixth man, Sgt Ollie Stripling, an “old” (in his early 40’ National Guard sergeant, was added for administrative work.

Col. Frederick had ordered that Service Battalion men were not to jump. Too many Force men were being injured and he did now want to risk losing the support men, including the photographers. The Photo Unit men did some jump training such as walking 50 paces and jogging 50 paces alternately.

Photo Unit Building:  Lt copper had been assigned a low, one-story tile building about 70’ x 30’, one of several that had been used by the Montana National Guard, to be used for the Photo Unit. Lt Copper and his two photographers planned the layout for their building. It would have a small darkroom for

processing and printing still pictures. There would be a room that would serve as office also with shelves for storing the training films. The rest of the building, about half, would be a small screening room for officers to review the training films they would use for their classes.

Shortly, equipment began to arrive. It should be noted that the FSSF had high priority for everything it needed. Six Ampro 16mm sound projectors arrived, for showing the training films. Likewise 16mm Army training films began to arrive.

Soon camera equipment arrived – a Graflex 4x5 speed graphic camera (the basic still camera used by the Army in world War II), a Kodak 35mm still camera, a Kodak 16mm cine special motion picture spring run camera (used a 100 foot spool of film), a small Bell & Howell 16mm magazine-load (50 foot) movie camera and two tripods. Darkroom equipment such as a sink, printer, enlarger, processing tanks, drying rack, safe lights, timer and other items used in processing and printing pictures were ordered.

Now the expanded Force Photo Unit wet to work to make their building into a workable place. Post carpenters brought lumber to make partitions for the darkroom and office walls. Two doors were mounted for the darkroom and the screening room. The darkroom was made light tight and equipped with the sink and running water. Shelves were built for the films and camera equipment. That would be their working quarters for the next eight months.

Still film used was 4x5 black and white in film packs and as single sheets in film holders. All of the motion picture films was 16mm Kodachrome (color) in 100 foot spools and 50 foot magazines.

Photo Unit Truck:  Shortly after finishing the building, the unit was issued an Army Ford pickup truck. Here the ingenuity of the men paid off. They had the trick made into a photo truck by adding a box-like “room” on the rear of the truck. A ladder was mounted outside on one side so the men could climb up to the roof to use as a platform to photograph from a height. A railing was added around the top platform.

Theater: By Late summer a post theater was built to show Hollywood movies nightly and on weekends. Since it was the largest building on the post with seats, it was often used during the daytime as a large classroom and for meetings. The movie projectionist, Pvt. Short, was not in the Force but was one of the Fort Harrison post complement. Pvt. Short, who had worked as a projectionist in a movie theater in civilian life, was over six feet tall, earning the obvious nickname, shorty.

Operations:  As soon as the 16mm projectors were unpacked and checked out, they were put into use. Sgt Stripling coordinated the scheduling of Unit men and projectors to show films in classes. When the screening room was completed, it went into steady use for several months as officers screened and selected films for training class instruction.

Force training was at an accelerated rate. Men literally jogged from one class to another. The espirit de corps of the combat troops extended to the Service Battalion troops, including the Photo Unit. Although the Photo Unit did not take full parachute jump training, they had enough exercising to toughen them.

The two photographers, Lew Merrim and Tom Hope, were busy every day photographing all of the training activities. The first priority for the Forcemen was parachute jump training using round chutes. Daily exercising was a must to strengthen the men for their jumping as well as other strenuous training to follow. Men had to learn how a parachute was packed. They jumped from a mock-up plane fuselage and practiced landing. For this a man put on a parachute harness, was pulled up six or eight feet and freed to drop to the ground.

Jump Landing:  FSSF men jumped after only 48 hours of training, (six days) compared to paratroopers at Fort Benning who made their first jump after four or five weeks of training. Injuries were much too common, as high as 25% in a week. The hospital in Helena was overflowing with Force men having broken legs, knees, sprains and other injuries. Once a man went to the hospital, he was out of the Force and a replacement was brought in.

During late August and early September the officers in charge of jump training were changed several times. New ones were brought up from Fort Benning, hoping they could stem the tide of injuries. Finally, in mid September one of them asked Pvt. Hope if you could take slow motion movies of jumpers landing.

Using the small Bell & Howell 16mm magazine camera, operating at 64 frames per second, Hope was able to photograph several dozen jumpers as they landed, one in each jump stick. An officer then took to film to Chicago to be processed at the Eastman Kodak lab. When the officer returned with the film, the jump officers assembled in the Photo Unit screening room to study the film in slow motion.

Jumpers were trained to land with their feet about 18 inches apart and, letting their knees be flexible, tumble forward or backward. In looking at the film, the viewers saw that even though jumpers used their risers to control their landing for tumbling forward or backward, one foot often struck the ground a split fraction of a second ahead of the other for some jumpers. That leg often could not take such a sudden, solid shock.

Realizing what was happening, the jump officer decided to have the men land with their two feet together. Instantly, injuries dropped to less than 1%. Problem solved, Pvt Hope was instructed to make a short film showing the new Force jump landing technique. It was sent to Fort Benning. The landing technique was immediately changed in both the American and Canadian armies. It should be noted that many years later “square” chutes (actually rectangular) were developed allowing the men more control over their decent and landing – with feet apart.

It was later learned that the British had already gone to two feet together without telling either the Canadians or Americans of their change. Likewise, the Germans were having the same injury problem by having jumpers land with the two feet apart. They also used slow-motion movies to determine the problem and went to the two feet together for landing!

Photo Unit changes

Casualties : Two accidents decreased the size of the Photo Unit. First, on Oct. 4 Pvt. Bernie Kassoy broke a leg and went to the hospital, never to return to the unit. After the war he rediscovered the Force and joined the FSSF association.

A few weeks later Lt. Copper, called “Joe Copper” by his fellow officers, broke a collarbone in a horseback accident. He had gotten to know the daughter of the governor of Montana. On a Wednesday afternoon off, he took her horseback riding in a nearby mountain. As they were going through some woods, she was ahead on her horse. At one point a branch, which was pushed aside, sprung back and hit Lt Copper’s horse in the face. His horse reared up, throwing Lt Copper off. That ended Lt Coppers career with the FSSF.

Change in Command:  Pvt. Hope was called to Force Headquarters to see Colonel Robert Frederick. When the Colonel saw that hope was just a buck private, he called his clerk in and ordered, “Hope is now a Sergeant” to the Photo Unit. I want you to report to me every morning to tell me what the unit will do that day.”

Several weeks later when Sgt. Hope reported in, Col Frederick introduced him to Captain Herbert Nichols. “Sgt. Hope, hereafter you will report to Cpt. Nichols.” In retrospect, it is amazing that Col. Frederick personally took the time over several weeks to follow the Photo Unit daily activities. Cpt Nichols, a former science editor for the Christian Science Monitor newspaper in Boston, was the new Force Public

Information Officer:  After the war it was learned that Cpt. Nichols was also the Force Intelligence Officer.

Cpt. Nichols told Sgt Hope that he should continues running the Photo Unit on a dally basis as he had been. “I want you to report to me daily as you did with co. Frederick. If you encounter any problems, be sure to inform me so I can be of help.”

Losing Some Building Space:  As The winter wore on; the screening room was less used. The officers had thoroughly reviewed all of the training films. Only when a new one came in would they have to screen it. Or when a new officer came to the Force, he would have to review all of the films he would be using.

One problem, of sorts, did occur later that winter, Col. Gerald Rodahaver, CO of the Service Battalion came to the Photo Bldg. one morning to see Sgt. Hope. He said that he had lost his office space so he would be taking over half of the photo building. There was nothing Capt. Nichols could do for the Unit. So the screening room became Battalion Headquarters.

More Operations

Libby, Montana Bridge Training for war is not easy. One experience, never before fully told, could have been fatal.

In order to test a new “RS” explosive (Ryan Special, named after the inventor) that was five times more powerful than dynamite, it was used in several operations. One was to blow up an abandoned railroad bridge at Libby, Montana, 300 miles northwest of Helena.

On October 3 a small contingent flew in a C-47 to Libby to look over the bridge in order to plan for a simulated attack. Several Force officers, the Medical officer, and the two Force photographers, Lew Merrim and Tom Hope, were the contingent. When the plane landed at the small Libby airstrip, the pilot realized the landing strip was too short for a regular C-47 takeoff. A C-47 needs 1700 feet for a normal takeoff. This field was only 1400 feet! There was some discussion about taking the wing off and trucking the plane back to Helena. But that would take days, and the “Attack Convoy” was due to leave the following afternoon for Libby.

The Force contingent went on to look at the bridge, leaving the pilots to decide what to do. The Officers studied the bridge to determine where the RS charges should be attached in order to bring the bridge down quickly. An hour later the Force men returned to the airstrip. The pilots had worked out a plan for a takeoff. It would be somewhat like the takeoff from an aircraft carrier. The plane will taxi to one end of the short runaway with the tail almost touching the fence. With the brakes locked, the motors will be revved up to a maximum. When the brakes were released, the plane would be catapulted at once to a fast take-off speed.

While the Force contingent had been checking out the bridge, men from the town came to the airstrip with axes. They cut down dozens of trees beyond the runway to give the plane more that 300 feet beyond the fence. The Force contingent boarded the plane. All eight sat immediately behind the pilot’s cockpit cabin, four on each side in the bucket seats. The medical officer had the men sit with doubled up blankets between each man so that if we crashed there would be some padding between each man, for whatever good that would be.

The Libby fire engine and the town’s one ambulance were standing by at the side of the field. The motors were revved up to the point where the plane was literally vibrating. The brakes were unlocked and the plane shot forward. Even with many trees cut down, the men inside could hear the plane brushing the tops of trees way beyond the end fence. Safe take-off, mission accomplished.

The following afternoon a convoy of a dozen plus trucks, loaded with more than a hundred troops, left Helena for Libby, driving all night to arrive at Libby just before dawn. The bridge was ‘attacked’ RS explosive charges were attached to the bridge, bringing it down successfully.

One aftermath:  Windows in many Libby stores and homes were broken from the force of the explosion. The Government paid for replacing all of the town’s broken Windows.

Snowshoes:  As winter came on, ski training was instituted. It was found that handling cameras while on skies was difficult. As a result, the Photo unit was issued snowshoes. While photographers on snowshoes could not travel as fast as skiers, they could function much better without the danger of falling or dropping cameras into the snow.

A Close Call:  One incident involving movie making had a near fatal accident. In late winter, Sgt Hope in a plane was shooting movies of men jumping out of a plane. There was no door on the C-47 so it would be easier for men to jump. At one point Hope was lying on the floor by the door to get shots of men as they exited the plane ahead and their chutes opened. Hope had word sent to the pilot to bank the plane so he could follow the chutes as they opened below him. Hope was not wearing a chute! As the plane banked, Hope began to slide out of the plane. At the door he dropped the camera and caught the doorframe to keep from falling out.

A few weeks later as snow began to melt, the camera was found with no damage. It should be noted the camera was the Eastman Cine Special that cost $1000, an extremely high price at that time.

The Weasel:  The Photo Unit was assigned one of the weasels, a tracked vehicle manufactured on a crash basis by Studebaker expressly for the Force. Several were brought to Helena for testing careful notes had to be kept of its performance in many kinds of use. The Weasel was undoubtedly the forerunner of today’s snowmobile.

Winter Camping:  The Photo Unit with the Headquarters Company spent one night at Bloomsburg, a nearby small town in dense woods, sleeping outside on the snow in those woods. The temperature was below zero! They had to make teepee-like shelters using large pine branches and small pine trees with the large end stuck into the snow and the tops pulled together tight enough to keep out falling snow and hide flashlight beams from the air. During the night planes would fly over at unspecified times to try to spot fires inside shelters or other lights below.

Sleeping bags had not been issued to the Force. Soldiers had to make bags out of blankets folded over and pinned together with large blanket pins. Pine boughs were placed on the snow under the sleeping bags. It was vital that the blankets not get wet because a man might then freeze to death. Each “tent” shelter had a small fire inside to give some warmth throughout the night and we had to watch that the fires did not get high enough to reach the pine branches above. There were probably six or seven shelters in the group with four or five men in each shelter. After everyone had turned in, throughout the night one man would make the rounds checking each fire to be sure it was burning properly and put on enough wood to keep a small fire burning. When he finished his round, he would wake the next man who would make the rounds and, in turn, wake the next man.

The men did get to eat inside, in boxcars that were on a nearby railroad siding. There was no undue incident the night HDQTS CO did its winter camping.