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

Flame Thrower:  During the winter the Force troops had training in use of a flamethrower. This exercise made dramatic pictures against the white snow for the photographers.

The Bazooka: In the early spring a bazooka, which had just been developed, was brought to Helena for the Force to write a training manual for its use. A convoy was enroute to North Africa. Those troops were to use the bazooka for the first time. The role of the Force was to write the operating manual that would then be flown to catch up with the Africa bound convoy so those troops on board could practice using it before landing.

The bazooka was to be used somewhat like a rifle but resting on the shoulder. It was intended to be used against a tank or other armored vehicle. The test bazooka was taken to the foothills outside of fort Harrison for its first firing. The event was to be photographed to get pictures that would be use din the manual. No one knows exactly how it was to be loaded. The bazooka looked something like a mortar so the shell was mistakenly loaded from the front. It slid down the muzzle and out the back, landing on a fin, luckily nothing happened. The manual was completed and I believe it was delivered on time.

End of the Photo Unit:  The Force left Helena for further training at camp Bradford, Norfolk, VA

, and the Photo Unit was deactivated. A week earlier Sgt. Tom Hope had left the Force to attend Signal Corps Officer Candidate School at Fort Monmouth, NJ. Sgt Ollie Stripling, who had health problems, was transferred out of the Force. Cpl Lewis Merrim and the other men, privates Irvin Cinatl, Frank lenon, Deward Gielow and Burt Wollenzien, were transferred to the Headquarters Detachment.

Photography After Helena:  Since the Table of Organization did not call for a photographer in the Force; Cpl Lewis Merrim was put into the Intelligence Section under Cpt. John Reardon and Lt. Col. Robert D. Burhans. Throughout the next 20 months of the Force existence, Merrim took pictures with the speed graphic camera. Irvin Cinatl using the small B&H camera took some movies. Later in Italy and France Lt Col. Orval J Baldwin who was a movie buff took movies.

While still in the United States, still pictures and movie film were processed at the Army Pictorial Center in New York City, later in Italy and France Merrim would find different places to process and print the still film. In Southern France he made arrangements with the photographer of the Prince of Monaco to process the 4x5 still film.

Lewis Merrim Essentially most of the still pictures taken by Merrim were used for intelligence purposes. In Southern France, for example, Merrim and a British photo interpreter, Lt. Watts built a small rack on the door of an L5 observation plane to hold the speed graphic camera. With the lens set at infinity, pictures taken as the plane flew over enemy installations would give depth to stereo 3-D pictures. Lt. Watts would “read” the photos, giving Force officers valuable information on enemy locations. On 17 low-flying photo recon flights Merrim was the target for anti-aircraft fire but never was hit.

For his work with aerial photography Merrim was awarded the Air Medal. Merrim had been made a T4 sergeant while in the United Sates. Later at Anzio he was promoted to “buck” Sergeant. While at Anzio he was wounded by shrapnel for which he received the Purple Heart. When the FSSF was deactivated in December 1944, Merrim went with the rest of the Force into the 474th Infantry Regiment that headed into Norway.

After the war, in civilian life Lewis Merrim became a noted photojournalist whose work appeared in Life, look, Colliers, the New York Times and many other national publications. He has been a long time member of the FSSF Association. His pictures have provided an invaluable history record of the amazing First Special Service Force.

Thomas Hope His films shot during the nine months of Force training in Helena provide much of the “Force Training film” and some of the History Channel “Black Devils” video. After OCS at fort Monmouth, 2nd LT Hope was made an instructor in the Army Motion Picture School and became head of the School until May 1944 when he was assigned to a Replacement Photo Unit and entered through Normandy in July 1944 working with two still photographers and two movie cameramen. Later in Germany one still photographer and one movie cameraman were killed; the other still photographer suffered combat fatigue.

Hope’s first assignment was as Photo Officer VIII Corps (3rd US Army) that was sieging and eventually captured Brest, France. In late Sept. he moved to Bastogne, Belgium with the VIII Corps HQ. In a month, he was transferred to a new unit, the XIX Corps, Ninth Army based then at Heerlen, Holland. During the Battle of the Bulge the XIX Corps was in Aachen Germany on the north side of the Bulge under British General Montgomery. When ninth Army photo Officer Cpt Ernie Marquardt was killed in March 1944, Hope was made Army Photo Officer. He was promoted to Captain and later awarded the Bronze Star for photo coverage of the end of the war in Europe. Hope and a team of photographers were the first Americans to enter Berlin at the close of hostilities; this stunt nearly brought them to Courts Marshal as they had no orders to be there.

In civilian life Tom Hope set up the film department for General Mills, Inc in Minneapolis, Minn. One job was launching the TV Lone Ranger show in 1949. In 1952 Hope was a Marshall Plan consultant to the French Government in Paris. He was hired in 1954 by the Eastman Kodak CO., Rochester, NY as a motion picture consultant. Taking early retirement in 1970, he founded Hope Reports, a media market research company now closed. He is a member of the FSSF Association and handled sales of Force videos for 3 years.