This country is at war with Germany.

We shall go on to the end.

I remember the sheets of flame which came up and almost blinded us from our guns.

Welcome to the World War II podcast. I'm Angus Wallace. In the early stages of America's involvement in the Second World War, the US Army began forming a new kind of fighting force.

Elite units trained for speed, surprise and special operations behind enemy lines.

These were the first army rangers, inspired by British commandos and destined for some of the

toughest missions of the war. In this episode, I'm joined by historian and author Mir Barmanier

to talk about the formation and deployment of these early

rangers from their beginnings in North Africa and Sicily to the fateful engagement at Cisterna

in 1944. A battle ended in disaster for two ranger battalions.

Mia is the author of Houdini Club, The Epic Journey and Daring Escapes of the First Army Rangers

of World War II, a book that sheds light on the origins, ethos and early missions of these

extraordinary soldiers. Let's start with the formation of the Rangers. I hadn't really thought much about

them and had just assumed, foolishly, that there were a unit of the army that

had been there forever. But it's General Trusket, who requests the first Ranger battalion to be

activated. What was Truskut wanting when he put in that request to form a new unit?

I think the Americans knew they were going to enter the Second World War eventually, you know, because they'd been rehearsing, doing large-scale maneuvers in the 30s, late 30s even.

And they federalized all these local National Guard units. So I think the Americans fully knew they were going to go into war years before they did.

But what the Americans needed or what the job was of Marshall, the guy in charge,

was basically that the Americans were green.

They had no combat experience.

They needed somebody who could go out there with the British who had been fighting the wars behind enemy lines at times, you know, things like that.

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