Italian Mainland Operational Groups

To implement intelligence gathering in December 1942, the Joint Chiefs of Staff sanctioned the formation of OG within the OSS as the infiltration operational nuclei made up of specially trained military personnel who would be used in enemy-occupied territory. The search was on for desirable candidates from extant line outfits, officer candidate schools, and specialty schools. Priority was also given to ethnic affinity, that is, to those armed forces members preferably first or second generation whose cultural background could be utilized to effect espionage. In addition to working knowledge of Norwegian, French, Greek, German, or Italian, the recruits ideally were service members who had already volunteered for hazardous duty—approximately 10 % of those interviewed were accepted for specialized training at OSS facilities. Basic training revolved around parachute jumping, physical conditioning, map reading, night reconnaissance, small arms proficiency, demolition operations, and other tactics acquired from the experience of British commandos. OG units usually consisted of 2 officers and 13 enlisted men including a medical technician and a radio operator. An analysis of the OSS historical record of 29 operations indicated that out of a total of 337 OSS men involved some 219 were of Italian background based on name recognition. (Some individuals participated in more than one mission.) A summary of several missions from the beginning of 1944 to the war’s end in 1945 provides a sense of what they entailed.