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Brucker, Herbert (DSC), MAJ.
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Major (R) Herbert Brucker, 85, of 445 McBain Drive, Fayetteville, a retired Major with the United States Army Special Forces died Friday, 16 March 2007, in Carroll S. Roberson Hospice. Although born in West New York, New Jersey on 10 October 1921 to a French father and American mother, he grew up in France. In 1938, Brucker was brought back to the United States by his father.
Despite speaking little English at the time, he joined the United States Army in 1940. There he became fluent in the “universal language” of Morse code while being trained as a radio operator. In late 1943, based on his French background, T/4 Brucker was recruited into the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), an organization designed to perform clandestine warfare behind enemy lines. After training in the OSS Special Operations (SO) branch, Brucker was detailed to the British Special Operations Executive (SOE). Commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant, he jumped into occupied France near Blois on 27 May 1944 to serve as the radio operator of the network code named HERMIT. Brucker remained in France until 11 September 1944. For extraordinary heroism during the mission, Brucker was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, second only to the Medal of Honor, and the French Croix de Guerre with Silver Star. He has subsequently been honored on a memorial emplaced near Blois by his French compatriots.
After the liberation of France, Brucker volunteered to serve with the OSS in the China-Burma-India Theater. After briefly being attached to OSS Detachment 101 in Burma, he was sent to China. There he was a member of team IBEX, which was part of an OSS effort to use Chinese troops to conduct a guerrilla war against the Japanese occupation.
After WWII, Brucker remained in the United States Army. He served until 1949 as a member of the Counter-Intelligence Corps in Germany until reassignment to the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, NC. In 1952, Brucker was recruited for United States Army Special Forces. As a pioneer in Special Forces, he conducted escape and evasion courses and was an original member of the 10th Special Forces Group in Germany . He later served with the 77th Special Forces Group at Fort Bragg and was an instructor for the SF qualification or “Q” course. In 1959, Brucker participated in Operation HOT FOOT in Laos, later renamed Operation WHITE STAR. Brucker’s greatest contribution to Special Forces has a lasting legacy. While at Fort Bragg, before the 10th SFG went to Germany. He and fellow SFer Captain Roger Pezzelle ordered the first batch of green berets for local use. Eventually the entire Special Forces branch adopted this beret as their distinctive headgear, earning them the popular nickname of “Green Berets.” After 20 years of service to the Army, Brucker retired as a Major. In the mid 1960’s Brucker served on behalf of USAID in Vietnam. He then became the second president of the Special Forces Association (D131), and his wife served as the SFA Secretary for more than 20 years.
Brucker lived in Fayetteville for nearly fifty years. His wife of forty years, the former Lieselotte Löwe of Germany, passed away in 1989. He is survived by his son Richard, daughter-in-law Elaine, and grandchildren Eric and Samantha, all of Fayetteville. A viewing was 19 March in Rogers and Breece Funeral Home. Funeral Services were be held at the same location on 20 March.
Other Comments:
Brucker’s greatest contribution to Special Forces has a lasting legacy. While at Fort Bragg, before the 10th SFG went to Germany. He and fellow SFer Captain Roger Pezzelle ordered the first batch of green berets for local use. Eventually the entire Special Forces branch adopted this beret as their distinctive headgear, earning them the popular nickname of “Green Berets.”
Description Operation Jedburgh was a clandestine operation during World War II, in which personnel of the British Special Operations Executive, the U.S. Office of Strategic Services, the Free French Bureau Central de Renseignements et d'Action ("Intelligence and operations central bureau") and the Dutch and Belgian Armies were dropped by parachute into Nazi-occupied France, Holland and Belgium to conduct sabotage and guerilla warfare, and to lead the local resistance forces in actions against the Germans.
Jedburgh
The operation took its name, probably assigned at random from a list of pre-approved code names, from the town of Jedburgh in the Scottish Borders. After about two weeks of paramilitary training at commando training bases in the Scottish Highlands, the "Jeds" moved to Milton Hall near Peterborough, which was much closer to the airfields from which they were to be launched, and to London and Special Force Headquarters.
Operation Jedburgh represented the first real cooperation in Europe between SOE and the Special Operations branch of OSS. By this period in the war, SOE had insufficient resources to mount the huge operation on its own; for example, it had access to only 23 Handley Page Halifax aircraft for dropping agents and stores, barely sufficient to maintain SOE's existing networks. OSS was able to augment this force with Consolidated B-24 Liberator aircraft operating from RAF Harrington (see Operation Carpetbagger). The OSS eagerly sought to be involved, since in a single swoop it got more agents into northwestern Europe than it had during the entire previous period of the United States' involvement in the war. Nevertheless, General Eisenhower, the American Supreme Commander, ensured that the French would lead the operation and gave them command on 9 June 1944 of the Jedburgh teams in France.
Jedburgh teams
The Jedburgh teams consisted of three men: a commander, an executive officer, and a non-commissioned radio operator. One of the officers would be British or American while the other would originate from the country to which the team deployed. In addition to their personal weapons (which included an M1 carbine and a Colt automatic pistol for each member) and sabotage equipment, the teams dropped with the Type B Mark II radio, more commonly referred to as the B2 or "Jed Set", which was critical for communicating with Special Force Headquarters in London. They were also issued pieces of silk with five hundred phrases which they were likely to use in radio traffic replaced with four-letter codes to save time in transmission, and one-time pads to encipher their messages.
As the Jedburgh teams' mission was to inspire overt rather than clandestine resistance activity, they wore military uniform and were equipped with a variety of personal equipment such as medical supplies, food such as "K" and "C" Ration packs, sleeping bags, field glasses and detailed maps of their operational areas, which were printed on silk like their radio ciphers. Agents who had previously been dropped to resistance groups had carried only "a gun, a spade (to bury their parachute) and false papers".
Operations
The first team in, codenamed "Hugh", parachuted into central France near Châteauroux the night before the Allied landings in Normandy, codenamed Operation Overlord. In total, 93 Jedburgh teams operated in 54 French metropolitan départements between June and December 1944.[6] They were known by codenames which usually were first names (such as "Hugh"), with some names of herbs or spices and a few random names thrown in to confuse German intelligence.
The Jedburgh teams normally parachuted in by night to meet a reception committee from a local Resistance or Maquis group. Their main function was to provide a link between the guerrillas and the Allied command. They could provide liaison, advice, expertise and leadership, but their most powerful asset was their ability to arrange airdrops of arms and ammunition.
Like all Allied forces who operated behind Nazi lines, the Jedburghs were subject to torture and execution in the event of capture, under Hitler's notorious Commando Order. Because the teams normally operated in uniform, to apply this order to them was a war crime. However, of the Jedburgh teams dropped into France, only British Captain Victor A. Gough met that fate, being shot while a prisoner on 25 November 1944.
