The real D-Day commandos who inspired Hollywood's 'Dirty Dozen'

“The Dirty Dozen” had everything one could hope for in a war film. Convicts, trained as commandos and played by the best Hollywood tough guys of the time, are sent to Normandy on a suicide mission. Their goal is to kill the Nazi officers responsible for coordinating the German defense of France during an upcoming massive Allied amphibious invasion that would be known as “D-Day”. If the commandos survive, they receive a full pardon.

Critics and audiences loved it. Starring Lee Marvin, Charles Bronson and John Cassavetes, “The Dirty Twelve” became one of the highest-grossing films of all time, meaning people couldn't get their tickets to the film fast enough – even though these figures have been eclipsed in recent times. decades. The only real criticism of the film was its gratuitous violence (which has also been eclipsed in recent years).

But Americans loved the story of the Dirty Dozen, not only because of its screen adaptation, but also because they fell in love with the film's real-life inspiration: “The Filthy Thirteen.”

Hollywood, of course, embellishes facts for dramatic effect, and “The Dirty Dozen” is no different. While the soldiers in the film are presented as convicted murderers and thieves, the real Filthy Thirteen were just average American soldiers who developed a healthy disregard for the rules – although that's not where their nickname.

“We weren’t murderers or anything,” said Filthy Thirteen veteran Jack Agnew. once recalled. “We just didn't do everything we were supposed to do in one way and did way more than they wanted us to do in another way. We were always in trouble.”

Officially designated as the 1st Regimental Headquarters Company Demolition Section of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment (PIR), 101st Airborne Division, the Filthy Thirteen earned this name while training in England. Instead of using their daily water rations for washing and shaving, they used it to cook wild game. poached at the manor next to their training area. It didn't help that they were also “the most difficult, insubordinate, and undisciplined individuals in the U.S. military while in garrison,” as a 2022 article in the NCO put it US Army Journal. describe them.

“We never took care of our barracks or anything else, or sanitation, and we were always confined to the camp,” recalled the head of the unit, Jake “McNasty” McNiece. “But we went on the run every weekend we wanted and we stayed as long as we wanted until we got back, because we knew they really needed us for the fight. And that didn't would only be a few days in the cell. We stole jeeps. We stole trains. We blew up barracks. We stole the colonel's whiskey and things like that.

The Filthy Thirteen were dropped in Normandy on June 6, 1944, with the mission of destroying the bridges over the Douve River. to protect the movement of assault forces inland from Utah Beach. When daylight came, they dropped with the 3rd Battalion, 506th PIR, but half of the 13 were killed, captured or wounded in the jump, including their officer, Lieutenant Charles Mellen. What remained was directed by McNiecethen a soldier, whose Native American heritage inspired men to cut their hair in “Mohawk” tribute before making the jump.

The Air Force, assuming the demolition team was dead, bombed the bridges anyway. The Filthy Thirteen then continued to round up the stragglers and assisted in the capture of the key French town of Carentan. But this was not the end of their role in World War II Europe. They would jump into occupied Holland during Operation Market Garden, where their mission was to secure three bridges near Eindhoven. They were then separated.

Fearing that Market Garden would be their last combat jump, some of the Filthy Thirteen joined the Pathfinders, specialized units that establish drop zones in occupied or contested territories for resupply missions. McNiece and others found themselves on a Pathfinder mission during the Battle of Bastogne.

Although there were 13 original members, with alternates and replacements, the unit had more than 13 members by the end of the war. The nickname caught the public imagination after Stars and Stripes reporter Tom Hoge wrote about them in a June 1944 issue. The local newspapers started repeating the nicknameand it ended up getting stuck.

From there, legends about the Filthy Thirteen, mostly rumors, began to spread through mainstream media. Some of these legends formed the basis of author EM Nathanson's book, “The dirty dozen“, which has become the beloved film of so many moviegoers.

Only the Filthy Thirteen can know how real “The Dirty Dozen” is. Agnew's daughter Barbara says her father said it was about 30 percent, which is still a lot.

“Dad, when we were little, he always said: 'I won the war; I know you don't believe me, but one day you will know'” she says.

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