ABSTRACT
A reduction in the number of Special Forces is possible by an amalgamation of tasks, by reducing the number of tasks assigned to them, or by a combination of both. This chapter shows various Special Forces and their tasks in World War II. It includes the Special Forces of all the main belligerents of the last war but mostly only British and American Special Forces will subsequently be discussed. The structures of the various partisan movements of the last war varied almost from country to country. Great Britain had during the last war more than a dozen different Special Forces. The structure of the French partisan movement was complicated because a number of detachments were under British and others under French control, and that of the Soviet partisan movement was intricate because it was a Party formation and had to serve two masters, the Party and the Army.
