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10th Combat Weather Squadron

160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment

Agrupacion De Fuerzas Especiales Urbanas

Escuadron de Apoyo Comando, or EAC

Grupo De Operacoes Especiais ( GOE )

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Brazilian Army's 1st Special Forces Battalion

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Comando Tropas Especiales

Special Operations Weather Teams ( SOWT )

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The Lanceros

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United States Marine Corps

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Special Operations Aviation Regiment (SOAR)

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UAT

Underwater Demolitions Teams

Special Operations Command

Special Operations Command 2

US Air Force Special Operations

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Maritime Special Purpose Force

USMC Radio Recon

Force F " Zorros "

Underwater Demolition Teams

While the US landing at Guadalcanal in August of 1942 was relatively unopposed, later landings were not. Furthermore, the beaches in the Pacific were almost completely uncharted and hard to access, a big difference from the European theatre with its short distances and well-charted shores. Some effort was made to chart shores with aerial photography but these efforts were largly unsuccessful. NCDU's were considered for use in the large landings but were thought to be too small, there was more than just blowing known obstacles to do. Therefore a rushed program was started to create larger units, utilizing core members of several NCDU's but augmenting them with Navy Seabees, Marines, and Army Combat Engineers to get the larger teams. Not only would they demolish obstacles, they would first find them and also map the landing zones and conditions. These teams were christened Underwater Demolitions Teams One and Two, and were still in training when the US launched Operation Galvanic, the invasions of Tarawa and Makin atoll.

Taking place in November of 1943, the US Marines assaulted Tarawa and Makin in the Pacific. Although both islands were taken, the landing at Tarawa was a disaster and Makin nearly so. Relying on old maps and ignoring intel about intense currents that appeared during the planned invasion window, the Navy's plan at Tarawa left the Marines half a mile out from shore. Fully loaded Marines were forced to wade across the open coral reefs to shore under intense fire. In addition to deaths from enemy fire, many Marines were killed when the weight of their gear pulled them under when they stepped into holes caused by bombs and mortar shells. Makin's beach proved to be so small that there was a severe bottleneck of landing craft and it was only the total lack of defense on the beach that allowed the US to take the island without a bloody assault.

Operation Galvanic taught the Navy some serious lessons. Photo recon and old maps were not enough to plan a large invasion of hostile shores. They would need men on sight to chart the beaches and their approaches. Despite popular notions that the need for UDT's came from Tarawa, it was Tarawa and Makin both that merely accelerated a program that was already in motion. It was decided to expand the UDT program, but first they would need to be tested, and before that could happen they needed to finish their training.

They were training at Waimanalo Bay on the island of Oahu. At the same time that the NCDU's were operating, the Navy had moved some of the NCDU-trained sailors to the Pacific to build up a beach clearing capacity. There they were combined with members of the Navy Seabees ( "CB" or construction battalions ), Marines, and Army Combat Engineers and built into larger units christened UDT's, or Underwater Demolitions Teams . The first UDT's were Teams One and Two, consisting of 13 officers and 85 enlisted sailors each. Following their short two-month training, UDT's 1 & 2 were assigned to Task Force 52 (UDT-1) and Task Force 53 (UDT-2) and deployed to take part in Operation Flintlock; the invasion of the Marshall Islands in January of 1944.

Unlike their later teams, the early UDT's were not manned by combat divers; holding true to their NCDU roots they were meant to operate from landing craft in heavy boots and helmets and were tethered to the boats. During the Kwajalein portion of the Marshall Islands invasion this doctrine started to change when two members of UDT-1 stripped down to swimming shorts and swam ahead of a boat to scout out coral heads after the coxswain had determined he could go no further. Following their foray to the beach and back they reported back to the Admiral in charge of the entire invasion and recommended the Marines be sent in Amtrak amphibious tanks instead of boats. The initial assault with Amtracks went well, and later reinforcements at high tide were done with boats (which could carry more and were faster) because of the information they had obtained. The success UDT-1 had with swimmers lead to the adoption of this tactic and it saw widespread use throughout the war and beyond.

Following their initial report and subsequent assault, UDT-1 blew channels in the coral to allow the larger LST's (Landing Ship, Tank) to unload their cargo and cleared out japanese wrecks dotting the shores. On a couple occasions they were sent inland to help the Army clear out strongly fortified bunkers. After Kwajalein UDT-1 went to Engebi island next door and scouted a 400 yard section of beach, blowing coral reefs that would block landing ships and marking positions of Japanese pillboxes on their captured Japanese maps. That night The pillboxes the UDT had marked were bombarded by the fleet surrounding the island. The landing the next day went very well. Lieutenant Luehrs of UDT-1 prevented a major setback when he raced under fire over to a group of Amtracks that were starting to head outside of the marked lanes into uncleared territory.

UDT-2 participatedd in the invasion of Roi-Namur, next to Kwajalein. The night before the invasion members of UDT-2 performed a reconnaissance of the beach and reef via rubber boats and found the beach clear of obstacles and the coral low enough that it would not pose a threat to the landing craft. Like UDT-1, they attempted to use drone landing craft to blow large holes in the coral safely. Like UDT-1's drones, Two's failed as well ( one circling around and ramming the craft it was under control from ). Their main piece of equipment a failure, members of UDT-2 rode in with the Marines in the first wave and helped by blowing bunkers and dynamiting coral heads that blocked the larger LST's from beaching.

While the two UDT's were off proving themselves, other improvements were made to the program. The training base in Waimanalo was shut down and a new base in Kihei on the island of Maui was established in February, 1944 that would serve the UDT's for the rest of the war. The Waimanalo base had been full with just two teams of 100 men; the new "Underwater Demolition Training and Experimental Base" at Kamaole Amphibious Training Base was training thirteen teams at once at it's peak in late 1944. After the Normandy landing in June of 1944 all Fort Pierce graduates were sent to the Pacific after graduation and all new teams were created as UDT's. By the end of the war there had been over thirty UDT's in the US Navy, with plans to expand up to UDT-60. Of those, all but two received training at Maui, and three skipped Ft. Pierce and trained soley on Maui.

Following Operation Flintlock, UDT's 1 & 2 were deactivated and sent to Maui, some to run training for new UDT teams and others to form the new UDTs being created. Teams 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 were the first created, in March, and trained for the expanding war in the Pacific. Draper Kauffman had managed to get himself assigned to a combat zone and took over command of UDT-5 and later overall command of three of the UDT's that would operate in the the invasion of Saipan. During the training and build up for this invasion lessons learned and new requirements forced the development of new tactics and equipment.

String Reconnaissance was one such technique. A large amount of fish line was tied off with unique knots at a regular distance so that a diver could tell how much line was played out by the knot they had in their hand. The container of the line was anchored at a known point, and using the distances from that and references from the beach, Divers were able to mark depths and notes on a board with a grease pencil. The results from all the divers were later combined and tabulated, giving an accurate representation of the underwater beach contours and obstructions. The swimmers also had their bodies painted with black lines every six inches so they could accurately gauge depth and report it in a usable fashionn.

One swimmer would swim in a straight line, measuring depth and writing measurements down on a sheet of plexiglass while the other would swim in zig-zags, looking for obstacles and coral heads. "Flying Matteresses" were tried, small powered rafts that would theoretically allow a team leader to work with all of his swimmers during the mission. In practice these turned out to be very dangerous and never saw action beyond Saipan.

Good news for the UDT teams was the arrival of APD's or Auxiliary Personnel Destroyers, which were the high speed transport they were attached to during invasion actions. UDT's 1 & 2 had gone to war in transports that could not support them during landings and contained hundred of troops, the new, fast APD's were equipped with 5" guns and could provide limited support during a landing. The early APD's were converted WWI flush deck destroyers which were cramped and left almost no room for exercisee or training. The second generation were converted DE or Destroyer Escort ships, which were newer, faster, and had enough room for exercise at least, if not comfort.

The assault at Saipan, the first planned daylight assault using many swimmers, went off well. There were more lessons learned and tactics developed, but the feared massacre of swimmers in broad daylight had failed to happen. It had been proven that the best way to gather intelligence on enemy beaches was by having swimmers map the entire landing area in daylight, leaving the protection of their boats and darkness behind.

The UDT's soon established a reputation within the fleet. To everyday sailors they were daredevils who faced the japanese out in the open away from a ship with only a knife and swim trunks. To the admiralty they were a necessary evil, short on decorum but totally effective in their results. Team pride was high; some teams crept up to beaches and left signs welcoming the invading US Marines to the island even before the invasions began. During the invasionn of Guam, for example, UDT-4 left a sign on the beach near the town of Agat that read:

The UDT's proved their worth again on Guam; over 940 obstacles were removed in six days of operations.

In June of 1944 Operation Forager started. The Marianus island chain, defended by roughly 60,000 Japanese, were needed to serve as a base for operations against the Japanese mainland and Japanese-held territories. Of the three islands in the chain, Saipan was first. UDT's 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 were dispatched to take place in this operationn. Several positive improvements came out of the Marianus operation. High speed drop off and pickup of swimmers using cast and recovery was used. Masks and swim fins had been widely used for the first time. New methods for transporting explosives to the beach from the ships were developed.

UDT-10 and the USS Burfish SS-312 , carrying UDT Able, was rammed by another American destroyer and sunk with the loss of all of Able's equipment. They were subsequently broken up and sent to other teams to help with staffing

The invasion of Okinawa was the largest deployment of Naval Special Forces, with almost 1,000 UDT personnel participating. UDT's 7, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18 participated.

The invasion at Luzon in the Philippines was another large operation, with UDT's 5, 8, 9, 10, 14, and 15 participating.

Most of the UDT Teams were marshalling in California in preparations for the planned invasion of the Japanese homeland when the war ended. Some were sent to Japane to aid in the occupation.

With Japan's surrender in August of 1945, the majority of the UDT's were shut down. There were a couple that continued to operate in the Pacific, helping allied forces occupy Japan and its former conquested lands. UDT-21 was the first American Forces to land on the Japanese homelands and received the first surrender, when Lieutenant Commander Edward Clayton accepted the sword , which was struck by USS Fullman and sunk. There was no loss of life, but as all of their equipment was lost with the ship UDT able did not take part and was sent back to Maui to be broken up and used to help form new UDT's
Notes: formed by consolidating several NCDU's that had been deployed to the South Pacific theatre

Following actions at Leyte, UDT-3 transferred to AP-39 President Hayes . Ganter entered Tokyo Harbor on September 4, 1945 and UDT reconnoiterred the beaches of Shiogama Wan and Ominato Ko on the Japanese main island of Honshu. UDT 3 surveyed the harbor of Otaru, Hokkaido from September 30 to 7 October.

Notes: Originally staffed by members of UDTs 1 & 2 after returning from Operation Flintlock

Agana Bay, Guam on 17 July. Team Four blew many "cribs;" coral filled obstacles made with palm logs and linked to each other by cables. Team Four also left a sign on the beach prior to the first landing that read, "Welcome Marines AGAT USO two blocks Courtesy UDT-4."

One of UDT-4's boats was hit by mortar fire and sunk at Leyte on 18 October.

UDT-4 disembarked Kane on the Admiralty islands in Late October/ Early November.

Danger is not confined to the landings and Team Six was put in harm's way one night at Manus Harbor when tetrytol explosives being transferred from another ship caught fire on deck. Demo's of Team Six showed their bravery by picking up the flaming explosives and throwing it overborad before it could damage the ship or cause an explosion.

On September 27th UDT-6 reconnoiterred the narrow straight between Peleliu and the smaller Ngesebus island, which had an unfinished airstrip and was assaulted and taken the next day. Philippine invasion (vague information). UDT-6 participated in the occupation of the Japanese homeland while attached to APD-76 USS Schmitt . Reconnoiterred Sasebo Harbor, Japan on 20 September. Miyako Shima Sakishima Gunto was reconnoiterred two days later, where such intense minefields were found that landing operations were cancelled. Following this operation UDT-6 returned to the United states where they were decommissioned on 2 November, 1945.

Marianas Invasion: Saipan in June 1944. Attached to APD-10 Brooks II. Performed reconnaissance on two potential landing spots on Tinian Island on July 10, 1944. July 24 UDT-7 took part in a daylight fake landing to divert Japanese attention away from the real landing. 12 September, 1944 during the Peleliu invasion UDT-7 cleared paths through minefields. Rotated to the Underwater Demolition Training and Experimental Base in Kihei, Maui to run training for new UDT teams after Peleliu.

Several members of UDT-7 showed their calm under fire during this trip when transferring unused tetrytol explosive from Stringham to UDT-6 on the USS Clemson. At one point at anchor at Manus fire broke out amongst the tetrytol aboard one of the ships and was quickly spread to the other ship. Sailors from both ships began jumping overboard, fearing a catasrophic explosion but members from Team Seven and Six quickly began throwing the burning explosives overboard and preventing catastrophy.

Deployed again during the Okinawa invasion in April of 1945 on board APD-51 USS Hopping . Team Eight was active in the Luzon invasion January, 1945. Operating on the northern beaches of Lingayen Gulf while attached to the Badger, UDT-8 performed two beach reconnaissance missions for mines and obstructions and charted the beaches with no opposition. Rotated to the Underwater Demolition Training and Experimental Base in Kihei, Maui to run training for new UDT teams after conclusion of the Luzon invasion.

Members of UDT-10 participated in the only submarine operation by UDT in WWII. While deployed on SS-312 USS Burfish five members of UDT-10 scouted the waters and shores around Peleiu’s southeastern tip on 9 August, 1944. On 18 August they performed a reconnassaince of Gagil Tomil’s northeast coast and found a barrier reef. Two members of UDT-10 and one from the Underwater Demolition Training and Experimental Base were captured and executed after being tortured. Article here , UDT-10 scouted approaches to Angaur beaches September 14th & 15th. East beaches scouted the 14th were found to be clear of obstacles and lightly defended but subjected to heavy currents. North beaches the next day were clear of obstacles and defense and no further action was required of them. Following this Rathburn headed for Ulithi, where they were tasked with clearing and marking five beaches for assault within three days. UDT-10 reconnoitered the Falalop and Asor beaches beginning September 21st and the following three the next day. No obstacles or enemy forces were found. Afterwards members assited the Beachmaster with landing operations. Ulithi became a main US Naval base for the remainder of the war, being a ring of small islands forming a protected anchorate neary 180 square miles in size and having the capacity to hold up to 1,000 large ships at once.

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UDT-10 assaulted "Red Beach" at San Pedro Bay between Palo and San Ricardo during the landings in Leyte Gulf on October 19th, 1944. On January 7th, 1945 UDT-10 scouted Blue Beach in Lingayen Gulf and destroyed natural and manmade obstacles with demolitions. Performed a nighttime reconnaissance mission without incident two weeks later on January 26th. Landed at San Nareiso on Luzon on the 29th of January and found no opposition. Created a forward training base for UDT's on Guam in Feburary of 1945, then rotated to the Maui base in May. Sent back to the US in June and all team personnel given leave until July 1, at which time the unit reformed at Fort Pierce. Shortly thereafter the war ended and UDT-10 stayed on to help disestablish Fort Pierce until it was deactivated in February of 1946.

Balikpapan, Borneo in early July, 1945

Notes: Team 11 was awarded a Presidential Unit Citation for its actions at Borneo, one of two UDT's in WWII so honored.

UDT-13 was formed from members of Training Class Seven, Fort Pierce. One member killed during an accident January 29, 1945. Ray LeBlanc was welding a fitting over the side of a ship when a wave from a passing wave splashed against the side of the hull, grounding his welding gear and electrocuting him to death or unconsciousness. His body was recovered but he had died either to electrocution or drowning subsequent to electrocution.

While attached to APD-39 USS Barr on April 6-7 and returned to Kihei, arriving later that month after a long journey through many ports. Disaster nearly struck during the transfer to Wayne when a Kamikaze came close to hitting the Barr when her fantail was loaded with the UDT's explosizes.
Notes: "Lucky number 13", Team 13 had a black cat as a mascot, 13 officers, had taken 13 days to transit from Fort Pierce to Maui, and was attached to APD number 39, which is the product of three times 13.

Iwo Jima (14-19 February). Twenty swimmers from Team 15 performed to beach surveys at Iwo Jima, one diversionary, on February 17. During an air attack off Iwo Jima, 18 February 1945, Blessman was hit by a kamikaze ( Twin-engined "Betty" Bomber )and took heavy casualties, including 18 UDT members killed and 23 wounded. This was the single largest casualty taken by any UDT or SEAL team since their inception. Following this the team was sent back to Maui, and then back to the United States mainland in June of 1945. Following Japan's capitulation they were embarked on APD-74 USS John Gray . Occupation of Japan
Notes: One of the three "Fleet Teams" made up of volunteers with at least one year combat experience and put through a compressed six-week training schedule in Kihei, Maui

Okinawa invasion while attached to APD-79 USS Bunch and sailed for Japan. UDT-21 landed at Futtsu-misaki on the Japanese homeland island of Honshu on August 29, 1945. This was the first landings on the island by american naval forces and also the first surrender ceremony, with Lieutenant Commander Edward Clayton accepting the sword of a Major in the Coastal Artillery in surrender. He was later made to give it up so as not to steal General MacArthur's thunder. Following this the Team cleared docks at Yokosuka Naval Base to allow the USS San Diego to dock there for surrender ceremonies ( Picture of the dock here , members of UDT-22 participated in the occupation of the Japanese homeland. UDT-22 first marked three wrecked ships that were navigational hazards. The next day, September 23rd, UDT-22 reconnoitered the beaches at Aomori and the approached to the local highway which were nearby. Several days later a beach at Senami was reconoitered and found suitable, with certain restrictions. Following this the USS Young sailed for the states, and UDT-22 was immediately disembarked upon her arrival on November 2, 1945.