Updated 25 May 19
Brief description
Usually light infantry units which take on missions that regular forces are not able to execute. Sometimes called “Special Operations Forces” to distinguish such units in general from the US Army Special Forces ie the Green Berets
Special Forces-type units were first used in earnest in the Second World War. In contrast to the conscripts who focused on basic military skills, SF units were trained to do one or more of the following:
- Penetrate enemy lines by parachute(101st Airborne), coastal landing (Commandos, UDTs in the Pacific)
- Perform surveillance and attacks behind enemy lines in units of 50-3,000 in size (Long Range Desert Group in North Africa, Chindits in Burma)
To accomplish these missions, these units were given extra training and equipment that regular units were not – like parachutes, powerful radios and special weapons.
Since 1945, Special Forces (SF) units have also been extensively used in peacetime for missions that need to be deniable or specialised small-unit tactics. They also inherited the wartime roles of the SOE and OSS in training and equipping resistance groups. SF units also tend to operate in smaller groups nowadays, making them easier to move undetected in enemy territory.
- Hostage rescue, capture of high-value targets, nowadays usually part of counter-terrorist actions (the SAS Iranian Embassy rescue, London 1981)
- Equipping and training of insurgent and resistance groups (Australia in Vietnam)
Today, a distinction has also developed between “shock” troops which undertake dangerous missions needing better morale and training compared to normal soldiers, and “unconventional warfare” fighters who take on missions which might need innovation and flexibility.
Politics
Being in the Special Forces is typically not a conventional way to advance to higher military appointments. Probably because SF officers have fewer opportunities to acquire the type of experience valued for senior military administrators for example handling large bodies of men (SF units tend to be manpower-light), and managing large programmes and/or budgets.
- In the US, only one of the 19 Joint Chiefs of Staff had a SF background – GEN Hugh Shelton
- Similarly, only one of 23 Chiefs of Defence Staff in the UK had an SF background – Charles Guthrie
More info
If you have 5 minutes
Useful answer from quora:
Having trained, worked with and met many special operations forces (SOF) soldiers from various countries and units, there is one thing I observed which all of them have in common and which sets them apart from the “regular” folks.
You can find the same “qualities” in covert operatives working for intelligence organizations and, surprisingly, some very high ranking military officers in conventional units.
It’s not their intelligence, though. You’ll find some very smart people in conventional units and there are some dumbasses in SOF, too. Nor ist it their skills or training which makes them special: recently, more and more “jobs” that had been “reserved” for Special Forces operators in the past were taken over by conventional forces and vice versa (for example, training foreign troops in counterinsurgency operations).
Also, most Special Forces are neither fitter nor are they mentally stronger than, let’s say, a Marine or a paratrooper. What really sets them apart is their attitude, which is a unique mixture of unpretentiousness paired with an almost childlike curiosity which comes with fluid, differentiated and unorthodox thinking.
It’s not that they are smarter than other soldiers, but that they think differently. Unconventional warfare requires counterintuitive and “out of the box” thinking which you won’t find in conventional units. It’s the way SOF soldiers approach a problem that makes them special:
- there are no concepts, be formless!
- consider non military solutions to solve military problems
- base your decisions on facts and not on opinions like“we are the best” or static military concepts
- understand the paradoxes of unconventional warfare
Historically, special forces are a relatively new category of troops. The first modern special forces units were formed during World War II and many of them (Brandenburger, US First Special Service Force) were formed by intelligence organizations or from people “outside” the usual military decision making process.
David Stirling, the founder of the predecessor of Britain’s Special Air Service, had to secretly sneak into the British forces headquarters to convince the commander-in-chief that Britain needed such special forces.
Many special forces consider themselves to be “outside” of the regular military and preserve their own independent and unorthodox methods.
Defence and Military 101 