On WW2 Darby Ranger James Altieri and his great book the Spearheaders

The Spearheaders: A Personal History of Darby's Rangers by James J. Altieri with a new introduction by MIr Bahmanyar and Colonel (retired) Mike Kershaw - Naval Institute Press with a release date of October 15, 2014

I had met Jim quite a few times at WW2 Ranger reunions and at his home in Newport Beach. I met him through Phil Stern – a famous Hollywood and Jazz photographer and I will write on Phil in a subsequent post. There is a lot to tell.

Jim was a great old school patriot – well he was old – ha! But we hit it off because of our mutual love for all things Ranger. When Jim passed his storage locker was surreptitiously confiscated and his collection was sold piece by piece on eBay. Eventually a good friend of his hunted me down and I drove south, I was living in LA at the time, and was handed a couple of boxes of his leftover collection. Really sad. But in any event, I dug through it all and still have it now in my basement. I did donate his onionskins of his great book to the curator at the Carrickfergus, Northern Ireland Ranger Museum (I’ll write about my trip there and the great people preserving our Ranger history). It was in Carrickfergus that the original American commandos were founded – the First Ranger Battalion. A bunch of hard charging soldiers of the highest order - superior to Ultramarines if you are a 40K fan.. They were trained by British commandos and participated in a ton of campaigns – Dieppe, North Africa, Sicily, and main land Italy. Eventually they were wiped out near Anzio, Italy. They basically led the way fighting Vichy French, Germans including the Afrika Korps, Italians and more Germans. Some of the survivors joined another elite outfit the Canadian-American First Special Service Force. Jim never revelled in the wartime actions. The battle where his men got wiped out near Anzio is barely covered in his book and neither are the details revealed of the gruesome hand-to-hand combat against Italians in North Africa. That is something to think about. https://www.midandeastantrim.gov.uk/things-to-do/museums-arts/andrew-jackson-cottage/

Jim did a great deal to preserve WW2 Ranger history. I managed to get his old book reprinted by the very kind and professional Susan Brook at the Naval Institute Press. I also found another manuscript on the 6th Ranger Battalion’s raid in 1945 on the POW camp at Cabanatuan, the Philippines. It is missing the first couple of pages but…

 Here is Jim’s bio I wrote for his new/old book released in 2014.

Captain James Altieri. You can see his Ranger BN combat scroll on his shoulder. Source: Mir

James J. Altieri was born in Philadelphia, PA on March 4, 1920 and passed away on April 18, 2008 in Newport Beach, CA. A former steelworker at Lukens Steel Company near Philadelphia, he enlisted on October 8, 1941 and joined the 68th Field Artillery of the First Armored Division. While serving with the 1st AD in Northern Ireland, he volunteered for the 1st Ranger Battalion, which had been officially activated on June 19, 1942. 

Altieri was promoted from First Sergeant to Second Lieutenant with the 4th Ranger Battalion on November 21, 1943 and to First Lieutenant on February 25, 1944. He participated in six campaigns, 17 battles and four assault landings through North Africa, Sicily and Italy and was wounded twice during the Volturno-Venafro Campaign.  The 4th Ranger Battalion was deactivated in October 1944 at Camp Buckner, North Carolina. He was the recipient of the Bronze Star, the Purple Heart with Oak Leaf Cluster and the Combat Infantryman’s Badge. Jim Altieri also served as a Public Relations Officer for the Tennessee Military Authority.  He was honorably discharged in 1946 as a Captain.

After the Second World War Jim ran an unsuccessful campaign as the independent Democratic candidate for Mayor in Philadelphia. 

Jim stayed in touch with many Darby veterans and he even managed to seal the records of the criminal trial in Los Angeles County of Ranger Captain Charles M. “Chuck” Shunstrom who had brazenly robbed a gas station at gunpoint in 1946.

Recalled to active duty in 1951 Jim served with the Army’s Office of Information coordinating the production of Hollywood movies. In this position he supervised the feature long color documentary, This is Your Army.  He was promoted to Major.

After his service Jim continued his career as an author, having written Darby’s Rangers (1945) which inspired the 1958 Warner Brothers film Darby’s Rangers starring the iconic actor James Garner, with his subsequent memoir The Spearheaders (1960) and several screenplays. He served as military technical advisor on films such as Force of Arm (1951) and Darby’s Rangers (1958).  

Jim continued his service to the Ranger community as a civilian, becoming President and Chairman of numerous WWII Ranger associations.  Jim spearheaded the creation of the WWII Ranger Monument at Fort Benning, Georgia. 

From the 1960 edition:

The outlook for a victory of the Allied Powers was dim in the spring of 1942. Britain was being unmercifully bombed and threatened with invasion. Rommel's forces were rampaging across North Africa toward Alexandria. Only two American divisions had arrived in the European theatre. Stationed in Ireland, they were green, untested troops, their combat deployment a matter of speculation even to the high command.

It was then that General Lucien K. Truscott conceived the plan of organizing an American commando unit to be known as the "Rangers," a name made famous in American history. "On every frontier the name has been one of hope for those who required protection; of fear, for those who have lived outside the law."

Major William O. Darby was placed in command of the first Ranger Battalion. Darby proved himself an officer of such extraordinary powers of leadership that his unit was forever after known as "Darby's Rangers." This was the organization destined to be the first American ground forces to battle the Germans in Africa and Europe in World War II.

The Spearheaders is an account from an enlisted man's point of view of the intensely dramatic career of the Rangers from their beginnings as soldiers in Ireland, through their grueling training in Scotland, to their role in the bloody fighting in North Africa, Sicily and Italy.

First Lieutenant James Altieri - note Ranger unit patch on left shoulder. Source: Mir

This is a story of war as intimate and individual as the diaries, letters and memories on which it is based. Here are the courage, determination, hope and occasional moments of weakness of gallant American boys from the "next doors" of Maine and California, Oregon and Florida. Here, too, are unforgettable pictures of the grandeur and misery of war, bawdiness and bloodshed, its triumphs ultimate futilities.

Dominating the aggregation of his startlingly individualized subordinates is the commanding figure of Major Darby himself. Like Caesar he could call each of his men by name, congratulate them: "A helluva shoot . . . every company came through ... a beautiful job… now we got to get our tails out of here"; inspire them: "The outfit that can slip up the enemy and stun him with shock and surprise - that is the outfit that will win battles, and that is the outfit I want"; console them: "I'm sorry . . . damned sorry . . . I knew you would put on a good show."

The Spearheaders is no ordinary war history. In line with present Army doctrine, it demonstrates the value of tough, resourceful, hard-trained troops, capable of swift dispersal and penetration instead of massed movement susceptible to atomic blasts. Its vivid writing, its empathy with those who served, its appreciation of the Ranger spirit more than the Ranger achievements, make it rekindle in the hearts and minds of all Americans the great heritage, proud history and high ideals of their nation.

On Writing - or how the no-bullshit book Run to the Sound of the Guns came about

How did you meet? (From 2018)

Mir:  My great friend and Hollywood actor Tim Abell (2nd Ranger Battalion) made the introduction to Nicholas Moore on August 20, 2015 – over three years ago! Nicholas served in the 2nd Ranger Battalion, as did I. So it’s kind of like the three Rangerteers, or maybe like the three blind mice. In any event, I was looking at getting back into writing after a hiatus of about seven years. I also found out that Marcus Cowper was back at Osprey and I proposed a Campaign Series book, Zama 202 BC (2016), which helped me transition to the far more difficult writing required for Run to the Sound of the Guns.

Nicholas:  Like Mir said, this whole thing came about from our friend Tim Abell over three years ago. Tim asked me if I would be willing to talk to Mir (who is a published author), saying “I think you really have a story that people will want to read,” to which I said yes, then I googled Mir. We talked a few times, but honestly, I wasn’t really sure if we could actually get anyone to bite on this.

I vacillated about doing this at all; it was with the support of my wife that I really committed to wanting to tell this story.

I did stress to Mir that although profanity was used through the course of my career, if we had to write it into the book to make it “good,” we probably shouldn’t write it, because I feel that it is overused in military books, which makes me not want to read them. We also discussed how to approach the book so as to not make me out to be the “greatest thing since sliced bread,” which I am not, but I wanted to highlight the achievements of everyone, and it takes everyone for the unit to function at the level that it does.

What is the book about?

Mir:  Nicholas and I talked for a while about his background and experiences on the leading edge of the Global War on Terrorism. We needed a good story – something important and different to the typical chest-thumping, back-slapping books that have inundated the marketplace and Hollywood. And I needed a good guy who honored his word. Both of these triggers were met.

Although the perspective is Nicholas’s, it is about the Rangers who helped transform the 75th Ranger Regiment from the best elite light infantry unit in the world to a unit capable of executing the same special missions as the top Army and Navy special mission units. In a nutshell, it is the story of the change from the founding doctrine of the 75th Infantry (Ranger), the Abrams Charter (1974), which required experienced Rangers to leave the unit and spread their expertise throughout the regular army, to a flexible, ever-evolving special missions unit of the 75th Ranger Regiment where Rangers could actually serve their entire career. This transition happened quickly over a few years after 9/11 and it is evident throughout the book as we see Rangers conducting strenuous training exercise, then combat deployments, and adapting to new requirements in the ever-changing fields of battle. The strength of Run to the Sound of the Guns comes from this. It is not one of those one-battle or one-deployment books that are typically packed with mostly biographical filler. For us, it was important to show the true life of Rangering from training to combat, and we therefore cut all biographical material. In fact, we probably could have or maybe even should have expounded on some of the engagements, because there is so much present in Nick’s career from private to platoon sergeant.

Nicholas:  This is about my career as a US Army Ranger, and about the Rangers I had the honor to serve with. I had the privilege to serve in 2nd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment before the events of September 11 and through to its initial deployments into Afghanistan and Iraq. To be a part of the Regiment’s transformation from its initial charter to an agile and elite Special Operations strike force. Although, at the time, during all of this transformation, we were not thinking of that, but just of how we could adapt to the fight at hand and stay relevant to the operational tempo we were faced with.

Through the years I have been a part of several missions that are now well-known operations.

I am sure there is so much more we probably could have added, but these are the highs and lows of what I experienced which I wanted to share. Not everything is great. There are exceptionally proud moments, but also moments of hurt and sorrow (the loss of friends in training and combat).

How did the book come about?

Mir:  Once Nicholas and I had an idea about the book, like Rangers it was ever-evolving, and we diligently created a book proposal and submitted it to a couple of publishers. Marcus came back with an offer which also secured us an excellent agent, Alec Shane of Writers House, who handled difficult and stubborn Rangers like us – well, me - very well.

Nicholas:  Mir and I generated an outline: mostly it was just a chronological timeline of my service and key events in the outline. I still at this point wasn’t even sure there was anyone willing to bite, as I don’t have “Navy SEAL” in my title. But once Mir sent the proposal out, I think Osprey sent a response within a few hours. I was actually shocked that someone thought we had a great story to tell.

How did you write the book?

Mir:  When the contract was signed Nick and I spent way too many hours on the phone, which I recorded, while typing notes simultaneously. This was a long and drawn-out process and we would go over the material a great many times. There was truly a lot of back and forth about clarifications, operational security, and privacy concerns for the Rangers in the book and so forth. Once the manuscript was in shape Nick sent it to the Pentagon for clearance. Ten weeks was promised and passed, and finally, after eight months, at the end of February 2017, we received clearance. What a great day. There were no redactions per se, but we had to remove the names of certain units, which we did. Unfortunately, this delay had pushed the publication date back several times. But ultimately, this was great, because we were lucky to have retired Ranger Colonel Mike Kershaw review the manuscript several times and provide us with some very excellent advice, concerns and suggestions – I think we met most but not all – we are Rangers after all and have strong opinions! While we were rewriting to clarify certain passages, Mike sent the cleared manuscript to retired Ranger General Stan McChrystal for review. He was exceptionally kind in reading it very quickly. Between Mike, Stan, and other Rangers who provided us with endorsements, we felt we had done some justice to the modern Rangers of the 75th Ranger Regiment.

The manuscript went through a number of editorial passes by Marcus and especially Kate Moore, and the production moved through the professional hands of Gemma Gardner, who had to pull off some minor miracles, especially when it came to finalizing the photograph section last minute. I am particularly pleased with the maps detailing operations and am well pleased by the dynamic, perhaps even haunting, cover art. In my opinion we had a great team producing an excellent and very important book in the history of modern Special Operations.

Nicholas:  Mir and I spent several weeks on the phone, with him recording our conversations as I detailed the events of my career, although at first I’m sure that, for Mir, it was like pulling teeth to get me to open up.  We went through several drafts and I think we were at three months to get to this point, and then we sent the manuscript to the Department of Defense for their security review, which was quoted to take no longer than 10 weeks. Eight months later they returned it with a few minor redactions. Then it was through to Marcus Cowper and his staff of great people at Osprey, Kate Moore, Gemma Gardner, and several others, to get our finished product. Even though we missed our original release date by about a year, I think what we ended up with is an outstanding product to give the reader a peek into the Ranger World.

During all of this Mir kept mentioning the “next steps” of someone to write the foreword. He kept circling back to General (Ret.) Stan McChrystal after he had sent it to Colonel (Ret.) Mike Kershaw, and we had got an overall positive from him about what we had put together, but like all things Ranger, Colonel Kershaw did offer constructive criticism, which I greatly appreciate. I was feeling better about letting it be seen by General McChrystal. After General McChrystal had given us a thumbs-up, I felt really good about what we had written. Rangers are ALWAYS the hardest critics of Rangers.