which country first started the thing (SPECIAL FORCES)?

Question

what are the country that first started special forces

Answer 1

The term "Special Forces" has been used and mis-used by the media and the unknowing (especially here in Yahoo answers). Technically there is only ONE Special Forces outfit in the world. They are the U.S. Army Special Forces (a.k.a. Green Berets) of course there are many other "Special Operations" units like the Navy Seals, S.A.S. etc., only one is actually named the Special Forces, thus the tab on the left shoulders inscribed "Special Forces". So to answer your question, it was the United States in the mid 60's under the orders of President JFk.

Answer 2

Pastor of CoRCS - i think you are hugely mistaken as Britain had the SAS in the second world war (1942 by David Stirling, a Scots Guard ) a long time before america had special forces in the 60s.

The first special forces where the SAS. closely followed by the SBS ( special boat service ). Ninjas and all that were not special forces and they wouldnt claim to be either. If you put SAS into wiki it says the SAS where the first and is the standard of special forces every other country attemps to aspire to, including the USA special forces.

Dont know what the people below have been smoking though because if special forces means a elite force capable of deploying on land, air and sea at any time. i again point out that the SAS were the first special forces. Oh and by the way the SAS are special forces. Thats how they and others describe them.

Answer 3

They were called heros in ancient times. Generally wars were fought with mass armies since the amount of different weapons were few. The bow became a major weapon along with the calvary, both of which were major specialties (and tactics generally has the main force protecting the archers with the calvary trying to take out the other guy's archers). There were different kinds of bows. Some were developped for light short range killing (when American Indians got the horse, some could ride upside down underneath the horse's neck and still accurately fire 20 arrows a minute), long range (there is a Japanese art of hitting less than human size targets at 300 yards) and power (one type of bow could pierce chain mail at 100 yards). When the gun came along, the new special forces carried the gun (for instance the musketeers). After the firearm became common, the special forces were snipers. Ships had snipers on them to pick off enemy commanders. In WWI, the German snipers were give thick lead body armor because they were said to be extremely valuable.

It really took explosives, the parachute (to quickly get behind enemy lines) and the radio (to call in fire support) to create the modern special forces and that didn't develope till WWII.

Answer 4

Every country had their Special Forces the moment they started a military.. There would always be a talented person in a handful of people.

There were Assassins who would assassinate Kings and Emperors and such. Special groups who specialize in special tactics and such as the Knights Templar etc...

But I think the British SAS, since I HEARD that they were the most experienced and been here longer.. Samurais and Spartans were general infantry just like the Marines, and Samurais were usually stand alone soldiers who just worked to defend land owners, and such until later they became soldiers of Kings..

But you really have to say what kind of "Special Forces" since it has CHANGED A LOT, now it's counter-terrorism and hostage-rescue and such.. Back in the old days it was probably people who carried the flag or ordered commands maybe used special weapons, I think everyone was trained the same back in the old days or weren't trained at all.. Like back in the OLD DAYS, probably around Samurais, ancient Rome and Greece.. etc..

Answer 5

Wow... just... wow.

The first country to have special forces was NOT america, britain, japan, or the greeks. To clear some misconceptions:

1) America - Special Forces and Special Ops... same types of missions. Why nit pick over nothing?
2) Britain - your country is old... but not that old. Get over yourselves
3) Japan - Samurai were noble Cavalry, archers, spearmen, and swordsmen who were augmented by peasants. Their modern day equivalent is an officer... not a special forces operator.
4) Greece - hoplites were elite regular units, but they were too heavy to be considered special forces.
5) For All - a special forces operator is defined by the mission roles they fulfill, NOT by the fact that they fight well. A "hero" or "champion" of a unit is not by default a special forces troop.

To answer, then: the first mention of successful employment of special forces occurs in the oldest military treatise in existance. 500 years before Christ, Sun Tzu denotes how to employ special forces for combat in his piece "The Art of War." Ergo, the first nation(s) to employ special forces in combat was(were) the warring states of ancient china.

Answer 6

The answer is Britain's Special Air Service (SAS) when talking about what we consider special forces in the modern day. My definition is a group trained with a particular skill set for a specific purpose that operates largely free of the normal military chain of command by participating in unconventional warfare. Assassins are not the same because they are not a force (unless you really believe that army line about the "army of one") What has been mentioned before about samurai, and Spartans is not "special." Everyone is Sparta was trained to fight because of their culture, and when they did fight they fought as an army. Samurai were professional soldiers (really good professional soldiers) and would take part in conventional warfare of the time. American colonists in the Revolutionary War did fight with guerilla tactics and were "unconverntional" but they were really just a bunch of smart yahoos with guns with little or no training.

Answer 7

Ancient Greek had hoplites, but they were an elite force, not a special force because they fought during battles in open field.
During WW1 Italian Arditi and similar German troops infiltrated in enemy lines and trenches. And Italian Alpini and Austrian Alpenjager fought battles on high mountains(more than 3000 m too) in the highest battlefields of the history.
In WW2 British SAS invented modern special (ground) forces while Italian Navy's Incursori(GOI) invented modern special forces for naval operations (similar to US Navy Seal's). Those men sunk the British battleships Valiant and Queen Elizabeth in Alexandria in 1941.

Answer 8

The first specialist forces where british.The commandos date back to the boer war and became prominent in the second world war when the SAS, the original of the special forces as they are known today where created in north africa.There are many units around the world who loosely use the special forces tag like the U.S Green Berets, who are more a specialist force than Special Forces. The U.S true special forces are the Delta Force who where directly based on the SAS.By true special forces i mean troops who carry out operations on air, sea, land, deep insertion and counter terrorism etc.

Answer 9

The Pastor hit the nail on the head. Lancs Lad I think you missed it completely, read his answer again. If the asker is asking about Special Forces, the answer is the United States. Yes the S.A.S. has been around longer, and yes they are Special Ops, but they are not the Special Forces, that distinction belongs to the Green Berets.

Answer 10

Answer 1 hit the point.

Special Forces is like a stealthy assassin serving a particular faction. Its hard to say which country was the first to use spec ops through out history.