Thomas George Prince, MM (October 25, 1915 – November 25, 1977) was an Indigenous Canadian war hero and the most decorated soldier in the First Special Service Force or Devil's Brigade, an elite American-Canadian commando unit, during World War II. He is Canada's most decorated First Nations soldier, serving in World War II and the Korean War. Prince was one of only three Canadians to receive both the Canadian Military Medal and the American Silver Star during World War II. Prince's military deeds as a scout and as a forward combatant were unique and of major strategic importance. He has been described as "perhaps Canada's greatest soldier".Triumph at Kapyong, Dan Bjarnason. Dundurn Press (March 2, 2011). P. 77.
Prince was descended from chiefs of the Peguis First Nation (Saulteux or Ojibwe). Prince's grandfather had negotiated treaty rights in Manitoba with representatives of The Crown. Prince himself would also represent First Nations concerns in Ottawa as Chairman of both the Manitoba Indian Association (currently Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs) and the First Nations of Canada national delegation. He advocated for the abolition of the governing Indian Act in Canada and proposed respect for the traditional Crown treaties as the basis of First Nations rights. Prince's position, although considered radical at the time, has been vindicated in subsequent decades by Supreme Court of Canada rulings in support of the Crown treaties and is now accepted as government policy. Early life Prince was born on 25 October 1915 in Petersfield, Manitoba. His family moved to the Brokenhead Ojibwe Nation, near present-day Scanterbury, Manitoba, in 1921. He was the son of Henry George Prince (1877-1944), a chief of the Saulteaux Peguis First Nation, and Arabella Louisa Chief (1883-1978), and was one of eleven children in the family.
Prince was a great-grandson of the Saulteaux leader Peguis,“A Hell of a Warrior”: Remembering Sergeant Thomas George Prince. P. Whitney Lackenbauer1. P. 60. https://www.ufv.ca/jhb/Volume_1/Volume_1_Lackenbauer.pdf who, as a very young chief, in 1797 led his people on a long migration from the Sault Ste. Marie region west toward the Red River and Lake Winnipeg area. Peguis, who lived until 1864,"Manitoba History: St. Peter's and the Interpretation of the Agriculture of Manitoba's Aboriginal People". https://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/mb_history/18/manitobaaboriginalagriculture.shtml. Retrieved 2024-04-19. pledged loyalty to the British Crown during the War of 1812. In 1817 he signed the first treaty (Selkirk Treaty) with Lord Selkirk, who was a principal owner of the Hudson's Bay Company, granting land along the Red River to the Selkirk settlers.
Prince's grandfather, Chief Henry Prince, also known as Mis-koo-kenew ("Red Eagle"), was a son of Peguis and served as a principal negotiator and signatory of Treaty 1 at Lower Fort Garry in 1871.
Prince attended the Elkhorn Residential School in Elkhorn, Manitoba, where he completed Grade 8 and studied agricultural science and machinery. The school was part of Canada's residential school system, a network of government-funded, church-run institutions.
In the early 1930s, during the height of the Great Depression, Prince aspired to become a lawyer, but his family experienced serious financial hardship. At the age of sixteen he left school and began working, taking a variety of manual labour jobs, most often working as a tree feller.
Warrior tradition Prince grew up in a family and community where military service and warrior traditions were intrinsic and historic. Members of his extended family had taken part in earlier conflicts involving British and Canadian forces. His grandfather, Chief Henry Prince, had led the Peguis First Nation to serve on the Crown’s side during the Red River Rebellion of 1870, and a relative, Chief William Prince, a first cousin of Prince’s father, had led the Nile Expedition Voyageurs during the British relief expedition sent to assist General Charles Gordon at the Siege of Khartoum. During the First World War, other members of the Prince family served overseas with Canadian forces in France.
Prince was also shaped by the traditions of his Ojibwe community. Ojibwe and Algonquian warrior traditions emphasized stealth, patience, and individual skill in combat. Rather than relying primarily on large formations, warriors often depended on careful observation, quiet movement, and surprise.
Prince learned many of these skills early in life. Growing up at Brokenhead Ojibway Nation near the eastern shore of Lake Winnipeg, he spent much of his childhood hunting and travelling through the forests and wetlands surrounding the community. These experiences helped him develop strong abilities in tracking, stealth, and survival.
His father also taught him marksmanship. Prince later recalled that he could place five bullets through a target the size of a playing card at a distance of about 100 m (330 ft).
Some of Prince's actions during the war were later compared to the traditional practice of counting coup, in which a warrior demonstrated bravery by approaching or touching an enemy without causing harm, sometimes when the enemy was asleep. Such actions were intended to shake up and frighten an enemy and avoid serious combat. Fellow soldiers later described occasions when Prince entered enemy positions at night and left messages or removed equipment to show that he had been there undetected.
World War II
Enlistment As a teenager in the early 1930s, Prince joined the Royal Canadian Army Cadets, where he developed an interest in military life and discipline. He later recalled, "As soon as I put my uniform on, I felt like a better man. I even tried to wear it to class."
When the Second World War began on 1 September 1939, thousands of First Nations men volunteered for service in the Canadian armed forces. Historians estimate that more than 3,000 Status First Nations men served during the war. Given that the total Status First Nations population in Canada at the time was fewer than 100,000 people, this represented a significant proportion of the adult male population.
Prince attempted to enlist in the Canadian Army several times but was rejected during the recruitment process. Indigenous applicants sometimes faced barriers to enlistment, including discrimination from recruiters, and they were not subject to any conscription or required to serve in a military capacity.
Prince persisted and was eventually accepted into the Canadian Army in June 1940, at a crisis point in the war when the British and Canadian forces had suffered catastrophic defeat in the Fall of France.
Early service in Britain Prince was immediately sent overseas to Britain in June 1940. He served with the Royal Canadian Engineers and trained as a sapper. Sappers were combat engineers responsible for tasks such as building bridges, clearing obstacles, and placing explosives during military operations.
Much of the work assigned to Canadian engineers in Britain involved construction projects, maintenance of defensive positions, and training exercises rather than front-line combat. For many soldiers the early years of the war were marked by routine work and long periods of waiting. Prince reportedly grew restless with these duties and later remarked that he had not enlisted simply to "drink tea" in England. In February 1941 he was promoted to lance corporal.
Outside his regular duties Prince took part in army athletics, particularly running and boxing. These competitions were common among troops stationed in Britain and helped maintain morale and physical fitness. Prince proved both strong and fast, and the endurance he developed through athletics later proved valuable during commando training.
Secret recruitment and selection In July 1942, Prince volunteered for the 2nd Canadian Parachute Battalion. This designation was used to disguise the true reason for the recruitment of parachute volunteers in the UK at that time: the United States and Canada had begun the formation of a special force to conduct secret sabotage and raids against German deuterium plants or heavy water production being used in atomic weapons research in German-occupied Norway.""Wars should be fought in better country than this"". arsof-history.org. Retrieved 2024-04-19. Men were recruited in Canada and in the overseas Canadian Army in Britain for this unit.
Prince reported to the parachute training school at RAF Ringway near Manchester, UK, one of the main airborne training centres used by Allied forces. The course was physically demanding and the selection process was strict. Of the one hundred volunteers who began the program, only nine were chosen to continue.
Formation of the First Special Service Force In September 1942 Prince returned to North America and travelled to Fort Benning, Georgia, where he joined a new joint American–Canadian commando formation that was being organized in secrecy. The unit would become known as the First Special Service Force (FSSF), later nicknamed the "Devil's Brigade".
Because of the secrecy surrounding the project, Prince and the other volunteers were transported by train to a remote training camp near Helena, Montana. The train windows were blacked out so that the soldiers could not see their destination.
The Force eventually numbered 1,800 men, divided equally between American and Canadian volunteers. It was commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Robert T. Frederick, the American officer who had overseen its creation and developed its unconventional operational doctrine.
Prince was among the Canadian soldiers selected for the unit because of his physical ability and fieldcraft, qualities considered essential for the demanding reconnaissance and commando missions the Force was expected to undertake.
Training and reconnaissance role At the Helena training camp Prince underwent the intensive preparation designed for the Force. The program included instruction in demolition and explosives, stealth reconnaissance, hand-to-hand combat, amphibious operations, mountain warfare, rock climbing, and skiing. Members of the Force were also trained to operate and disassemble German weapons so that captured equipment could be used during combat if necessary.
Prince quickly distinguished himself during this training. Because of his endurance, stealth, and experience moving through difficult terrain, he was assigned the role of reconnaissance scout within the Force. Scouts operated ahead of the main unit to observe enemy positions, report on troop movements, and identify routes for attacks.
These assignments often required scouts to work in very small teams or alone deep behind enemy lines. The work demanded patience, careful observation, and the ability to move without detection—skills Prince had developed earlier in life while hunting and travelling through the forests around Lake Winnipeg.
Italy campaign and reconnaissance combat missions
Winter Line operations In late 1943, Prince and the Force were finally deployed in combat. The unit had originally been created for sabotage missions against German heavy water facilities in German-occupied Norway. Before the Force could be sent there, however, Norwegian commandos destroyed the targets. With the original mission cancelled, the unit considered the possibility of disbandment. To preserve the unit, into which a major investment of training had been expended, Frederick proposed that the Force be used in front-line combat operations against the Japanese.
Prince and the other soldiers were first sent to the Aleutian Islands in Alaska for possible action against Japanese forces. By the time they arrived, however, the Japanese had already withdrawn, and no combat operations were executed. Soon afterward the unit received a new assignment.