--- title: "5 unbelievable missions of Canada’s most legendary native soldier" date: "2019-01-28" modified: "2020-10-22" authors: - name: "Blake Stilwell" job_title: "Editor-In-Chief, Air Force Veteran" link: "https://www.wearethemighty.com/authors/blake/" url: "https://www.wearethemighty.com/mighty-history/5-unbelievable-missions-of-canadas-most-legendary-native-soldier/" categories: - "History" - "War History" - "World War II" --- # 5 unbelievable missions of Canada’s most legendary native soldier ![]() Tommy Prince was a member of the Ojibwa, one of Canada's First Nations tribes (what the United States calls Native Americans or American Indians), who tried many times to join the Canadian Army during WWII. --- Amazingly, he was rejected more than once because of racial discrimination. If they had only known that [Tommy Prince was a one-man wrecking crew](). ![]() Prince [became a sapper first](), then a paratrooper, and a member of the 1st Canadian Special Service Battalion. Eventually, he was sent to a special forces unit, the 1st Special Service Force — a combined special forces operation with the United States known to the enemy as "the Devil's Brigade." These are the unbelievable missions that helped Tommy Prince become one of Canada's most celebrated soldiers, the country's most decorated indigenous veteran, and the most decorated member of the Devil's Brigade: ### 5. Attacking an impenetrable mountain fortress. The Italian Campaign was young in 1943, but the Special Service Force was assigned to go behind the enemy lines at the Battle of Monte La Difensa. It was a steep, mountainous fortress that already repelled three full-scale Allied assaults. The Devil's Brigade changed the situation in a hurry. ![]() Prince walked across the entire front line near the village of Majo, infiltrated every single machine gun bunker, and killed everyone inside. [Without making a sound](). When the Allies advanced the next morning, the machine guns were silent. ### 4. Reporting on German movements right in front of them. In 1944, Prince was in Italy running a communications line. He was reporting enemy movements back to the Allied forces near Littoria. As a Nazi artillery position fired on his allies, Tommy Prince was about 200 meters away, watching every move the Nazis made and reporting it to his command. ![]() The comms wire [was accidentally cut]() during the battle. Prince disguised himself as a farmer and began to work the land. He shouted curses at both Axis and Allied troops. When his work took him to the cut in the wire, he bent over to "tie his shoe," repaired the wire, and pressed on with his 24-hour long watch. ### 3. Walking three days to fight an entire enemy camp, then capturing everyone. Just after the start of Operation Dragoon, the Summer 1944 invasion of Southern France, Prince was assigned to locate an enemy camp in the nearby mountains. He [walked across the terrain for three days]() with little food or water to find it. Once he did, he walked back to the Allied lines only to lead the assault force on the camp. ![]() *Amazing how much awesome can be packed into one photo.* The small assault team captured some 1,000 enemy prisoners. He was called to Buckingham Palace, where King George VI presented him with the Military Medal and the American Silver Star. ### 2. Rescuing the French Resistance along the way. As Prince hiked around Southern France, he ran into resistance partisans in a firefight with some Germans. To level the playing field, the Canadian started to pick off as many Nazis as he could with just a rifle and his elevated position. The young Native was an expert marksman from childhood, so the Nazis were easy pickings. ![]() They quickly broke off the fight and ran. When Prince came down to talk to the Frenchmen, they told him [his fire was so intense](), thought they were rescued by an Allied infantry company. ### 1. Using Moccasins to sneak into German barracks...just to show them he could. His compatriots in the Devil's Brigade knew Prince carried moccasins in his kit bag. Using these instead of his boots allowed Prince to sneak into anywhere he wanted, including enemy barracks. At night, he would enter Nazi barracks as they slept, steal their shoes (sometimes off their feet), and slit the throats of every third soldier. ![]() *Even only one-third of the camp is a lot of dead people.* When they awoke in the morning, the Nazis found [their shoes missing and their friends dead](). That's how the enemy knew the Devil's Brigade was operating in the area. ## Author Blake Stilwell is We Are The Mighty's Editor-in-Chief, covering military news, entertainment, and history, along with veteran education, employment and entrepreneurship. He is a former U.S. Air Force combat cameraman with degrees in Graphic Design, Television and Film, International Relations, Public Relations, Business Management and Middle Eastern Affairs. After leaving the military, he began working in film and television production in New York and Los Angeles, work that included ABC News, NBC Olympics, and HBO Sports. He then spent two years in Washington with White House Communications, before joining the Near East Foundation. At NEF he served as an International Development Fellow, then Communications Officer, and finally, Media Officer for the Middle East and Africa. Based in the Palestinian Territory, he coordinated strategic communications between eight country offices, international media, and government and NGO partners. He began a career focused on writing and editing in 2015 with We Are The Mighty. He left in 2019 for Military.com, but returned as Editor-in-Chief in 2025. Blake’s work has been seen on CBS News, Fox News, CBC, The Chicago Tribune, Task & Purpose, Military Times, Recoil, Skillset, American History, and was shockingly even used in a Supreme Court argument. He is an avid traveler and small business owner in Ohio, where he spends most of his energy fixing up a very old house. ### Author social links [Facebook]() [Twitter]() [Instagram]() [LinkedIn]()