“The Houdini Club” by Mir Bahmanyar describes the formation and exploits of “Darby’s Rangers” during World War II. Mir’s father served in the Iranian military until the 1960’s. His family immigrated to the US when Mir was fifteen years old. He served with the 2nd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment.
After being medically discharged from the Army, Mir decided to pursue a career in Hollywood. While there he was introduced to Phil Stern, one of Hollywood’s most famous photographers. During World War II Phil served as the combat photographer for the 1st Ranger Battalion. Interaction with Phil inspired Mir to write “The Houdini Club.”
The book introduces us to the 1st, 3rd & 4th Ranger Battalions. They fought in North Africa, Sicily and mainland Italy where ultimately two of the three battalions were wiped out by the Germans.
As the founder of the 1st Ranger Battalion, William Darby is considered the father of the modern day Rangers. He was looking to model the Rangers after British Commando units and only recruited the “toughest and best soldiers” available.
“The Houdini Club” recounts some of the Darby Ranger’s battles, including the Battle of Sened Station where they used textbook commando tactics in securing the objective in only 20 minutes. Much of the fighting took place with bayonets and pistols.
There are many examples of soldiers who fulfilled their motto “Rangers Lead the Way” by stepping up to lead even when their commanders were killed or wounded.
Mir and I agree that the Rangers were often misused in those early days and in many ways became the victims of their own success, being assigned large group combat instead of surgical special missions.
William Darby was killed in combat on April 30, 1945. Two days later the Germans in Italy surrendered.