from Wiki:
[edit] Background
Scientist Geoffrey Pyke, of the British Combined Operations Command, envisioned the creation of a small, élite military force capable of fighting behind enemy lines in winter conditions. To create a commando unit that could be landed, by sea or air, to occupied Norway, Romania, and the Italian Alps on sabotage missions of hydroelectric plants and oil fields. In Norway, the chief industrial threat was the creation, at Rjukan, of the heavy water used in the German atomic weapon research. In Romania were the strategically important Ploesti oil fields that met most of the Germans' needs, and Italian hydroelectric plants powered most of south German industry. Pyke added that a tracked vehicle be developed, especially for the unit, capable of carrying them and their equipment at high speed across snow-covered terrain.[1]
In March 1942 Pyke proposed his idea, which he had named Project Plough, to Lord Louis Mountbatten, Chief of Combined Operations Headquarters (COHQ) that Allied commandos be parachuted into the Norwegian mountains to establish a base on the Jostedalsbreen, a large glacier plateau, for guerrilla actions against the German army of occupation. These troops would be equipped with Pyke's proposed snow vehicle. Pyke persuaded Mountbatten that such a force would be invulnerable in its glacier strongholds and would tie down large numbers of German troops trying to dislodge it.[2]
However, given the demands upon both Combined Operations and British industry, it was decided to offer it instead to the US at the Chequers Conference of March 1942. General George Marshall, Chief of Staff of the United States Army, accepted the suggestion for Project Plough and since no suitable vehicle existed, in April 1942 the US government started asking automobile manufacturers to look into such a design. Studebaker subsequently created the T-15 cargo carrier, which later became the M29 Weasel.[1]
In May 1942 the concept papers for Plough were scrutinized by Lt. Colonel Robert T. Frederick, a young officer in the Operations Division of the US General Staff. His report identified many drawbacks with it, including the unit's organization and how it was to withdraw once its mission had been completed.
The first officer picked to lead the unit, Lt. Col. H.R. Johnson, resigned as soon as he met the eccentric Pyke. His replacement was suggested by Mountbatten and assigned by Eisenhower: Lt. Col. Frederick himself was given the task of creating a fighting unit for Project Plough and was promoted to colonel to command it, and by July 1942 had eased Pyke out of the picture.
Colonel Frederick enjoyed a very high priority in obtaining equipment and training areas. Originally it had been intended due to its winter warfare mission that the unit should be equally made up of American, Canadian, and Norwegian troops. However, a lack of suitable Norwegians saw this changed to half US and half Canadian.[3]
In July 1942 the Canadian Minister of National Defence approved the assignment of 697 officers and enlisted men for the project under the initial disguise that they were forming the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion (1CPB). Shortly after, due to the decision to raise a parachute school in Canada under the 1CPB designation, the Canadian volunteers served under the unofficial designation of 2nd Canadian Parachute Battalion. This was in name only, the 2CPB did not legally exist. ( The Canadians would not be legally made into a unit of the Canadian Army until April-May 1943 under the official designation, 1st Canadian Special Service Battalion ) They would be paid by the Canadian government but be supplied with uniforms, equipment, food, shelter and travel expenses by the US. They also remained subject to their own army's code of discipline. The US volunteers for the force consisted initially of officers from Fort Belvoir and Benning and enlisted men recruited by advertising at Army posts, stating that preference was to be given to men previously employed as lumberjacks, forest rangers, hunters, game wardens, and the like. Frederick then named this force the First Special Service Force (FSSF).
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WI Operation PLOUGH had actually gone ahead in Norway ?