African-American Troops During WWII

dgmitchell · #1 (**permalink**) December 13th, 2008, 11:16 PM

(I don't think this link has been posted before so I shall share it here.)
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The American soldiers hemmed in on the east bank of the Rhine River were desperately protecting their tenuous Remagen bridgehead, resisting repeated German attempts to infiltrate their perimeter. Fighting throughout the night, sometimes hand to hand, the men doggedly held their position, firing flares, hurling grenades and shooting wildly at shadowy figures as the enemy counterattacked repeatedly up the deep-cut draws and forested ridges above the town of Erpel, directly across the Rhine from Remagen.
For the men of K Company, 394th Infantry Regiment, 99th Infantry Division, the situation was dire enough on the night of March 13, 1945, for them to call in friendly artillery on their positions in an effort to shake off their tormentors. Almost immediately, fire from American 155mm and 105mm batteries on the west bank of the river lit the blackened sky like distant lightning, the shells’ thunderous concussions reverberating up the steep ravines to the ridgeline where K Company was dug in. . . . .

African American Platoons in World War II » HistoryNet

ghost_of_war · #2 (**permalink**) December 14th, 2008, 08:18 PM

Good find.

Za Rodinu · #3 (**permalink**) December 14th, 2008, 08:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dgmitchell

Almost immediately, fire from American 155mm and 105mm batteries on the west bank of the river lit the blackened sky like distant lightning,

There's discrimination for you! If they were firing in protection of whites the guns would have started immediately, not "almost" immediately!

VeteranGunner · #4 (**permalink**) December 20th, 2008, 01:54 AM

they went off and saw the world... soon to be a great step forward for the u.s. (civil rights movement) back home

bigfun · #5 (**permalink**) December 20th, 2008, 05:06 PM

I wish I could remember where I met the guy who told me his Father served on "The Red Ball Express"! He was black as well. If I ever run into him, I'll get the story up here.

JCFalkenbergIII · #6 (**permalink**) December 20th, 2008, 05:24 PM

"Colored" Cavalry in WWII

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skywalker · #7 (**permalink**) January 8th, 2009, 04:43 AM

Quote:

As far as the average American was concerned, World War II was a white man’s war. In the hundreds of photographs, films and histories that have documented the conflict, blacks are seldom depicted in heroic roles. Even the comics of the era leave out blacks. Bill Mauldin’s famed cartoon characters Willie and Joe were white. Blacks, it seemed, were merely adjuncts to victory, primarily occupying the unglamorous jobs of truck driver and stevedore.

Is that not what they were predominately tasked too do ?

JCFalkenbergIII · #8 (**permalink**) January 8th, 2009, 10:22 PM

Black Gunners at Bastogne
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