War of Colours
With 1.2 million Black men enlisted during the Second World War, they were still blocked from many branches, as they could not have a superior rank, fly a plane or even occupy a place anywhere in America, if White people would be present, like a restaurant or a barrack.
In fact, Black people were considered, at the time, ‘from below’, ‘animalistic’, ‘still slaves’, inferior, and facing continuously segregation, hostility, violence, discrimination and racism, so when those Black men and women were confronted with the perspective of seeing other countries and cultures, they endured persecution and humiliation whilst joining the military, encouraged by the possibility of travelling to other countries.
Unlike their fellow American comrades, who were able to fulfil any position offered by the military, from commanders to combat troops to cooks, Black GIs were largely consigned to service and supply roles.
Black construction engineers were among some of the first US Army Air Force units to arrive in Britain in 1942. They were tasked with building the airfields from which vast fleets of American bombers and fighters would be launched as part of the Allied aerial campaign ‘.
‘African Americans served bravely and with distinction in every theatre of World War II, while simultaneously struggling for their own Civil rights from -the worlds- greatest democracy. Although the United States Armed Forces were officially segregated until 1948, WWII laid the foundation for post-war integration of the military. In 1941 fewer than 4,000 African Americans were serving in the military and only twelve African Americans had become officers. By 1945, more than 1.2 million African Americans would be serving in uniform on the Home Front, in Europe, and the Pacific (including thousands of African American women in the Women’s auxiliaries
“The experience was very dispiriting for a lot of Black soldiers,” says Matthew Delmont, a history professor at Dartmouth College and author of Black Quotidian: Everyday History in African American Newspapers. “The kind of treatment they received by white officers in army bases in the United States was horrendous. They described being in slave-like conditions and being treated like animals. They were called racial epithets quite regularly and just not afforded respect either as soldiers or human beings.”
Because the military didn’t think African Americans were fit for combat or leadership positions, they were mostly relegated to labour and service units. Working as cooks and mechanics, building roads and ditches, and unloading supplies from trucks and airplanes were common tasks for Black soldiers. And for the few who did make officer rank, they could only lead other Black men, as White soldiers would refuse to obey to any order from a Black soldier, whatever rank he would hold.
As casualties mounted among white soldiers toward the final year of the war, the military were forced to include African Americans as infantrymen, officers, ‘tankers’ (tank crew) and pilots, in addition to remaining invaluable in supply divisions.
From August 1944 to November 1944, the Red Ball Express, a unit of mostly Black drivers delivered gasoline, ammunition, food, mechanical parts and medical supplies to General George Patton’s Third Army in France, driving up to 400 miles on narrow roads in the dead of night without headlights to avoid detection by the Germans.
Many went through areas up North, departing from Hull and other Yorkshire areas.
After World War II officially ended on September 2, 1945, Black soldiers returned home to the United States facing violent white mobs of those who resented African Americans in uniform and perceived them as a threat to the social order of Jim Crow.
At the same time, those that had experienced living without threats and in friendship with British people, could no longer cope with the daily humiliations and living as second class citizens.
In addition to racial violence, Black soldiers were often denied benefits guaranteed under the G.I. Bill, the sweeping legislation that provided tuition assistance, job placement, and home and business loans to veterans. (Source https://www.history.com/news/black-soldiers-world-war-ii-discrimination), and of the hundreds of Medals of Honor given out during World War II, not a single one went to a black soldier, even though more than 1 million African-Americans served in the conflict.
The troops were segregated and completely ostracised by their White counterparts.
The first relevant mark in the journey to be accepted as equals, was, therefore, the right of being accepted in the military.
The second one was the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944, when General Eisenhower accepted the advice from its deputy commander, Lieutenant General John C. H. Lee, to use the African American servicemen in the ETOUSA, the European theatre, to replace the severely hit White troops. The black troops were, then, divided in 53 platoons, but under the command of a white sergeant and a white officer, and became part of the larger battalions of White men.
As General Patton bluntly declared, “Who the hell asked for color? I don’t care what color you are as long as you go up there and kill those Krauts.”
And so they did, as the African-American still segregated combat units – pilots, tank units, infantrymen – were as good as any other.
Photo Black Members of a tank unit national archive https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/stillpix/111-sc/Batch0003/111-SC-194874.jpg
Photo downloaded folder national archive black gun crew training tank destroyer https://catalog.archives.gov/id/178140834
