AVOIDING THE OBVIOUS
WHILE IN FRANCE DONALD TRUMP FAILED TO SHOW UP TO THE US CEMETERY WHERE SOME 2,300 US TROOPS INCLUDING HARLEM HELLFIGHTERS, AN AFRICANAMERICAN REGIMENT THAT FOUGHT IN WORLD WAR I AND II, ARE BURIED
While in France last Saturday to mark the centennial of the World War I armistice, signed at 11.00 on the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918, Donald Trump scrapped a visit to the US cemetery near the site of the bloody Battle of Belleau Wood. The White House blamed “scheduling and logistical difficulties caused by the weather” for Trump’s last moment decision to skip the visit, prompting fresh protests over his bad behaviour. Some 2,300 US troops are buried at the cemetery he shunned.
In June this year, the US marine corps commemorated the threeweek killing spree at a former French hunting preserve. Handto-hand fighting took place in an overgrown woodland often wrapped in German mustard gas. There were about 4,000 US casualties, 1,000 killed among the highly celebrated marines. Instead of attending the solemn commemoration at the cemetery, about an hour’s drive from Paris, he dispatched a delegation and sent the marine corps a message on its birthday.
The marine corps came into its own as a key fighting force at Belleau Wood. US General John Pershing called the encounter the most important fought by the US since the civil war. One would have thought glory-hungry Trump would have braved a light rain beneath an umbrella to honour the dead at this cemetery. But then Trump dodged the draft for the Vietnam war.
Perhaps Trump — whose administration has revived racism in the US — found out that among the largely ignored combat troops at the Battle of Belleau Wood were “Harlem Hellfighters,” Africanamericans who shortly before this event had been assigned to the French army because many white US soldiers refused to serve alongside black men. Since the French deployed soldiers from Sub-saharan and North African colonies, their soldiers managed to get along with African-americans who distinguished themselves in this and other World War I battles. The French called the Africanamericans the “Men of Bronze.” The Germans dubbed them “Hellfighters.”
African-americans were meant to be recruited under a 2013 law into the New York National Guard but this did not happen until 2016 when men from Harlem, San Juan Hill, and the Williamsburg district of Brooklyn were inducted into the 15th Regiment of the guard. This unit subsequently became the 369th US Infantry Regiment. Recruits were not trained until
July 2017 when they were taught the basics: marching, respect for officers, and guard duty. The regiment, based in New York, was used to protect railroad tracks, construction sites and other locations. The black troops also performed manual labour. They suffered severe racial abuse and discrimination by white colleagues and the public.
Recruiting for the unit gained momentum when James Reese Europe, a well-known composer and conductor joined the regiment and $10,000 was raised to form a band. The regimental band became popular in France by introducing jazz to the French.
Once in France, the Africanamericans were received with hostility by the marines. However,