Flying colours
STIRRING STORIES OF THE 8MILLION FORGOTTEN WW2 HEROES
D-DAY SAVIOURS
THE 320th Barrage Balloon Battalion were the only all African-American combat force to storm the beaches of Normandy 80 years ago on D-Day, June 6, 1944.
Their dangerous job was to set up hydrogen-filled balloons rigged with explosives to thwart German dive bombers attacking the invading 160,000 Allied infantry.
Heading for the shore of Omaha Beach in landing craft, amid shelling and machine gun fire, Waverly Woodson Jr recalled the “bedlam” of the action and was himself wounded by shrapnel.
But his unit bravely dug in on the beach and, that night, raised their balloons.
Only a single German plane would get through their barrage, yet no one from the battalion was awarded the US Medal of Honor.
TANK WARRIORS
THE motto of the 761st Tank Battalion, nicknamed the Black Panthers, was “Come Out Fighting.” And their African-American crews certainly lived up to it.
With their force of 50 Sherman tanks they would battle a crack SS Panzer division, taking part in over 183 days of continuous combat.
They proved crucial to US General George S. Patton in turning the tide of the ferocious Battle of the Bulge in early 1945, forcing the Germans back, despite taking heavy casualties.
Sergeant Floyd Dade remembers “battling like hell”.
Sadly, they struggled to get recognition on returning home.
Sgt Johnnie Stevens found that a bus driver in Georgia refused to let him board simply because he was black.
GREAT ESCAPES
IN May 1940, an army of 338,000 soldiers were miraculously plucked from the beaches at Dunkirk, allowing the Allies to fight on in the face of defeat.
A Royal Indian army unit called Force K6 had been in France using mules to deliver supplies to the frontline and under Major Akbar Khan they battled their way back to the coast. Then, the 300-strong force helped others evacuate, finally getting across the Channel after six days.
One British officer said: “During the chaos (of the withdrawal), they maintained the discipline, turnout and self-respect which many around them had lost, enhancing the reputation of the Indian army.”
Other members of K6, captured by the Germans, escaped to flee over the mountains to neutral Spain.
PEARL HARBOR HERO
ON December 7, 1941, Japan launched a devastating surprise air attack on the naval base of Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, bringing the US into World War Two.
More than 2,400 people were killed, with 19 US warships sunk – including four of eight battleships. As the battle raged, brave African-American Doris “Dorie” Miller, a 22-year-old cook aboard the USS West Virginia, grabbed an antiaircraft gun and – despite no training – shot down up to six Japanese aircraft.
Awarded the US Navy Cross, he
sadly killed in action two years later.
TOP BOMBER
BORN in Trinidad, Ulric Cross joined the RAF in 1941 aged 24 and became a squadron leader, flying 80 missions over Nazi-occupied Europe during the war.
As a navigator in a Mosquito, he was a member of the Pathfinder Force, an elite squadron sometimes flywas ing just 50ft over targets. His plane was once forced to fly 500 miles on one engine after it had helped to prevent 200 bombers from being shot down in a bombing raid over Germany in 1943.
Awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, he became the highest ranking and most decorated
Caribbean airman in the RAF in the war. He later became a judge.
HEROINE SPY
A MUSLIM Indian princess, Noor Inayat Khan, served in the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force before being recruited into Britain’s Special Operations Executive as a secret agent.
French-speaking Noor was sent by the SOE to Paris in 1943 to work as an undercover radio operator with the Resistance.
Code-named Madeleine, she helped 30 downed Allied airmen escape the clutches of the Germans but was eventually caught by the Gestapo herself.
Shot by the Nazis at Dachau concentration camp in 1944, aged 30, Noor was posthumously awarded the George Cross.
●Erased: World War II Heroes Of Colour premieres tonight at 8pm on National Geographic.