Blacks on the beaches
African American G.I.s were critical to victory at Normandy
Somewhere between unknown, little known and forgotten — as reflected in the 75th anniversary commemorations of the hellon-earth D-Day battles on French beaches June 6, 1944 — is the heroism of African American G.I.s in the invasion of Normandy and the defeat of the Nazis in World War II.
Even before there was a United States of America, black men figured in white men’s military engagements. On the southwest coast of Florida in 1513 arrived Congolese Juan Garrido — regarded as the first African in North America — with Juan Ponce de Leon. The conquistadors sought gold, sex and slaves before the Calusa natives evicted them pretty handily.
Around these parts in 1758, when the French blew up Fort Duquesne and fled, blacks — free and enslaved, militia and nonmilitary — rushed in with British Gen. John Forbes to establish Pittsburgh at the fork of the three rivers. Either as colonists or citizens, the Americans would thereafter fight with the French in mutual support following the French and Indian War — the war that made America, we Pittsburghers call it. In future military conflicts, the French and Americans, as President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron somewhat inelegantly agreed on this past June 6, conducted war as “partners.”
By the time the British Colonists in America were fed up with the homeland controlling their lot in life, self-liberated African American slave Crispus Attucks — armed with a stick — was fired upon by British soldiers in the 1770 Boston Massacre. He was the first to die in the American Revolution, a black slave who died in a revolution that in 1783 ended in
liberation from tyranny for Americans who were white men, thereby enabling them to practice tyranny against Americans who were not.
In the 160-odd years between the Revolution and the Allied invasion of Normandy, African Americans were a reliable source of military service, participating in all U.S. wars. Segregated into black units commanded by white officers, disrespected and humiliated, these brave and loyal souls served in support of the nation’s causes at home and abroad. Of course, after each military conflict concluded, a shameless and ungrateful America returned the servicemen to their civilian American lives of de facto and de
jure discrimination in antebellum and later Jim Crow America.
With that historical and military backdrop, it should come as no surprise that the D-Day invasion included black soldiers. Military historian Ulysses Lee has reported that nearly 2,000 black soldiers invaded Omaha and Utah beaches. They were deployed as a battery of the 320th Barrage Balloon Battalion and with the 327th Quartermaster Co., the 582nd Dump Truck Co., the 385th Truck Co. and the 490th Port Battalion, all officially black, segregated operations.
The 490th was a unit of black stevedores, charged with loading, unloading and protecting supply ships during the war ... and dodging German firepower on Utah Beach on D-day. Six black longshoremen from the 490th didn’t dodge fast enough. Five were wounded and Sgt. Willie R. Collins lost his life. Brave men of the 490th received the Croix de Guerre with palm from France and the bronze arrowhead for DDay heroism.
The 327th and the 582nd were equipment, supplies and provisions units. Early on the morning of D-Day, a contingent of the 582nd arrived on the shores of Utah Beach. Preparing the sands for the engineers and the Allied combatants, the men removed land mines, booby traps and obstructions installed by the Germans. The black servicemen under their white leadership confronted the defenses and before noon had secured the beach for the massive Allied amphibious assault to come.
Seemingly a cross between a Jules Verne invention and a Rube Goldberg contraption, a blimp that the 320th Barrage Balloon Battalion operated delivered a deadly response to Nazi Luftwaffe aircraft. Any aircraft wing colliding with the top of the balloon’s nearly invisible cable ignited a firestorm of flaming gas.
On D-Day, German planes were kept away from Utah Beach by the black soldiers and their menacing magic blimps, enabling the Allied forces to storm the beach undetered by aerial strafing.
On Omaha Beach, 21-year-old 320th medical corpsman Waverly Woodson Jr. arrived with the initial assault units. His landing boat hit a floating mine and shrapnel blew into Cpl. Woodson’s groin. For 18 hours, the injured medic ignored his injury. He helped build an aid station on the beach, rescued men from drowning, searched out wounded soldiers strewn amid the carnage and treated some 200 casualties.
Supreme Allied Commander Gen. Dwight Eisenhower issued a commendation letter to the 320th. Individual awards were given to members of the unit as well. Cpl. Woodson received the Bronze Star, though the white commander of the black 320th, Col. Leon Reed, recommended Cpl. Woodson for the Medal of Honor.
For Father’s Day — and also in a war zone — Cpl. Woodson wrote his father on June 21, 1943, “... Tell mom I said hello and give her a big hug for me. But this is for you on Father’s Day.”
The late Cpl. Woodson never received the Medal of Honor.