June 5, 2019 The Skanner Portland & Seattle Page 11
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Fighting Germans and Jim Crow:
Role of Black Troops on D-Day
DIRECTOR OF ATHLETICS
Roughly
2,000 African
American
troops are
believed to
have fought in
Normandy
BATON ROUGE, La. —
It was the most massive
amphibious
invasion
the world has ever seen,
with tens of thousands
of Allied troops spread
out across the air and sea
aiming to get a toehold in
Normandy for the final
assault on Nazi Germa-
ny. And while portrayals
of D-Day often depict an
all-white host of invad-
ers, in fact it also includ-
ed many African Ameri-
cans.
Roughly 2,000 African
American troops are
believed to have hit the
shores of Normandy in
various capacities on
June 6, 1944. Serving in
a U.S. military still-seg-
regated by race, they
encountered discrimi-
nation both in the ser-
vice and when they came
home.
But on Normandy, they
faced the same danger as
everyone else.
The
only
African
American combat unit
that day was the 320th
Barrage Balloon Battal-
ion, whose job was to
set up explosive-rigged
balloons to deter Ger-
man planes. Waverly
Woodson Jr. was a cor-
poral and a medic with
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AP PHOTO/GERALD HERBERT
By Rebecca Santana
Associated Press
5-29,6-5-19
Community Business Directory
World War II veteran Johnnie Jones, Sr. poses for a portrait at his home in Baton Rouge, La., Tuesday, May
28, 2019. Jones, who joined the military in 1943 out of Southern University in Baton Rouge, was a warrant
officer in a unit responsible for unloading equipment and supplies onto Normandy. He remembers
wading ashore and one incident when he and his fellow soldiers came under fire from a German sniper.
He grabbed his weapon and returned fire along with the other soldiers. It’s something that still haunts
his memories.
all the crew. Then they
started with the mortar
shells.”
Woodson was wound-
ed in the back and groin
while on the landing
craft but went on to
spend 30 hours on the
beach tending to other
wounded men before
eventually collapsing,
according to a letter
from then-Rep. Chris
Van Hollen of Maryland.
Van Hollen, now a U.S.
senator, is heading an
effort to have Woodson
posthumously awarded
the Medal of Honor for
his actions on D-Day. But
a lack of documentation
— in part because of a
1973 fire that destroyed
millions of military per-
sonnel files — has sty-
mied the effort.
Another member of
the unit, William Dab-
The firing was furious on
the beach. I was picking up
dead bodies and I was look-
ing at the mines blowing up
soldiers. ... I didn’t know if I
was going to make it or not
the battalion. Although
Woodson did not live to
see this week’s 75th an-
niversary — he died in
2005 — he told The As-
sociated Press in 1994
about how his landing
craft hit a mine on the
way to Omaha Beach.
“The tide brought us
in, and that’s when the
88s hit us,” he said of the
German 88mm guns.
“They were murder. Of
our 26 Navy personnel
there was only one left.
They raked the whole
top of the ship and killed
Advertising deadlines 12:00 Noon Monday
ney described what they
encountered on D-Day in
a 2009 Associated Press
interview during the
invasion’s 65th anniver-
sary.
“The firing was furi-
ous on the beach. I was
picking up dead bodies
and I was looking at the
mines blowing up sol-
diers. ... I didn’t know if
I was going to make it or
not,” said Dabney, then
84, who passed away last
year.
Linda Hervieux de-
tailed the exploits of the
320th in her book “For-
gotten: The Untold Story
of D-Day’s Black Heroes,
at Home and at War.” She
said the military resisted
efforts to desegregate as
it ramped up for World
War II. Instead they kept
separate units and sepa-
rate facilities for Black
and White troops.
“This was a very ex-
pensive and inefficient
way to run an army.
The Army ... could have
ordered its men to inte-
grate and to treat Black
soldiers as fully equal
partners in this war.
The Army declined to do
so,” she said. The Army
wanted to focus on the
war and didn’t want to
become a social experi-
ment, Hervieux said, but
she notes that when Af-
rican American soldiers
were called on to fight
side by side with Whites,
they did so without prob-
lems.
By the end of World
War II, more than a
million African Amer-
icans were in uniform
including the famed
Tuskegee Airmen and
the 761st Tank Battalion.
The Double V campaign
launched by the Pitts-
burgh Courier, a promi-
nent African American
newspaper, called for a
victory in the war as well
as a victory at home over
segregation, including
in the military.
During World War II,
it was unheard of for Af-
rican American officers
to lead white soldiers
and they faced discrim-
ination even while in
the service. Black troops
were often put in sup-
port units responsible
for transporting sup-
plies. But during the
Normandy invasion that
didn’t mean they were
immune from danger.
Ninety-nine-year-old
Johnnie Jones Sr., who
joined the military in
1943 out of Southern
University in Baton
Rouge, was a warrant of-
ficer in a unit responsi-
ble for unloading equip-
ment and supplies onto
Normandy. He remem-
bers wading ashore
and coming under fire
from a German sniper.
He grabbed his weapon
and returned fire along
with the other soldiers.
It’s something that still
haunts his memories.
“I still see him, I see
him every night,” he told
the AP recently. In anoth-
er incident, he remem-
bers a soldier charging a
pillbox, a selfless act that
likely ended the soldier’s
life. “I know he didn’t
come back home. He
didn’t come back home
but he saved me and he
saved many others.”
After defending their
country in Europe,
many African Amer-
ican troops were met
with discrimination yet
again at home. Jones re-
members coming back
the U.S. after the war’s
end and having to move
to the back of a bus as it
crossed the Mason-Dix-
on line separating North
from South. He recalls
being harassed by police
officers after returning
to Louisiana.
“I couldn’t sit with the
soldiers I had been on the
battlefield with. I had to
go to the back of the bus,”
said Jones, who went
on to become a lawyer
and civil rights activist
in Baton Rouge. “Those
are the things that come
back and haunt you.”
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