Blacks in WWII

I don't think this was mentioned yet but the first colored guy that comes to mind is the cook who stood his ground on the deck of I think the USS Nevada in Pearl Harbor. Talk about courage in the face of death, anyone know the name of this guy?

 

You're absolutely right, Hoppy - I think you're referring to Air Gunner Sergeant 'Darky' Gilkes of No 9 Squadron. He came from Trinidad and was lost on operations.

( You can find his photo on p.124 of Garbett & Goulding's 'Lancaster At War : 2' )

 

Here's Admiral Chester Nimitz awarding the Navy Cross to Dorie Miller, the cooker hero of December 7th 1941.

[ 06. January 2004, 05:14 PM: Message edited by: General der Infanterie Friedrich H ]

 

And there is of course, Dorie Miller, the cooker of the USS West Virginia who stood in the middle of the fire and shot an AA machine gun and downing several Japanese planes. He was awarded the Navy Cross on May 27th 1942, being the first African-American to be awarded it. This incident is portrayed in both, "Tora! Tora! Tora!" and "Pearl Harbour".




[ 07. January 2004, 11:07 AM: Message edited by: General der Infanterie Friedrich H ]

 

Some pilots from 332nd Fighter Group:



From left to right: Col. Benjamin O. Davis Jr. - the son of the first African American general - and I Lt. Lee Rayford.

And the first African-American female naval officers in the US Navy:



In November 1944, Harriet Ida Pickens and Frances Wills graduated from the Naval Reserve Midshipmen's School (Women's Reserve) at Northampton, Massachusetts.

 

And I was sure there was some infantry division in the US Army numbered in the 90s that was entirely formed by blacks.

I've found it, it was 92nd infantry division, originally formed in 1917 with selected African-Americans from all over the USA. They saw a lot of action in Italy during WWII.




And there was also 93rd infantry division, also formed in 1917 from coloured men of the National Guard. It saw action in the South Pacific during WWII.



There is the 555th parachute batallion too. However, it didn't see any action.



Not to forget the USS Mason (DE-529) whose crew was almost entirely black and which had a distinguished convoy-escorting record.

 

No, General it was the USS West Virginia that Dorie was on, sorry about that.

 

Post edited. Thanks for the clearifying.

 

Is it correct that black people did only serve in "entire black" units and not within the regular U.S.Army units?

I have heard about s.c. "Nigger-Regiments" in the U.S. Army and I wonder what was the reason to gather black soldiers into specific units, if it wasn't racism.

Cheers,

 

They were called colored regiments and I'm afraid it was racism

 

If anyone's interested in the contribution that Black and Asian people made to the Allied cause while fighting for British Empire forces in WW2 try this web-site.
http://www.mgtrust.org/ww2.htm

It's an excellent site

 

ThanksRed, nothing like propaganda for a good laugh.

They say:
Battle of Britain – But the Battle of Britain went the Allies' way, thanks in large part to the brave contributions of Commonwealth and other pilots. These included Pilot Officer H Capstick, Jamaican, of 236 Blenheim Squadron.

Hmm……..236 shows up as Coastal Command listed with 3 kills – but respect to them for their achievement. http://www.jacksonharrison.co.uk/BoB2/Squadrons/raf_fighter_command_squadrons.htm

Now, a quick look at the pretty good site (IMHO) http://www.the-battle-of-britain.co.uk/nationalities/nationalities.htm says there were as many Jamaicans in the BoB as there were Palestinians – one. It’s totally pointless siting Empire/Commonwealth pilots in this context, because, if anyone is in doubt, the Rhodesians, South Africans etc were actually all white.

Let’s be honest, no one labours the point or tries to set any store by it, but it’s got to be farcical in the extreme when anyone does.

If, we are endeavouring to deal with ‘history’ as the accurate account of what really happened, I cannot agree it is subject to alteration by whatever PC doctrine is in force today in Britain. As I stated before, British ‘Black’s’ only include other people of non ethnic European origin when it suits their purpose. In this case it does, because without them they are conspicuous by their virtual proportionate absence.

No.9

 

at the time it was commonly believed among the US military that blacks were incapable of being brave or professional... therefore only useful as service troops.. they were thought to be cowardly and considerably less intelligent than a white soldier.. they took incidents when a black unit fled and was completely routed by the japanese as proof of this.. over-seeing the fact that as black troops they hadnt received much in the way of worthwhile training.
i believe the us army was integrated sometime in the Korean war?

 

And look what happened to THAT thread!

Regards,
Gordon

 

Take a look at the dead from the US Army and you will find that most - a vast majority- well over 95% were white.

In WW2 the blood type for American soldiers who were negro, was 'negro'

Let's not get sentimental about this. The US Military was racist to a t in WW2 and although some Coloured regiments fought well and were noted for it, there was no (ok, maybe a tiny, tiny amount) of integration.

For that matter, while we're at it, let's discuss how the US Army integrated women!

Eisenhower, in his "Crusade in Europe" mentions the problems they had with trying to replace male soldiers with women in the tasks of office adminstration, drivers and the like.

The US military was a product of its time, a time of racism and bigotry that, if taken out of context with the time will surely drag this thread down an ugly path.