A Distant Shore: African Americans of D-Day is a television documentary program that was produced for The History Channel by Flight 33 Productions in 2007. Executive Producers were Douglas Cohen (Flight 33), Louis Tarantino (Flight 33) and Dolores Gavin (The History Channel). The program was written by Douglas Cohen and produced by Samuel K. Dolan.
At the onset of World War II, the Army remained segregated, and with the notable exceptions of units like the 92nd Infantry Division, very few African American soldiers were permitted to serve in Frontline Combat units. Most African American soldiers served as service and supply troops, artillerymen, military police, and in other rear-echelon companies and battalions. However, many of these soldiers did see combat in Europe and the Pacific, particularly those in artillery batteries. Among the units going ashore at Normandy in 1944, was the 320th Anti-Aircraft Barrage Balloon Battalion which did see action on D-Day. Another unit that saw considerable action in Europe was the 761st Tank Battalion, which fought with George S. Patton's Third Army in 1944 and 1945.
Another famous group of African American soldiers, were the drivers of the Red Ball Express, who in the months after D-Day kept allied armies supplied with ammo, gas, and food. Many of these troops would volunteer to fall in with their white comrades during the Battle of the Bulge.
The system of segregation in the United States Army would end in 1948, and by the time of the Korean War, African American and white soldiers were serving in the same front line units.
Segregation was also a factor in the U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard. Although white and black sailors had often served on the same vessels since the Age of Sail, African American sailors were generally relegated to the jobs of cooks, stewards, and other labor-intensive duties. This continued through World War II, though it is important to remember that African American sailors acquitted themselves in battle in a number of campaigns.
Before World War II the United States Marine Corps was completely segregated and did not allow African Americans to enlist in its ranks. However, in 1942 the Marines did begin inducting African Americans into segregated units. Many of these Marines would fight in Pacific battles like Iwo Jima.
The Program
Focusing exclusively on the War in Europe and the mobilization for the Normandy Invasion, A Distant Shore follows the accounts of veterans as they made their way through basic training to England, and then prepared for the landings. Stories include incidents of racism encountered at home and overseas, experiences in England, and the terror of battle on the Omaha and Utah Beaches.
Awards
On September 22, 2008, A Distant Shore: African Americans of D-Day received the Emmy Award for Best Historical Programming - Long Form, at the 29th Annual News and Documentary Emmy Awards ceremony in New York. Recipients were Executive Producers Louis Tarantino, Dolores Gavin, Executive Producer and Writer Douglas Cohen, and Producer Samuel K. Dolan.
The Battle of Peleliu, codenamed Operation Stalemate II by the United States military, was fought between the U.S. and Japan during the Mariana and Palau Campaign of World War II, from September to November 1944, on the island of Peleliu.
Desegregation is the process of ending the separation of two groups, usually referring to races. Desegregation is typically measured by the index of dissimilarity allowing researchers to determine whether desegregation efforts are having impact on the settlement patterns of various groups. This is most commonly used in reference to the United States. Desegregation was long a focus of the American civil rights movement, both before and after the United States Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education, particularly desegregation of the school systems and the military. Racial integration of society was a closely related goal.
The 369th Infantry Regiment, formerly known as the 15th New York National Guard Regiment and commonly referred to as the Harlem Hellfighters, was an infantry regiment of the New York Army National Guard during World War I and World War II. The Regiment consisted mainly of African Americans, though it also included several Puerto Rican Americans during World War II. With the 370th Infantry Regiment, it was known for being one of the first African American regiments to serve with the American Expeditionary Forces during World War I.
The 506th Infantry Regiment, originally designated the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment during World War II, is an airborne light infantry regiment of the United States Army. Currently a parent regiment under the U.S. Army Regimental System, the regiment has two active battalions: the 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment is assigned to the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, and the 2nd Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment is assigned to the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division.
The 92nd Infantry Division was a segregated infantry division of the United States Army that served in both World War I and World War II. The division was organized in October 1917, after the U.S. entry into World War I, at Camp Funston, Kansas, with African American soldiers from all states. In 1918, before leaving for France, the American buffalo was selected as the divisional insignia due to the "Buffalo Soldiers" nickname, given to African American cavalrymen in the 19th century. The "Buffalo Soldiers Division" divisional nickname was inherited from the 366th Infantry, one of the first units of the division organized.
The Cape Corps and its predecessor units were the main military organisations in which the Coloured members of South Africa's population served.
The 761st Tank Battalion was a separate tank battalion of the United States Army during World War II. The 761st was made up primarily of African-American soldiers, who by War Department policy were not permitted to serve alongside white troops; the U.S. military did not officially desegregate until after World War II. The 761st were known as the Black Panthers after their unit's distinctive insignia, which featured a black panther’s head; their motto was "Come out fighting". The battalion received a Presidential Unit Citation for its actions. In addition, a large number of individual members also received medals, including one Medal of Honor, 11 Silver Stars and about 300 Purple Hearts. The unit has been called "one of the most effective tank battalions in World War II".
The 39th Infantry Regiment is a parent regiment in the United States Army. Originally organized for service in World War I, the 39th fought in most of the conflicts involving the United States during the 20th century, and since 1990 the 2nd Battalion has served as a training unit stationed at Fort Jackson, South Carolina. The 3rd Battalion was started on 21 October 2015 and a 4th Battalion was added in July 2017.
The military history of African Americans spans from the arrival of the first enslaved Africans during the colonial history of the United States to the present day. In every war fought by or within the United States, African Americans participated, including the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Mexican–American War, the Civil War, the Spanish–American War, the World Wars, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Gulf War, and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq as well as other minor conflicts.
The 1st Rhode Island Regiment was a regiment in the Continental Army raised in Rhode Island during the American Revolutionary War (1775–83). It was one of the few units in the Continental Army to serve through the entire war, from the siege of Boston to the disbanding of the Continental Army on November 3, 1783.
The 327th Infantry Regiment is an infantry regiment of the 101st Airborne Division of the United States Army. During World War II, the 327th was a glider-borne regiment of the 101st Airborne Division. It fought during World War I as part of the 82nd Division. It has also been deployed in the Vietnam War, Gulf War, and most recently to Iraq and Afghanistan. The song "Glider Rider" describes (humorously) some of the slights that glider-borne troops felt they received from the Army during World War II; though the regiment's public fame rose with the 1949 movie Battleground about the Siege of Bastogne in late 1944.
Charity Adams Earley was the first African-American woman to be an officer in the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps and was the commanding officer of the first battalion of African-American women to serve overseas during World War II. Adams was the highest-ranking African-American woman in the army by the completion of the war. The 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion's motto was "No Mail, Low Morale." A monument honoring this unique group of women was dedicated at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas on November 30, 2018.
The 333rd Field Artillery Battalion was a racially segregated United States Army unit of African-American troops during World War II.
Patton 360°, also written as Patton 360, is a weekly television series that originally ran from April 10 to June 26, 2009, on the History channel. It was produced by Flight 33 Productions in Los Angeles, and features a mixture of CGI, archival footage, recreations, and interviews with World War II veterans and historians. The series follows General George S. Patton and the units he commanded, from the Operation Torch landings in Morocco in 1942, through the campaigns in North Africa and Sicily, and in the battles across Northwest Europe.
African Americans have served the U.S. military in every war the U.S has fought. Formalized discrimination against black people who have served in the U.S. military lasted from its creation during the Revolutionary War to the end of segregation by President Harry S. Truman's Executive Order 9981 in 1948. Although desegregation within the U.S. military was legally established with President Truman's executive order, full integration of African-American servicemen was not established until 1950 for the U.S Navy and U.S. Air Force and not until 1953 for the U.S Army.
The 333rd Field Artillery Regiment is a regiment of the Field Artillery Branch of the United States Army.
The 1st Filipino Infantry Regiment was a segregated United States Army infantry regiment made up of Filipino Americans from the continental United States and a few veterans of the Battle of the Philippines that saw combat during World War II. It was formed and activated at Camp San Luis Obispo, California, under the auspices of the California National Guard. Originally created as a battalion, it was declared a regiment on 13 July 1942. Deployed initially to New Guinea in 1944, it became a source of manpower for special forces and units that would serve in occupied territories. In 1945, it deployed to the Philippines, where it first saw combat as a unit. After major combat operations, it remained in the Philippines until it returned to California and was deactivated in 1946 at Camp Stoneman.
The United States Marine Corps (USMC) is a desegregated force, made up of troops of all races working and fighting alongside each other. In 1776 and 1777, a dozen Black American Marines served in the American Revolutionary War, but from 1798 to 1942, the USMC followed a racially discriminatory policy of denying African Americans the opportunity to serve as Marines. For more than 140 years, the Marines recruited primarily European Americans and white Hispanics, along with a few Asian Americans.
Racial segregation in the United States Armed Forces, which has included separation of white and non-white American troops, quotas, restriction of people of color troops to support roles, and outright bans on blacks and other people of color serving in the military, has been a part of the military history of the United States since the American Revolution. Each branch of the Armed Forces has historically had different policies regarding racial segregation. Although Executive Order 9981 officially ended segregation in the Armed Forces in 1948, following World War II, some forms of racial segregation continued until after the Korean War. The US government complied with an Icelandic government request not to station black soldiers on the US base in Keflavík, Iceland until the 1970s and 1980s when black soldiers began to be stationed in Iceland.
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