Original subtitles

1944.

The 761st Tank Battalion was fighting its way

through Nazi occupied Europe.

The 761st Tank Battalion were the first all black tank unit

to see combat during World War II.

Better known as the Black Panthers,

the battalion was the product of an America divided along racial lines.

Compared to what African-Americans were dealing at home,

deployment to Germany seemed like an easier task.

And they were desperate to prove their abilities through combat.

They were the long distance runners in the black struggle for equality,

pure and simple.

For the Black Panthers, it was a fight not only

against the powerful enemy abroad, but a racist system at home.

So this isn't just the story of a world war,

it's the story of an ongoing war.

The war for acceptance.

The 761st Tank Battalion is formed in 1942

as an all-black unit.

The 761st were better known by the name - Black Panthers.

When you talk about Black Panthers, the idea was that they were trying

to bring in some sort of African culture so African-Americans

could have some identity with the symbolisms

that were being created.

And their motto was equally inspiring -

Come Out Fighting.

The motto, Come Out Fighting is very assertive.

It is one that is born of grim determination,

as well as the expectation that they could show exactly

what African-Americans could do if given the opportunity.

The Panthers had been training hard for two years.

But the US Army High Command had no intention

of sending them into war.

That occurred because of racism.

They didn't quite know what to do with this black tank battalion.

There is a resistance to send African-American combat troops

over to Europe.

It means that they're in this perpetual cycle of training.

They toyed with the idea of making them a demonstration

battalion, a kind of novelty, like a circus act.

But events force them into a radical rethink.

On June 6th, 1944, thousands of miles away in the north of France,

a momentous day in military history changed both the course of the war

and the lives of the Black Panthers.

D-Day.

The D-Day landings saw 23,000 Allied troops

parachute into northern France,

before 150,000 soldiers stormed the Normandy beaches.

They land on these five beaches.

By the end of the first day,

the Allies now have a foothold in France.

From here, their plan was to fight their way

towards Nazi Germany itself.

But the landings came with a heavy cost.

The landings are successful, but casualties are heavy.

Nearly 10,000 Allied soldiers were killed or wounded

on D-Day alone.

The foothold on the Continent was fragile.

Faced with a shortage of manpower, the US commander,

General George Patton, had to get fresh units to the front,

no matter who they were.

George Patton asked his chief of staff about remaining armour

in the United States.

He said, "Where can we get combat ready tank battalions?"

So the reporting officer said to Patton, there is a battalion

that has a very high combat efficiency rating.

It's the 761st Tank Battalion.

Patton said, "Send them."

And so, in August 1944,

the Black Panthers boarded a ship in New York

harbour bound for England.

The first all black tank battalion to be sent overseas.

I definitely think that the 761st were shocked

that they were actually going to see combat.

Many of them had never travelled before, so it was an opportunity

for them to go and see the world, and in turn serve their country.

In September, they arrived in England

and were sent to the county of Dorset for final preparations.

Compared to the United States, it was like another world.

They arrive in England and they're met really positively,

and of course, that makes sense because from a British perspective,

we've got these foreign troops arriving.

Everyone in Britain knows what's been happening with the war,

it's been going on for far longer than anyone imagined.

So these troops are welcomed as heroes.

One of the things that they noticed to their pleasant surprise

is that English countrymen who were there,

they were more apt to accept them as equals than not.

For most of the black soldiers, it was their first taste of real

freedom, because England did not enforce racial segregation.

At the time, the citizens of the majority of US states

were living their lives under the Jim Crow laws.

Jump Jim Crow was a caricature designed by a man

called Thomas D Rice in 1828.

We now know the term of minstrels because he had blackened his face

and was depicting characteristic that Americans

classified to be negro.

A lot of these laws that we see playing out in America

are named Jim Crow after this particular character.

The Jim Crow laws placed severe restrictions

on the lives of black Americans.

The Jim Crow laws allowed white Americans to separate themselves

and their assets from African-Americans.

They then were then marginalised

in regards to where they could sit on trains,

where they could sit on buses.

As a black barber, you're not able to actually work on anyone

who is of white origin.

There were severe laws that blacks and whites cannot intermarry.

If you are an African-American person, you may not be tended to

by a white nurse.

Where they could buy their houses, where their children could go

to school, if they could go to school at all.

And even in England, the sight of black servicemen socialising

with white English people as equals could provoke tensions

with white GIs.

A year before the Panthers crossed the Atlantic,

an African-American Quartermaster Truck Regiment had made the same

journey as support for the US Eighth Air Force.

Stationed in the town of Bamber Bridge in Lancashire,

like the Black Panthers, they too were welcomed by the locals.

It wasn't uncommon to see an English girl and a black soldier

having a Coke or walking along a lane somewhere.

It wasn't unusual to see that type of thing.

That inflamed the southern racists.

They made their feelings known at a local pub called

Ye Olde Hob Inn.

And they're relaxing with the locals, like they usually do,

having a good time.

But on this occasion, some white MPs, military policemen,

happened upon the gathering, walk in,

they see one of the black soldiers is not dressed properly.

I think he's wearing a field jacket when he's not supposed to be wearing

a field jacket, and they call him out.

They try to arrest him.

The black soldiers refused, they had seen soldiers in pubs

and there had been no, you know, two tier system of dress uniform

versus combat fatigues,

so they refused to comply with the order.

A fight broke out, which quickly escalated into a race riot.

And eventually, unfortunately, Private William Crossland

is unfortunately killed.

There are seven people that are injured as well.

It became known as the Battle of Bamber Bridge,

and it was no isolated incident.

In fact, there were many similar episodes.

There are 44 incidents reported between African-American troops

and white American troops between November 1943

and February 1944.

And it's really, really important to note that these issues

are happening within the US Army.

The Panthers were fortunate not to have experienced

this kind of racism in Britain.

But the freedom was short lived.

After just a few weeks, it was time to go to war in France.

From the battle scarred beaches of Normandy, the Black Panthers

were ordered to the small town of Nancy, where they were met

by General George Patton himself.

He allowed them to understand that they were the first

black tank battalion to join World War II.

Patton's words may have been inspiring to the Black Panthers,

but they did not reflect his true beliefs.

General George Patton is hypocritical

about blacks serving in combat.

He'll tell them to their face that they can fight.

In fact, Patton wrote to his wife and spoke to other senior officers

saying that he doubted that African-Americans were

racially capable of serving effectively.

As the Panthers headed towards their first contact with the enemy,

they weren't to know that they had only been called up

as a last resort.

In fact, they were almost not given the opportunity to train at all.

The long standing US policy of non-interventionism

meant that, at first, it viewed the war as a purely European affair.

But as Hitler's victories mounted up, it became more and more likely

that America would have to become involved.

The US, therefore, began to expand its military,

but as it prepared to introduce the country's first-ever peacetime

draft, a debate erupted.

Should black Americans be permitted to serve?

An African-American unit, the 92nd Division,

had fought for their country in the First World War,

but the US military had judged it to be a failure.

All of the enlisted men are black.

The 92nd does not do well.

This is used by white officers as a justification that they can't

fight, that they're incompetent in combat, and that they'll only

be a danger to their American comrades.

This view gained more and more traction.

The Army War College in 1925

concluded that black men could serve in the military

except in combat.

It perpetuates the notions that they are not, you know,

physically and intellectually capable for this kind of warfare.

And yet history suggested the opposite was true.

African-Americans had served in the United States military

honourably for many, many decades.

They served in the Civil War,

they served in the Indian wars,

they served in the Spanish-American War, other 19th century wars.

And in fact, many of them were not just recognised but decorated.

So after every struggle, black soldiers are commended

for their heroism and valour.

But then when the next war breaks out, the question arises,

are blacks capable of mastering the modern implements of warfare?

So it repeats itself, repeats itself, repeats itself.

Lieutenant General Lesley McNair was one of the few senior officers

in the US Army who rose above prejudice and racism

to understand the truth.

He had understood that the problems for black soldiers was not their own

ability or their own patriotism, because black soldiers

were very patriotic, but it was the racist system

that prevented them from serving effectively.

He fully believed that if African-Americans were given

the chance to perform under fire,

to be placed in front line duty,

then they would live up to their expectations of the American

military traditions and practices.

After much debate, McNair's view prevailed,

and black battalions, including the 761st, were created.

But in July 1944, McNair lost his life

in a friendly fire incident in France.

He did not live to see whether he would be vindicated

or condemned for his faith in black servicemen.

As the 761st rolled on towards Vic-sur-Seille,

and their first contact with German forces,

they had everything to prove.

They're green.

They don't know what combat is like.

They've never heard gunfire directed at them in anger.

As the line of tanks grew closer to Vic-sur-Seille,

they were forced to an abrupt stop.

A tree had been placed across the road by the Nazis

to block their path.

Now sitting ducks, the German forces opened fire.

The commander by the name of Captain David Williams

tells the Staff Sergeant, who was Ruben Rivers,

look, I want you to take precaution, but if you can remove that.

Well, Rivers is going to do that anyway.

Rivers left the relative safety of his tank

and pulled the tree out of the way amid a hail of machinegun fire.

Rivers' courage prevented a serious delay in the offensive,

and after furious fighting, Vic-sur-Seille was captured.

But there was no time to celebrate their first combat victory.

Their next objective was the town of Morville-les-Vic,

and German forces were waiting for them.

Morville-les-Vic was a small town which was occupied by the Germans,

and this would be a great stronghold for the US troops to be able to take

over, to be able to continue their quest into Europe,

to be able to get to the German borders.

And they're going to have to prove themselves as they encounter severe

German resistance from anti-tank guns, as well as experienced

infantry who are going to engage them in this town at close quarters.

The waiting German forces opened fire.

LOUD GUNFIRE

The lead tank, commanded by Sergeant Roy King,

was disabled by a Panzerfaust.

You know, the Panzerfaust, which was a portable shaped charge

rocket launcher.

They were very, very effective.

They could go right through the hull of a Sherman tank.

King, like his comrades when they're put in a situation

like this, climbs out of the tank

and instead of running away, engages the enemy.

King was killed in the gunfight,

but his two crew members battled on from underneath the tank.

Behind them, Sergeant Warren Crecy's tank was also hit and immobilised,

but Crecy managed to clamber on top of his disabled tank

and held back the German troops with machinegun fire.

As the battle raged, the Panthers were beginning to make an impression

on the white soldiers fighting around them.

And this was something that was noted by their white counterparts,

by French soldiers,

by white American soldiers, of the bravery and of the tenacity

of the 761st Battalion.

After Morville-les-Vic, Captain John D Long said,

"There wasn't a white outfit that wasn't damned glad to have us."

After bitter fighting Morville-les-Vic was captured.

But bad news soon filtered its way through the Black Panther ranks.

The commander, Colonel Paul Bates, had been wounded

and would be evacuated.

Men like Colonel Paul Bates were rare in the US Army.

He was a white man who wanted to command a black unit.

It was considered to be death of any white serviceman's career

to lead black troops, because black troops were deemed to be inferior.

Other white officers, when they're appointed to command

black troops, consider it as a form of punishment.

Paul Bates was different.

He saw an opportunity to do some good.

He didn't have time for lectures about civil rights

or anything like that.

But he insisted on treating his soldiers as soldiers,

as human beings, and requiring the high standard of efficiency

that any commander would want from any soldier.

Before Bates took command, life in the Black Panthers

had been defined by racism,

which they faced even on the journey to training.

When they arrived at Camp Claiborne, their worst fears were confirmed.

They were placed in barracks that were so squalid

and so devastated, that they were never allowed to forget

that they were being subjected to racial discrimination.

But Colonel Bates was determined to tear down racial boundaries

and so, to give the Panthers the best opportunity to prove

themselves, he was going to train them hard.

They trained harder in their physical training,

more so than any other unit

in the American military during this period.

They also had to know the duties of not only those who were

of the tank commanders as well as the gunners, but they also

had to know the reconnaissance.

They also had to know the ins and outs of every position

that was in the American military during that time.

They feel that he's setting the bar high,

and that's exactly what they want.

They want the bar to be set high.

Bates' gruelling training regime turned the Panthers

into a formidable fighting unit.

But more than that, it gave them a sense of self-worth.

Now without their colonel and mentor, the Panthers were sent

to attack German positions around Guebling in north-eastern France.

Guebling was a major communications hub, and formidable German forces

had already defeated a large US task force.

Positioned in the lead tank was Sergeant Ruben Rivers.

Staff Sergeant Ruben Rivers is a special guy.

He's unique, even in a unit of outstanding warriors.

Rivers is the type of man who acts first...

..without asking for permission

and will apologise afterward.

Rivers' tank rumbled towards the village.

His platoon located two German Panther tanks

and there followed an exchange of gunfire

between the tanks.

Despite being gravely wounded,

Rivers insisted on continuing the fight.

But just a few days later, he would pay the ultimate price.

And the last anybody hears from Rivers, he tells his driver,

"Driver pull back, driver pull back.

"Oh, my God."

Rivers was killed by a direct hit from a German shell.

Guebling was taken.

Over the next few weeks, the battalion had its first and only

period of rest and recuperation near the border with Germany.

So we have to remember that the 761st had been travelling nonstop.

So, from America to England, England to France,

and whereas they first came into enemy contact from

the 8th of November, we're now just over a month in

and they're fighting continuously.

The 761st has taken such serious casualties,

there's something like 34 tanks that they've had knocked out

in the course of their initial engagements, so they need time

to rest, they need time to refit.

But as they recuperated,

the German propaganda machine was gearing up for action.

Leading the psychological war will be Mildred Gillars,

better known as Axis Sally.

She is somebody who ends up in Germany in the 1930s

and works for the radio.

Now, the Ministry of Propaganda, they believe that an American voice

is needed to spread disinformation

and so they employ Axis Sally to actually

lead on these propaganda broadcasts.

Germany was attempting to demoralise the African-American troops

by jamming their radio signals with their own broadcasts.

So she'll go on the radio and, for example, she'll say things like,

you know, this is the white, this is a white man's war.

Why are you here? This is not for you.

That they shouldn't be fighting for a country

that treats them unjustly.

While you are far away,

advocates of Jim Crow are perpetrating crimes

against your people.

For once, the Nazis were telling the truth.

You know, it's ironic that the Germans attempted to stir up

something that was already happening,

that that division was already there.

They didn't have to propagandise it.

It was already happening.

But what the Nazis didn't realise

was that these weren't reasons for African-Americans not to fight.

They were part of their motives TO fight.

All they can do is hope that at some point somebody

is going to recognize their ability and their determination,

their patriotism, their desire to fight and to serve.

So this isn't just the story of a world war.

It's the story of an ongoing war - the war for acceptance.

And the Black Panthers were about to face their toughest test yet.

In December 1944, a German force of 200,000 men

and 1,000 tanks launched a surprise attack

on the unsuspecting Allies in Belgium.

It would become known as the Battle of the Bulge.

The Battle of the Bulge was one of the most bloodiest battles

that the US troops had seen during World War II.

This is really Hitler's last stand.

So what he's trying to do is in the, you know, in the wake

of the Normandy landings, etc, he's really trying to push

the Allies out of mainland Europe.

To achieve this, the Nazis aim to capture the Allied's

supply port of Antwerp.

The German forces smashed their way through the Ardennes forest.

They destroy the American 106th Infantry Division,

they badly maul the 28th Infantry Division,

several other units.

In the first days of the fighting it looks like they're going to succeed.

But one key strategic location continue to hold -

the town of Bastogne.

Think of the spokes of a wheel.

Here's Bastogne at the hub, and Bastogne has this road net,

all of these crisscrossing road nets

excellent for the passage of armour.

And that's what the Germans needed if they were going to cross

the Meuse River and capture the Port of Antwerp,

which was their objective.

The US forces at Bastogne refused to surrender

and German forces surrounded the town, beginning a siege.

Leading the way for the 87th Infantry Division,

the Panthers were ordered to head back north

to close a vital German supply line by taking the town of Tillet.

This town that they're going to advance against,

the Germans are well placed.

The 761st led the way into the town.

The 761st basically overruns them dramatically in this point,

destroying many pillboxes,

also capturing many of the enemy forces

and killing many of the enemy at the same time.

It was one of the most dramatic battles that they fought

during that period.

The way cleared, the 87th Infantry Division

followed in their wake.

And a brutal house to house battle ensued.

But together they took the town of Tillet

and the German forces were sent into retreat.

The Panthers would go on to fight alongside the 17th Airborne Division

to choke further supply lines to Bastogne.

And as the German tanks began to run out of fuel, the weather cleared

and the Allies were able to finish off the enemy forces

with air attacks.

That is when the air campaign against the Germans resumed.

And that is when the Typhoons, rocket firing Typhoons,

made it impossible for the Germans

to run tanks up and down the road.

That was really the end of the Battle of the Bulge.

The Battle of the Bulge was over.

But for the Black Panthers, the war soon continued.

By March 1945, they were at the border of Germany

and the formidable Siegfried Line - Hitler's last line of defence.

And so the men of the 761st, though they're tired,

though they're exhausted, though they've been through so much

and many of them now are feeling the effects of post-traumatic stress,

through the terrible things they've been through, now they know

that it's a fight to the finish.

Paul Bates, their beloved battalion commander,

was fit enough to rejoin them as they fought their way

towards the heart of the Third Reich.

After several days of fighting,

the Panthers broke through the Siegfried Line.

But as they made their way through Germany and into Austria,

they saw the realities of Nazi rule.

It was Gunskirchen Lager,

a subcamp of the Mauthausen concentration camp.

And when they saw this, many of them were deeply saddened

by what they, what they were witnessing.

And I also think that they realised that racial hatred...

..ethnic animosity was not one that was just,

was germane to American society or to the United States,

but it was one that was, that was, that marked humankind all together.

So coming and seeing these people in these internment camps,

these concentration camps, caused their hearts to bleed

because they were in such despair that

other human beings could be treated, I guess, in worst capacities

than they had seen themselves, that it led for them to understand

that they were doing more of a significant role in this war

than they could have ever conceptualised.

Nazi Germany surrendered on May 7th, 1945.

For the Black Panthers, it had been the culmination of six months

of combat during which they proved themselves a formidable battalion.

But more than that, the 761st came out fighting against the racism

they had encountered from the moment they signed up.

The indignity of their never ending training...

..and the people who believed that their skin colour

made them incapable of serving.

And by fighting alongside white soldiers

they also conquered Jim Crow segregation itself.

It truly was a shining moment in American arms,

because regardless of their race, there were these American soldiers

who were determined to get the war over with, they wanted to go home.

And it becomes kind of a voluntary,

spontaneous integration that happens at the Front.

For members of the 761st Tank Battalion

and their white counterparts who are fighting in Europe at the time,

death was the greatest leveller.

And race, as well as other strictures that they had encountered

in civilian life, had fallen by the wayside at that moment.

Many of these white infantrymen would come home, and they would

never forget the Black Panthers. They would write about it.

They would remember it in decades after the war

and say, those were real men.

I didn't know that, I didn't realise that.

Before I had been taught not to trust them.

I've been taught that they were cowards.

But I recognize these were real men, and in many occasions

they saved their lives.

SHIP HORN BLARES

Over the next year, the Black Panthers were gradually sent back

home to America.

Once they learned that the war was over,

many of the men were relieved to hear that it had ended.

But at the same time, they were wondering as to what their prospects

would be in American society once they returned home.

The war had changed not only them, but the world.

And they sincerely hoped that it had also changed American society.

But upon their return, they discovered that it hadn't.

They were still ill-treated, they were still told that they must sit at the back of the bus,

even though they were wearing their medals and their uniforms.

A lot of African-Americans troops were also lynched

on return back to America,

as they had done previously in World War One.

And in many cases, they found themselves, as well,

being excluded or denied, basically, hospitalisation,

after the war was over,

for the wounds there... That had occurred during the war.

So they came back,

they were hopeful that the country would change,

but they were embittered by their immediate experiences

once they got home.

Some stories have happy endings,

and some stories have something else,

and I think that the story of the black servicemen,

especially the combat servicemen,

coming home, is one of those stories.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media