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Fascinating and Lesser Known People Who Changed American History

Khalid Elhassan May 5, 2020 33 min

Normandy landings - Operation Overlord — Men of the 320th in Normandy. YouTube

11. The Men of the 320^th Barrage Balloon Battalion

The black barrage balloon operators on Omaha Beach. National Archives

In 1942, the US Army created the 320^th Barrage Balloon Battalion – a segregated specialty unit of black soldiers – as part of the Coastal Artillery Corps. The unit used barrage balloons to protect American GIs from low-level strafing and dive-bombing by enemy planes. To accomplish their tasks, they were trained to make flammable hydrogen gas, gauge wind speed, predict weather patterns, and learn other skills necessary to keep their balloons in the air.

On June 6^th, 1944, the men of the 320^th stormed the beaches of Normandy – the only black combat unit on D-Day – carrying silvery balloons. They had quite the experience in the run-up to that day, on the eventful day itself, and during the ensuing Normandy Campaign.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.