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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

5. D-Day’s Black Soldiers Were All But Erased From History

Balloons of the 320th in Normandy. War History Online

The 320^th Barrage Balloon Battalion was one of two black units present at D-Day that received a commendation from General Dwight D. Eisenhower. Although the black barrage balloon operators won accolades at the time, and returned home as minor celebrities, they and their story all but vanished from the record in subsequent years.

Few books about D-Day mention the men of the 320^th. No movie about that day – including iconic ones such as The Longest Day and Saving Private Ryan – show black soldiers. Saving Private Ryan at least showed the barrage balloons, even if it did not depict the soldiers who operated them.

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.