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Ingratitude Was All These People Got For Doing the Right Thing

Khalid Elhassan August 28, 2023 32 min

Ingratitude - Ignaz Semmelweis washing his hands in chlorinated lime water before operating — Ignaz Semmelweis washing his hands in chlorinated lime water before operating. NPR

Ingratitude Was All These Black Soldiers Got for Their Service on D-Day

A 320^th medic, Waverly B. Woodson, Jr., performed prodigies of selfless courage on D-Day. Although seriously injured and burned when his landing craft was hit by an artillery shell, he ignored his wounds to help others. Repeatedly and often recklessly exposing himself to enemy fire for over 30 hours, he saved the lives of dozens of GIs that day.

Waverly was nominated for the Medal of Honor, but did not get it. For that matter, no African American soldier received the Medal of Honor during WWII. It would be another half century before an African American received a Medal of Honor for his service during WWII. As to Waverly’s unit, the 320^th received a commendation from General Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Ingratitude - The black barrage balloon operators on Omaha Beach — The black barrage balloon operators on Omaha Beach. National Archives

In late July, 1944, part of the 320^th moved to the recently-liberated port of Cherbourg in the Cotentin peninsula. The rest remained in Omaha and Utah beaches. The battalion spent 140 days in France before returning to Britain, and thence to America and Camp Stewart, Georgia. There, they trained for service in the Pacific and the expected invasion of Japan. They made it as far as Hawaii, before the war suddenly ended in a pair of mushroom clouds.

Back home, ingratitude for their service was all they got, 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 their operators.

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.