| Original Caption: “United States Negro troops in action. A Negro soldier of the Twelfth Armored Division, Seventh United States Army, stands guard over a group of Nazi prisoners captured in the surrounding German forest. Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force announced May 1, 1945, that Allied forces on the Western Front had taken a total of 2,778,238 enemy prisoners since D-Day, June 6, 1944.” A contingent of Nazi German soldaten surrender to 2 American GIs from Provisional Infantry Company Number 1, 12th Armored Division, 7th Army. The 2nd American soldier is behind the Nazi German column. The African American soldier in the foreground carries an M1 Garand rifle and is about to fix an M1 bayonet to it. The original proposal came from United States Army Lieutenant General John C.H. Lee (August 1, 1887 – August 30, 1958). As the Service of Supply (SOS) Commander in the European theater, he was in charge of many of the African American units and was more familiar than most with the caliber of the men. Even with the pressing need for troops, however, Lee’s suggestion hit like a bombshell. Nothing could have been more drastic than making combat soldiers of substantial numbers of Black men. Lee saw the hundreds of thousands of Black service troops under his command as an untapped resource, and his initial proposal called for the Army to take 2,000 African Americans and insert them individually into the ranks of white infantry units. 2,000 men represented the largest number that could be trained at 1 time at the Ground Forces Reinforcement Center (GFRC) in northern France. More could be trained later. Old attitudes die hard, however, and despite the pressing need for manpower, Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) rejected Lee’s proposal to treat Blacks as individual replacements, and as a half-measure instead opted to integrate by platoons. Even this half-hearted breach of the color line was not enough to prevent some 2,000 African Americans — many of whom were long-serving non-commissioned officers willing to give up their stripes – to immediately volunteer for combat duty. With a stroke of the pen, United States Army General Dwight David “Ike” Eisenhower (October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969), Supreme Commander, SHAEF, soon had enough men to form 53 segregated rifle platoons that after training would be assigned as a 5th Platoon to all-white infantry companies. By March, 37 of these platoons were ready for combat, and a number were formed into segregated company-sized units and assigned to the 12th and 14th Armored divisions. By war’s end, African American platoons had served in 10 infantry and armored divisions in the European Theatre of Operations. The 1st, 8th, 9th, 69th, 78th, 99th, 104th and 106th Infantry divisions and the 12th and 14th Armored divisions had all benefited from the bravery and dedication of their African American comrades in arms. They are veterans who can be proud of their Combat Infantryman Badges. On the decision of General Alexander M. Patch (23 November 1889 – 21 November 1945), Commanding Officer of 7th Army, the 12 platoons assigned to his command were organized into provisional companies and sent to the 12th Armored Division, whose armored infantry battalions had relatively greater shortages than infantry division regiments. The platoons, barely trained as squads and platoons, had no training as companies at all; the division felt that too little time was available to equip and train them before their 1st battle. The 12th Armored Division, after its experience with the 827th Tank Destroyer Battalion a month before — it received notification to send officers to these platoons on the day that the 827th departed — “objected violently” to these new platoons from the beginning. The 827th Tank Destroyer Battalion had, on paper, trained for 2 years in the United States, but was poorly served by white officers who rapidly desired to leave a segregated unit. Thus, the 827th experienced high turnover; it also switched main armored fighting vehicles 4 times, necessitating retraining again and again. The unit had a mixed reputation in combat; some men fought well, while others deserted at the 1st opportunity. The United States 6th Army Group cited a lack of training and unit cohesion as problems and recommended the unit be disbanded and sent to service companies. But when the 5th platoon reinforcements arrived they made a “good” impression. The 12th Armored Division’s companies were known variously as 7th Army Provisional Infantry Companies 1, 2, and 3, or as D Company in each of the armored infantry battalions to which they were attached. All of these companies were used as armored infantry in support of tanks or with tank support, but their organization varied. 1 was composed of 4 platoons, each organized into 1 machine gun and 3 rifle squads. The other 2 had 3 platoons, each with 2 M2 60 millimeter (2.36 inch) mortars and several light machine guns. The companies attacked dismounted or mounted on tanks; all engaged in several actions. They were generally considered very satisfactory, improving as experience made up for their lack of training as companies and as machine gun and mortar crews. When 6th Army Group’s 4 supplementary platoons arrived on March 26, they were similarly assigned to the 14th Armored Division, which took them with it when it moved to 3rd Army on April 23. In the 14th Armored Division, they were known as 7th Army Provisional Infantry Company Number 4 or, since they were attached to the Combat Command Reserve, as Rifle Company CCR. When General Benjamin O. Davis Senior (July 1, 1877 – November 26, 1970), America’s 1st Black general, visited the 12th Armored Division on April 19, 1945, in Ansbach, Germany, he found battalion and company commanders acutely conscious of the lack of company training in the Negro platoons. Even so, they felt that the units had done good work. 7th Army Provisional Infantry Company Number 1, attached to the 56th Armored Infantry Battalion, had not been committed as a unit, but detachments had been used. 1 of these, riding on a tank near Speyer, Germany, on March 23, 1945, ran into heavy bazooka and small arms fire. Sergeant Edward A. Carter, Junior (May 26, 1916 – January 30, 1963), voluntarily dismounted and attempted to lead a 3-man group across an open field. Within a short time, 2 of his men were killed, and the 3rd was seriously wounded. Carter continued toward the enemy emplacement alone. He was wounded 5 times and was finally forced to take cover. When 8 Nazi German riflemen attempted to capture him, Carter killed 6 of them and captured the remaining 2. He then returned across the field, using his 2 prisoners as a shield, obtaining from them valuable information on the disposition of enemy troops. Soon after V-E Day, the Black platoons were ordered disbanded, and the members returned to their old units or to other all-Black service units for shipment home. Many of the men, who naturally believed they had earned the right to be treated as equals, rebelled and refused to follow orders. They demanded to be returned to the United States with their parent combat divisions. Believing that it was a misguided order coming out of the division, the men sent a delegation to Frankfurt hoping to speak directly to Eisenhower and ask that the separation orders be rescinded. Strange’s platoon members armed themselves, set up a perimeter around their barracks and threatened armed rebellion if MPs attempted to cross the line and force them to return to their segregated units. It was all to no avail. They eventually learned that the order had come directly from Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Forces (SHAEF) and applied to all the Black platoons. Having issued such an unjust order, SHAEF realized too late that it now faced a considerable problem. To placate these vets, the Army called in General Davis, who calmed the situation and promised that the volunteers would return home with the 69th Division. But for many 5th Platoon men, the promise came too late, and they were sent home with different units. Some speculated that the Army separated them from their parent divisions because most of these outfits were slated for duty in the Pacific, where integration of combat units had not yet been tested, and the commanders there did not want racial strife to affect combat efficiency in the planned invasion of Japan. Photo by Fred E. Faas (March 2, 1907 – August 11, 1992). He served with the Psychological Warfare Department of the Office of War Information. After World War II, he was the owner of a photography store and treasurer of a dairy distributor. This photo was prominently circulated in African American newspapers in late May – early June 1945. The GI was identified just as an American soldier, not as African American. | |
| Image Filename | wwii0851.jpg |
| Image Size | 778.75 KB |
| Image Dimensions | 2916 x 2156 |
| Photographer | Fred E. Faas |
| Photographer Title | Office of War Information |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | April 1, 1945 |
| Location | |
| City | Ansbach |
| State or Province | Bavaria |
| Country | Germany |
| Archive | National Archives and Records Administration |
| Record Number | NR-2024-07-10 |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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