Forgotten: The Untold Story of D-Day's Black Heroes, at Home and at War

"Forgotten" is thoroughly researched and thoroughly readable. It is the story of the 320th Barrage Balloon Battalion, a unit of African-American soldiers who landed in France during the D-Day invasion via a U.S. Army system then-rife with institutional racism. While their mission at Normandy--particularly the heroism of a medic named Waverly Woodson, who tended to the wounded and the drowning for 30 hours before collapsing from his own wounds--was mentioned in army press releases and received extensive coverage in the black press, their contributions quickly disappeared from the public record and public discourse. Medals, if they came at all, were of a lesser degree. Even the GI Bill had limits in its implementation, as veterans recount, since trades such as TV repairman became de facto earmarked for white veterans in the parts of the country where Jim Crow persisted. Hervieux threads strands of social history, military history and journalistic interviews with the handful of 320th veterans who were alive during the 10-year span of her project to create a stirring narrative that is never sentimental. Boardwalk Empire fans will enjoy the vibrant chapter on Atlantic City, NJ, and the enduring love story of Wilson Monk and Mertina Madison. Quiz night and general knowledge aficionados will appreciate the chapter on the history of barrage balloons. British readers like me will find fascinating the policy battles that surrounded the stationing of U.S. soldiers on UK soil. "Forgotten" does the men and families of the 320th honor.

Few Americans know anything abot the 320th Barrage Baloon Battalion or its contribution to the World War II offense. In Forgotten, Linda Hervieux not only provides a comprehensive story of the 320th--composed entirely of African American soldiers--but by placing it in the context of 20th century social history, she draws a dramatic picture of Jim Crow life and its cruelty. With a keen eye for the telling detail, she renders the background of many soldiers who risked their lives for a country that ignored their claim for equality. Based on hundreds of interviews, Hervieux points out how black soldiers were strictly segregated and mistreated while German and Italian prisoners of war were treated as friends. In the short months of their stay in Europe, the men of the 320th were treated warmly by the British population. This short term of normalcy in race relations was brought to an abrupt end when the black soldiers were returned to the strictly segregated United States military service. Hervieux recreates the drama and danger of DDay and the part the 320th played in that epic battle. Excellently written and widely researched, Forgotten is an invaluable addition to military and social history and just a plain good read.

This book is a must read, it is so brilliantly written and enlightening. I think it should be required reading in all nigh schools in the USA. The book, Forgotten isn't merely another WWII story, but the high ideals, intelligence and devotion of people before and after the war. These are human beings who gave their lives to this nation even though they were marginalized, tortured and murdered because of the color of their skin. Ms Hervieux in this book captures these men's feelings of joy and pain through survivors and family members of their treatment. I know some may think oh no another textbook, but you would be wrong. This book is a beautifully written story of a group of brave, self-sacraficing men who saved many lives at the largest assault in modern history, individual stories of heroes true, fighting for a country they believed in. Ms Hervieux writes so well and the stories have a grand fluidity that it made you want to keep reading. I hope we see many more books from this author in the future. These men had to fight to be able to fight, yet they were not given their due. Curtains in segregated train cars had to have closed because bigots would shot at the train cars if they saw it was filled with black soldiers. In the US they could not go to many restaurants, movies or USO's, yet they saw German and Japanese prisoners with their guards in those same establishments. However when they reach the British Isles they were welcome not as black Americans, but Americans, and the people loved them. The book Forgotten tells the story of these heroes and sheds light on the horrors of "Jim Crow" America which is either unknown by the younger generation and forgotten by other generations. The bigotry is less than it was then, but we still have a long way to go to eradicate it as we see in the news every day now.

Truly appreciate the book. Top quality author wrote a broad enough touch historical story to provide reasonable context to the content. Would really like to read more books published about our military operations support units especially in the Pacific & South Asia. Share all the history. Release the narrative so we can celebrate all who contributed to the world becoming safer for Democracy and Humankind. ACommon1 Connectivity!

Excellent book. At first you may wonder why it takes so long to get to the war contributions of the black soldiers. However, this is because the context of their environment is vitally important to understanding how incredibly brave these men were with the SIGNIFICANT racial obstacles they had to endure. Thanks to the author. I went to France and visited the Normandy Beach for the Omaha operation and it makes this even more special. No one talks about the contributions of black soldiers in the success of the invasion of Normandy. Without this book I would have never known SMH. The fact that there are no black soldiers in the movie Saving Private Ryan is crazy.

An eye opening addition not only in regard to the efforts to defeat Hitler's armies, but specifically in regard to the contributions made by Black soldiers, contributions that all too often have gone unsung.

This is an odd book. It purports to be a history of 330th Barrage Balloon Battalion, a unit of African American soldiers, among the first to land on French beaches on D Day. In this guise alone, it's fascinating. How many of us would have even pondered the technology of barrage balloons, let along the racial bigotry brought to bear by US soldiers against their brothers in arms who were trying to.protect them at the time. But that is the power of this book. It's a social history in which race figures strongly, as it still does widely across the US. OK, I'm English, and I wouldn't want anyone running away with the idea there isn't a strong vein of racial bigotry in my culture too. But really, how can you be that bigoted again fellow soldiers, many of whom were heroes by anyone's standards? I was proud when it came to assembling troops in the UK that for many black.conscripts England was their first experience of being treated decently by white people. It brought tears to my eyes to read of ordinary British folk confronting institutionalised US racism by not only refusing to apply Jim Crow restrictions against black troops in pubs and clubs but by actively welcoming black troops into their homes. The book should be read widely: more needs to be known about this shameful facet of history.

This is a very important book – thoroughly researched, smoothly and concisely written, and given the advanced age of the central personalities, extremely timely. Concentrating on the life and actions of the 320th Barrage Balloon Battalion the book paints a wider and very vivid picture of what life was like for African American soldiers in general during World War II. Despite the outrageousness of the conditions and racist statements these people had to face daily, the author avoids polemicizing; she lets the facts speak for themselves. As I read this fascinating account, I had the eerie feeling that I should have known these facts already. These remarkable men and their stories should have been part of the narratives all along about WWII and in particular about D-Day. Instead they were brushed aside and might have stayed that way forever but for the author’s years of research and writing. Despite the title, she makes it possible for us to remember via one good read.

Like most Europeans, my knowledge of Jim Crow laws was rather limited. One of the merits of this book is the contrast between the quiet military heroism of these guys and the racist attitudes of the US army in the 1940'S The likeness between jim Crow laws and Spanish inquisition limpieza de sangre is also striking...and shocking

Excellent read. Bought tears to my eyes. These accounts are never heard in the mainstream media. Black soldiers made such a massive contribution during WW2 and all wars prior and since with barely any recognition. They fought in the trenches, they fought hand to hand they were in the navy and flew bombers. And while doing all this for their country they fought the biggest enemy that was racism from their own country and white soldiers which they continued to fight every day of their lives during peacetime too.