African American divisions in Advanced Squad Leader : follow up

Dwindham

Member
Joined
Mar 14, 2021
Messages
88
Reaction score
57
Location
Lincoln, NE
First name
Daniel
Country
llUnited States

Based on discussion:

-There is a desire for an action pack covering African American's Service in World War Two.

-I need volunteers for research and designers for said action pack
-I will work on contacting Curt Schilling possibly via formal Snail Mail to let him know what we are currently working on

-I need to read a bunch of books about African American's in World War Two. So I'll have to put my Korean War studies to the side.
-I may reach out to the NAACP to see if they have any helpful grants or resources [doubtful].

Conversation now best fits in:
The Designers Forum so I'll be posting there today or Wen to get things moving.

Thank You

Daniel Windham
 

Andrew Rogers

Senior Member
Joined
Aug 16, 2010
Messages
149
Reaction score
420
Location
Canberra, Australia
First name
Andy
Country
llAustralia
Daniel. Good luck with your project. The Hatten in Flames module depicted the efforts of a platoon of Hellcat tank destroyers from the African-American 827th TD Battalion. Out of eight scenarios, four of them contained these tankers. This includes "Jackpot Jones", where the Hellcats took out several Mark IVs from a well positioned ambush.
 

Andrew Rogers

Senior Member
Joined
Aug 16, 2010
Messages
149
Reaction score
420
Location
Canberra, Australia
First name
Andy
Country
llAustralia
Some quotes from www.hatten1945.com regarding these efforts of the 827th:

‘(On 10 January) when we started to try to clean up the town, E Company and four tank destroyers came in. (They) were wonderful, standing right there swapping punch for punch with Tiger tanks (ED: Panthers). Their platoon leader, 2d Lt. Robert F. Jones (ED: "Jackpot Jones"), of Casper, Wyo., deserves the Silver Star. They found an abandoned M-10 tank destroyer there in good condition and decided to use it instead of one of their own. At our forward positions, the main street bent so that they could not see German tanks coming, particularly at night. Jones took a machine-gun for signalling and laid it on the steps of the forward house, with a tank destroyer farther back and zeroed on the bend.’

‘Jones was supposed to trip the machine-gun trigger with a string, but when the first Tiger poked its snout around the bend at night he just didn't have any sense. He got right out on the steps and held the trigger down, spraying the Tiger. The tank opened fire and blew the steps right out from' under Jones, but he wasn't hurt. His gunner, S/Sgt Harry Johnson, of Philadelphia, opened fire and drove the Tiger back. At dusk on the tenth, remnants of the battalion originally overrun at Hatten were ordered to withdraw, but, about 20 refused to leave and another score stayed at Rittershoffen, where they fought determinedly with a third battalion of the 315th Regiment
(ED: 79th Infantry Division). They stated flatly, “We've run as far as we're going to run”.’
Combat diary of Lt Goodwin (History of 79th Infantry Division, p108)
 

Hutch

Curator of the ASL Armory
Joined
Feb 16, 2004
Messages
2,457
Reaction score
1,789
Location
FL
First name
Hutch
Country
llUnited States
No books handy (am at work), but I recall in Donald Burgett's Seven Roads to Hell, he talked about the 761st and other units that assisted during the Siege of Bastogne.
I have a few books available for research.
 

Old Noob

Forum Guru
Joined
Jan 10, 2020
Messages
2,177
Reaction score
2,330
Country
llUnited States
In Burgett's book "Seven Roads to Hell", he tells of instructing Negro artillerymen in the challenge password and response (resulting in a
humorous incident).
 
Top