17. The 320th in France
Arriving on Utah and Omaha beaches alongside the infantry in 150 landing craft, the 320th Barrage Balloon Battalion became the only black combat unit to see action on D-Day. Braving enemy fire, they flew and maintained their flammable balloons at an altitude of roughly 200 feet, tethered to cables with the aim of creating a hazardous thicket to discourage the Luftwaffe from strafing the beaches. Their conduct that day earned them a commendation from Supreme Allied Commander General Dwight D. Eisenhower, who cited the 320th for conducting “its mission with courage and determination” and proving itself “an important element of the air defense team“.
In late July of 1944, a quarter of the battalion moved to the recently liberated port of Cherbourg in the Cotentin peninsula, while the rest of the unit stayed in Omaha and Utah beaches until that autumn. All in all, the black barrage balloon operators spent 140 days in France, before taking ship to England, and thence to the US and Camp Stewart, Georgia. There, the 320th trained for service in the Pacific Theater and the expected invasion of Japan. They made it as far as Hawaii, before the war suddenly ended in a pair of mushroom clouds.