Tuesday, February 21, 2012

The 369th Infantry - AKA The Harlem Hellfighters - World War I

The Harlem Hellfighters




The 369th may have been seconded to the French army, but it was up to the French how they would be used. And their need was for combat troops.
The 369th was in combat longer than any US unit in WW1. They liberated towns. They were the first Allied soldiers to reach the Rhine. They won 171 decorations. Two Harlem Hellfighters were especially honored for fighting off an attack on their tiny outpost by 24 Germans.
And that nickname, the Hellfighters? The Germans gave them that.

Photographs of the 369th Infantry and African Americans during World War I

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