Forbidden History - The First African American WWII Tank Battalion

Episode Date: February 24, 2026

In World War II, the U.S. Army’s 761st Tank Battalion, known as the Black Panthers. They fought not only Nazi Germany but also the racism within their own ranks. Sent into some of the fiercest battles in Europe, they built a combat record that stunned and impressed their commanders. Yet for decades, their story was largely overlooked. Cast List: Dr. Ed Lengel: Chief Historian, National Medal of Honor Museum Selena Carty: Cultural and Ancestral Historian Dr. Robert Jefferson: Associate Professor of History, University of New Mexico Wayne Robinson: 761st Historian Shalina Patel: Historian Private E.G McConnell: Self Staff Sgt. Floyd Dade: Self Eric Meyers: Narrator Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to the Forbidden History Podcast. We're an independent podcast and advertisements help keep us going. Ads are automatically placed and not specifically chosen or endorsed by us unless read by me the host. Thanks for supporting the show. 1944, the 761st Tank Battalion was fighting its way through Nazi occupied Europe. The 761st Tank Battalion were the first all-black tank unit to see combat during World War II. Better known as the Black Panthers, the battalion was the product of an America divided along racial lines. Compared to what African Americans were dealing at home, deployment to Germany seemed like an easier task.

And they were desperate to prove their abilities through combat. They were the long-distance runners in the black struggle for equality, pure and simple. For the Black Panthers, it was a fight not only against the powerful enemy abroad, but a racist system at home. So this isn't just the story of a world war, it's the story of an ongoing war, the war for acceptance. The 761st Tank Battalion is formed in 1942 as an all-black unit.

The 761st were better known by the name Black Panthers. When you talk about Black Panthers, the idea was that they were trying to bring in some sort of African culture so African Americans could have some identity with the symbolism that were being created. And their motto was equally inspiring, Come out fighting. The motto come out fighting is very assertive.

It is one that is born of grim determination, as well as the expectation that they could show exactly what African Americans could do if given the opportunity. The Panthers had to be a good The Panthers had been training hard for two years. But the US Army High Command had no intention of sending them into war. That occurred because of racism.

They didn't quite know what to do with this Black Tank Battalion. There is a resistance to send African American combat troops over to Europe. It means that they're in this perpetual cycle of training. They toyed with the idea of making them a demonstration battalion, a kind of novelty, like a a circus act. But events forced them into a radical rethink. On June 6, 1944, thousands of miles away in the north of France, a momentous day of military history changed both the course of the war and the lives that landed at D-Day.

The D-Day landing saw 23,000 Allied troops parachute into northern France, before 150,000 soldiers stormed the Normandy beaches. They land on these at five beaches. By the end of the first day, the Allies now have a foothold in France. From here, plan was to fight their way towards Nazi Germany itself, but the landings came with a heavy cost. The landings are successful, but casualties are heavy. Nearly 10,000 Allied soldiers were killed or wounded on D-Day alone.

The foothold on the continent was fragile. Faced with the shore. of manpower, the U.S. Commander General George Patton had to get fresh units to the front, no matter who they were. George Patton asked his chief of staff about remaining armor in the United States. He said, where can we get combat-ready tank battalions?

So the reporting officer said to Patton, there is a battalion that has a very high combat efficiency rating. It's the 761st Tank Battalion. Patten said, send them. Send them. And so in August 1944, the Black Panthers boarded a ship in New York Harbor bound for England,

the first all-black tank battalion to be sent overseas. I definitely think that the 765th was shocked that they were actually going to see combat. Many of them had never traveled before, so it was an opportunity for them to go and see the world and in turn serve their country. The ship left New York Harbor and joined a convoy someplace out.

All we saw was ships, as far as you could see any direction, nothing but ships. We were 21 days on Atlantic Ocean. In September, they arrived in England and were sent to the County of Dorset for final preparations. Compared to the United States, it was like another world. They arrive in England and they're met really positively, and of course that makes sense because, from a British perspective, We've got these foreign troops arriving. Everyone in Britain knows what's been happening with the war. It's been going on for far longer than anyone imagined.

So these troops are welcomed as heroes. One of the things that they noticed to their pleasant surprise is that English countrymen who are there, they're more apt to accept them as equals than not. For most of the black soldiers, it was their first taste of real freedom. Because England did not enforce racial segregation. At the time, the citizens of the majority of US states were living their lives under the Jim Crow laws.

Jump Jim Crow was a caricature designed by a man called Thomas D. Rice in 1828. We now know the term of minstrels because he had blackened his face and were depicting characteristic that Americans classified to be Negro. A lot of these laws that we see playing out in America are named Jim Crow after this particular character. The Jim Crow laws placed severe restrictions on the lives of black Americans. The Jim Crow laws allowed white Americans to separate themselves and their assets from African Americans. They then were then marginalized in regards to where they could sit on trains, where they could sit on buses. As a black barber, you're not able to actually work on anyone who is of white origin.

Her severe laws that blacks and white women are. cannot intermarry. If you are an African-American person, you may not be tended to by a white nurse. Where they could buy their houses, where their children could go to school, if they could go to school at all. We got all of the secondhand books

when the white schools had used them. And then when they had upgraded, the white students would get the new books and we would get the used books. That went all the way down the line. Like our football uniforms and everything, we got to use ones from the white school because we wasn't able to buy our own uniforms. I wasn't anger about segregation in all because I didn't know any better.

That was just the way of life. And even in England, the sight of black servicemen socializing with white English people as equals could provoke ten. tensions with white GIs. A year before the Panthers crossed the Atlantic, an African American quartermaster truck regiment had made the same journey as support for the U.S. 8th Air Force. Stationed in the town of Bamber Bridge in Lancashire, like the Black Panthers, they too were welcomed by the locals.

It wasn't uncommon to see an English girl and a black soldier having a Coke or walking along a lane somewhere. It wasn't unusual to see that type of thing. That inflamed the southern racists. They made their feelings known at a local pub called Ye Old Hob Inn. And they're relaxing with the locals like they usually do, having a good time. But on this occasion, some white MPs, military policemen, happened upon the gathering. Walk in, they see one of the black soldiers is not dressed properly. I think he's wearing a field jacket when he's not supposed to be wearing a field jacket. And they call him out.

They try to arrest him. The black soldiers refused. They had seen soldiers in pubs and there had been no, you know, two-tier system of dress uniform versus combat fatigue. So they refused to comply with the order. A fight broke out, which quickly escalated into a race riot. And eventually, unfortunately, Private William Crossland

is unfortunately killed. There are seven people that are injured as well. It became known as the Battle of Bamber Bridge. And it was no isolated incident. In fact, there were many similar episodes. There are 44 incidents reported between African-American troops and white American troops between November 1940s. 143 and February 1944.

And it's really, really important to note that these issues are happening within the U.S. Army. The Panthers were fortunate not to have experienced this kind of racism in Britain. But the freedom was short-lived. After just a few weeks, it was time to go to war in France. As long I was up on deck watching, I was so amazed to see the amount of destroyed American equipment, ships. tanks, trucks, and all I got still litter in the beach. And as we rolled up on shore, I've never seen such a devastated place in my life.

From the battle-scarred beaches of Normandy, the Black Panthers were ordered to the small town of Nancey, where they were met by General George Patton himself. He allowed them to understand that they were the first Black Tank Battalion to join World War II. He said, I don't give a damn what color you are. He said, wonder why you're here, says I sent for you. He says, and your people are watching you. And by, garland, don't you let them down. And damn you, don't you let me down.

Patton's words may have been inspiring to the Black Panthers, but they did not reflect his true beliefs. General George Patton is hypocritical about black serving in combat. He'll tell them to their face that they can fight. In fact, Patton wrote to his wife and spoke to other senior officers saying that he doubted that African Americans were racially capable

of serving effectively. As the Panthers headed towards their first contact with the enemy, they weren't to know that they had only been called up as a last resort. In fact, they were almost not given the opportunity to train at all. The long-standing policy of non-interventionism meant that at first, the U.S. viewed the war as a purely European affair. But as Hitler's victories mounted up, it became increasingly likely that America would have to become involved. The U.S. therefore began to expand its military. But as it prepared to introduce the country's first ever peacetime draft,

a debate erupted. Should black Americans be permitted to serve? An African American unit, the 92nd Division, had fought for their country in the First World War, but the U.S. military had judged it to be a failure. All of the enlisted men are black. The 92nd does not do well. This is used by white officers as a justification

that they can't fight, that they're incompetent in combat, and that they'll only be a danger to their American comrades. This view gained more and more attraction. The Army War College in 1925 concluded that black men could serve in the military except in combat. It perpetuates the notions that they are not, you know, physically and intellectually capable for this kind of warfare. And yet, history suggested the opposite was true.

African Americans had served in the United States military honorably for many, many decades. They served in the Civil War. They served in the Indian Wars. They served in the Spanish-American War. Other 19th century wars. And in fact, many of them were not just recognized, but decorated. So after every struggle, black soldiers are commended for their heroism and that. But then when the next war breaks out, the question arises, are blacks capable of mastering the modern implements of warfare?

So it repeats itself, repeats itself, repeats itself. Lieutenant General Leslie McNair was one of the few senior officers in the U.S. Army who rose above prejudice and racism to understand the truth. He had understood that the problems for black soldiers was not their own ability or their own patriotism because black soldiers were very patriotic, but it was the racist system that prevented them from serving effectively. He fully believed that if African Americans were given a chance to perform under fire to be placed in front line duty, then they would live up to the expectations of the American military traditions and practices. After much debate, McNair's view prevailed, and black battalions, including the 761st, were created. But in July 1944, McNair lost his life in a friendly fire incident in France.

He did not live to see whether he would be vindicated or condemned for his faith in black servicemen. As the 761st rolled on towards Vic Surce and their first contact with German forces, they had everything to prove. They're green. They don't know what combat is like. They've never heard gunfire directed at them in anger. The weather was horrible. We first went in, it was in October. That was during the fall of the year.

And in France, where we started raining all the time. So that was mud and muck, the conditions that we were in in Louisiana down in the swamps. As the line of tanks grew closer to Vixer Se, they were forced to an abrupt stop. A tree had been placed across the road by the Nazis to block their path. Now sitting ducks, the German forces opened fire. The commander by the name of Captain David Williams tells the staff sergeant who was Ruben Rivers, look, I want you to take precaution, but if you can remove that, well, Rivers is going to do that anyway.

Rivers left the relative safety of his tank and pulled the tree out of the way amid a hail of machine gun fire. Rivers' courage prevented a serious delay in the offensive, and after furious fighting, Vix-sur-Sé was captured. But there was no time to celebrate their first combat victory. Their next objective was the town of Morville-Levique, and German forces were waiting for them. Morville-Levique was a small town which was occupied by the Germans,

and this would be a great stronghold for the U.S. troops to be able to take over, to be able to continue their quest into Europe to be able to get to the German borders. And they're going to have to prove themselves as they encounter severe German resistance from anti-tank guns, as well as experienced infantry who are going to engage them in this town at close quarters. The waiting German forces opened fire.

A lead tank commanded by Sergeant Roy King was disabled by a Panzer Faust. You know, the Panzer Faust, which was a portable, shape, charge, rocket launcher, they were very, very effective. They could go right through the hall of a Sherman tank. King, like his comrades, when they're put in a situation like this, climbs out of the tank and instead of running away, engages the enemy.

King was killed in the gunfight, but his two crew members battled on from underneath the tank. Behind them, Sergeant Warren Creasy's tank was also hit and immobilized. But Creasy managed to clamber on top of his disabled tank and held back the German troops with machine gun fire. As the battle raged, the Panthers were beginning to make an impression on the white soldiers fighting around them. And this was something that was noted by their white counterbites, by French soldiers, by white American soldiers, of the bravery and of the tenacity of this 761st battalion. After Morville Levick, Captain John D. Long said that there was no white outfit that wasn't damaged

glad to have us. After bitter fighting, Morville-Vic was captured, but bad news soon filtered its way through the Black Panther ranks. Their commander, Colonel Paul Bates, had been wounded and would be evacuated. Men like Colonel Paul Bates were rare in the U.S. Army. He was a white man who wanted to command a black unit. It was considered to be death of any white serviceman career to lead a black. black troops because black troops were deemed to be inferior.

Other white officers, when they're appointed to command black troops, consider it as a form of punishment. Paul Bates was different. He saw an opportunity to do some good. He didn't have time for lectures about civil rights or anything like that, but he insisted on treating his soldiers as soldiers, as human beings. as human beings and requiring the high standard of efficiency that any commander would want from any soldier.

Before Bates took command, life in the Black Panthers had been defined by racism, which they faced even on the journey to training. We had to pull the shades down so that they couldn't see if that was the black troops on the train, because what they would do, they would fire on the train. the trains, you know, just take pop shots at it. A couple of soldiers he got hit that way, you know, got killed. And as we got off of the train and lined up, we were told all you colored down this way and all your white colors down this way.

When they arrived at Camp Claiborne, their worst fears were confirmed. They were placed in barracks that were so squalid, and so devastating, that they were never allowed to forget that they were being subjected to racial discrimination. But Colonel Bates was determined to tear down racial boundaries, and so to give the Panthers the best opportunity to prove themselves, he was going to train them hard. They trained harder in their physical training,

more so than any other unit in the American military. during this period. They also had to know the duties of not only those who were of the tank commanders as well as the gunners, but they also had to know the reconnaissance. They also had to know the ends and outs of every position that was in the American military during that time. They feel that he's setting the bar high. And that's exactly what they want.

They want the bar to be set high. This is grueling training regime turned the Panthers into a formidable fighting unit. But more than that, it gave them a sense of self-worth. Now without their colonel and mentor, Panthers were sent to attack German positions around Gublon in northeastern France. Gublon was a major communications hub, and German forces had already defeated a large U.S. task force. Positioned in the lead tank was Sergeant Rubin Rivers.

Staff Sergeant Rubin Rivers is a special guy. He's unique even in a unit of outstanding warriors. Rivers is the type of man who acts first without asking for permission and will apologize afterward. Rivers's tank rumbled towards the village. His platoon located two German panther tanks and there followed an exchange. followed an exchange of gunfire between the tanks. His tank hit a land mine, and it's just tied thigh from the kneecap all wheel to his hip.

And they came up and they said that you have a billion dollar wound, you go back home. Despite being gravely wounded, Rivers insisted on continuing the fight. But just a few days later, he would pay the ultimate price. And the last anybody here, Anybody hears from Rivers, he tells his driver, driver pull back, driver pull back, oh my God. Rivers was killed by a direct hit from a German shell. So Captain William, he felt guilty.

So he came to Colonel Hunt and he said, I want Rivers, I want to put him in for Bell of Honor. He said, what you mean, Melovana? He said, he got the Silver Star. We're not supposed to give them no more than a bronze star either way. So he got more than he deserved. Gublant was taken. Over the next few weeks,

the battalion had its first and only period of rest and recuperation near the border with Germany. So we have to remember that the 761st had been traveling nonstop, so from America to England, England to France, and whereas they first came into enemy contact from the 8th of November, we're now just over a month in and they're fighting continuously. The 761st has taken such. serious casualties. There's something like 34 tanks that they've had knocked out in the course

of their initial engagements, so they need time to rest, they need time to refit. But as they recuperated, the German propaganda machine was gearing up for action. Leading the psychological war would be Mildred Gillers, better known as Axis Sally. She is somebody who ends up in Germany in the 1930s and works for the radio. Now, the... The Ministry of Propaganda, they believe that an American voice is needed to spread disinformation. And so they employ Access Salli to actually lead on these propaganda broadcasts. Germany was attempting to demoralize the African American troops by jamming the radio signals with their own broadcasts. So she'll go onto the radio and, for example, she'll say things like, you know, this is a white man's war.

Why are you here? This is not for you. That they shouldn't be fighting for a country that treats them unjustly. While you are far away, advocates of Jim Crowe are perpetrating crimes against your people. For once, the Nazis were telling the truth. You know, it's ironic that the Germans attempted to stir up something that was already happening. That division was already there. They didn't have to propagandize it.

It was already happening. But what the Nazis didn't realize was that these weren't reasons for African Americans not to fight. They were part of their motives to fight. All they can do is hope that at some point somebody's going to recognize their ability, their determination, their patriotism, their desire to fight and to serve. So this isn't just the story of a world war, it's the story of an ongoing war, the war for acceptance. And the Black Panthers were about to face their toughest test yet. In December 1944, a German force of 200,000 men and 1,000 tanks launched a surprise attack on the unsuspecting allies in Belgium. It would become known as the Battle of the Bulge.

The Battle of the Bulge was one of the most bloodiest battles that the Umbuds. the US troops had seen during World War II. This is really Hitler's last stand. So what he's trying to do is, in the wake of the Normandy landings, etc., he's really trying to push the Allies out of mainland Europe. To achieve this, the Nazis aim to capture the Allied supply port of Antwerp. The German forces smashed their way through the Ardennes forest. They destroy the American 106 infantry division.

badly mauled the 28th Infantry Division, several other units, and the first days of the fighting, it looks like they're going to succeed. But one key strategic location continued to hold out, the town of Bastogne. Think of the spokes of a wheel. Here's Bastogne at the hub, and Bastogne has this roadnet. All of these criss-crossing road nets, excellent for the passage of armor, And that's what the Germans needed if they were going to cross the Meuse River and capture the port of Antwerp, which was their objective.

The U.S. forces at Bastogne refused to surrender, and German forces surrounded the town, beginning a siege. Leading the way for the 87th Infantry Division, Panthers were ordered to head back north to close a vital German supply line by taking the town of Tilei. This town that they are going to advance against, the Germans are well placed.

The 761st led the way into the town. The 761st basically overruns them dramatically in this point. Destroy many pillboxes, also capturing many of the enemy forces, and killing many of the enemy at the same time. It was one of the most dramatic battles that they fought during that period. The way cleared, the 87th Infantry Division followed in their wake, and a brutal house-to-house battle ensued. But together, they took the town of Taye, and the German forces were sent into retreat. The Panthers would go on to fight alongside the 17th Airborne Division to choke further supply lines to Bastogne. And as the German tanks began to run out of fuel, the weather cleared, and the Allies were able to finish off the enemy force.

forces with air attacks. That is when the air campaign against the Germans resumed. And that is when the typhoons, rocket-firing typhoons, made it impossible for the Germans to run tanks up and down the road. That was really the end of the Battle of the Bulge. The Battle of the Bulge was over. But for the Black Pals, Panthers, the war soon continued. By March 1945, they were at the border of Germany and the

formidable Siegfried Line, Hitler's last line of defense. And so the men of the 761st, though they're tired, though they're exhausted, though they've been through so much. And many of them now are feeling the effects of post-traumatic stress through the terrible things they've been through. Now they know that it's a fight to the finish. Paul Bates, their beloved battalion commander, was fit enough to rejoin them as they fought their way towards the heart of the Third Reich. I think Cairn Bates had were used around 26,000 pounds of

tons, rather of ammunition. That was one of the biggest spells that we had. After several days of fighting, the Panthers broke through the Siegfried line. But as they made their way through Germany and into Austria, they saw the realities of Nazi rule. And we were on our way to Star Austria, and we ran up on this camp. It seemed to me that it was a German...

at the beginning, by seeing these buildings, thought it was housing German soldiers, but their barracks. But as we buttoned down and got to... Ballard Ready, and close that we got, we saw people's heads clean and the striped suits, and some hanging out of the window so we didn't know what the hell it was. So we opened the hatches to get a closer look. It was Gunzkerkin Lager, a sub-camp of the Mauthausen concentration camp.

When you saw people look like a ghost skeleton with skin wrapped around it, just walking and wondering around, a couple of them were on the outside, and then all around the barracks. There were bodies. It looked like skins and bones. That's all it was. And when they saw this, many of them were deeply saddened by what they, what they were witnessing. And I also think that they realized that racial hatred, ethnic animosity,

was not one that was germane to American society or to the United States, but it was one that marked humankind altogether. So coming and seeing these people in these internment camps, these concentration camps, cause their hearts to bleed because they were in such despair that other human beings could be treated, I guess, in worse capacities than they had seen themselves, that it led for them to understand that they were doing more of a significant role in this war

than they could have ever conceptualized. Nazi Germany surrendered on the 7th of May 1945. For the Black Panthers, it had been the culmination of six months of combat, during which they proved themselves a powerful battalion. But more than that, the 770s. first came out fighting against the racism they had encountered from the moment they signed up, the indignity of their never-ending training, and the people who believed that their skin color made them incapable of serving. And by fighting alongside white soldiers, they also conquered

Jim Crow segregation itself. It truly was a shining moment in American arms, because regardless of their race, there were these American soldiers who were determined to get the war over with. They wanted to go home. And it becomes kind of a voluntary, spontaneous integration that happens at the front. For members of the 761st Tank Battalion and their white counterparts who were fighting in Europe at the time, death was the greatest leveler. And race, as well as other strictures that they had encountered in civilian life,

had fallen by the wayside at that moment. Many of these white infantry men would come home and they would never forget the Black Panthers. They would write about it. They would remember it in decades after the war and say those were real men. I didn't know that. I didn't realize that before I had been taught not to trust them.

I'd been taught that they were cowards. But I recognize these were real men and in many occasions they saved their lives. Over the next year, the Black Panthers were gradually sent back home to America. Once they learned that the war was over, many of the men were relieved to hear that it had ended, but at the same time, they were wondering as to what their prospects would be in American society once they returned home. The war had changed not only them, but the world.

and they sincerely hoped that it had also changed American society. But upon their return, they discovered that it hadn't. They were still ill-treated. They were still told that they must sit at the back of the bus, even though they were wearing their medals in their uniforms. A lot of African-American troops were also lynched on return back to America as they had done previously in World War I. And in many cases, they found themselves as well being excluded or denied,

basically hospitalization after the war was over for the wounds that they occurred during the war. So they came back, they were hopeful that the country would change, but they were embittered by their immediate experiences once they got home. Some stories have happy endings, and some stories have something else. And I think that the story of the black servicemen, especially the combat servicemen, coming home is one of those stories. Segregation in the U.S. Army ended in 1948, but segregation in America didn't end until 1968.

The Panthers were awarded a Presidential Unit Citation in 1978. Ruben Rivers posthumously received a Medal of Honor in 1997. Thanks for exploring the past with us today. If you like this episode, please be sure to follow for more. We post new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday. Don't forget to leave a comment below, and feel free to leave us a rating or review. Your feedback helps us reach more listeners like you. And for more from the Like a Shot Network, check out Where Did Everyone Go, Histories of the Abandoned,

a deep dive into the incredible stories behind Forgotten Places. Available now on your favorite podcast platforms. Thanks for listening.