At the end WWII 473 men had been honoured by the United States for their bravery and sacrifice by receiving the Medal of Honor. The Medal was awarded to men of all ranks - from Lieutenant General Jonathan Wainwright at the top all the way down to 18-year-old Private Joseph Merrell. Although 1 million African Americans served in the military during the war, not one was awarded the Medal of Honor, this being despite some extraordinary acts of valour.
In 1993 a US Army commission reviewed cases from recipients of America’s second-highest medal, the Distinguished Service Cross, and determined that a number of these men had been denied the Army’s highest award simply due to racial discrimination.
In this episode, I’m joined by Robert Child author of Immortal Valor: The Black Medal of Honor Winners of World War II.
Patreon:
patreon.com/ww2podcast
127 - The Longest Campaign
126 - The River Battles: Canada's Final Campaign in Italy
125 - Mechanisation of British Cavalry Units and Tank Doctrine
124 - Kais: Downed airmen in New Guinea
123 - Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay
122 - Fallout: The Hiroshima Cover-up
121 - To Defeat The Few: The Luftwaffe's Battle of Britain
120 - The People's Army in the Spanish Civil War
119 - The British Army and the Anti-Locust Campaign
118 - The Codebreakers of Bletchley Park
117 - Information Hunters
116 - Clementine Churchill
115 - To VE Day Through German Eyes
114 - Airborne Chaplains in the Second World War
113 - Sighted Sub, Sank Same
112 - Four Hours of Fury: Operation Varsity
111 - An Impeccable Spy: Richard Sorge
110 - The P-47 Thunderbolt and 362nd Fighter Group
109 - The British Commonwealth Air Training Plan
108 - The Battle for Hong Kong, 1941
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Irish Songs with Ken Murray
History Obscura
Historycal: Words that Shaped the World
The Rest Is History
Everything Everywhere Daily