Skip to main content

555TH PARACHUTE INFANTRY BATTALION [TRIPLE NICKLES] (1944-1947).

CELEBRATING BLACK HISTORY 365
555TH PARACHUTE INFANTRY BATTALION [TRIPLE NICKLES] (1944-1947).





During the winter of 1943-1944, the first black paratroopers in army history began training at Fort Benning, Georgia. A

fter several months, the segregated unit was moved to Camp Mackall, North Carolina, where it was reorganized and redesignated as Company A of the newly activated 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion. 

Unlike other African American infantry units officered by whites, the 555th was entirely black since six black officers also completed jump training.

By late 1944, the first platoon of Triple Nickles was fully trained, combat-ready, and alerted for European duty. 

The men were anxious to fight Hitler’s Nazis in Europe or the Japanese in the Pacific. Instead, racial military politics and changing war conditions kept the paratroopers home and away from the war they had been trained to fight.

In early 1945, the Triple Nickles had received secret orders from the War Department called “Operation Firefly.” They were sent to Pendleton, Oregon, assigned to the 9th Services Command, and trained by the Forest Service to become history’s first military smokejumpers. They were specifically designated to respond to Japanese balloon bombs.

On May 5, 1945, a Japanese incendiary balloon explosion killed the pregnant wife of a local minister and five young members of their church while on a Sunday picnic near Bly, Oregon. The Army kept the details of the incident a secret as they didn’t want members of the public to panic.

During that year’s fire season, the Triple Nickles made more than 1,200 individual jumps and helped control at least 28 major fires although none were believed to have been caused by the Japanese. 

The paratroopers suffered numerous injuries but only one fatality: the day of Malvin Brown’s death, August 6, 1945, was also the day the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. 

Both events made the front page of the local newspaper in Roseburg, Oregon but the pioneer death was barely noticed by comparison and soon forgotten.

In December 1947, the Triple Nickles were deactivated and their personnel were assigned to other Army units. One group, the 2nd Airborne Ranger Company, became the first black unit to make a combat jump during the Korean War. 

Ultimately, the Triple Nickles served in more airborne units, in peace and in war, than any other parachute group in history.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A great story about a little bit of 'humanity' during a terrible war.

A great story about a little bit of 'humanity' during a terrible war.                                                                                      In April 1945, 2nd Lt. Peter During was a South African fighter pilot (N.7 Squadron) running missions over Italy when his Spitfire was shot down by German AA fire. He managed to crash land his plane behind enemy lines where he was immediately captured.   Whilst been escorted to a German Lufwaffe Prisoner of War (POW) camp (he was a pilot and thus his interrogation and imprisonment was the responsibility of the German airforce), he opened a conversation with his captors. He was quickly able to establish that they could already see the writing on the wall, that the war was at an end and Germany would lose it. ...
Post a Comment
Read more

French woman accused of sleeping with Germans during the occupation has her head shaved by vindictive neighbors in village near Marseilles.

French woman accused of sleeping with Germans during the occupation has her head shaved by vindictive neighbors in village near Marseilles.  Antony Beevor wrote: "... In Paris, there were cases of prostitutes kicked to death for having accepted German soldiers as clients. (...) A large number of the victims were prostitutes who had simply plied their trade with Germans as well as Frenchmen, although in some areas it was accepted that their conduct was professional rather than political, others were silly teenagers who had associated with German soldiers out of bravado or boredom.  In a number of cases, female schoolteachers who, living alone, had German soldiers billeted on them, were falsely denounced for having been a "mattress for the boches. (...) Women accused of having had an abortion were also assumed to have consorted with Germans.  Many victims were young mothers, whose husbands were in German prisoner-of-war camps. During the war, they often had no means of supp...
1 comment
Read more

THE TERRIBLE STORY OF THE BATTLE SCARS OF NORMANDY.

 THE TERRIBLE STORY OF THE BATTLE SCARS OF NORMANDY. On June 6, 1944, the Allied forces launched a massive invasion of Normandy, France, which marked a turning point in World War II. The invasion, codenamed "Operation Overlord," involved over 156,000 troops, and was the largest amphibious assault in history. The battle for Normandy beach was a bloody and brutal one, and the scars of that conflict still remain today. The beaches of Normandy, including Omaha, Utah, Juno, Gold, and Sword, were heavily fortified by the German forces, with bunkers, barbed wire, and mines littering the landscape. The Allied forces faced heavy resistance as they landed on the beaches, with many soldiers losing their lives in the initial assault. The fighting was intense and chaotic, with both sides suffering heavy casualties. Today, the scars of that battle are still visible on the beaches of Normandy. The bunkers and fortifications built by the Germans still stand, reminders of the fierce resistanc...
Post a Comment
Read more