All language subtitles for The.Black.Panthers.of.WW2.2021.1080p.WEB.h264-POPPYCOCK

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 symbolisms

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 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 circus act.

But events force them
into a radical rethink.

On June 6th, 1944, thousands of
miles away in the north of France,

a momentous day in military history
changed both the course of the war

and the lives of the Black Panthers.

D-Day.

The D-Day landings saw 23,000
Allied troops

parachute into northern France,

before 150,000 soldiers
stormed the Normandy beaches.

They land on these five beaches.

By the end of the first day,

the Allies now have
a foothold in France.

From here, their 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 a shortage of manpower,
the US 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 armour

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.

Patton said, "Send them."

And so, in August 1944,

the Black Panthers
boarded a ship in New York

harbour bound for England.

The first all black tank battalion
to be sent overseas.

I definitely think that
the 761st were shocked

that they were actually
going to see combat.

Many of them had never travelled
before, so it was an opportunity

for them to go and see the world,
and in turn serve their country.

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 were there,

they were 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 was 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 marginalised

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.

There were severe laws that blacks
and whites 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.

And even in England, the sight
of black servicemen socialising

with white English people
as equals could provoke 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 US Eighth 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 Olde 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 fatigues,

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 1943

and February 1944.

And it's really, really important
to note that these issues

are happening within the US 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.

From the battle scarred beaches
of Normandy, the Black Panthers

were ordered to the small town
of Nancy, 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.

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 blacks 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 US policy
of non-interventionism

meant that, at first, it viewed the
war as a purely European affair.

But as Hitler's victories mounted
up, it became more and more likely

that America would have
to become involved.

The US, 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 US 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 traction.

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

honourably 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 recognised but decorated.

So after every struggle,
black soldiers are commended

for their heroism and valour.

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 Lesley McNair
was one of the few senior officers

in the US 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

the chance to perform under fire,

to be placed in front line duty,

then they would live up to their
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-sur-Seille,

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.

As the line of tanks grew closer
to Vic-sur-Seille,

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 machinegun fire.

Rivers' courage prevented
a serious delay in the offensive,

and after furious fighting,
Vic-sur-Seille was captured.

But there was no time to celebrate
their first combat victory.

Their next objective
was the town of Morville-les-Vic,

and German forces
were waiting for them.

Morville-les-Vic was a small town
which was occupied by the Germans,

and this would be a great stronghold
for the US 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.

LOUD GUNFIRE

The lead tank, commanded
by Sergeant Roy King,

was disabled by a Panzerfaust.

You know, the Panzerfaust,
which was a portable shaped charge

rocket launcher.

They were very, very effective.

They could go right through the hull
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 Crecy's
tank was also hit and immobilised,

but Crecy managed to clamber on
top of his disabled tank

and held back the German troops
with machinegun 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 counterparts,

by French soldiers,

by white American soldiers,
of the bravery and of the tenacity

of the 761st Battalion.

After Morville-les-Vic,
Captain John D Long said,

"There wasn't a white outfit that
wasn't damned glad to have us."

After bitter fighting
Morville-les-Vic was captured.

But bad news soon filtered its way
through the Black Panther ranks.

The commander, Colonel Paul
Bates, had been wounded

and would be evacuated.

Men like Colonel Paul Bates
were rare in the US Army.

He was a white man who wanted
to command a black unit.

It was considered to be death
of any white serviceman's career

to lead 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, 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.

When they arrived at Camp Claiborne,
their worst fears were confirmed.

They were placed in barracks
that were so squalid

and so devastated, 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
ins 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.

Bates' gruelling 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, the Panthers were sent

to attack German positions around
Guebling in north-eastern France.

Guebling was a major communications
hub, and formidable German forces

had already defeated
a large US task force.

Positioned in the lead tank
was Sergeant Ruben Rivers.

Staff Sergeant Ruben 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 apologise afterward.

Rivers' tank
rumbled towards the village.

His platoon located
two German Panther tanks

and there followed an exchange
of gunfire

between the tanks.

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 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.

Guebling 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 travelling 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
will be Mildred Gillars,

better known as Axis Sally.

She is somebody who ends up
in Germany in the 1930s

and works for the radio.

Now, the Ministry of Propaganda,
they believe that an American voice

is needed to spread disinformation

and so they employ Axis Sally
to actually

lead on these propaganda broadcasts.

Germany was attempting to demoralise
the African-American troops

by jamming their radio signals
with their own broadcasts.

So she'll go on the radio and,
for example, she'll say things like,

you know, this is the white,
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 Crow
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 that division
was already there.

They didn't have to
propagandise it.

It was already happening.

But what the Nazis didn't realise

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

is going to recognize their ability
and 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 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, you know, 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's

supply port of Antwerp.

The German forces smashed their way
through the Ardennes forest.

They destroy the American
106th Infantry Division,

they badly maul the
28th Infantry Division,

several other units.

In the first days of the fighting it
looks like they're going to succeed.

But one key strategic location
continue to hold -

the town of Bastogne.

Think of the spokes of a wheel.

Here's Bastogne at the hub,
and Bastogne has this road net,

all of these crisscrossing road nets

excellent for the
passage of armour.

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 US forces at Bastogne
refused to surrender

and German forces surrounded
the town, beginning a siege.

Leading the way for the
87th Infantry Division,

the Panthers were ordered to head
back north

to close a vital German supply line
by taking the town of Tillet.

This town that they're 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,

destroying 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 Tillet

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 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 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 defence.

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.

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.

It was Gunskirchen Lager,

a subcamp of the
Mauthausen concentration camp.

And when they saw this,
many of them were deeply saddened

by what they, what they
were witnessing.

And I also think that they realised
that racial hatred...

..ethnic animosity
was not one that was just,

was germane to American society
or to the United States,

but it was one that was, that was,
that marked humankind all together.

So coming and seeing these people
in these internment camps,

these concentration camps,
caused their hearts to bleed

because they were in such
despair that

other human beings could be treated,
I guess, in worst 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
conceptualised.

Nazi Germany surrendered
on May 7th, 1945.

For the Black Panthers, it had been
the culmination of six months

of combat during which they proved
themselves a formidable battalion.

But more than that, the 761st
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 colour

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 are
fighting in Europe at the time,

death was the greatest leveller.

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 infantrymen
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 realise that.

Before I had been taught
not to trust them.

I've been taught
that they were cowards.

But I recognize these were real
men, and in many occasions

they saved their lives.

SHIP HORN BLARES

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 and their uniforms.

A lot of African-Americans
troops were also lynched

on return back to America,

as they had done previously
in World War One.

And in many cases, they found
themselves, as well,

being excluded or denied,
basically, hospitalisation,

after the war was over,

for the wounds there... That
had 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.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media