COMBAT TROOPS IN THE EUROPEAN THEATER

Slightly under 9 percent of the 259,173 Black troops reported in the European Theater of Operations on May 15, 1 week after VE-day, belonged to combat organizations.

In addition to the 92nd Infantry Division, twenty-two Black combat units participated in the operations of the American Expeditionary Forces against the Wehrmacht.

They were:

* 333rd Field Artillery Battalion
* 349th Field Artillery Battalion
* 350th Field Artillery Battalion
* 351st Field Artillery Battalion
* 578th Field Artillery Battalion
* 686th Field Artillery Battalion
* 777th Field Artillery Battalion
* 969th Field Artillery Battalion
* 999th Field Artillery Battalion

* 453nd Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion

* 761st Tank Battalion
* 784th Tank Battalion

* 614th Tank Destroyer Battalion
* 827th Tank Destroyer Battalion

* 183rd Engineer Combat Battalion
* 184th Engineer Combat Battalion
* 1695th Engineer Combat Battalion
* 1696th Engineer Combat Battalion
* 1697th Engineer Combat Battalion
* 1698th Engineer Combat Battalion
* 1699th Engineer Combat Battalion
* 1700th Engineer Combat Battalion

The 320th Barrage Balloon Battalion was the only Black combat unit to take part in the initial landing on the Normandy coast June 6, 1944. Classified as an antiaircraft organization, it was the only American unit of its type in Europe.

(SOURCE: Appendix to the Congressional Record, Volume 92 - Part 9, January 14, 1946 to March 8, 1946.

NOTE: The article "Black Soldiers of the Ardennes" which will be posted soon lists three addition Field Artillery Battalions at Bastogne - 559th, 740th, and 771st, and three additional Tank Destroyer Battalions - 502nd, 630th, and 701st.