Most of the top military and political leaders during World War II were white males, for in the mid twentieth century the door to senior leadership was still closed for most women and non-Caucasian people. However, millions of women and non-Caucasian people played an immense role during World War II, particularly for the Allied nations. In the US alone, more than 350,000 women and one million African Americans served in uniform during the war.
In the European theater of war, where the D-Day battle was fought, the eventual Allied victory would have been less certain and more costly without under-sung contributions from diverse groups such as:
- The English Women’s Royal Naval Service (the WRNS or “Wrens” included cooks and clerks as well as radar plotters, wireless telegraphers, and air mechanics).
- The US 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, the only all-Black women’s army unit to serve in Europe during World War II.
- The US 442nd Infantry Regiment, a unit of Americans of mostly Japanese ancestry and the most decorated regiment in US military history.
- The thousands of unnamed US Army African American soldiers who drove the Red Ball Express, a fleet of 6,000 trucks that each day delivered more than 12,000 tons of essential supplies to feed, clothe, and arm the advancing Allied armies.
Specifically on D-Day, of the nearly 60,000 US soldiers who landed on OMAHA and UTAH Beaches, an estimated 2,000 were African American. Among them was Sergeant Waverly Woodson, from the 320th Barrage Balloon Battalion, the only African American combat unit to land on D-Day.
In 1942, Woodson dropped out of pre-med studies and voluntarily enlisted in the Army. After being denied a post in the artillery due to his race, Woodson became a medic. On D-Day, he landed on OMAHA Beach in the third wave, but before reaching shore the twenty-year-old Woodson was hit by shrapnel in the back and groin when a German shell exploded inside his landing craft.
After receiving aid on the beach, Woodson joined a field dressing station and for thirty consecutive hours without rest he recovered and triaged wounded soldiers. Woodson saved dozens of soldiers’ lives—some accounts credit him with rescuing as many as 200.
For his D-Day exploits he was initially awarded a Bronze Star and Purple Heart, but many believe Woodson would have received higher honors had he been white. After the war, Woodson was denied entry into medical school due to his race but ultimately earned a degree in biology and worked for the National Naval Medical Center and National Institute of Health. He was buried with full honors in Arlington National Cemetery after his death in 2005.
In June of 2024, nearly eighty years after D-Day, Waverly Woodson was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.
