Bruce K

Thank you, and yes they used a mixture of quads and Bofors cannon on truck-drawn platforms. Or so I've concluded - my Dad died 40 years ago this year, having spoken of his rank and his men but never of their accomplishments or significant losses, nor of his Silver Star in the BOTB. My knowledge is 95% Internet-derived.

A standing Google search notice directed me to your forum. If there is interest in learning of the participation of an African-American unit in actual combat at Normandy I can tell you about one in particular: The Army's 452nd Anti-Aircraft Artillery Battalion (mobile) colored[sic]. 3 of 4 batteries of the 452nd landed at Omaha Beach on D-Day +21 and, unlike all other similar segregated units were not broken down into transport units for the Redball Express. My Dad, a first lieutenant (and later a captain) was in command of battery D of the 452nd. He was white, as were all the unit's field officers, and the enlisted men were all black. He was with the 452nd when it was created in 1942, when it sailed to Great Britain in 1943 all the way through to being part of occupation forces in Berlin in 1945. The 452nd fought in every northern ETO campaigns including Normandy, Rhine and the Battle of the Bulge in the Ardennes Forest. The 452nd, Along with four or five other white AAA battalions, accompanied Patton as he raced towards Bastogne at the BOTB commencement. The 452nd was also in place in defense of Patton's crossing into Germany where Patton famously pissed into the Rhine from the (? can't recall) Bridge. In a desperate attempt to stop the Allies from crossing the Siegfried Line, the Nazi's sent 250 of their nearly decimated Luftwaffe. The 452nd downed 5 or possibly 6 enemy aircraft. I cant speak to individual campaigns but the 452nd AAA obtained the 2nd highest number of confirmed enemy aircraft kills in the ETO, 78 1/2, as well as about 20 partially confirmed kills.