VOA慢速英语--美国黑人士兵对抗种族主义

Black US Soldiers Fighting on D-Day, Racism¹ Back Home

D-Day was the largest invasion the world has ever seen. Tens of thousands of Allied² troops spread out across the air and sea along northern France. Their goal was to gain control of Normandy for the final military campaign against Nazi³ Germany.

Books and films about D-Day often show an all-white group of soldiers arriving in Normandy on June 6, 1944. Among them, about 2,000 African Americans are believed to have landed at the time.

The African Americans served in a United States military that separated people by race. But on Normandy, everyone faced the same dangers.

The only African American force in battle that day was the 320th Barrage⁴ Balloon Battalion⁵. Its job was to set up explosive-rigged balloons to prevent German airplanes from attacking the Allies.

Waverly Woodson, Junior, was a medical worker with the battalion. Before his death in 2005, he told The Associated Press in 1994 about how his landing ship hit a mine on the way to Omaha Beach.

“The tide brought us in, and that’s when the 88s hit us,” he said of the German 88 millimeter guns. “They were murder. Of our 26 Navy personnel there was only one left. They raked the whole top of the ship and killed all the crew. Then they started with the mortar⁶ shells.”

Woodson himself was wounded, but he spent 30 hours on the Normandy coast helping⁷ other wounded men before eventually collapsing⁸. A U.S. senator is now leading an effort to award the Medal of Honor to Woodson for his actions on D-Day. However, a 1973 fire destroyed the military personnel records needed to document the actions.

Another member of the African-American unit, William Dabney, told The AP in 2009, “The firing was furious on the beach. I was picking up dead bodies and I was looking at the mines blowing up soldiers. ... I didn’t know if I was going to make it or not.” Dabney died in 2018.

Linda Hervieux wrote about the 320th Barrage Balloon Battalion in her book “Forgotten: The Untold⁹ Story of D-Day’s Black Heroes, at Home and at War.”

Hervieux said the U.S. military resisted efforts to end racial separation policies as it prepared for World War II. The military kept separate units and separate areas for black and white troops.

“This was a very expensive and inefficient¹⁰ way to run an army. The Army ... could have ordered its men to integrate and to treat black soldiers as fully¹¹ equal partners in this war. The Army declined to do so,” she said.

By the end of the war, more than a million African Americans served in the military. They included the famed Tuskegee Airmen and the 761st Tank Battalion. Black troops, however, were often put in support units responsible for transporting supplies. That did not mean they were safe from danger.

Johnnie Jones joined the military in 1943 out of Southern University in Baton¹² Rouge¹³, Louisiana. He was in a unit responsible for unloading equipment and supplies onto Normandy. Now 99 years old, Jones remembers coming under German fire and returning fire alongside other soldiers during the landing.

After the end of the war in Europe, many African American troops were met with discrimination when they returned home. Jones remembers having to move to the back of a bus as it crossed the Mason-Dixon line. The line represented the border between the free states in the North from the slave-owning states in the South before the Civil War.

“I couldn’t sit with the soldiers I had been on the battlefield with. I had to go to the back of the bus,” said Jones, who went on to become a lawyer and civil rights activist¹⁴. “Those are the things that come back and haunt you.”

I'm Kelly Jean Kelly.

Words in This Story

rig - v. to put something (explosive) secretly in (a place)

rake - v. to shoot many bullets

furious - adj. very angry

expensive - adj. costing a lot of money

decline - v. to say that you will not or cannot

1 racism   

n.民族主义；种族歧视(意识)

参考例句：

• He said that racism is endemic in this country.他说种族主义在该国很普遍。
• Racism causes political instability and violence.种族主义道致政治动荡和暴力事件。

2 allied   

adj.协约国的；同盟国的

参考例句：

• Britain was allied with the United States many times in history.历史上英国曾多次与美国结盟。
• Allied forces sustained heavy losses in the first few weeks of the campaign.同盟国在最初几周内遭受了巨大的损失。

3 Nazi   

n.纳粹分子，adj.纳粹党的，纳粹的

参考例句：

• They declare the Nazi regime overthrown and sue for peace.他们宣布纳粹政权已被推翻，并出面求和。
• Nazi closes those war criminals inside their concentration camp.纳粹把那些战犯关在他们的集中营里。

4 barrage   

n.火力网，弹幕

参考例句：

• The attack jumped off under cover of a barrage.进攻在炮火的掩护下开始了。
• The fierce artillery barrage destroyed the most part of the city in a few minutes.猛烈的炮火几分钟内便毁灭了这座城市的大部分地区。

5 battalion   

n.营；部队；大队(的人)

参考例句：

• The town was garrisoned by a battalion.该镇由一营士兵驻守。
• At the end of the drill parade,the battalion fell out.操练之后，队伍解散了。

6 mortar   

n.灰浆，灰泥；迫击炮；v.把…用灰浆涂接合

参考例句：

• The mason flushed the joint with mortar.泥工用灰浆把接缝处嵌平。
• The sound of mortar fire seemed to be closing in.迫击炮的吼声似乎正在逼近。

7 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

8 collapsing   

压扁[平]，毁坏，断裂

参考例句：

• Rescuers used props to stop the roof of the tunnel collapsing. 救援人员用支柱防止隧道顶塌陷。
• The rocks were folded by collapsing into the center of the trough. 岩石由于坍陷进入凹槽的中心而发生褶皱。

9 untold   

adj.数不清的，无数的

参考例句：

• She has done untold damage to our chances.她给我们的机遇造成了不可估量的损害。
• They suffered untold terrors in the dark and huddled together for comfort.他们遭受着黑暗中的难以言传的种种恐怖，因而只好挤在一堆互相壮胆。

10 inefficient   

adj.效率低的，无效的

参考例句：

• The inefficient operation cost the firm a lot of money.低效率的运作使该公司损失了许多钱。
• Their communication systems are inefficient in the extreme.他们的通讯系统效率非常差。

11 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

12 baton   

n.乐队用指挥杖

参考例句：

• With the baton the conductor was beating time.乐队指挥用指挥棒打拍子。
• The conductor waved his baton,and the band started up.指挥挥动指挥棒，乐队开始演奏起来。

13 rouge   

n.胭脂，口红唇膏；v.(在…上)擦口红

参考例句：

• Women put rouge on their cheeks to make their faces pretty.女人往面颊上涂胭脂，使脸更漂亮。
• She didn't need any powder or lip rouge to make her pretty.她天生漂亮，不需要任何脂粉唇膏打扮自己。

14 activist   

n.活动分子，积极分子

参考例句：

• He's been a trade union activist for many years.多年来他一直是工会的积极分子。
• He is a social activist in our factory.他是我厂的社会活动积极分子。