372nd Infantry Regiment

Many people have heard about the exploits of African-American combat units in World War Two.  The Tuskegee Airmen for example is incredibly well covered in the WWII historiography.  To a lesser extent, people also know about the 92rd & 93rd Infantry Divisions in World War Two.  But what is missing from the literature is the achievements of African-American soldiers in World War One.  Maybe that is because they were not fighting for the United States, but for France.

In the wave of mobilization that followed the American entry into World War One, national guard units from across the nation were drawn into federal service and given federal designations.  For example, the 1st Ohio Field Artillery became the 134th Field Artillery, the 4th Ohio Infantry became the 166th Infantry, etc.  One of these Ohio National Guard units that was activated was the 9th Separate Battalion, drawn heavily from Wilberforce.  It called "Separate" because it was composed of African-Americans.

 

When the rest of the Ohio National Guard was activated and dubbed the 37th Division, the 9th Separate Battalion was not with them.  Instead, they were lumped together with other "Separate" units from across the nation to form the 372nd Infantry Regiment.  Enough of these "Separate" units were composed to create two whole divisions, the 92nd and the 93rd, to which the 372nd Infantry belonged.

The 92nd Division went overseas, but did not see combat.  It spent the war essentially working as laborers in France.  The 93rd Division (the 372nd included) had quite a different experience.  Parceled out individually, the units of the 93rd were given to the French.  The French had no problems using black troops as they had had a long history of using colonial troops from Africa.  That is not to say that racism was not rampant in the French Army, but they did not seem to care what color a soldier was as long as he was willing to take a bullet for the country.

The 372nd was given to the French 157th Infantry Division, who saw very significant action during the last 4-5 months of the war.  As part of the 157th Infantry Division, the 372nd took part in the Second and Third Battles of the Marne and earned themselves a reputation as some of the toughest fighting men in the Western Front.  The whole unit was even awarded the French Croix de Guerre, one of the highest awards in France. 

Note the Croix de Guerre on their chests

 

Much to the embarrassment of their American generals, the 372nd Infantry fought with a chip on its shoulder and proved that African-Americans could fight just as hard, if not harder, than white soldiers.