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Museum of Black WW II History

Soldiers' Stories

  • William Henry Cosby Sr. made two war patrols on WW II Submarines, yes he is Bill Cosby's father.

  • A white Southern Major was issuing liberty passes to his black troops in England just before the Normandy invasion.  He said if my grandmother knew I was issuing passes to black troops to go out and date White women she would be turning over in her grieve.  From the back of the room, "Spin granny spin!" 

  • When the destroyer Johnston was sinking in the Battle of Letie Gulf one of the assistant stewards said"  Someone help me, I can't swim."  the reply, "Now would be a good time to learn."  He must have for he was the only assistant steward to survive. 

  • My father, Fred Kelly, went AWOL after being thrown out of the barracks into tents along with all the other blacks to accomplish separation of the races. 

    He hated snakes and in the south, where he was, there were a lot of them.  He figured that that was the last straw.  As a result, he walked 10 days eating only 3 bananas on the way, to get back to the woman he loved.  My mom. 

    He returned to base some time later, served his time and eventually was killed in France in an Army truck convoy.  He received an honorable discharge.  --  Raven, Webmaster
     

  • Submarines had a small crew so it was helpful if crew members could do many tasks.  A steward could qualify in other parts of the boat, and some were qualified on all systems in the boat.  Stewards and cooks would have other jobs during action on the surface or submerged.  Loading torpedoes was one of these jobs.  One black steward got to the torpedo room as the crew there was loading one of the tubes, so he loaded the other tube by himself, and finished before the loading crew did.  The Captain fired his torpedo tube first.  For surface action, cooks and stewards would pass the ammunition to the deck guns.

  • On surface ships the messmen were frequently assigned to the ammunition magazines deep in the bottom of the ship.  The armored door to the magazines could only be opened from the outside.  If no one opened the door, when the ship was sinking the magazine crew went down with the ship


If you'd like to submit your family stories and pictures to be included in the site please submit via email below. We reserve the right to decide what to include.

Email:  click here

blackww2@blackww2museum.org

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