President Joe Biden is commemorating this. 80th Anniversary of D-Day With other world leaders in France this week. I was born two years after the end of World War II, but my interest in the war took a different direction from the history I learned in school and most of the war movies I watched growing up. my dad served With the African-American Tuskegee Airmen. Their World War II contributions and racial hardships were largely ignored until the release of George Lucas' 2012 film. “Red Tail.”
I have also written about Puerto Ricans. “Borikinius” and their war effort. Finally, the service was officially recognized, Receives the Congressional Gold Medal from President Obama In 2014.
When I read about the upcoming D-Day events, there was no mention of the role of the Caribbean people, not only in D-Day, but in the overall war effort. I realized that I knew very little about the “front” around the Caribbean, not Normandy.
Take a look at this history with me below.
caribbean problem This is a weekly series from Daily Kos. If you don't know much about the area, check it out. Caribbean Matters: Getting to Know the Caribbean Countries.
U.S. Naval Reserve Commander C. Alphonso Smith documented the Battle of the Caribbean for the U.S. Naval Institute.
The Battle of the Caribbean lasted nine and a half months, from February 16, 1942, to November 30, 1942. During a relatively short period of time, German submarines torpedoed 263 ships totaling 1,362,278 tons in the Caribbean and its approaches.
It is not well known, or at least ignored, that sinkings in the Caribbean during this period were greater than losses incurred in the North Atlantic convoys, East Coast borders, and Canadian coastal areas. All three combined.
Coming at a time when the nation was struggling to enter the global conflict, this enormous loss was achieved by the Germans, with only four submarines lost and 77 survivors. To say it's a cheap price to pay is a classic understatement.
“Today we take a brief look at the brief but vicious campaign waged in the Caribbean to secure or destroy Allied trade,” British YouTuber Drachinifel writes in the 33-minute video.
The History Hustle Channel focuses on a specific part of the Caribbean war targeting the Netherlands Antilles in this 11-minute mini-documentary.
History Hustle video notes:
The Netherlands Antilles, a group of islands in the Caribbean that were part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, played an important role during World War II, primarily due to its strategic location and the importance of its oil refineries. The Netherlands Antilles, especially the islands of Aruba and Curaçao, had significant oil refineries. These refineries were important to the Allies because they could provide refined petroleum products needed for the war effort. Control over these refineries was very important because it could affect oil supplies to both the military and civilian sectors. At the start of World War II, the Netherlands declared neutrality, as it had done in World War I. However, this neutrality was challenged when Nazi Germany invaded the Netherlands in May 1940. The Netherlands Antilles was still under Dutch control, and its strategic importance made it a potential target for both Axis and Allied forces.
After the fall of the Netherlands, the Netherlands Antilles came under the control of the Dutch government-in-exile, who fled to London. This government maintained control over resources, including islands and oil refineries. The Allies, especially the United States, recognized the importance of these refineries and established a garrison on the island to protect them. The United States has established military bases and facilities in Aruba and Curaçao to protect the refineries and ensure they remain operational. This base included an airfield and naval facilities. The island's location in the Caribbean has led to increased patrols and anti-submarine operations in the area. The Caribbean was a key area for submarine warfare during World War II. German U-boats attempted to disrupt the flow of supplies to Europe by targeting Allied shipping routes. The Dutch Antilles' proximity to these shipping routes meant they were at risk of U-boat attack. The Allies established a navy to counter these threats and protect their interests. Refineries in Aruba and Curaçao played an important role in supplying refined petroleum products to the Allies. These products were essential in powering vehicles, aircraft, and machinery critical to the war effort. The Netherlands Antilles thus contributed indirectly to the Allied success. Learn about the Netherlands Antilles during World War II.
Puerto Rico was a key line of defense, as documented in this 30-minute video produced by Professor Gerardo M. Piñero Cádiz of the University of Puerto Rico.
From the video notes:
It is an audiovisual production of the Centro de Diseño y Producción de Recursos Instrucciionales (CEDPRI) de la Universidad de Puerto Rico en Humacao. The 30-minute documentary film was produced in 2013 by Dr. Gerardo M. Piñero Cádiz and tells the story of preparing the island of Puerto Rico for war. All kinds of media allow audiences to understand, investigate, and protect the surviving elements of these magnificent defenses. The film aims to rescue from oblivion the defense facilities built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on the island of Puerto Rico in the 1940s and their relationship with other military facilities. I will also highlight their importance in times of war emergency and briefly describe their operations.
Just a few months after the start of World War II, the United States gave Puerto Rico the same strategic importance that it had previously given to the Spanish Empire. The “Gibraltar of the Caribbean” has just become one of the most important parts of the American defense system in the West Indies. Air force bases, naval and land systems, communications, roads, and military installations of all kinds transformed Puerto Rico into one of the most important strategic points on the Atlantic for commercial sea routes, Allied supply lines, troop movements, and the successful defense of the Caribbean region. Oil shipping and the Panama Canal itself.
It was agreed to deploy the following defense facilities to protect military facilities already built or under construction from attack or sabotage by land, air, and sea. coastal pho. In addition to protection, these defenses will support ships while approaching, transiting or voyaging to Puerto Rico.
Let's look at the Caribbean people participating in the war effort, both as troops and as volunteers.
This 11-minute video, produced by The Front, is titled “For a Small Country Puerto Rico Packed in lots in World War 2” and details Puerto Ricans' service in the war on multiple fronts.
This short two-and-a-half minute article about Puerto Rican women who served shows how they were segregated by skin color after enlisting.
Royal Air Force Museum It records the number of British Caribbean people participating in the war effort.
With the outbreak of war with Nazi Germany, Britain needed manpower and the 'color bar' was lifted again in October 1939. The RAF began recruiting aircrew from black colonies in November 1940, but despite formal desegregation, blacks still found it difficult to enlist. Some therefore traveled at their own expense to join the British RAF, while others joined the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF).
In 1939, the population of the Caribbean was less than 3 million. Of these, approximately 6,000 Black Caribbean men volunteered for the RAF, 5,500 as ground staff and approximately 450 as aircrew. Another 80 women joined the Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF). The largest Caribbean unit came from Jamaica, and by February 1945 there were over 3,700 Jamaicans wearing Air Force blue uniforms.
The YouTube description for the video reads: “Historian Mark Johnson tells the story of the RAF's black volunteers, focusing on the contributions of his great-uncle John Blair, who won the DFC as a navigator with Bomber Command.” And here it is.
Johnson's book, “Caribbean War Volunteers: The Forgotten Story of the RAF's Tuskegee Airmen was published in 2021.
Historian and author Mark Barnes Reviewed a book on “Online War History”.
Here is an entertaining and rewarding book that develops the story of those who left British colonies in the Caribbean to serve in the Royal Air Force during World War II. This is one of the neglected aspects of history that often places men as one-dimensional footnotes in the larger story, and it's time for more books like this one to fill in the knowledge gaps and set some things straight.
Of course, a book such as this cannot ignore the paradox of how so many men volunteered to fight for freedom in war and yet in reality did not enjoy its benefits as colonial subjects of the British Empire. We must also accept the reality of subtle and overt racism that clearly existed then and never goes away today. It is very difficult to understand what motivates a young man to leave home and go to war. His. Thankfully, the author cites examples of people who did just that, and we learn that they were inspired to fight against Nazi Germany because they were able to distinguish between the evil of the Third Reich and the generally benign nature of British rule. I will not stand here and defend colonialism. We live with the negative effects of that legacy every day in one form or another. Almost all former British territories in the Caribbean are fully independent countries today, and it is very interesting to see how the war fits into their views of the colonial era.
Racism is harder to deal with. Because the author wants to talk about the people who served, not write a long letter about those horrible characters. I'm going carefully, and I think I did well. It made sense to compare the experiences of Caribbean men serving in the British military with the separate men and women serving in the American military at the time. Tuskegee Airmen. I am a public photograph of a group of black US Army nurses arriving in sunny Glasgow in 1943, looking on with what appears to be utter disdain by several white men as they are being filmed for home news consumption to get the desired point across to a domestic audience. I have this in mind.
Jamaican veteran Neil Flanigan shares his memories of serving in 'Coming From Jamaica To Serve In The RAF' on YouTube channel 'WW2: I Was There'.
The Associated Press recently reported, “RAF veteran Gilbert Clarke remembers D-Day and the thrill of planes overhead..”
LONDON (AP) — Gilbert Clarke leans back on the seat of his mobility scooter, cranes his neck and looks out at the bright blue sky of East London, remembering the moment 80 years ago when he knew the French invasion was underway.
Clark was 18 at the time. Royal Air Force A volunteer from Jamaica, he was a trainee learning about the intricacies of radar systems when the roar of an aircraft engine made him look skyward on June 6, 1944.
“You would never have seen a blue sky,” Clarke recalled, 80 years later, with awe in his voice. “They were all planes. There are hundreds and thousands of them in all shapes and sizes. All types of airplanes. The instructor (said) ‘Hmm. Alright guys, it's just getting started.'''
“We all chanted, ‘Give them hell.’ Maybe it's even more powerful than that.''
The number of survivors of World War II is rapidly decreasing. It is important that we hear their stories and thank them for their service. It is equally important to celebrate the history of those Caribbean people who served and died, as well as those who are still alive.
Please join us in the comments section below to share your family stories about the war and our weekly Caribbean News Roundup.
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