Was a black British person able to serve in the British army alongside a white British during the 20th century?

Was a black British person able to serve in the British army alongside a white British during the 20th century?

The soldier in the centre of this picture of the 7th (Light Infantry) Parachute Battalion is Sergeant Sidney Cornell, born in Portsmouth, England. During training at RAF Ringway he earned a distinction, and his record states, “Best performer in his section, intelligent, willing, cool, and keen.”

Dropped into Normandy on D-Day to capture Caen and Orne, the Battalion was scattered, and Sgt Cornell showed great bravery and courage under fire for the next month and a half, being awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal in February 1945. His DCM citation reads:

This soldier was one of the parachutists who landed behind the German lines in Normandy on the night of the 5th/6th June 1944. During the next five weeks, he was in almost continuous action of a most trying and difficult nature. Cornell was a company runner and has repeatedly carried messages through the most heavy and accurate enemy mortar and Machine Gun fire.

Four times wounded in action this soldier has never been evacuated and carries on with his job cheerfully and efficiently. Very many acts of gallantry have been performed by members of the battalion but for sustained courage, nothing surpasses Cornell's effort.

His courage and many wounds have made him a well-known and admired character throughout not only his own battalion but also the whole brigade. Space does not permit a record of all his feats as he distinguished himself in practically every action and fighting took place daily.

He is a truly magnificent parachutist, and I cannot recommend him too strongly for a decoration.

He also saw action in the Ardennes Forest, and during Operation Varsity, where he tragically lost his life while trying to capture a bridge in Neustadt when the Wermacht demolished it. He is buried in Becklingen Cemetery, Germany, with 2300 other Commonwealth troops.

So, yes, black Britons served alongside their white compatriots.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

RIGHTEOUS AMONG THE NATIONS:US Army Master Sergeant Roddie Edmond.

Image
 RIGHTEOUS AMONG THE NATIONS:US Army Master Sergeant Roddie Edmond. Here is America's only soldier to ever receive Israel’s highest honor conferred on non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust.  77 years ago, facing the threat of immediate execution, he and his men displayed an act of courage and character that exemplifies what it means to take a stand against evil. US Army Master Sergeant Roddie Edmonds, 422nd Infantry Regiment, 106th Infantry Division, the “Golden Lions”, was captured by German forces at the onset of the Battle of the Bulge.  A native of Knoxville, TN, Edmonds was 25 years old. He had only been on the front line for five days when his unit was overrun. Edmonds' captors marched him east where he was transferred to Stalag IX-A, a camp for enlisted personnel just east of Bonn, Germany.  As the senior noncommissioned officer at the camp, Edmonds found himself responsible for 1,275 American POWs. On January 27, 1945, the Camp Com...
Read more

🇺🇲 WWII uncovered: Three War Veteran: Colonel Ed McMahon of the US Marine Corps:

Image
 🇺🇲 WWII uncovered: Three War Veteran: Colonel Ed McMahon of the US Marine Corps: You may remember his signature line - "Heeeere's Johnny!! For nearly 30 years Ed McMahon was the co-host of the popular television series "The Tonight Show" with fellow World War II veteran Johnny Carson. While Johnny served in the Navy - Ed served with the US Marine Corps.  McMahon served with the Marines during World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. According to the US Department of Defense: "In 1944, Ed McMahon was commissioned in the Marine Corps and earned his pilot's wings.  He became a Marine Corps test pilot and a flight instructor in F4U Corsair aircraft at Lee Field, in Green Cove Springs, Florida." "McMahon remained in the Marine Corps Reserve after the war and was recalled to active duty during the Korean War.  He was awarded six Air Medals for flying 85 combat missions over North Korea in an OE-1 unarmed observation aircraft." "Afte...
Read more

On this day in 1944, the Battle of the Bulge Four German soldiers and three American soldiers shared a cottage:

Image
 On this day in 1944, the Battle of the Bulge Four German soldiers and three American soldiers shared a cottage: The Battle of Bulge is interrupted by a little-known truce deep in the Ardennes Forest. Four German soldiers and three American soldiers shared a cottage and a Christmas Eve meal, thanks to the bravery of one German woman. “It is the Holy Night and there will be no shooting here,” she reportedly told them. Elisabeth Vincken and her 12-year-old son, Fritz, had been staying in the cottage near the German-Belgian border.  They were looking for safety, but now the Battle of the Bulge was raging all around them. On Christmas Eve, they heard an unexpected knock on their door. They were scared, of course. Who could it be? Elisabeth carefully opened the door, only to find two men and another lying wounded in the snow.  They were American soldiers—not something Elisabeth would have wanted to find! The penalty for harboring Americans was death. But the Americans didn’t t...
Read more

Sad Story Of African Powerful President Who Was Killed On Live TV Broadcasting.

Image
Sad Story Of African Powerful President Who Was Killed On Live TV Broadcasting. What makes watching a video of someone’s last moments different from reading about their murder? There is always something profound and heartbreaking about a dying person, no matter how many mistakes or sins they have made. We examine Mohammed Anwar el Sadat’s terrible murder in light of the aforementioned.As president of Egypt , Mohammed Anwar el Sadat was the one who was most closely guarded. In any case, he was guarded by at least four layers of security, including a group in charge of robbing the military during a parade of its armaments. But tragic events made him vulnerable, which led to his murder on October 6, 1981.The war between his country and Israel was ended by the Camp David Accords, which Sadat had signed three years earlier.  As a result, he infuriated his neighbors, who promptly removed Egypt from the Arab League. His crackdowns on Islamist organizations did not help, and he also aliena...
Read more

The White Death, the deadliest sniper who ever lived, 1939-1940.

Image
The White Death, the deadliest sniper who ever lived, 1939-1940. Simo Häyhä was a Finnish farmer who took part in hunting and target practice from a young age. In 1939, the Soviet Union invaded Finland.  It began the Winter War or the Russo-Finnish War, and a young Simo Häyhä answered the patriotic call by joining the Finnish army to defend his homeland.  Häyhä's home was also close to the border with Russia, which further fuelled his drive to defend his country. Häyhä demonstrated incredible marksman abilities. He could fire 16 rounds per minute while hitting his target.  This was exceptional as his rifle was the bolt action SAKO M/28-30, a Finnish version of the Russian Mosin Nagant.  This rifle only took five bullets using stripper clips. He also used the Suomi KP/-31 submachine gun.  Häyhä also showed extraordinary abilities in skiing, which allowed him to travel quickly to new locations with very little noise. Häyhä had several advantages. He knew his envir...
Read more

🇷🇴🇬🇧 WWII uncovered: Legendary Spymaster of the SOE: Vera Atkins.

Image
🇷🇴🇬🇧 WWII uncovered: Legendary Spymaster of the SOE: Vera Atkins. Born Vera Maria Rosenberg in Bucharest, Romania, Vera went to London with her parents in 1933, where she adopted her mother's last name.  She studied modern languages at the Sorbonne and went to finishing school at Lausanne. According to the Imperial War Museum: "At the outbreak of the war, Vera May Atkins joined F Section of Special Operations Executive (SOE) in April 1941, initially as a secretary but was soon promoted to become an Intelligence Officer and Deputy to Colonel Maurice Buckmaster, head of F Section. "Vera was responsible for overseeing training and ensuring that when her agents arrived in France they had complete false identities and watertight cover stories.  Every agent was escorted by Atkins herself to the secret airfield where she watched them leave Britain, often for the final time. Even with such preparation, operations were very dangerous– in an interview with IWM in 1987, Vera sai...
Read more

🇺🇲WWII uncovered: Honoring the Service of First Sergeant Floyd Talbert of Easy Company♠️

Image
 🇺🇲WWII uncovered: Honoring the Service of First Sergeant Floyd Talbert of Easy Company♠️ Floyd Merrill Talbert, of  Kokomo, Indiana, enlisted in the U.S. Army on August 24, 1942 at Fort Benjamin Harrison, located in Indianapolis, Indiana.  He was assigned to E Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division at Camp Toccoa under the direction of Captain Herbert Sobel. Talbert made his first combat jump on D-Day. While in Normandy, he was bayoneted by Pvt. George Smith, who mistook him for a German. Talbert had been trying to wake Smith while carrying a pistol, and wearing a German poncho.  Also, Talbert jumped in Operation Market Garden in Holland, and fought in the Battle of the Bulge in Bastogne. Talbert had quickly risen through the ranks, making the rank of Company 1st Sergeant, he would later turn that rank in, when he thought he could do better to be with the men he had fought alongside of during the war, self-demoting to St...
Read more

Meet Captain Billy Moss MC (left), and Major Paddy Fermor DSO (right). Two batshit crazy SOE officers, who dressed up as Germans, snuck onto Crete, kidnapped a general, and escaped by riding mules to the sea because, why not?

Image
Meet Captain Billy Moss MC (left), and Major Paddy Fermor DSO (right). Two batshit crazy SOE officers, who dressed up as Germans, snuck onto Crete, kidnapped a general, and escaped by riding mules to the sea because, why not? Billy at the outbreak of war had been  travelling around Latvia. Around the same time, Paddy was a well-read but destitute author who decided to walk from Holland to Istanbul. Yes, walk.  Along the way, he stopped to fight with Macedonian royalists during the 1935 republican coup attempt, and met a Greek noblewoman who became his lover. September 1939 saw both men immediately head back to the motherland. Billy snuck his way up to Sweden, and bumming his way into a ship back to the UK. Paddy immediately set for home, leaving behind the love of his life. Billy enlisted in the Coldstream Guards, and would see significant action as an infantry officer during the North Africa campaign prior to joining the SOE. Paddy joined the Irish Guards, and was quickly com...
Read more

The horrible execration Of Hamida Djandoubi - France’s last execution.

Image
 The horrible execration Of Hamida Djandoubi - France’s last execution. Hamida Djandoubi was the last person to be guillotined in France, on the 10th of September 1977.  Djandoubi was aTunisian immigrant and was executed in Marseilles for the murder of his girlfriend, French citizen Élisabeth Bousquet, on the 3rd of July 1974. The previous year Élisabeth had filed a report to police accusing Djandoubi of trying to force her into prostitution.  Following his arrest and release on this charge, Djandoubi kidnapped Élisabeth and took her to his home where she was violently beaten in front of two other women whom he pimped out.  Élisabeth was then forcibly taken to the outskirts of Marseille where she was again brutally beaten and then strangled to death.  Djandoubi returned to his home and threatened the two women not to speak of what they had witnessed.  Élisabeth’s body was found in a shed on the 7th of July 1974. Djandoubi was eventually captured on followin...
Read more

TODAY IN HISTORY: Hitler Commits Suicide As WWII Ends + First African-American Female Pilot Dies.

Image
TODAY IN HISTORY: Hitler Commits Suicide As WWII Ends + First African-American Female Pilot Dies. Adolf Hitler commits suicide after being married to Eva Braun for less than 40 hours.On this day April 30th in 1945, holed up in a bunker under his headquarters in Berlin with Eva Braun, Adolf Hitler committed suicide by swallowing a cyanide capsule and shooting himself in the head. Soon after, Germany unconditionally surrendered to the Allied forces, ending Hitler’s dreams of a “1,000-year” Reich.In his last will and testament, Hitler appointed Admiral Karl Donitz as head of state and Goebbels as chancellor. He then retired to his private quarters with Braun, where he and Braun poisoned themselves and their dogs, before Hitler then also shot himself with his service pistol. Hitler and Braun’s bodies were hastily cremated in the chancellery garden, as Soviet forces closed in on the building. When the Soviets reached the chancellery, they removed Hitler’s ashes, continually changing their l...
Read more