320th SCRAPBOOK

George Davison scrawled the names of his buddies from the 320th on this snapshot taken in Octeville, France in July 1944. Davison noted his place in the back row.
Photo: Courtesy of Bill Davison

Wilson Monk (third from left) and other men from the 320th appear to be in deep thought as they peruse a document.
Photo: Courtesy of Wilson Monk

A 320th sodlier is pictured at a training camp, possibly in Britain, in this undated photo.
Photo: Courtesy of Bill Davison

Wilson Monk points to the names of his friends painted on the canister of a German gas mask he found in Normandy in 1944.
Photo: Linda Hervieux

Allen Jay Coles, Jr., (center) and two other 320th men posing on base, probably in Hawaii, which was the last stop for the battalion.
Photo: Courtesy of the Adkins family

320th men having fun in Hawaii with a their standard issue M-1 rifle.
Photo: Courtesy of the Adkins family

Artist Peggy Beeton captured the only known image of 320th men performing at the Village Hall in Checkendon, England, on New Year’s Eve 1943. Six men gave a concert of Negro spirituals, after prayers by the battalion chaplain, Rev. Albert White.
Photo: Oxfordshire Record Office

 
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BARRAGE BALLOONS

On the morning of D-Day, thousands of barrage balloons were tethered to ships and smaller craft for the cross-Channel journey to France. Floating in the sky, the bags formed a miles-wide aerial curtain, protecting the fleet, and later the men and matériel on the beaches, from enemy planes. With small bombs anchored to their cables, triggered by a plane strike, the balloons were a lethal weapon that German pilots assiduously attempted to avoid. The 320th Barrage Balloon Battalion served 140 days in France, protecting the beaches and the ports. Barrage balloons also landed with American troops in Italy in the fall of 1943. They were deemed a success protecting beaches, and they were adapted for the Normandy invasion.

When a plane strikes the cable, a bomb is released via a parachute system. A well-placed hit could explode a wing or the gas tank. The steel cable alone was enough to cause a plane to stall and crash. Graphic: Heather Eatman

When a plane strikes the cable, a bomb is released via a parachute system. A well-placed hit could explode a wing or the gas tank. The steel cable alone was enough to cause a plane to stall and crash. Graphic: Heather Eatman

Four men from a black barrage balloon unit hoist aloft a balloon during a 1942 demonstration in Washington, D.C. Elasticized ropes allowed the envelope to expand as the balloon went up and the gas inside expanded.
Photographer: Roger Smith; Photographs and Prints Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, the New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations

This is the only known image of the 320th on Omaha Beach.
Photo: National Archives and Records Administration

Barrage balloons flying at Utah Beach on June 9, 1944.
Photo: National Archives and Records Administration

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CAMP TYSON, TENNESSEE

The Army’s sole barrage balloon training camp in northwestern Tennessee opened in 1941 and trained thousands of men to fly barrage balloons. The balloons traveled with the Americans to battlefields in Italy and France. Four battalions comprised African Americans except for the top officers, who were white. Under heavy fire, the men of the 320th Barrage Balloon Battalion carried the balloons ashore on Omaha and Utah Beaches on June 6, 1944.

Barrage balloons fly over Camp Tyson.
Photo: National Archives and Records Administration

A wartime postcard from Camp Tyson.
Photo: Courtesy of Bill Davison

An enormous barrage balloon is raised at Camp Tyson, in June 1942. The early balloons were 900-pound behemoths the length of two yellow school buses.
Photo: National Archives and Records Administration

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THE AQUITANIA

During World War II, the Cunard liner Aquitania was one of the three fastest passenger ships in the world. With as many as 8,000 troops and 1,000 crew aboard, she traveled alone through seas infested with German U-boats gunning to sink her. The former “Ship Beautiful” was once a seafaring palace ferrying the upper classes to glamorous destinations. In November 1943, the 320th Barrage Balloon Battalion were among her passengers on a harrowing voyage to Britain.

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The Cunard liner Aquitania is pictured in lower Manhattan in this old postcard with the majestic spires of the Woolworth building as a backdrop.
Photo: Courtesy of Graham Newell

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During two world wars, the Cunard passenger liner Aquitania transported thousands of troops. She was once the most luxurious liner on the high seas. Photo: U.S. Army Transportation Museum

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