The 15th received only minimal training in New York before boarding a ship for France. The trip itself was a nightmare. According to Stephen L. Harris, author of Harlem’s Hell Fighters: The African-American 369th Infantry in World War I (Potomac Books, 2005), the first attempted crossing Nov. 11, 1917, aboard USS Pocahontas (ID-3044), a converted German passenger ship, was aborted about 100 miles out because of engine problems.
A second attempt scheduled for early December was canceled the day of departure because of a coal fire in the ship’s port bunkers. On Dec. 12, Pocahontas tried again, this time during a raging ocean blizzard. Shortly after putting to sea, the ship became entangled with a much larger oil tanker and received a gash along its starboard bow. Luckily, the damage was above the waterline, and crews — working in dangerously cold conditions — were able to repair it.
All that jazz
Pocahontas arrived at the port of Brest, France, Dec. 27, 1917. The regimental band disembarked with its instruments and performed an impromptu concert on the port’s quay. The band’s jazzy rendition of “La Marsellaise,” the French national anthem, brought the French soldiers and sailors in the audience to their feet. The band performed similar concerts in many small towns as it made its way to Aix-les-Baines in the French Alps to play for soldiers on leave at the R & R center. In so doing, the musicians helped introduce much of the nation to this uniquely American style of music, says Harris.
The War Department, in light of growing racial problems at home, essentially had deployed the 15th New York to France for its own protection. The soldiers believed they were going over to fight and were extremely disappointed when they were put to work as stevedores at the Port of St. Nazaire instead. Hayward tried to convince Army Gen. John Pershing to make the 15th a part of the American Expeditionary Forces, but he was ignored. Frustrated, he famously said, “My regiment was left by General Pershing on the doorstep of France” like an orphan.
A couple of months after the regiment arrived at St. Nazaire, the War Department created the 93rd Infantry Division, which incorporated black troops from National Guard units across the country. The 15th New York and the 8th Illinois National Guard were assigned to the 185th Brigade, and the 15th received a new designation — the 369th Infantry Regiment.
Pershing ultimately attached the 369th to the 16th Division of the French 4th Army, whose weary servicemembers warmly embraced them. “By then, the French were just tired of the war,” says Harris. “Even though the 369th provided just 3,600 soldiers, [the French] welcomed them.”
Harlem Hellfighters
As part of the French 4th Army, the 369th saw more than its share of combat — a total of 191 days. The men fought so bravely that their French comrades nicknamed them “the Harlem Hellfighters.”
FEBRUARY 2014 MILITARY OFFICER 73
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