The 452nd Anti-Aircraft Artillery Battalion was a unit with Black American soldiers and White American officers during World War II. It trained in the US, before deploying in the UK, where it kept a watchful vigil at several important locations. The aircraft was equipped with the 40mm Bofors and the M45 Quadmount. Both were towed anti-aircraft guns used to protect designated areas or units against low-flying enemy aircraft. The battalion had four firing batteries, which were all divided into two platoons, centered around a Bofors gun and a weapon trailer, making for a total of 32 40mm Bofors guns and 32 M45 quadmounts. A substantial amount of firepower, however, the 452nd Anti-Aircraft Artillery Battalion rarely fought as a coherent unit.It spent most of its combat career attached to XII Corps, Third Army, and fought in Europe. The unit often provided anti-aircraft protection for white American field artillery battalions. Thus, each platoon was attached to a field artillery battalion, providing them with much-needed anti-aircraft protection. The cumbersome field artillery battalions, especially the heavier guns and howitzers, were a tempting target for the German Luftwaffe.

In addition to protecting the field artillery battalions, the service alongside White Americans also gave the unit an opportunity to battle with another hated foe: Jim Crow. During a strafing attack by the Luftwaffe, the white soldiers sought cover, while the Black soldiers jumped to their positions and engaged the hostile aircraft. This greatly facilitated the relations between the white and the Black unit, as well as reminding the field artillery soldiers why they needed anti-aircraft protection.

The 452nd Anti-Aircraft Artillery Battation ended the war with the following claims: 67 11/12 enemy aircraft destroyed, 19 enemy aircraft probably destroyed, and 11 enemy aircraft damaged.

Their legacy is one of courage, skill, and perseverance—not only in battle, but in breaking racial barriers. The United States armed forces integrated in 1948.

Among the very many accounts of the Second World War this book stands out and deserves to be widely read, not just because it sheds light on a little known fighting force that played a vital - if unsung - role in protecting the better known fighting formations from aerial attack, but also because of the light it sheds on an aspect of social history that reflects badly on the ‘land of the free’.

It’s not the reviewer’s job to summarise the account of Samuel de Korte over the part played by the 452nd AAA, or the wider discrimination experienced by black US servicemen in WW2; the details are set out clearly in the text. However, suffice to say that this book serves to highlight the casual and destructive attitude in the discrimination exhibited by many white servicemen at all levels and in all branches of the armed services.

De Korte also takes the reader on a journey through training and eventual deployment of the battalion in the ETO. If this reviewer’s experience is shared by others it’s likely that many readers will be surprised at the intensity of the engagements involving the different elements of the battalion, and the steadfastness displayed. Inevitably, based as it is on dry, official records, much of the latter part of the book is a long list of daily activities and engagements. Far from being uninteresting, however, this summary of the routine activities serves to emphasise the nature of the experiences shared by the servicemen involved.

A thoroughly recommended book.

Interesting, it rather dry history of the USArmy unit of the title. Nevertheless less, it gives the needed reminder of discrimination against Black soldiers drafted or voluntary in the services in WW2.
The narrative is slowed by the when the author’s recitation of types , calibers, and other technical specifications of the weapons in the various units and the shortcomings relative to the job they were fashioned. For the casual reader of WW 2 history there is a bit too much detail. At times it reads more like a doctoral thesis than a popular history, dry and stiff.
Summary, not exactly what I expected, but ok.