Uncover the untold stories of D-Day's unsung heroes! This Shots TV special shines a light on the minority veterans whose contributions have been overlooked in history books.
Explore the remarkable bravery of soldiers from the British Indian Army, African American Air Balloon Battalion, and Native American communities who fought on the beaches of Normandy. Learn about Sidney Cornell, a Caribbean soldier who risked his life as a runner, delivering critical messages despite being wounded multiple times.
Discover the challenges faced by these forgotten soldiers, whose sacrifices deserve recognition. Hear from historians and relatives as we commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day!
#DDay #WWIIHistory #ForgottenHeroes #MilitaryHistory
Explore the remarkable bravery of soldiers from the British Indian Army, African American Air Balloon Battalion, and Native American communities who fought on the beaches of Normandy. Learn about Sidney Cornell, a Caribbean soldier who risked his life as a runner, delivering critical messages despite being wounded multiple times.
Discover the challenges faced by these forgotten soldiers, whose sacrifices deserve recognition. Hear from historians and relatives as we commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day!
#DDay #WWIIHistory #ForgottenHeroes #MilitaryHistory
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NewsTranscript
00:00 The Normandy landings were unparalleled, one of the most significant war operations in
00:10 history. Ultimately, the invasion put the Allies on course to defeat the Nazis in Western
00:16 Europe for good. D-Day was the largest air, land and seaborne invasion ever. Thousands
00:24 of soldiers from all corners of the earth played their part, and it should come as no
00:28 surprise that the invasion force included soldiers of every colour and creed on the
00:33 same beaches in Normandy as the British and Americans.
00:38 From the British Indian Army to the African American Air Balloon Battalion, even Native
00:42 Americans all played their part in the gargantuan effort to form a beachhead in France in June
00:49 1944. In the UK, there are just a few hundred veterans left, fewer who can still tell their
00:57 own stories in their own words, and even fewer than that when it comes to minority veterans
01:03 whose service hasn't been as well recorded in the history books.
01:23 This year marks D-Day's 80th anniversary, and in this Shots TV special we tell the incredible
01:29 stories of two of the unsung heroes of Normandy. Featuring interviews with historians and relatives,
01:36 these are the forgotten soldiers of D-Day.
01:44 Marie Costa, I've lived in Portsmouth since 1969 November, came here to be a community
01:51 midwife. I never thought I would get involved in any kind of community work. I had two very
01:58 young children. But here I am, over 40 years hence, I've been involved in all sorts of
02:04 things, famous and infamous, and been part of the community I live in.
02:13 I came across Sidney Cornell when we started the Portsmouth Black History Group, which
02:23 is designed to highlight the contributions and the effect that African and Caribbean
02:33 have made on Portsmouth society, economically, socially, culturally, which is not written
02:40 down anywhere and referred to. So coming across someone like Sidney, and most of the Caribbean
02:48 people, especially them, who came over and fought during the war, are not recognised.
02:55 Their names are English or European, therefore it's not easy to actually find out who they
03:02 are that they're black. But I'm sure that's not all. I'm sure some of it is that their
03:08 contributions of especially the people from the colonies are just neglected. It was centred
03:14 around the white British people and the Europeans and the Americans even, who were involved
03:25 in the war, rather than those who were part of the war and yet neglected. I think one
03:32 of the things that annoys me is that they were never given the gun, because in case
03:37 they shoot the officers and all that. So they were used for things like running messages,
03:45 which when the communication line broke down, he was a runner. The runner carried messages
03:53 from one post to the other, because the communication had broken down, so it had to be done by foot,
04:04 at someone. Obviously, snipers there on the other side taking a shot, a pot shot, but
04:10 he continued to do it in spite of being wounded four times. I'm not sure quite why he continued
04:18 to do it when he's been shot at so many times. I'm sure not many people would volunteer for
04:23 such a risky position, because it is easy to pick you up by a sniper on the other side.
04:33 But he did it. Yes, and he died at the age of 30. I mean, that's a pity in many ways,
04:41 but I can understand some of it, because especially people who came from the Caribbean, their
04:47 names are European or English, because they've inherited that from their ancestors, from
04:53 plantation days. Therefore, their African names are long gone. And so when they're recorded
05:01 as a paratrooper or whatever, I doubt if any of them were officers, you wouldn't know that
05:08 they're black. And there is no record that says black, or from Jamaica, or from Kingston,
05:15 or from Guadeloupe, or anywhere else. So their contribution was not, and still isn't actively
05:25 sought out so they can identify so many hundreds, thousands of people who came from the old
05:33 colonial countries. Some of them were recruited, others were forced. Some of the people from
05:39 the troop ship in South Africa, some of them were forced into coming on the ship and coming
05:45 to Europe to fight a war that had nothing to do with them. They were there to fight
05:51 for their masters, if you like. And yet, no effort has been made to have a commemoration
06:00 for these black African-Caribbeans who fought gallantly, who were there, no matter what
06:08 they did. Yes, they were given the guns, real guns, because in case they shoot their masters.
06:16 But that's not a reason not to record that they were there, filling the guns and handing
06:21 it over to those who can go and shoot, or running errands like Sidney Cornell did, or
06:27 did all the cleaning, cooking and all that. So that the war effort, if you like, the war
06:33 effort, they gave their lives, and yet that's not recorded as contribution anywhere.
06:42 And so in regards of Sidney's bravery and what he actually did during the war effort,
06:49 what kind of person does that make him, maybe, would you say?
06:52 I don't know what kind of a foolish person he is. If you've been shot once, you think
06:58 I won't be doing it again, let someone else take their turn. But he didn't give up. He
07:03 kept on going. Four times he was shot, and he was killed the final time. I can only say
07:11 that he was very brave, which is noted by his seniors in a commemoration of his effort,
07:22 which read, "Very many acts of gallantry have been performed by members of the battalion,
07:31 but for sustained courage, nothing surpasses Cornell's efforts." This is a citation on
07:40 his behalf. So that is courage, and I admire him, and obviously I'd like to be associated
07:48 with him, but I'm no relation, so I can't take any credit there. But he was a courageous
07:55 man, and to die at the age of 30 and not receiving his gallantry medal, that's a pity.
08:02 There is another story that you mentioned about his medal. Obviously, in a sense, he
08:07 did receive it. Tell us about this medal. Yes, this is reading from information in the...
08:16 I think it's one of the newspapers on the internet that it was discovered by mud lockers
08:23 on the Thames in 2017, digging up the mud there. And they found this medal, and they
08:32 looked at the inscriptions, and cleaned out the mud, looked at the inscription, and realised
08:38 it's proper medal. And so they must have taken it to the war memorial or whatever. I don't
08:44 know how they got it eventually to the family. And they found this, and I'm not quite sure
08:51 what happened from the time it was allotted to him. He wasn't there to receive it, therefore
08:58 he never received it. So I'm not sure who received it on his behalf, or how it got lost
09:06 and ended up in the Thames, when it was actually born and bred in Portsmouth. But thank God
09:12 that these people who found it handed it over, and it's now in the possession of Cornell's
09:19 family. So, I'm Chris Cornell, so Sidney Cornell was my great uncle. So I was his great nephew.
09:28 And his brother was my grandfather, which was Charlie Cornell. And then obviously we
09:40 shared the same, well their grandfather was my great grandfather, and that's Charles
09:51 Cornell Senior. So he was the chap who came to this country around about 1889 from America.
10:02 He was an African American circus performer with Barnum and Bailey Circus. So Sidney was
10:09 my father's favourite uncle. I mean, my dad always talked about him. And he always said
10:17 to me that he was this war hero and that he was in the paratroop regiment. And it wasn't
10:23 until I did a bit of research myself that I discovered that yes, he was in the paratroop
10:27 regiment. He was, initially he worked for G.A. Days, who were local builders' merchants,
10:36 I think they were based up in Hilsey. And then, I think around about 1942, they were
10:42 called up to the army. And originally, Sidney was part of the Royal Corps, Royal Service
10:51 Corps, employed as a driver, and then he transferred to the paratroop regiment. And then obviously
10:59 trained as a paratrooper. And that obviously suited him well, he was quite fit. He was
11:09 already a champion boxer in Portsmouth. He'd been taught to box by his father. And I suspect
11:18 that boxing was a defence mechanism against bullies at school. And he became a battalion
11:29 champion. But obviously, he joined at a time when D-Day was approaching. And he paratrooped
11:41 into Florence, Normandy, on the very early hours of the 6th of June, as part of the backup
11:51 to the glider troops who took Pegasus at Hornbridge. And 7th Battalion were there to support them
12:01 and initially take over. And obviously, more recently, people have said, well, he was the
12:10 first black paratrooper to land in France. And I suspect that was probably true, although
12:20 we do know that there were others. Right, so he was employed as the company runner.
12:25 So basically, he would communicate messages from different commanding officers within
12:32 the battles that were going on at the time and report back to the company headquarters,
12:39 which required quite a level of fitness and obviously the ability to dodge bullets. So
12:48 he was, you know, when they landed in Normandy, the objective was to support the Oxford and
12:58 Bucks who had glided in and taken Pegasus Bridge. But they also had the surrounding
13:04 area to protect. And the idea was that Germans wouldn't be able to reinforce the troop fighting
13:12 on the beach, as they were, and they had to hold those bridges. But there was obviously
13:20 skirmishes going on all over the place. And certainly, Sidney sustained at least four
13:26 bullet wounds to the leg and shoulder, but insisted on carrying on his duties. And he
13:35 was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal as a result of various actions that included
13:45 helping out one of his senior officers in capturing several German prisoners. And there
13:52 was an incident where they had to capture a farm, Bob's Farm, and again, he was sort
14:00 of performed heroic duties to sort of make sure this farm was captured. But basically,
14:07 all of this was under constant fire. But for all intents and purposes, most of what he
14:12 had to do was just dodge the bullets and make sure he delivered the messages. The radios
14:17 weren't working very well in Normandy at the time, so it was quite an important role to
14:22 make sure that each of the section commanders had all the information about what was going
14:28 on with the previous section. But as I said most of the time, he was just running around
14:40 and dodging bullets and sheltering from snipers. But I think he eliminated a few snipers himself.
14:53 And we'll never know the whole content of what he did, but he was certainly there from
15:02 the 6th of June, and I think they evacuated sometime towards the beginning of September.
15:09 So there was quite an intensive campaign in Normandy that he took an active part, even
15:14 though he'd been wounded several times. The interesting thing was that Sydney was in his
15:21 early 30s when he was in the joint army, so that was quite an elderly, more senior age
15:31 compared to some of the youngsters. So he was fairly well respected because of that,
15:36 mature, and if he wasn't called 'Darkie' he was respected more as a sort of grandfather
15:43 type of appearance. So they called him 'Grandpa' and I think some of the younger men respected
15:54 him for his experience. After Normandy came back he went to the Ardennes, which had been
16:02 the Christmas of 1944. So he was born on Boxing Day in 1913, so he would have been celebrating
16:12 his 31st birthday travelling across to Belgium by ship, which was unusual in some respects
16:21 because as a paratrooper you're taught to parachute into the enemy territory, but here
16:26 they were on a ship going to take part in the Battle of the Bulge in Belgium. So that's
16:33 when he gained his stripes. I think he'd been a corporal just after Normandy and then got
16:44 his stripes when he went to Belgium. So we know that, I mean there's a photograph of
16:51 him in Belgium being part of the senior men talking with Montgomery, and there he is as
17:08 part of all the sergeants and NCOs, and that's when he probably would have received his DCM
17:19 stripe, the actual ribbon that they wear. The Distinguished Conduct Medal, as I say,
17:25 it was awarded to him in the January of 1945 and the presentation of that didn't take place
17:40 fully until after his death. So his wife would have received that medal at Bucking Palace
17:47 I think in about June or July 1946. What we don't know is what happened in the course
17:59 of history after that. It was immediately after the war, all sorts of things were going
18:07 on. So the medal is no longer in the family and yes, we would be keen to know where that
18:17 is and hopefully it's in somebody's private collection and still being cared for. There's
18:23 a newspaper article that talks about G.A. Day sort of celebrating the fact that he was
18:31 awarded the DCM and that on his homecoming there was going to be a party for him and
18:38 that they were getting funds together to welcome him. But of course sadly he never returned
18:47 home and he died on the 7th April 1945. Certainly there were a number of coloured people within
18:59 the British Army but I'm afraid to say that quite a lot of them were forgotten. With the
19:07 Americans for instance, there are entire battalions that were segregated and whilst they did carry
19:14 out heroic acts, they certainly weren't treated as a hero when they came home. I'm not so
19:21 sure that that happened in this country but obviously you had various battalions and troops
19:30 from say India and Jamaica. Jamaicans took part in the con a lot. But overall I think
19:44 we have forgotten their importance. You have to look at the wind rush. That was a result
19:54 of Jamaicans who most of those were in the RAF, they got the opportunity to come back
20:00 to help out in this country and their children and family have almost been forgotten and
20:12 pushed back again now. It's certainly important that we should remember, Sydney wasn't the
20:21 only one in his own battalion, there was a chap called Spud Watson. I'm not quite sure
20:28 what his ethnic background was, we believe it may have been Jamaican. But it's extremely
20:35 important that these guys played an equal role in the success and shouldn't be regarded
20:44 as anything else but equal. So my name is Samuel D'Aurelie and I was born in Mauritius,
20:51 I served with the armed forces, been involved for 23 years now. I'm specialised today with
20:57 helping the Commonwealth citizens in the armed forces to transition and progress their career
21:03 during and after the military. My grandfather Marday T. Reddy served in World War II in
21:10 North Africa, from Mauritius. So I remember I was quite young when he talked about this
21:16 and we have lots of pictures and it was something that really was deep for him, it was very
21:22 important for him to serve as a Mauritian citizen during World War II. So we've had
21:30 2.5 million Commonwealth serving during the wars and we've got the Commonwealth grave,
21:36 the biggest Commonwealth grave is where I live now in Southampton. And it's important
21:42 that we also have the stories of those people. I don't think it's been shared enough, the
21:47 stories of those guys who sacrificed a lot and having to work in almost a foreign army
21:55 to them and abiding to the war's regulations. It was an easy time. I served probably in
22:03 the best of times, although we were involved in two wars when I joined in, but they were
22:07 on short notice, not trained and they still did their best. So I think as a country we
22:13 got to really find out those stories and really capitalise on the legacy, the trend that's
22:22 been forged between the UK and its Commonwealth. When you look up in history, you will find
22:28 out that Rhodesia was involved with DDL ending. So there is a lot of people who were involved
22:34 at the time from Rhodesia Army, Zimbabwe now, who were involved and are still serving there.
22:42 I've got lots of colleagues and friends who are from Zimbabwe and still serving in the
22:47 British Armed Forces. I'm ex-military. I served in the Jamaica Defence Force for nine years.
22:56 I left at the rank of captain. A few years after I came here to live, to study. So I've
23:04 been living here for about 31 years. The call went out to the Caribbean, the West Indies,
23:15 and these men actually volunteered. There were about 20,000 men and women who served
23:25 at the British Armed Forces during the Second World War. Many of them actually served, most
23:33 of them actually served in the Royal Air Force as ground crew. There were about 450 to 500
23:43 who were air crew to include some fantastic, brilliant flying officers. So yeah, the majority
23:56 of them were instrument mechanics, working on radar, repairing airplanes when they went
24:04 out and came back and were damaged. But there were some pilots who made their mark in the
24:14 RF. And some of these guys actually went on to be the leaders in the Caribbean, in the
24:22 West Indies, after the war.
24:25 I can understand in those days the colonials didn't recognise the efforts of the colony
24:40 people who lived in the colony they conquered. And how many years is that ago? Why is it
24:47 not being written and published? Why is it not in the history books? That's really what
24:53 upsets me as a historian who used to teach history, didn't teach anything about the black
24:59 Africans or Caribbeans or Indians or people from the colony who were involved in fighting
25:06 wars for the British colony. And yet they were forced into the war to go out, indentured,
25:17 and why is it not written in the history books? And the children are growing up, and their
25:24 parents are growing up, not knowing about the efforts made by the people that I think
25:31 have come here to take all the welfare services, welfare gratuities, without realising how
25:43 much more they gave and continue to give over hundreds of years. That is a history that
25:52 should be recognised, not just recognised and written by prominent people like David
25:58 Olusoga, but actually written into the history curriculum so that children are taught and
26:06 they learn that we've been here for several hundreds of years and we contribute to the
26:12 make-up of the country. Positively, yes, sometimes not so positively, but show me a country that
26:22 hasn't got a bad side of it. It's difficult because myself and my family, we all grew
26:32 up together and there was never once an issue with skin colour because we were all the same
26:41 family and that should be the same all round. And even now, everybody should be regarded
26:46 as the same family, the human race, and it shouldn't be just because you've got a different
26:55 colour skin that you should be regarded as anything else. In terms of military operation,
27:04 D-Day really means the start of a particular operation, but it's also not something that
27:16 happens in a vacuum. And so whatever was the end result of the war, we know that we played
27:29 part in it. And just like in any sort of mission, in any walks of life, those who continue to
27:43 support the mission are equally important as those who were there at the start. And
27:53 so for us, it is a landmark and a celebration of what we took part in to know that the freedom
28:02 that we now enjoy, we were a part of it. But it seems to me the lives of those who fought
28:12 in those two great wars are not really commemorated as they do with all the other people. You
28:21 know, it's why is there no one reading something about them on the Guildhall steps these days?
28:31 They're march past in London and all that. I feel full, I feel satisfied that they're
28:38 part of that. But where are they commemorated?
28:44 [Music]
28:46 [Music]
29:14 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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