Hitler's Last Stand (2018) s03e03 Episode Script
Castle Valor
1
NARRATOR:
In the spring of 1945,
American troops in position to capture
an Italian castle
come under heavy mortar fire.
♪
Their forward observation officer
calls repeatedly for artillery support.
SOLDIER:
Hill R-7!
- (explosion)
- To the northeast!
NARRATOR:
But, units to the rear
do not believe
they have penetrated so far
- (gunfire)
- (yelling)
leaving them at the mercy
of the German defenders.
(explosion)
(gunfire)
On June 6th, 1944,
Allied forces finally
land troops in Normandy
to open the Western Front.
(yelling in German)
- (gunfire)
- But Nazi fanatics and diehards
continue to fight
ferociously for survival.
(explosion)
- (gunfire)
- D-Day was a battle.
They still need to win the war.
♪
April 5th, 1945.
Northern Italy.
Members of the American
370th Infantry Regiment
creep toward enemy lines.
2nd Lieutenant Vernon Baker
has discarded his helmet,
but wears his finest uniform.
DR. ROBERT JEFFERSON: Baker is dressed
in his sharpest dress greens,
because he has a premonition
of death in the coming attacks.
He wants his whole attire
and his ears to be razor sharp.
NARRATOR:
Baker and his 25 man platoon
approach the hill they must climb.
♪
A path here zigzags up the slope
onto the enemy-occupied ridge.
Boulders line the edges.
In the darkness,
the trail would be helpful,
but Baker is cautious.
DR. JEFFERSON:
On the one hand, the path
could be a relatively easy way for Baker
and his men to advance,
but on the other,
it could literally be a minefield.
NARRATOR: Just ahead, Baker spots
another figure assessing the path.
It is the company’s commanding officer,
Captain John Runyon.
Runyon was assigned to “C”
Company only weeks before.
At that time,
Baker was the de facto officer in command.
He was bumped back to platoon
leader when Runyon arrived.
DR. JEFFERSON: Baker is obviously
not pleased with the change.
He sees Runyon as a man
with a great deal of bravado,
but very little experience to back it up.
♪
NARRATOR:
But as Baker watches Runyon ahead,
he observes his C.O. avoid the path,
and pick his way along the boulders.
DR. JEFFERSON:
Baker quickly reasons that even if
the Germans laid mines on the trail,
they likely didn't position them under
the rocks that bordered it.
VERNON BAKER:
Stay on the rocks.
NARRATOR:
So Baker breaks his silence
and orders his platoon to advance
only along the stones,
instead of the path where
the enemy expected them to tread.
Single file, they step from rock to rock,
to begin their ascent.
25-year-old Baker is a “Buffalo Soldier”.
It is a name that dates back
to the African American men
who served in the United States
Army after the Civil War,
starting with the Indian Wars.
DR. JEFFERSON:
Those soldiers were highly revered
by the Indigenous populations.
So much so, that not only
do they gain the esteem
of those who are serving in the area,
but also for those
that they’re fighting against.
♪
NARRATOR: In World War II,
the 92nd Infantry, or “Buffalo Division,”
is made up of troops
segregated by their race.
DR. JOHN MCMANUS: The vast majority
of African American servicemen
in World War II
are gonna be held to
a non-combat capacity.
The practice of withholding
African American servicemen
from combat is another byproduct
of this sort of assumption
of racial inequity.
It’s the idea that Black
soldiers would really not fight.
That they just intrinsically,
as a race, would not fight.
♪
NARRATOR:
Baker’s regiment, as a combat unit
ready to fight, is an exception.
As Baker and his platoon
ascend their switchback trail,
the strategy to scramble over the rocks
appears to have paid off.
DR. JEFFERSON:
Most of the platoon reaches
the top and they have
heard no mines detonate,
so it seems they are safe.
NARRATOR:
But as they catch their breath
(distant explosions)
the sound of explosions
breaks the silence.
Baker and his men
approach a German defensive position
called the Gothic Line.
Entrenched in the northern slopes
of the Apennine Mountain chain,
the Gothic Line spans
Italy from east to west,
170 miles across.
♪
More than 2,000 German machine gun nests,
as well as minefields and heavy
artillery guard, its length.
Although Churchill once described Italy
as the "soft underbelly of Europe,"
its liberation from the grip
of the Nazis has proved slow.
Despite Benito Mussolini’s
overthrow and the country’s capitulation,
the Germans refused to leave.
DR. PETER LIEB:
The Germans made good use
of the Italian geography
to build up their defense lines.
You've got a series of defense lines
running through the Italian
peninsula, from coast to coast.
Always using hills, mountains,
and river valleys
in order to have
the best defense positions.
♪
NARRATOR: The Gothic Line
is the final line of German defenses
before the Po Valley
at the top of the Italian boot.
DR. LIEB: This means if the Allies
break through the Gothic Line,
they will quickly conquer and liberate
the Po Valley with all its vital industry.
Mussolini has got, still, his little
puppet state in northern Italy,
so if the Po Valley is lost,
it's obvious that
it would also mean the fall of Mussolini
and the collapse of
the Italian administration.
SOLDIER: Fire!
NARRATOR: At the western
edge of the Gothic Line,
in the valley below
their company’s position,
Allied artillery is in place.
(explosions)
♪
These guns are assigned to fire
in front of Baker and his soldiers
at predetermined intervals
to cover their advance.
DR. MCMANUS:
The role of artillery is to kill
or scatter German soldiers
through artillery fire,
to pound some of their bunkers
and other fortifications.
To kind of clear the way for the infantry.
NARRATOR: But the explosions “C” Company
hears detonate behind them,
not in front.
DR. JEFFERSON: Baker believes that they
are under attack from friendly fire.
He motions for the men to get moving
to put distance between
themselves and the blast.
- (distant explosions)
- BAKER (whisper): Go! Go! Go!
NARRATOR:
Baker and his infantrymen rush forward.
♪
(distant explosions)
But when the platoon pauses to regroup,
Baker counts off his men and discovers
some have vanished.
(explosions continue)
DR. JEFFERSON: Baker could not
risk sending anyone back
to search for the stragglers,
for fear of losing them as well.
They had to maintain
their forward momentum.
And this is one of the elements
of being a platoon leader.
You want your men to move forward
as much as possible in order
to maintain unit integrity.
(gunfire)
NARRATOR:
But before long, gunfire erupts
and cuts off their advance.
(gunfire)
German machine guns,
concealed in the hillside, open up.
(explosion)
(gunfire continues)
The enemy ahead,
has woken to the threat in their midst.
With his platoon held up
by the machine gun fire,
Baker takes action.
DR. JEFFERSON: Baker decides to approach
the enemy position alone.
(gunfire)
It is a risky move on his part.
He has no covering fire of his own.
If he's spotted, no one has his back.
NARRATOR: He creeps toward
the German machine gun nest
(gunfire continues)
and launches his attack.
♪
(explosion)
NARRATOR:
April 1945.
Northern Tuscany.
A segregated African American unit,
the 370th Infantry Regiment
(gunfire)
falls under attack as they push
into the Germans’ Gothic Line.
♪
2nd Lieutenant Vernon Baker
and his platoon
must get past the machine gun fire.
He unleashes his barrage.
He kills three Germans
and silences the post.
DR. JEFFERSON:
By attacking alone,
Baker has risked himself
for his platoon, and it pays off.
His unit can carry on.
♪
NARRATOR: As they continue to climb,
their objective looms high above.
A 1,500-year-old fortress.
Castle Aghinolfi.
Named for the Italian prince
who first added fortifications
to the rocky outcrop.
In World War II,
the castle towers above the
western end of the Gothic Line.
DR. LIEB: What was true back
in the medieval times
is also true in 1945.
Castle Aghinolfi is a high ground,
which gives the Germans a good opportunity
to observe the Allies’
movements in the valley,
and they've got good defense
positions up on the top of the hill.
NARRATOR:
In the spring of 1945, the men of
Generalleutnant
Otto Fretter-Pico occupy the castle.
DR. LIEB:
Otto Fretter-Pico is actually
considered initially
as a very promising general.
He is in command of an infantry
division on the Eastern Front,
but then suffers from
a psychological breakdown.
He’s being sent to France as
a commander of a training division,
and this division
is later moved into Italy
and upgraded to
an infantry division again.
NARRATOR:
Their position overlooks a highway.
The main route to the city of Massa.
Fretter-Pico can use this position
to call artillery down on
any enemy advance.
♪
In the early morning darkness,
Baker and his platoon reach
a hilltop below the castle.
They spot something peculiar.
A bright yellow wire snakes
along in front of them.
DR. JEFFERSON:
It is a material called plastic,
and for many of them, including Baker,
this is a first time for them.
Most of them have never
laid eyes on plastic
used like this before.
NARRATOR:
Baker severs the line.
Curious, he scrapes
the plastic coating back,
to reveal what lies underneath.
DR. JEFFERSON:
To his surprise, Baker sees that
the core is copper.
This tells him that it is some
sort of communications wire,
and he acts on that.
NARRATOR:
As the platoon moves forward,
more lines appear.
DR. JEFFERSON:
Baker cuts each and every wire.
More than a dozen in total.
He would later recall that it felt good
to inflict every bit of damage
he could on the enemy.
♪
NARRATOR: The advance of the US
370th Infantry Regiment towards Massa
is a diversionary tactic.
The goal of Operation Second Wind
is to draw German forces to the west,
while to the east,
the Allies launch a major attack
to penetrate into the Po Valley,
and take the city of Bologna.
With night turned to day,
the American platoon rounds
the outer edge of a hill.
A glint catches their attention.
The 2nd Lieutenant closes in.
DR. JEFFERSON:
Baker spots a pair of metal tubes
protruding from a slot in the hillside.
He thinks they must be gun barrels,
a telltale sign of an enemy machine gun
nest concealed below.
NARRATOR:
It needs to be cleared.
♪
Baker drops down
and propels himself forward.
He approaches the hillside slit,
comes to his knees,
and raises his gun.
His weapon is an M1 Garand rifle.
It weighs nine and a half pounds,
with an eight round, 30-caliber clip.
It is the first semi-automatic rifle
used by the US Army as
a standard infantry weapon.
More than five million of them
are manufactured over
the life of its production.
Officers usually carry
a lighter-weight gun.
DR. JEFFERSON:
Baker chooses a different weapon.
As someone who was raised
hunting in Wyoming,
he prefers the M1
because it reminds him of the rifle
he used to shoot deer and elk back home.
He describes the M1's heavy,
wooden stock as a "solid comfort."
NARRATOR:
Baker slides his rifle into the slit.
He works the trigger,
until the clip is spent.
(metal clang)
He peers inside.
DR. JEFFERSON: Baker sees one
German soldier slumped over dead,
but a second is still alive.
And he drags himself
across the floor of the bunker
towards a pile of grenades in the corner.
♪
NARRATOR:
Baker faces an explosive situation.
NARRATOR:
April 1945.
The northwest coast of Italy.
After attacking an enemy bunker,
2nd Lieutenant Vernon Baker
- of the 370th Infantry Regiment,
- (metal clang)
observes a German soldier
crawling toward a pile of grenades.
With a spent clip,
Baker grabs a grenade from his jacket,
pulls the pin,
and throws it into the machine gun nest.
(explosion)
As the smoke clears, Baker creeps inside.
He surveys the bunker.
The soldier now lies dead.
He checks out the German field telephones.
The two metal cylinders
he thought were gun barrels
are actually the top portion
of an observation instrument.
DR. LIEB: A scherenfernrohr translates
into "scissors binoculars."
It was used very often by the Germans
as a tool to observe enemy movements
or to direct artillery fire.
The big advantage is
when you're sitting in a trench,
you don't have to lift
your head above the edge.
♪
DR. JEFFERSON: Baker would later remember,
looking into the eyepieces.
He could see American troops
down below on the flats,
and he realizes how easy it would be
for the Germans to call in
indirect fire to wipe them out.
NARRATOR: As an observation post,
it is a critical position.
DR. MCMANUS:
The most potent weapon the enemy has,
arguably, is his artillery observer.
That’s the guy who controls
the heaviest firepower
that is gonna inflict the most casualties.
When Baker encounters the artillery OP,
this is really a much higher value target
than just a simple machine gun bunker.
NARRATOR:
As he continues to investigate,
Baker notices something else.
The same yellow lines
he had cut earlier in the day
run from the field telephones
out from the bunker.
DR. JEFFERSON: It's entirely possible
that these German forces
had spotted Baker's platoon
as it advanced,
but they couldn't bring down the attack
because the severed phone lines
meant that they were
not able to call it in.
If he wouldn't have cut those wires,
they would've been in dire
danger going forward.
NARRATOR:
Baker takes another grenade,
pulls the pin, and places it
between the binocular tubes,
then quickly exits the bunker.
♪
(explosion)
DR. JEFFERSON: Well, to his credit,
Baker doesn't wait around to watch
but when he hears a muffled explosion,
he knows that the grenade
has done its job.
The observation post is no more.
NARRATOR:
In less than two hours,
Baker and his platoon have pushed
nearly three miles into enemy territory.
DR. MCMANUS:
In this case,
you are taking some
pretty valuable ground,
especially a lot of high ground,
that the Germans could use
to inflict casualties
upon the American attackers.
And the fact that they take it as they do
within about two or so hours,
I think is pretty impressive.
NARRATOR:
Their rate of advance
contradicts the expectations of most
of the US Army’s senior officers.
Colonel Raymond Sherman
commands Baker’s segregated regiment.
DR. MCMANUS: The US army is
segregated in World War II
because of traditional Jim Crow
segregation race customs
that predominate throughout much
of American society at that point.
The profound irony,
and really to some extent,
the disgraceful irony, this whole thing.
The United States is mobilizing
to full resources
and fighting all over the globe,
to destroy some of the most homicidally
racist regimes in human history,
and it’s doing so with armed forces
segregated on the basis of race.
NARRATOR: Sherman lived and worked
in the state of Virginia in the 1930s.
♪
In the Second World War,
it is also the general practice
of the American military
to place White southerners
in senior command of Black men.
DR. MCMANUS:
You see this kind of twisted
kind of expectation
that White Southern officers
are especially well suited
to lead Black soldiers
because they knew how to keep
Black soldiers in their place
because they had done that back home.
So, you see this
kind of toxic replication.
NARRATOR: Sherman believes
Black troops to be unreliable
and prone to cowardice.
(inaudible)
♪
His views are not uncommon
among senior White officers of his time
and profoundly impacts the experiences
of more than one million African Americans
who serve their country in World War II.
DR. MCMANUS:
Colonel Sherman, and officers like him,
probably would have attributed any
failure of African American soldiers
to their intrinsic
shortcomings or weaknesses
or inferiority as a race.
Also, I think quite significantly,
officers like Colonel Sherman
would not point
the finger at themselves.
Whereas some of the better
leadership in other units
might have thought,
“I didn’t train these guys well enough,”
or “I didn’t make
good decisions.” Honest leaders.
In this case, it’s an easy
kind of scapegoat
to say, “oh well, these guys
just don’t have it in them.”
♪
NARRATOR:
Deep into the Germans’ Gothic Line,
Captain John Runyon,
“C” Company’s White commander,
rendezvous with Baker
to discuss the final approach
on their objective.
Castle Aghinolfi.
They are now just 250 yards
south of the German-held fortress.
DR. MCMANUS: This is a castle that
basically controls this entire sector
because it’s on some of
the key high ground. Plus,
they’ve had the opportunity to fortify it,
and, obviously,
that only makes it stronger.
NARRATOR:
If the Americans can take Aghinolfi,
it may just clear the way to
the city of Massa up the coast.
(inaudible)
But, Runyon and Baker’s debate
comes to a sudden halt.
A German soldier emerges from nearby brush
with a grenade in his hand.
DR. JEFFERSON:
Runyon panics and bolts.
Baker is trying to get off a shot,
but cannot
because Runyon pushes past him.
Baker must have thought
his days on Earth were done.
♪
Amazingly, it was a dud.
It didn't explode.
NARRATOR: Baker lifts his rifle
again and takes aim.
(gunshot)
The fleeing German falls to the ground.
Baker scans his surroundings.
Runyon has disappeared.
DR. JEFFERSON:
Baker is absolutely furious.
He sees Runyon's behavior as amateurish,
as well as hysterical.
The White commander who lectured
him on combat performance
has run away from a fight.
♪
(speaking German)
(distant gunfire)
NARRATOR:
As the platoon regroups,
one of the G.I.s gestures to
a flock of birds soaring above.
But, his platoon commander knows better.
DR. JEFFERSON: Baker received
training as a mortar man.
To him, the black specks flying
their way are unmistakable.
He yells to his men to take cover.
BAKER:
Take cover!
(explosion)
NARRATOR:
The platoon’s arrival has been detected.
A German mortar unit
launches a barrage from
a nearby hill in response.
(explosions)
Moments later,
a series of explosions detonate
around the American soldiers.
- (explosions)
- DR. JEFFERSON: The mortars release
a tornado of metal shrapnel.
Pieces of metal cut into their skin.
The Germans opened fire
with their guns as well.
(gunfire)
(explosion)
NARRATOR: The attack kills three members
of “C” Company and wounds three more.
Baker and his men are exposed
and outmatched.
They need support from Allied
artillery positioned in the valley below,
but the American heavy guns remain silent.
- (yelling)
- “C” Company’s forward artillery observer,
2nd Lieutenant Walker, shouts
coordinates into the radio set.
(explosion)
DR. JEFFERSON:
Walker's been calling for
artillery support
since the mortar attack began.
(explosion)
- But there's a problem.
- (explosion)
The officers below refuses
to believe that a segregated, Black unit
had advanced as far as the castle.
(explosion)
NARRATOR:
Baker watches
as Walker repeats their position,
again and again
WALKER:
I repeat, Hill R-7!
(explosion)
NARRATOR:
powerless to make them understand.
♪
NARRATOR:
April 1945.
Northwestern Italy.
Under attack by German mortar fire,
the remains of an American company
of the 370th Infantry Regiment
is unable to summon artillery support.
The forward observation officer,
2nd Lieutenant Walker,
spends precious time
repeating their coordinates.
DR. JEFFERSON: Army units to the rear
simply cannot believe
that the segregated
African American soldiers
could have advanced
so far into the German's
legendary Gothic Line.
NARRATOR: Minutes after “C” Company’s
first call for help,
Allied artillery finally opens
up from the valley below.
(explosions)
SOLDIER: Fire!
DR. JEFFERSON:
The Allied guns come in painfully late,
but they deliver on target.
- (air rushing)
- Shells whiz over Baker and his men,
barely clearing their heads
as the ordinance flies
towards German positions
within about 75 yards from “C” Company.
(explosion)
NARRATOR: But the Allied artillery
offers only a temporary reprieve.
♪
(explosion)
It is not long before enemy mortar
rounds target “C” Company again.
(explosions)
Baker keeps shouting
for his platoon to move.
(explosion)
(gunfire)
DR. JEFFERSON:
The Germans redirect
the mortar rounds
to the new American positions.
(gunfire)
And with the threat of tree burst,
they're safer in the open
than along the tree line.
(explosion)
NARRATOR: Two-thirds of Baker’s platoon
have been killed or wounded.
(gunfire, explosions)
The radio, their only link to
the outside world, has been smashed.
(explosion)
- (gunfire continues)
- Baker scans the battlefield.
He tries to locate “C”
Company’s White commander.
Captain John Runyon fled from
a German attacker earlier in the day,
and has not returned to the fight.
DR. JEFFERSON: One of Baker's men gestures
towards an outbuilding.
♪
(gunfire continues)
NARRATOR:
Baker approaches the structure.
He finds Runyon inside.
Baker and Runyon’s accounts
of what happened next differ greatly.
DR. JEFFERSON:
Baker recalls Runyon's arms
wrapped tightly around his legs
and his face as the color
of bleach parchment.
He promises Baker
that he will go for reinforcements.
Runyon's report states he
decides to order a withdrawal,
and that Baker volunteers to stay behind
and cover their retreat.
NARRATOR:
In both narratives,
Runyon departs with most
of the walking wounded.
Eight others, including
Vernon Baker, stay.
Exposed in their forward position,
they set about building
a makeshift barricade
with whatever logs
and rocks they can find.
♪
At 1430 hours,
German mortar men resume their assault.
(explosions)
(gunfire)
Through the smoke and dust,
the Americans see silhouettes
in the distance.
Baker and his G.I.s
tighten the grip on their rifles.
Their eyes strain for more detail.
A flag emerges from the haze.
It bears an unmistakable marking.
The Red Cross.
DR. MCMANUS:
The Red Cross on the battlefield
represents something that’s respected,
generally by both sides.
That medics themselves
are to pose no threat, no military threat.
That they are there to bring
about relief and to save lives.
NARRATOR: Other Germans appear
behind the flag bearer.
They carry a stretcher
and also display red crosses.
DR. JEFFERSON:
Attacking medical units
is considered a war crime
under the Geneva Convention,
so Baker signals his men to hold fire.
BAKER:
Hold your fire.
NARRATOR: But as the Germans advance
toward the Americans’ position,
their uneasiness builds.
♪
DR. JEFFERSON:
While some of the men want
to open fire on the enemy soldiers,
Vernon Baker knows intuitively,
that to do so might put
their own medics at risk
for retaliation at another time.
NARRATOR: 50 yards shy of “C” Company’s
position, the Germans halt.
DR. JEFFERSON: They drop the stretchers,
and they peel back the blankets.
There are no wounded.
The litters are filled with machine guns.
NARRATOR: Baker and his men
are the victims of deceit.
NARRATOR:
April 5th, 1945.
Overlooking the northern Tuscan coast.
The surviving members
of the 370th Infantry Regiment,
who remain entrenched
in the Germans’ Gothic Line,
watch with apprehension
as German soldiers advance
under the protection of the Red Cross.
♪
When the Germans pull back the blankets,
they reveal machine guns
and move quickly to set them up.
DR. LIEB:
Using the Red Cross emblem
to pose as a medic unit
is a blatant breach
of the Geneva Convention.
It is a war crime.
NARRATOR: The racist underpinnings
of Nazi ideology
could have been a factor
in this deception.
DR. LIEB:
We actually do not know
what the German soldiers in situ
thought about Afro-American soldiers,
but we can also assume that some of them
were ardent Nazis
and believed that the life
of an Afro-American soldier
is not as much worthy
as the life of a White American soldier.
NARRATOR: Now, the enemy’s
true intention is revealed.
DR. JEFFERSON: Baker's reluctance
and hesitance evaporates.
He yells, "Hit the bastards.”
BAKER:
Fire!
- (gunfire)
- Hit the bastards!
(bullets flying)
NARRATOR: American bullets pick
off several of the pretenders
before they can fire a single round.
(gunfire)
The rest fade away.
(gunshot)
♪
Despite the element of surprise,
the time and dexterity required
to set up the machine guns
worked against the Germans.
Their plan fails.
♪
But for 2nd Lieutenant Vernon Baker,
there’s a bigger concern.
“C” Company’s commander,
Captain John Runyon,
left the battlefield three hours before.
DR. JEFFERSON: As Baker recalls,
their White commander had left
with the promise
of securing reinforcements.
NARRATOR: With a makeshift
barrier as their only protection,
Baker looks behind him again and again.
He scans for the additional troops
he expects Captain Runyon to send,
but they do not arrive.
DR. JEFFERSON:
Suddenly,
Baker realizes to his dismay,
that their senior leadership
may still not believe
that his segregated unit
had made it so far into enemy territory
and continued to hold the line.
NARRATOR:
Earlier in the day,
Allied artillery support
proved difficult to get.
Now, reinforcements seem impossible.
He surveys what remains of his platoon.
♪
DR. JEFFERSON:
Baker describes a feeling
of hopelessness and exhaustion
that hangs over his men,
and there's another problem.
After their latest gunfight,
they're running dangerously
low on ammunition.
NARRATOR: They have only one
or two clips left for each soldier.
Baker faces a difficult choice.
They have advanced three miles
into the Germans’ formidable Gothic Line.
A mere 250 yards
away from their objective,
Castle Aghinolfi.
But without more men,
they cannot take the fortress.
They cannot stay either.
He decides to withdraw.
DR. JEFFERSON:
Baker doesn't make this choice
for self-preservation.
He recalls
that he has no fear of death,
but he does feel responsible
for the lives of his men.
And this is a fight
they merely cannot win.
♪
NARRATOR:
Even as they begin to retreat,
the Germans renew their attack
to wipe them out.
(gunfire)
(gunshot)
(gunfire)
As the remains of “C” Company
head for the security of their line,
they must descend through three miles
of enemy territory.
(explosion)
(explosions)
German sniper fire rings out.
(explosion)
The platoon’s last medic
drops to the ground.
BAKER:
Move! Move! Move!
NARRATOR:
Baker shouts for his men to keep moving.
(gunfire)
♪
For “C” Company,
it seems there is no escape.
NARRATOR:
April 1945. Northern Italy.
- (gunfire)
- A German sniper picks off
the surviving medic of
the 370th Infantry Regiment
as they retreat to the American line
- after reinforcements fail to arrive.
- (explosions)
But as 2nd Lieutenant Vernon Baker
kneels down
to collect the medic’s dog tags,
one of his soldiers goes on the offensive.
Private James Thomas heaves
his Browning Automatic Rifle
around towards the source
of the German sniper shot and opens fire.
DR. JEFFERSON:
Baker would later say,
that Private Thomas just goes crazy.
The Browning Automatic Rifle
looked like balsa wood in his hands.
NARRATOR: When the German
rifle slides down the hill,
the sniper’s fate is clear.
DR. JEFFERSON: Well, it happened so fast
that Thomas managed
to eliminate the concealed shooter
before Baker even finishes collecting
the fallen medics' tags.
♪
(gunfire)
NARRATOR:
A short time later,
Baker’s platoon plunges
towards the slope of the hill
they ascended just that morning
(gunfire continues)
as the German defenders
continue their pursuit.
(explosions)
DR. JEFFERSON: Earlier in the day,
they had snuck up the snaking switchbacks.
They had climbed on the boulders.
(gunfire)
But now, they're running for their lives.
They're tearing straight down
in order to get out of harm's way
as quickly as they possibly can.
NARRATOR: When they reach
the bottom of the slope,
it is a short sprint to the American line.
♪
After 12 hours of combat,
Baker and a few survivors
have finally made it to safety.
(inaudible)
He started the day
with 25 men in his platoon.
Now, only six remain.
BAKER:
Move out.
NARRATOR: He orders the wounded
to seek out the first aid station
and for the others to report in.
DR. JEFFERSON: And then, Baker,
who was literally overwhelmed
by what he's been through,
doubles over and throws up.
He has spent the day
seeing men blown to pieces,
and as the adrenaline wears off,
the emotions are very raw for him.
♪
NARRATOR: Back at base,
Baker has a final responsibility.
(dog tags rattling)
NARRATOR:
He must turn over the dog tags
he collected throughout the day
to regimental headquarters.
NARRATOR: There, he encounters
the 370th Commander,
Colonel Raymond Sherman.
DR. JEFFERSON:
Sherman doesn't ask about
the castle that could've been captured,
the heavy losses Baker's platoon
sustains in the process.
Actually, it seems Sherman wants to talk
about Baker's helmet or lack thereof.
Baker had a tradition of
leaving his helmet behind
because he felt like it impaired
his hearing and his sight,
as to what was happening on the ground.
(inaudible)
Senior army commanders, like Sherman,
did not see it that way.
They didn't see that as a positive
attribute. In fact, they saw it as
a dereliction of duty.
(inaudible)
NARRATOR:
Sherman reprimands Baker, calling him,
“a disgrace to the universe,
God, and country.”
♪
One of Sherman’s officers
hands Baker a helmet.
He slams it onto his head,
- (inaudible)
- And is more than happy to be dismissed.
♪
The next day,
under orders from Colonel Sherman,
Baker returns to the same battlefield.
DR. JEFFERSON:
This is tragic irony as well
because a company from
the 473rd Infantry Regiment
has just been assigned
to pick up where Baker's platoon left off.
And after “C” Company’s
advance the day before,
Baker knows this terrain intimately.
So, he leads the way.
NARRATOR: But this time,
the American troops meet no resistance.
After heavy losses inflicted
by “C” Company,
the Germans have withdrawn from the area.
DR. JEFFERSON: Baker and his men had
cleared the way the day before.
The all White company captures the castle
without firing a single shot.
So Baker and his men
bore the brunt of the actual fighting,
without being allowed
to receive credit for it.
♪
NARRATOR:
On the way back to base,
Baker happens upon the switchback trail
his platoon flanked in the darkness
in a bid to avoid potential mines.
He makes a painful discovery.
He finds the bodies of several of his men
who had gone missing the previous day.
DR. JEFFERSON: Baker had initially
believed that his platoon sustained
no casualties that early in their advance.
But in this moment, he realizes
the sounds he thought
were Allied artillery fire
firing behind their position,
were actually landmines exploding,
killing these men.
To see his men laying lifeless
reinforces the futility
of all of these losses.
♪
NARRATOR:
For his actions on April 5th, 1945,
Captain John F. Runyon
wins the Distinguished Service Cross,
the United States’ second highest medal
for valor in combat.
For his actions on the 5th
and 6th of April,
including credit for
killing nine enemy soldiers,
2nd Lieutenant Vernon Baker
earns the Distinguished Service Cross.
(gunfire)
Some thought that Baker’s
actions were worth more.
DR. JEFFERSON:
The highest award
an American soldier
can earn for valor in combat
is the Medal of Honor,
but it would not be awarded
to a single African American during,
or for many years and decades,
after World War II.
♪
NARRATOR:
It was not until the 1990s,
that the US Army would acknowledge
that some Black soldiers
were unjustly denied.
(inaudible)
More than 50 years after
the end of the Second World War,
President Bill Clinton presents
Baker the Medal of Honor.
Of the seven African American
World War II veterans
finally acknowledged,
he is the only one alive
to receive his award.
♪
After the capture of Castle Aghinolfi,
Baker and fellow Black soldiers
of the 370th Infantry Regiment
continue to carry on the fight
in northern Italy.
On April 10th, 1945,
Americans take control
of the city of Massa.
To the east, the main campaign
finally breaks through
and Allied forces liberate the city
of Bologna eleven days later.
After he retreats from the Gothic Line,
Generalleutnant Otto Fretter-Pico
surrenders to Allied troops on April 30th.
DR. LIEB:
The Germans and the Allied
negotiated a separate armistice for Italy,
and this came into effect
on the 2nd of May 1945.
NARRATOR: This is the beginning
of the end for the Third Reich.
Less than a week later,
the war in Europe comes to an end
after Germany’s unconditional surrender
is signed and accepted.
But it will take three more years
before President Harry Truman
signs the executive order
that ends official racial segregation
in the American armed forces.
♪
Captioned by Point.360
NARRATOR:
In the spring of 1945,
American troops in position to capture
an Italian castle
come under heavy mortar fire.
♪
Their forward observation officer
calls repeatedly for artillery support.
SOLDIER:
Hill R-7!
- (explosion)
- To the northeast!
NARRATOR:
But, units to the rear
do not believe
they have penetrated so far
- (gunfire)
- (yelling)
leaving them at the mercy
of the German defenders.
(explosion)
(gunfire)
On June 6th, 1944,
Allied forces finally
land troops in Normandy
to open the Western Front.
(yelling in German)
- (gunfire)
- But Nazi fanatics and diehards
continue to fight
ferociously for survival.
(explosion)
- (gunfire)
- D-Day was a battle.
They still need to win the war.
♪
April 5th, 1945.
Northern Italy.
Members of the American
370th Infantry Regiment
creep toward enemy lines.
2nd Lieutenant Vernon Baker
has discarded his helmet,
but wears his finest uniform.
DR. ROBERT JEFFERSON: Baker is dressed
in his sharpest dress greens,
because he has a premonition
of death in the coming attacks.
He wants his whole attire
and his ears to be razor sharp.
NARRATOR:
Baker and his 25 man platoon
approach the hill they must climb.
♪
A path here zigzags up the slope
onto the enemy-occupied ridge.
Boulders line the edges.
In the darkness,
the trail would be helpful,
but Baker is cautious.
DR. JEFFERSON:
On the one hand, the path
could be a relatively easy way for Baker
and his men to advance,
but on the other,
it could literally be a minefield.
NARRATOR: Just ahead, Baker spots
another figure assessing the path.
It is the company’s commanding officer,
Captain John Runyon.
Runyon was assigned to “C”
Company only weeks before.
At that time,
Baker was the de facto officer in command.
He was bumped back to platoon
leader when Runyon arrived.
DR. JEFFERSON: Baker is obviously
not pleased with the change.
He sees Runyon as a man
with a great deal of bravado,
but very little experience to back it up.
♪
NARRATOR:
But as Baker watches Runyon ahead,
he observes his C.O. avoid the path,
and pick his way along the boulders.
DR. JEFFERSON:
Baker quickly reasons that even if
the Germans laid mines on the trail,
they likely didn't position them under
the rocks that bordered it.
VERNON BAKER:
Stay on the rocks.
NARRATOR:
So Baker breaks his silence
and orders his platoon to advance
only along the stones,
instead of the path where
the enemy expected them to tread.
Single file, they step from rock to rock,
to begin their ascent.
25-year-old Baker is a “Buffalo Soldier”.
It is a name that dates back
to the African American men
who served in the United States
Army after the Civil War,
starting with the Indian Wars.
DR. JEFFERSON:
Those soldiers were highly revered
by the Indigenous populations.
So much so, that not only
do they gain the esteem
of those who are serving in the area,
but also for those
that they’re fighting against.
♪
NARRATOR: In World War II,
the 92nd Infantry, or “Buffalo Division,”
is made up of troops
segregated by their race.
DR. JOHN MCMANUS: The vast majority
of African American servicemen
in World War II
are gonna be held to
a non-combat capacity.
The practice of withholding
African American servicemen
from combat is another byproduct
of this sort of assumption
of racial inequity.
It’s the idea that Black
soldiers would really not fight.
That they just intrinsically,
as a race, would not fight.
♪
NARRATOR:
Baker’s regiment, as a combat unit
ready to fight, is an exception.
As Baker and his platoon
ascend their switchback trail,
the strategy to scramble over the rocks
appears to have paid off.
DR. JEFFERSON:
Most of the platoon reaches
the top and they have
heard no mines detonate,
so it seems they are safe.
NARRATOR:
But as they catch their breath
(distant explosions)
the sound of explosions
breaks the silence.
Baker and his men
approach a German defensive position
called the Gothic Line.
Entrenched in the northern slopes
of the Apennine Mountain chain,
the Gothic Line spans
Italy from east to west,
170 miles across.
♪
More than 2,000 German machine gun nests,
as well as minefields and heavy
artillery guard, its length.
Although Churchill once described Italy
as the "soft underbelly of Europe,"
its liberation from the grip
of the Nazis has proved slow.
Despite Benito Mussolini’s
overthrow and the country’s capitulation,
the Germans refused to leave.
DR. PETER LIEB:
The Germans made good use
of the Italian geography
to build up their defense lines.
You've got a series of defense lines
running through the Italian
peninsula, from coast to coast.
Always using hills, mountains,
and river valleys
in order to have
the best defense positions.
♪
NARRATOR: The Gothic Line
is the final line of German defenses
before the Po Valley
at the top of the Italian boot.
DR. LIEB: This means if the Allies
break through the Gothic Line,
they will quickly conquer and liberate
the Po Valley with all its vital industry.
Mussolini has got, still, his little
puppet state in northern Italy,
so if the Po Valley is lost,
it's obvious that
it would also mean the fall of Mussolini
and the collapse of
the Italian administration.
SOLDIER: Fire!
NARRATOR: At the western
edge of the Gothic Line,
in the valley below
their company’s position,
Allied artillery is in place.
(explosions)
♪
These guns are assigned to fire
in front of Baker and his soldiers
at predetermined intervals
to cover their advance.
DR. MCMANUS:
The role of artillery is to kill
or scatter German soldiers
through artillery fire,
to pound some of their bunkers
and other fortifications.
To kind of clear the way for the infantry.
NARRATOR: But the explosions “C” Company
hears detonate behind them,
not in front.
DR. JEFFERSON: Baker believes that they
are under attack from friendly fire.
He motions for the men to get moving
to put distance between
themselves and the blast.
- (distant explosions)
- BAKER (whisper): Go! Go! Go!
NARRATOR:
Baker and his infantrymen rush forward.
♪
(distant explosions)
But when the platoon pauses to regroup,
Baker counts off his men and discovers
some have vanished.
(explosions continue)
DR. JEFFERSON: Baker could not
risk sending anyone back
to search for the stragglers,
for fear of losing them as well.
They had to maintain
their forward momentum.
And this is one of the elements
of being a platoon leader.
You want your men to move forward
as much as possible in order
to maintain unit integrity.
(gunfire)
NARRATOR:
But before long, gunfire erupts
and cuts off their advance.
(gunfire)
German machine guns,
concealed in the hillside, open up.
(explosion)
(gunfire continues)
The enemy ahead,
has woken to the threat in their midst.
With his platoon held up
by the machine gun fire,
Baker takes action.
DR. JEFFERSON: Baker decides to approach
the enemy position alone.
(gunfire)
It is a risky move on his part.
He has no covering fire of his own.
If he's spotted, no one has his back.
NARRATOR: He creeps toward
the German machine gun nest
(gunfire continues)
and launches his attack.
♪
(explosion)
NARRATOR:
April 1945.
Northern Tuscany.
A segregated African American unit,
the 370th Infantry Regiment
(gunfire)
falls under attack as they push
into the Germans’ Gothic Line.
♪
2nd Lieutenant Vernon Baker
and his platoon
must get past the machine gun fire.
He unleashes his barrage.
He kills three Germans
and silences the post.
DR. JEFFERSON:
By attacking alone,
Baker has risked himself
for his platoon, and it pays off.
His unit can carry on.
♪
NARRATOR: As they continue to climb,
their objective looms high above.
A 1,500-year-old fortress.
Castle Aghinolfi.
Named for the Italian prince
who first added fortifications
to the rocky outcrop.
In World War II,
the castle towers above the
western end of the Gothic Line.
DR. LIEB: What was true back
in the medieval times
is also true in 1945.
Castle Aghinolfi is a high ground,
which gives the Germans a good opportunity
to observe the Allies’
movements in the valley,
and they've got good defense
positions up on the top of the hill.
NARRATOR:
In the spring of 1945, the men of
Generalleutnant
Otto Fretter-Pico occupy the castle.
DR. LIEB:
Otto Fretter-Pico is actually
considered initially
as a very promising general.
He is in command of an infantry
division on the Eastern Front,
but then suffers from
a psychological breakdown.
He’s being sent to France as
a commander of a training division,
and this division
is later moved into Italy
and upgraded to
an infantry division again.
NARRATOR:
Their position overlooks a highway.
The main route to the city of Massa.
Fretter-Pico can use this position
to call artillery down on
any enemy advance.
♪
In the early morning darkness,
Baker and his platoon reach
a hilltop below the castle.
They spot something peculiar.
A bright yellow wire snakes
along in front of them.
DR. JEFFERSON:
It is a material called plastic,
and for many of them, including Baker,
this is a first time for them.
Most of them have never
laid eyes on plastic
used like this before.
NARRATOR:
Baker severs the line.
Curious, he scrapes
the plastic coating back,
to reveal what lies underneath.
DR. JEFFERSON:
To his surprise, Baker sees that
the core is copper.
This tells him that it is some
sort of communications wire,
and he acts on that.
NARRATOR:
As the platoon moves forward,
more lines appear.
DR. JEFFERSON:
Baker cuts each and every wire.
More than a dozen in total.
He would later recall that it felt good
to inflict every bit of damage
he could on the enemy.
♪
NARRATOR: The advance of the US
370th Infantry Regiment towards Massa
is a diversionary tactic.
The goal of Operation Second Wind
is to draw German forces to the west,
while to the east,
the Allies launch a major attack
to penetrate into the Po Valley,
and take the city of Bologna.
With night turned to day,
the American platoon rounds
the outer edge of a hill.
A glint catches their attention.
The 2nd Lieutenant closes in.
DR. JEFFERSON:
Baker spots a pair of metal tubes
protruding from a slot in the hillside.
He thinks they must be gun barrels,
a telltale sign of an enemy machine gun
nest concealed below.
NARRATOR:
It needs to be cleared.
♪
Baker drops down
and propels himself forward.
He approaches the hillside slit,
comes to his knees,
and raises his gun.
His weapon is an M1 Garand rifle.
It weighs nine and a half pounds,
with an eight round, 30-caliber clip.
It is the first semi-automatic rifle
used by the US Army as
a standard infantry weapon.
More than five million of them
are manufactured over
the life of its production.
Officers usually carry
a lighter-weight gun.
DR. JEFFERSON:
Baker chooses a different weapon.
As someone who was raised
hunting in Wyoming,
he prefers the M1
because it reminds him of the rifle
he used to shoot deer and elk back home.
He describes the M1's heavy,
wooden stock as a "solid comfort."
NARRATOR:
Baker slides his rifle into the slit.
He works the trigger,
until the clip is spent.
(metal clang)
He peers inside.
DR. JEFFERSON: Baker sees one
German soldier slumped over dead,
but a second is still alive.
And he drags himself
across the floor of the bunker
towards a pile of grenades in the corner.
♪
NARRATOR:
Baker faces an explosive situation.
NARRATOR:
April 1945.
The northwest coast of Italy.
After attacking an enemy bunker,
2nd Lieutenant Vernon Baker
- of the 370th Infantry Regiment,
- (metal clang)
observes a German soldier
crawling toward a pile of grenades.
With a spent clip,
Baker grabs a grenade from his jacket,
pulls the pin,
and throws it into the machine gun nest.
(explosion)
As the smoke clears, Baker creeps inside.
He surveys the bunker.
The soldier now lies dead.
He checks out the German field telephones.
The two metal cylinders
he thought were gun barrels
are actually the top portion
of an observation instrument.
DR. LIEB: A scherenfernrohr translates
into "scissors binoculars."
It was used very often by the Germans
as a tool to observe enemy movements
or to direct artillery fire.
The big advantage is
when you're sitting in a trench,
you don't have to lift
your head above the edge.
♪
DR. JEFFERSON: Baker would later remember,
looking into the eyepieces.
He could see American troops
down below on the flats,
and he realizes how easy it would be
for the Germans to call in
indirect fire to wipe them out.
NARRATOR: As an observation post,
it is a critical position.
DR. MCMANUS:
The most potent weapon the enemy has,
arguably, is his artillery observer.
That’s the guy who controls
the heaviest firepower
that is gonna inflict the most casualties.
When Baker encounters the artillery OP,
this is really a much higher value target
than just a simple machine gun bunker.
NARRATOR:
As he continues to investigate,
Baker notices something else.
The same yellow lines
he had cut earlier in the day
run from the field telephones
out from the bunker.
DR. JEFFERSON: It's entirely possible
that these German forces
had spotted Baker's platoon
as it advanced,
but they couldn't bring down the attack
because the severed phone lines
meant that they were
not able to call it in.
If he wouldn't have cut those wires,
they would've been in dire
danger going forward.
NARRATOR:
Baker takes another grenade,
pulls the pin, and places it
between the binocular tubes,
then quickly exits the bunker.
♪
(explosion)
DR. JEFFERSON: Well, to his credit,
Baker doesn't wait around to watch
but when he hears a muffled explosion,
he knows that the grenade
has done its job.
The observation post is no more.
NARRATOR:
In less than two hours,
Baker and his platoon have pushed
nearly three miles into enemy territory.
DR. MCMANUS:
In this case,
you are taking some
pretty valuable ground,
especially a lot of high ground,
that the Germans could use
to inflict casualties
upon the American attackers.
And the fact that they take it as they do
within about two or so hours,
I think is pretty impressive.
NARRATOR:
Their rate of advance
contradicts the expectations of most
of the US Army’s senior officers.
Colonel Raymond Sherman
commands Baker’s segregated regiment.
DR. MCMANUS: The US army is
segregated in World War II
because of traditional Jim Crow
segregation race customs
that predominate throughout much
of American society at that point.
The profound irony,
and really to some extent,
the disgraceful irony, this whole thing.
The United States is mobilizing
to full resources
and fighting all over the globe,
to destroy some of the most homicidally
racist regimes in human history,
and it’s doing so with armed forces
segregated on the basis of race.
NARRATOR: Sherman lived and worked
in the state of Virginia in the 1930s.
♪
In the Second World War,
it is also the general practice
of the American military
to place White southerners
in senior command of Black men.
DR. MCMANUS:
You see this kind of twisted
kind of expectation
that White Southern officers
are especially well suited
to lead Black soldiers
because they knew how to keep
Black soldiers in their place
because they had done that back home.
So, you see this
kind of toxic replication.
NARRATOR: Sherman believes
Black troops to be unreliable
and prone to cowardice.
(inaudible)
♪
His views are not uncommon
among senior White officers of his time
and profoundly impacts the experiences
of more than one million African Americans
who serve their country in World War II.
DR. MCMANUS:
Colonel Sherman, and officers like him,
probably would have attributed any
failure of African American soldiers
to their intrinsic
shortcomings or weaknesses
or inferiority as a race.
Also, I think quite significantly,
officers like Colonel Sherman
would not point
the finger at themselves.
Whereas some of the better
leadership in other units
might have thought,
“I didn’t train these guys well enough,”
or “I didn’t make
good decisions.” Honest leaders.
In this case, it’s an easy
kind of scapegoat
to say, “oh well, these guys
just don’t have it in them.”
♪
NARRATOR:
Deep into the Germans’ Gothic Line,
Captain John Runyon,
“C” Company’s White commander,
rendezvous with Baker
to discuss the final approach
on their objective.
Castle Aghinolfi.
They are now just 250 yards
south of the German-held fortress.
DR. MCMANUS: This is a castle that
basically controls this entire sector
because it’s on some of
the key high ground. Plus,
they’ve had the opportunity to fortify it,
and, obviously,
that only makes it stronger.
NARRATOR:
If the Americans can take Aghinolfi,
it may just clear the way to
the city of Massa up the coast.
(inaudible)
But, Runyon and Baker’s debate
comes to a sudden halt.
A German soldier emerges from nearby brush
with a grenade in his hand.
DR. JEFFERSON:
Runyon panics and bolts.
Baker is trying to get off a shot,
but cannot
because Runyon pushes past him.
Baker must have thought
his days on Earth were done.
♪
Amazingly, it was a dud.
It didn't explode.
NARRATOR: Baker lifts his rifle
again and takes aim.
(gunshot)
The fleeing German falls to the ground.
Baker scans his surroundings.
Runyon has disappeared.
DR. JEFFERSON:
Baker is absolutely furious.
He sees Runyon's behavior as amateurish,
as well as hysterical.
The White commander who lectured
him on combat performance
has run away from a fight.
♪
(speaking German)
(distant gunfire)
NARRATOR:
As the platoon regroups,
one of the G.I.s gestures to
a flock of birds soaring above.
But, his platoon commander knows better.
DR. JEFFERSON: Baker received
training as a mortar man.
To him, the black specks flying
their way are unmistakable.
He yells to his men to take cover.
BAKER:
Take cover!
(explosion)
NARRATOR:
The platoon’s arrival has been detected.
A German mortar unit
launches a barrage from
a nearby hill in response.
(explosions)
Moments later,
a series of explosions detonate
around the American soldiers.
- (explosions)
- DR. JEFFERSON: The mortars release
a tornado of metal shrapnel.
Pieces of metal cut into their skin.
The Germans opened fire
with their guns as well.
(gunfire)
(explosion)
NARRATOR: The attack kills three members
of “C” Company and wounds three more.
Baker and his men are exposed
and outmatched.
They need support from Allied
artillery positioned in the valley below,
but the American heavy guns remain silent.
- (yelling)
- “C” Company’s forward artillery observer,
2nd Lieutenant Walker, shouts
coordinates into the radio set.
(explosion)
DR. JEFFERSON:
Walker's been calling for
artillery support
since the mortar attack began.
(explosion)
- But there's a problem.
- (explosion)
The officers below refuses
to believe that a segregated, Black unit
had advanced as far as the castle.
(explosion)
NARRATOR:
Baker watches
as Walker repeats their position,
again and again
WALKER:
I repeat, Hill R-7!
(explosion)
NARRATOR:
powerless to make them understand.
♪
NARRATOR:
April 1945.
Northwestern Italy.
Under attack by German mortar fire,
the remains of an American company
of the 370th Infantry Regiment
is unable to summon artillery support.
The forward observation officer,
2nd Lieutenant Walker,
spends precious time
repeating their coordinates.
DR. JEFFERSON: Army units to the rear
simply cannot believe
that the segregated
African American soldiers
could have advanced
so far into the German's
legendary Gothic Line.
NARRATOR: Minutes after “C” Company’s
first call for help,
Allied artillery finally opens
up from the valley below.
(explosions)
SOLDIER: Fire!
DR. JEFFERSON:
The Allied guns come in painfully late,
but they deliver on target.
- (air rushing)
- Shells whiz over Baker and his men,
barely clearing their heads
as the ordinance flies
towards German positions
within about 75 yards from “C” Company.
(explosion)
NARRATOR: But the Allied artillery
offers only a temporary reprieve.
♪
(explosion)
It is not long before enemy mortar
rounds target “C” Company again.
(explosions)
Baker keeps shouting
for his platoon to move.
(explosion)
(gunfire)
DR. JEFFERSON:
The Germans redirect
the mortar rounds
to the new American positions.
(gunfire)
And with the threat of tree burst,
they're safer in the open
than along the tree line.
(explosion)
NARRATOR: Two-thirds of Baker’s platoon
have been killed or wounded.
(gunfire, explosions)
The radio, their only link to
the outside world, has been smashed.
(explosion)
- (gunfire continues)
- Baker scans the battlefield.
He tries to locate “C”
Company’s White commander.
Captain John Runyon fled from
a German attacker earlier in the day,
and has not returned to the fight.
DR. JEFFERSON: One of Baker's men gestures
towards an outbuilding.
♪
(gunfire continues)
NARRATOR:
Baker approaches the structure.
He finds Runyon inside.
Baker and Runyon’s accounts
of what happened next differ greatly.
DR. JEFFERSON:
Baker recalls Runyon's arms
wrapped tightly around his legs
and his face as the color
of bleach parchment.
He promises Baker
that he will go for reinforcements.
Runyon's report states he
decides to order a withdrawal,
and that Baker volunteers to stay behind
and cover their retreat.
NARRATOR:
In both narratives,
Runyon departs with most
of the walking wounded.
Eight others, including
Vernon Baker, stay.
Exposed in their forward position,
they set about building
a makeshift barricade
with whatever logs
and rocks they can find.
♪
At 1430 hours,
German mortar men resume their assault.
(explosions)
(gunfire)
Through the smoke and dust,
the Americans see silhouettes
in the distance.
Baker and his G.I.s
tighten the grip on their rifles.
Their eyes strain for more detail.
A flag emerges from the haze.
It bears an unmistakable marking.
The Red Cross.
DR. MCMANUS:
The Red Cross on the battlefield
represents something that’s respected,
generally by both sides.
That medics themselves
are to pose no threat, no military threat.
That they are there to bring
about relief and to save lives.
NARRATOR: Other Germans appear
behind the flag bearer.
They carry a stretcher
and also display red crosses.
DR. JEFFERSON:
Attacking medical units
is considered a war crime
under the Geneva Convention,
so Baker signals his men to hold fire.
BAKER:
Hold your fire.
NARRATOR: But as the Germans advance
toward the Americans’ position,
their uneasiness builds.
♪
DR. JEFFERSON:
While some of the men want
to open fire on the enemy soldiers,
Vernon Baker knows intuitively,
that to do so might put
their own medics at risk
for retaliation at another time.
NARRATOR: 50 yards shy of “C” Company’s
position, the Germans halt.
DR. JEFFERSON: They drop the stretchers,
and they peel back the blankets.
There are no wounded.
The litters are filled with machine guns.
NARRATOR: Baker and his men
are the victims of deceit.
NARRATOR:
April 5th, 1945.
Overlooking the northern Tuscan coast.
The surviving members
of the 370th Infantry Regiment,
who remain entrenched
in the Germans’ Gothic Line,
watch with apprehension
as German soldiers advance
under the protection of the Red Cross.
♪
When the Germans pull back the blankets,
they reveal machine guns
and move quickly to set them up.
DR. LIEB:
Using the Red Cross emblem
to pose as a medic unit
is a blatant breach
of the Geneva Convention.
It is a war crime.
NARRATOR: The racist underpinnings
of Nazi ideology
could have been a factor
in this deception.
DR. LIEB:
We actually do not know
what the German soldiers in situ
thought about Afro-American soldiers,
but we can also assume that some of them
were ardent Nazis
and believed that the life
of an Afro-American soldier
is not as much worthy
as the life of a White American soldier.
NARRATOR: Now, the enemy’s
true intention is revealed.
DR. JEFFERSON: Baker's reluctance
and hesitance evaporates.
He yells, "Hit the bastards.”
BAKER:
Fire!
- (gunfire)
- Hit the bastards!
(bullets flying)
NARRATOR: American bullets pick
off several of the pretenders
before they can fire a single round.
(gunfire)
The rest fade away.
(gunshot)
♪
Despite the element of surprise,
the time and dexterity required
to set up the machine guns
worked against the Germans.
Their plan fails.
♪
But for 2nd Lieutenant Vernon Baker,
there’s a bigger concern.
“C” Company’s commander,
Captain John Runyon,
left the battlefield three hours before.
DR. JEFFERSON: As Baker recalls,
their White commander had left
with the promise
of securing reinforcements.
NARRATOR: With a makeshift
barrier as their only protection,
Baker looks behind him again and again.
He scans for the additional troops
he expects Captain Runyon to send,
but they do not arrive.
DR. JEFFERSON:
Suddenly,
Baker realizes to his dismay,
that their senior leadership
may still not believe
that his segregated unit
had made it so far into enemy territory
and continued to hold the line.
NARRATOR:
Earlier in the day,
Allied artillery support
proved difficult to get.
Now, reinforcements seem impossible.
He surveys what remains of his platoon.
♪
DR. JEFFERSON:
Baker describes a feeling
of hopelessness and exhaustion
that hangs over his men,
and there's another problem.
After their latest gunfight,
they're running dangerously
low on ammunition.
NARRATOR: They have only one
or two clips left for each soldier.
Baker faces a difficult choice.
They have advanced three miles
into the Germans’ formidable Gothic Line.
A mere 250 yards
away from their objective,
Castle Aghinolfi.
But without more men,
they cannot take the fortress.
They cannot stay either.
He decides to withdraw.
DR. JEFFERSON:
Baker doesn't make this choice
for self-preservation.
He recalls
that he has no fear of death,
but he does feel responsible
for the lives of his men.
And this is a fight
they merely cannot win.
♪
NARRATOR:
Even as they begin to retreat,
the Germans renew their attack
to wipe them out.
(gunfire)
(gunshot)
(gunfire)
As the remains of “C” Company
head for the security of their line,
they must descend through three miles
of enemy territory.
(explosion)
(explosions)
German sniper fire rings out.
(explosion)
The platoon’s last medic
drops to the ground.
BAKER:
Move! Move! Move!
NARRATOR:
Baker shouts for his men to keep moving.
(gunfire)
♪
For “C” Company,
it seems there is no escape.
NARRATOR:
April 1945. Northern Italy.
- (gunfire)
- A German sniper picks off
the surviving medic of
the 370th Infantry Regiment
as they retreat to the American line
- after reinforcements fail to arrive.
- (explosions)
But as 2nd Lieutenant Vernon Baker
kneels down
to collect the medic’s dog tags,
one of his soldiers goes on the offensive.
Private James Thomas heaves
his Browning Automatic Rifle
around towards the source
of the German sniper shot and opens fire.
DR. JEFFERSON:
Baker would later say,
that Private Thomas just goes crazy.
The Browning Automatic Rifle
looked like balsa wood in his hands.
NARRATOR: When the German
rifle slides down the hill,
the sniper’s fate is clear.
DR. JEFFERSON: Well, it happened so fast
that Thomas managed
to eliminate the concealed shooter
before Baker even finishes collecting
the fallen medics' tags.
♪
(gunfire)
NARRATOR:
A short time later,
Baker’s platoon plunges
towards the slope of the hill
they ascended just that morning
(gunfire continues)
as the German defenders
continue their pursuit.
(explosions)
DR. JEFFERSON: Earlier in the day,
they had snuck up the snaking switchbacks.
They had climbed on the boulders.
(gunfire)
But now, they're running for their lives.
They're tearing straight down
in order to get out of harm's way
as quickly as they possibly can.
NARRATOR: When they reach
the bottom of the slope,
it is a short sprint to the American line.
♪
After 12 hours of combat,
Baker and a few survivors
have finally made it to safety.
(inaudible)
He started the day
with 25 men in his platoon.
Now, only six remain.
BAKER:
Move out.
NARRATOR: He orders the wounded
to seek out the first aid station
and for the others to report in.
DR. JEFFERSON: And then, Baker,
who was literally overwhelmed
by what he's been through,
doubles over and throws up.
He has spent the day
seeing men blown to pieces,
and as the adrenaline wears off,
the emotions are very raw for him.
♪
NARRATOR: Back at base,
Baker has a final responsibility.
(dog tags rattling)
NARRATOR:
He must turn over the dog tags
he collected throughout the day
to regimental headquarters.
NARRATOR: There, he encounters
the 370th Commander,
Colonel Raymond Sherman.
DR. JEFFERSON:
Sherman doesn't ask about
the castle that could've been captured,
the heavy losses Baker's platoon
sustains in the process.
Actually, it seems Sherman wants to talk
about Baker's helmet or lack thereof.
Baker had a tradition of
leaving his helmet behind
because he felt like it impaired
his hearing and his sight,
as to what was happening on the ground.
(inaudible)
Senior army commanders, like Sherman,
did not see it that way.
They didn't see that as a positive
attribute. In fact, they saw it as
a dereliction of duty.
(inaudible)
NARRATOR:
Sherman reprimands Baker, calling him,
“a disgrace to the universe,
God, and country.”
♪
One of Sherman’s officers
hands Baker a helmet.
He slams it onto his head,
- (inaudible)
- And is more than happy to be dismissed.
♪
The next day,
under orders from Colonel Sherman,
Baker returns to the same battlefield.
DR. JEFFERSON:
This is tragic irony as well
because a company from
the 473rd Infantry Regiment
has just been assigned
to pick up where Baker's platoon left off.
And after “C” Company’s
advance the day before,
Baker knows this terrain intimately.
So, he leads the way.
NARRATOR: But this time,
the American troops meet no resistance.
After heavy losses inflicted
by “C” Company,
the Germans have withdrawn from the area.
DR. JEFFERSON: Baker and his men had
cleared the way the day before.
The all White company captures the castle
without firing a single shot.
So Baker and his men
bore the brunt of the actual fighting,
without being allowed
to receive credit for it.
♪
NARRATOR:
On the way back to base,
Baker happens upon the switchback trail
his platoon flanked in the darkness
in a bid to avoid potential mines.
He makes a painful discovery.
He finds the bodies of several of his men
who had gone missing the previous day.
DR. JEFFERSON: Baker had initially
believed that his platoon sustained
no casualties that early in their advance.
But in this moment, he realizes
the sounds he thought
were Allied artillery fire
firing behind their position,
were actually landmines exploding,
killing these men.
To see his men laying lifeless
reinforces the futility
of all of these losses.
♪
NARRATOR:
For his actions on April 5th, 1945,
Captain John F. Runyon
wins the Distinguished Service Cross,
the United States’ second highest medal
for valor in combat.
For his actions on the 5th
and 6th of April,
including credit for
killing nine enemy soldiers,
2nd Lieutenant Vernon Baker
earns the Distinguished Service Cross.
(gunfire)
Some thought that Baker’s
actions were worth more.
DR. JEFFERSON:
The highest award
an American soldier
can earn for valor in combat
is the Medal of Honor,
but it would not be awarded
to a single African American during,
or for many years and decades,
after World War II.
♪
NARRATOR:
It was not until the 1990s,
that the US Army would acknowledge
that some Black soldiers
were unjustly denied.
(inaudible)
More than 50 years after
the end of the Second World War,
President Bill Clinton presents
Baker the Medal of Honor.
Of the seven African American
World War II veterans
finally acknowledged,
he is the only one alive
to receive his award.
♪
After the capture of Castle Aghinolfi,
Baker and fellow Black soldiers
of the 370th Infantry Regiment
continue to carry on the fight
in northern Italy.
On April 10th, 1945,
Americans take control
of the city of Massa.
To the east, the main campaign
finally breaks through
and Allied forces liberate the city
of Bologna eleven days later.
After he retreats from the Gothic Line,
Generalleutnant Otto Fretter-Pico
surrenders to Allied troops on April 30th.
DR. LIEB:
The Germans and the Allied
negotiated a separate armistice for Italy,
and this came into effect
on the 2nd of May 1945.
NARRATOR: This is the beginning
of the end for the Third Reich.
Less than a week later,
the war in Europe comes to an end
after Germany’s unconditional surrender
is signed and accepted.
But it will take three more years
before President Harry Truman
signs the executive order
that ends official racial segregation
in the American armed forces.
♪
Captioned by Point.360