Who were the Harlem Hellfighters?

On June 2nd, 1913 the New York Army National Guard formed the 15th New York Infantry Regiment. This regiment was officially organized on June 29th 1916 in New York City which was the first regiment that had African-Americans and African-Puerto Ricans that were allowed to serve in the US Army during World War 1.The regiment was called into federal service in 1917 and was prepared for their service in Europe and by December once they arrived in France. On March 1st, 1918 the 15th New York Infantry Regiment was renamed as the 369th Infantry Regiment in the American Expeditionary Forces.

The soldiers in the regiment were forced to labor services and a lot of them questioned if they were ever going to be called up to action due to the fact that a lot of them volunteered to serve in the army. The regiment was given an their first opportunity to fight on April 1918 by General Pershing. Due to segregation law during the early 1900's in the United States, the 369th Regiment was not allowed to "serve" as part of the US army as Pershing had said that Americans would fight under the American flag under an American general. Instead the regiment was handed over to French Army who had suffered a lot of casualties and welcomed any help. In France African's were not segregated and the French treated them as equal.

During their time in Europe the French and 369th were able to they fought the longest on the front during the Champagne-Marne offensive and  were the first Allied unit to cross the Rhine River during the Allied offensive. Due to the way they fought the German storm troopers would start to nickname the 369th the "Hellfighters." They fought in a way that caused  the unit  suffer a lot of casualties. The 369th was one of the few regiments that spent 191 days in combat that any other American unit during World War 1. During those days they saw combat they were known to never lose any ground  and were the fiercest in combat.

Even tough the 369th were segregated from the main US army, the soldiers from the regiment came home to be welcomed as nation heroes despite the racism they went through while,fighting through the Western front.