WW2 black women pioneers drama shot at museum

Evelyn Johnson, who was born in Buffalo, New York in 1920, served in the Six Triple Eight in England and in France

A film that tells the story of the only black, all-women US battalion during World War Two will "hopefully bring a new audience to the subject", a museum curator has said.

The Six Triple Eight is a Netflix movie about the 855 enlisted women and officers assigned to clear a two-year postal backlog in a bid to revive US troop morale.

It was partly filmed at the Imperial War Museum in Duxford, Cambridgeshire, which also has an oral history of one of the women involved, Evelyn Johnson, taken shortly before her death in 2015.

"Evelyn Johnson talked about how proud the women were to do this task and that sense of identity and achievement lasted the rest of their lives," the museum's Dr Hattie Hearn said.

"She also enjoyed her time in Britain and how welcome she was in British homes, as well as being struck by how bomb-damaged Birmingham was, which was unlike anything they had seen."

When the women left the United States in early 1945, racial tensions existed, with a society divided by segregation - black people were denied equal rights under the "Jim Crow" laws, which remained in place in the southern states until the 1960s.

Ms Johnson said they appreciated being in England where they were treated as equals and could go anywhere, saying "we were treated royally".

The Netflix drama stars Kerry Washington as Maj Charity Adams, the most senior black officer in the Women's Army Corps and commander of the 6888 battalion

Almost all the women in Maj Adams' battalion were black, alongside three women of Hispanic and Puerto Rican heritage

The story of the Six Triple Eight is only recently starting to get the recognition it deserves - the unit was given no public recognition on its return to the USA in 1946.

The film's star and executive producer is Kerry Washington, who plays the commander of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, Maj Charity Adams.

Dr Hearn said: "After D-Day [6 June 1944], there was this huge backlog of mail piling up in England, made worse by the thousands of men deployed overseas and advancing across Europe.

"Their addresses were changing constantly, so by the time a parcel might arrive, the man could have moved on - or even died."

The Imperial War Museum film shoot lasted a day and included a parade ground march and scenes with its P47 Thunderbolt and the P51 Mustang aeroplanes

After clearing the backlog in Birmingham, the battalion were deployed to Rouen in France to do the same job, again finishing the task in record time

The battalion was given six months to clear the backlog, piled up in rat-infested warehouses in Birmingham. The rats feasted on the parcels of rotting homemade food.

In shifts lasting more than 24 hours, they sorted 17 million letters and packages in half the target time.

"Evelyn said the women were really enthusiastic to serve overseas and knew they were the select few to have this opportunity in combat theatre," said Dr Hearn.

One of her outstanding memories was when the entire unit was sent to London to parade before Mary, the Queen Mother.

The film is in cinemas now and will stream on Netflix from 20 December.

President Joe Biden signed the Six Triple Eight Congressional Gold Medal Act of 2021, awarding the women America's highest civilian honour