Black History Month Program Highlights Unsung WWII Supply Operation in Milford

Soldiers from the 4185th Quartermaster Service Company (left to right), Pvt. Harold Hendricks, Staff Sgt. Carl Haines, Sgt. Theodore Cutright, Pvt. Lawrence Buckhalter, Pfc. Horace Deahl, and Pvt. David N. Hatcher, load trucks with rations bound for frontline troops September 1944 in Liege, Belgium. (Photo courtesy of the U.S. Army)

The Milford Museum will mark Black History Month with a public program examining the role of African American soldiers in World War II’s Red Ball Express, a critical supply operation that helped sustain Allied forces after the D-Day invasion.

The program, titled The Red Ball Express, will be presented by historian and educator Dante Brizill on Saturday, Feb. 14, at 1 p.m. at the Milford Public Library.

Following the Allied landings in Normandy in June 1944, U.S. and Allied forces faced an urgent logistical challenge: moving massive quantities of food, fuel, ammunition, and equipment from coastal supply points to troops advancing across Europe. With aircraft prioritized for combat missions, the Army relied heavily on truck convoys to keep the front lines supplied. That effort became known as the Red Ball Express, named after a 19th-century priority rail service.

The operation proved essential to the Allied advance, and nearly three-quarters of the drivers who operated the nonstop truck convoys were African American soldiers. Despite their central role, their contributions have often received limited attention in popular accounts of the war.

Brizill, a social studies teacher at Polytech High School, has spent more than two decades teaching in Maryland and Delaware. A Philadelphia native, he holds a bachelor’s degree in history from Hampton University and a master’s degree in education from Wesley College. He is the author of the Greatness Under Fire series, which focuses on African American heroes of World War II, and his writing has appeared in newspapers and national publications.

The event is part of the Milford Museum’s American History Series, a monthly program that explores local, state, and national history topics. The series is held on the second Saturday of each month at the Milford Public Library, located at 11 S.E. Front St.

The program is sponsored by the Milford Museum and supported by a grant from the Delaware Heritage Commission. For more information, residents can contact the museum at (302) 424-1080 or by email at tom@milfordDEmuseum.org