Morgan Freeman on the ‘overlooked’ black WWII tank unit that fought Nazis

Morgan Freeman emphatically makes his level within the new Historical past documentary, “761st Tank Battalion: The Authentic Black Panthers,” which opens with a D-Day battle clip from the 1998 film “Saving Personal Ryan.”

“I grew up going to the films and if it was a Western or a battle story I ate that stuff up,” Freeman, 86, advised The Publish. “However someplace in my early teenagers it occurred to me, nicely, that’s high quality, however the place am I on this? I don’t see any illustration of me and, after I did, I didn’t admire it as a lot.

“The largest [black] stars of my time have been Mantan Moreland, Willie Finest and Stepin Fetchit.”

Freeman, who says in “761st Tank Battalion” that he’s “been chasing this story perpetually,” is an govt producer of the intensely researched two-hour documentary, which traces the historical past of the first black tank unit to serve in combat during World War II –– preventing the Nazis in France and, as a part of the 71st Infantry Division, serving to liberate the Mauthausen Nazi focus camp within the closing days of the struggle.

“Historical past tends to miss this,” stated Freeman, who hosts the documentary and interviews Robert Andry, a 98-year-old survivor of the 761st Tank Battalion, and Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III (amongst others) to speak concerning the battalion’s bravery and sacrifice.

“Once we rise up to the place we are actually, American historical past is American historical past after which you’ve got black historical past, which I resent,” Freeman stated. “I resent it vastly. I don’t even need to be known as African-American as a result of I’m not African — and haven’t been for a lot of generations. This story we’re telling is certainly one of glory, accomplishment, braveness — all issues that you can imagine that units people other than the unusual.

“Going into battle killing, and being killed shouldn’t be regular,” stated Freeman, who served within the US Air Drive from 1955-1959. “Once we do it beneath excessive stress and after we come again from that excessive stress, more often than not we don’t even bear in mind it, and it’s definitely not one thing we discuss.

“These of us who can ferret out the historical past of [the 761st Tank Battalion] needs to be doing it — and so we’re.”

A part of the troopers’ story is the discrimination they confronted as soon as the battalion was shaped — coaching for 2 years in segregated Camp Claiborne in Louisiana beneath many racist white Southern Military personnel — and the post-war racism and intolerance the battle-scarred heroes encountered after coming back from Europe in 1945.

Phil Bertelsen, who directed “761st Tank Battalion,” stated the manufacturing utilized varied sources as its informational database.

“The analysis for this started with earlier works that have been carried out [on the battalion] however none of which actually noticed the sunshine of day in the identical approach,” he stated. “There have been books — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar being among the many authors who’s written concerning the 761st [in his 2005 book ‘Brothers in Arms’] and Trezzvant Anderson, a black journalist embedded with the battalion; his dispatches have been vital in serving to us chart their progress.”

[Anderson, who died in 1963, wrote the book “Come Out Fighting: The Epic Tale of the 761st Tank Battalion 1942-1945.”]  

Bertelsen stated there “was a number of accessible info” within the Nationwide Archives and different sources and far of it’s now digitized, which made it a bit simpler to inform the story — together with the battalion’s function in liberating Mauthausen.

“That’s been a supply of some controversy earlier than when this story was advised,” he stated. “We made an exerted effort to place [the battalion] there on the time and place in Austria once they have been the furthest East and connected to the 71st Infantry Division — which was given credit score for liberating that camp. However the truth that the battalion was additionally there’s something that was misplaced to historical past — and we have been in a position to affirm what has all the time been rumored however not reported with accuracy.”

“761st Tank Battalion: The Authentic Black Panthers,” premieres Aug. 20 at 8 p.m. on Historical past.