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The Germans did a lot of talking about being the “Master Race.” They invented a long list of inferior peoples, conspicuous among whom were Negroes. But that was before the Nazis ran into the 92nd Division. The Buffalo outfit had a few theories of its own, too, including the motto “Deeds Not Words.” That turned out to be pretty effective counter-propaganda against the Germans—especially the hundreds of them who were captured by the colored soldiers of the 92nd during its nearly nine months of action on the Italian front.
The 92nd, many of whose officers and all of whose enlisted personnel are Negroes, was activated on October 15, 1942, and among the camps at which it trained was Fort Huachuca, Arizona. There, many years ago, when the American Army was chiefly concerned with Indians, a detachment of colored soldiers was assigned. To keep warm during the cold winter on the prairies, the soldiers killed buffalos and clothed themselves with the hides. The startled Indians began to call them “Black Buffalos,” and the 92nd’s shoulder patch and nickname carry on the tradition of those early American fighters.
This war’s Buffalos embarked for North Africa in June 1944, and soon thereafter were assigned to the Fifth Army front in the Italian Apennines. In September elements of the Division crossed the Arno River and took the city of Lucca. Then the 92nd began to live the usual routine of foot soldiers in that theater—long waits, slow gains, constant patrols, and endless suffering in the cold, bleak hills of central Italy.
The 92nd’s first large-scale attack as a division occurred in February 1945, when the Buffalos were given the mission of seizing Monte Cassala, a peak dominating the western coast ports vital to Allied operations. Striking out from along the line of the Fiume-La Force, some three miles south of the stronghold of Massa, the Buffalos stormed the mountain and took it, to the considerable dismay and embarrassment of its Aryan defenders.
During the winter months, the 92nd kept two German divisions tied down in its sector and worked up the Ligurian coast. Not only did it capture the ports of La Spezia and Genoa, but it accomplished the feats so swiftly that the Germans were unable to put into effect plans they had made to render the ports useless when the Allies finally got into them.
From then on, the Division rolled northward, taking Alessandria and Turin on its way. When the war in Italy ended, its accomplishments were summed up by General Mark Clark, commander of the 15th Army Group and better qualified than most otfier people to appraise the work of the 92nd. In a letter to Major General Edward M. Almond, leader of the Buffalos, General Clark said, “To the 92nd Division went an important assignment in the offensive which ended in unconditional surrender of German forces in Italy. Please convey to your officers and men for me the fact that I value most highly the manner in which that assignment was carried out. We relied upon you to gain ports along the Ligurian coast and you carried out the attack in a most aggressive and successful way. You took La Spezia and then swept on to Genoa, not only taking that great port, but preserving it from terrible bombardment by heavy German guns. With the ports in hand, elements under your command swept into the cities of Alessandria and Turin. These actions played an important part in the victory achieved by the 15th Army Group.”
From Fighting Divisions, Kahn & McLemore, Infantry Journal Press, 1945-1946.
