Sepia Saturday 713. A tribute to the 6888 Central Postal Directory Battalion, the only all African American WAC unit to serve abroad during WWII.
In honor of Black History Month (February) and Women’s History Month (March), Molly’s Canopy is pausing the series about my dad’s brother Frederic Mason Charboneau to remember a special WWII military battalion.
Specifically, the African American service women of the Women’s Army Corp 6888 Central Postal Directory Battalion who made it possible for military personnel like my Uncle Fred to receive a backlog of treasured mail from home during WWII.
Mail from home: a lifeline at the front
In his WWII letters, Uncle Fred frequently wrote about his frustration with the military mail service. Letters and packages would go to Fred’s US base long after he shipped abroad — or weeks would go by when he received no mail from home, then a bunch of letters would come all at once.
Problems with the military mail service were compounded as WWII wore on and US troops moved around. By 1944, there were warehouses in England and France piled high with mailbags of undelivered US mail from home.
Something had to be done — and the African American service women of the 6888 Battalion (aka the Six Triple Eight) made history doing it.
Backlog cleared in half the time
The Army Women’s Foundation describes what the Six Triple Eight was up against:
“When the 6888th arrived in Birmingham, England, in February 1945, they found floor-to-ceiling stacks of undelivered letters and parcels stored in cold warehouses with poor lighting. Some of the packages had only partial addresses, and some were intended for different individuals who had the same name.”
Nevertheless, says the AWF, the battalion developed a unique sorting system and resolved the seemingly insurmountable problem in half the time predicted:
“The unit created and maintained a system of roughly seven million cards to track service members and used serial numbers to distinguish the soldiers who had the same name. When a piece of mail was only partially addressed, they researched to try to find the soldier it was meant for. The WACs worked round the clock, organized in three 8-hour shifts. Before the 6888th arrived in theater, one general officer estimated it would take six months to clear the backlog in Birmingham; the Six Triple Eight accomplished it in three months.”
And when they were done in Birmingham, England, the 6888 Battalion shipped off to Rouen and Paris, France, to do it all over again — emboldened by their slogan “No Mail, Low Morale.”
Molly’s Canopy salutes the invaluable service of the Women’s Army Corp 6888 Central Postal Directory Battalion — WWII heroes who facilitated delivery of precious mail to the troops and helped pave the way for women and African Americans in the military. To learn more, please watch the above video.
Up next: Pausing this series on Uncle Fred’s letters to prep for the April 2024 AtoZ Blogging Challenge. Please stop back on April 1! Meanwhile, please visit the other intrepid bloggers over at Sepia Saturday.
© 2024 Molly Charboneau. All rights reserved.
What a great tribute and post! I never knew about this battalion before; thanks for putting it out there and helping others to become more aware! 🙂
Great tribute!
This is a super story to include with your series on your uncle’s series. It’s disturbing to learn that the military postal service was so inefficient during the war since the US Expeditionary Force of WW1 had already encountered the logistical problems of dealing with soldiers’ mail. The 6888 Battalion obviously had several enormous challenges to master and their history certainly deserves to be remembered with pride.
Recently I’ve been reading a diary of a German soldier from WW1 who served on both the western and eastern fronts. He often recorded in his journals the delight he and his comrades enjoyed when postcards, letters, and packages were delivered. The Imperial German Army clearly understood why the mail was important for morale. Of course the German military post had fewer geographic obstacles than the Allies but it partly explains why my collection has far more German postcards from 1914-1918 than British or French. And American photo postcards from the war are incredibly rare.
What an important part they served in WW II! I can only hope that they receive those gold medals soon (while some may still be alive) Yes, correspondence was very important for those serving to keep democracy alive in our world. Same today!
Give women the job and I’m not surprised at all they accomplished what needed to be done in half the time expected! Women are the better organizers and that’s a simple truth! Thanks for researching and sharing this side of the war that people don’t generally think about. 🙂