WARRIOR WEDNESDAY: Cpl. Henry Johnson and the most decorated regiment of WWI that earned the nickname the "Harlem Hellfighters"

Written by Tony J. Spain, Swamp Fox Patriot
Wednesday, February 4, 2026

May 15, 1918, WWI, the trenches of northern France smelled of wet earth, smoke, and war. Army Cpl. Henry Johnson is crouched beside his friend Pvt. Needham Roberts in a forward listening post near the Argonne Forest. The two men from Harlem were part of the 369th

Infantry Regiment— an all-black unit the Germans would soon call the Hellfighters.

A sudden flare of German grenades lights up the dark moonless night shattering the peace. The night sentry post is under surprise attack. Shrapnel tears into Roberts’s arm and shoulder.

Johnson drags his wounded friend behind a sandbag barrier as more than a dozen German raiders are coming over the wire with bayonets fixed.

Johnson fires one round from his rifle before it jams. He grabs a grenade, pulls the pin with his teeth, and desperately hurls it into the darkness. The explosion scatters the attackers, but they are still coming.

Another German soldier lunges over the wall, Johnson meets him with the only weapon left—his bolo knife. He slashes and stabs him. One German strikes Johnson across the head with a rifle butt; Johnson staggers, but keeps fighting, severing the hand of a third soldier who tried to drag Roberts away.

By the time reinforcements arrive, Johnson is still standing, bleeding from more than twenty wounds, his right arm nearly severed, his left hand mangled, yet he is still clutching his knife as dead and wounded Germans lay on the ground around him.

Johnson and Robers have avoided capture. The Germans retreated. In that single, savage half-hour, the two men from Harlem had stopped a raid that could have captured prisoners and intelligence.

Word of the fight spread quickly through the French lines. The 369^th had already earned a reputation for never retreating, never losing a trench, never allowing a man to be taken alive. The Germans nicknamed them Höllenkämpfer—Hellfighters. The French called them les hommes de bronze, the Men of Bronze.

For months the regiment fought in the Champagne and Meuse-Argonne offensives, spending 191 unbroken days in the line—longer than any other American unit.

No American unit experienced more time in combat than they did. They never lost an inch of ground. The enemy never captured a single member. They suffered the highest casualty rate and some of the harshest conditions of any US regiment, but no one deserted.

The French bestowed their highest military honor, the Croix de Guerre, upon the entire regiment. Many individuals of the regiment received the US Army’s second-highest award, the Distinguished Service Cross. Johnson received the Medal of Honor in 2015.

Another distinguishing feature of the Harlem Hellfighters was their band that became the best-known of any regiment. It was led by James Reese Europe, who was one of the most popular black musicians in America. He became a poster for recruitment as other black musicians like Noble Sissle became eager to serve with him.

The band became extremely popular with the French introducing jazz where nobody had heard it before. 

Europe was unfortunately murdered by a disgruntled band member. Sissle went on to great fame as a musician forming a life-long partnership with black musician Eubie Blake. In 1921 they produced the musical, “Shuffle Along” that ran for more than 500 performances on Broadway and is credited with igniting the culture we know today as the Harlem Renaissance.

When the armistice came in November 1918, the Hellfighters marched home. On February 17, 1919, New York City gave them a parade up Fifth Avenue. Tens of thousands of people—Black and white—lined the streets, cheering as the men of the 369th stepped past in perfect order, rifles shouldered, medals gleaming. Children waved flags. Women threw flowers. For a few hours, the city forgot segregation and prejudice and simply honored courage in a glorious moment of racial harmony.

This is a very short part of the amazing and incredible history of the Harlem Hellfighters that I encourage you to explore more. Here are some great books I’ve read:

The Harlem Hellfighters: When Pride Met Courage, by Walter Dean Myers and Bill Miles

The Hellfighters of Harlem, by Bill Harris

Harlem’s Hellfighters: The African-American 369^th Infantry in World War I, by Stephen L. Harris

Be warriors in all that you do and let’s go do great things!