The BBC has uncovered a paper trail from the dying days of Word War II, showing that the US and UK insisted that the French division with whom Charles de Gaulle liberated Paris be composed only of white soldiers.
The original article can be found here.
Only a short diary, but this news item burns with injustice.
Charles de Gaulle, the leader of the Free French, had made it clear to the Allies that he wanted Frenchman to be the first troops to march into a liberated Paris. However, in January 1944, seven months prior to the liberation, Eisenhower's Chief of Staff, Major General Walter Bedell Smith, wrote in a confidential memo:
It is more desirable that the division mentioned above consist of white personnel.
This would indicate the Second Armoured Division, which with only one fourth native personnel, is the only French division operationally available that could be made one hundred percent white.
A noble aim, but with one problem, pointed out helpfully by a British General, Fredrick Morgan:
It is unfortunate that the only French formation that is 100% white is an armoured division in Morocco.
Every other French division is only about 40% white. I have told Colonel de Chevene that his chances of getting what he wants will be vastly improved if he can produce a white infantry division.
So a solution was engineered by the Allies, take the available French divisions, remove the black soldiers, and replace them with Spanish troops. Et voila! A totally white 'French' division for the cameras and posterity.
West African French soldiers formed the majority of the Free French armies and 17,000 gave their lives in battle. Not even these sacrifices could earn them a place at the event which marked the beginning of the end of the most systematically racist regime in modern history. American segregation, British colonial sensitivities and French acquiescence to its stronger partners put paid to that. The article also notes the cursory treatment of these troops afterwards, which has since been echoed in Britain's treatment of its large Indian contingent.
So, let's all raise a glass to these men and others, who due to their colour or creed, have been airbrushed from 'official' history.