In addition to their impressive war experience, what set the division apart were three of its regiments-the 157th, 179th and 180th, made of young men mostly from Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Oklahoma- that brought Mexican Americans and at least 1,500 Native Americans from 50 tribes together as a fighting unit.Ī cross between “ Band of Brothers ” and A Scanner Darkly, the four-part miniseries uses animation to tell the real-life story of Felix Sparks, a company commander who eventually rose through the division ranks, and the experiences of the fictional Sergeant Samuel Coldfoot and Corporal Able Gomez, two composite stand-ins for the Indigenous and Mexican American soldiers, respectively, who made up the bulk of the Thunderbird Division. Based on the book by writer Alex Kershaw, “ The Liberator” depicts how the Thunderbirds staggered through a withering 500-plus days of combat in less than two years, exacting a terrible toll on Axis troops while suffering nearly 10,500 casualties during the course of the war.
#Thunderbird native american north east series#
Premiering Veterans Day, a new Netflix series tells the story of this storied division as it fought across Sicily, Italy, France and into Germany. Composed of a disparate collection of Native Americans, Mexican Americans and Southwestern cowboys, the Thunderbird Division became known as one of the hardest-fighting combat groups of the war. Army’s 45th Infantry Division, one of the most racially integrated units of the era, went into battle wearing on their shoulders the image of the Thunderbird, a supernatural entity said to protect humans from evil spirits and exact vengeance on their moral enemies.
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