# History's Toughest Heroes: Henry Johnson: Hellfighter

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/history-s-heroes-6396729/history-s-toughest-heroes-henry-johnson-hellfighter
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/history-s-heroes-6396729/history-s-toughest-heroes-henry-johnson-hellfighter.md
Podcast: [History's Heroes](https://stenobird.com/podcast/history-s-heroes-6396729)
Published: 2025-11-18T05:00:00+00:00
Episode link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002m03z
Audio file: http://open.live.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/6/redir/version/2.0/mediaset/audio-nondrm-download-rss/proto/http/vpid/p0mfbckg.mp3
Processing state: not_requested
JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/history-s-heroes-6396729/episodes/history-s-toughest-heroes-henry-johnson-hellfighter
Duration seconds: 1715

## Resource

A Black soldier from the American South makes headlines when he fights off an entire German party in World War One. But his fame comes at a price. In History's Toughest Heroes, Ray Winstone tells ten true stories of adventurers, rebels and survivors who lived life on the edge. Growing up in as a Black man in North Carolina, where racism was enshrined in law and lynchings were horrifyingly common, Henry Johnson didn't have much hope for a bright future. He moved to Albany New York and when America joined the Great War he found himself on the front line in France, with the all-Black 369th infantry regiment. These men would come to be known as the Harlem Hellfighters and after one fateful night, in the pitch black of no-mans-land, Henry Johnson would be hailed a national hero thanks to his ferocity and extreme courage in the face of an enemy attack. A BBC Studios production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds. Producer: Suniti Somaiya Development Producer: Georgina Leslie Executive Producer: Paul Smith Written by Imogen Robertson Commissioning editor for Radio 4: Rhian Roberts

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