Diksha Sundriyal
Netflix’s ‘The Six Triple Eight’ follows the story of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, comprised entirely of women of color. They are sent to Europe during the Second World War to do something that no one else has been able to do so far. Due to some logistical problems, a backlog of mail has racked up to such numbers that it seems impossible to resolve the whole thing. However, the authorities can’t just let it be, especially considering that the soldiers who haven’t received a word from their families for months are losing their only lifeline to hope and love. This is where the women of the 6888 come in.
The Women of the 6888 Accomplished the Seemingly Impossible Task in Record Time
When the 6888 battalions arrived in Birmingham to sort the mail and send them on their way to the intended, over two years of backlog had accumulated. The women were brought to King Edward’s School, where they would set camp for the next couple of months, and found that rooms in the building had so many mailbags that they covered the entire room, right to the ceiling. Moreover, they had six airplane hangars worth of Christmas packages that needed to be sorted and moved forward. It was an estimated 17 million pieces of mail in total, and they were given six months to clear it up. To everyone’s surprise, they did it in three months.
When the battalion found the packages, everything was completely disorganized. In some packages, the family members of the soldiers had sent food, like Christmas cake, which had attracted rodents, who bit through the mail and didn’t just spoil the food but also damaged the names and addresses on the packages. A lot of times, the addresses were incorrect, incomplete, or outdated, as the soldiers had moved on to a different location by then. And then there was the case of similar names. Reportedly, the name Robert Smith appeared on 7,500 pieces of mail. A lot of packages had the soldiers’ nicknames instead of full names, which led to addresses like “Junior, US Army.” And all this was considering that there were more than seven million Americans in Europe who were involved in the war effort in one form or another. It took some time for the 6888 to figure out a system. The first time they sent the mail, almost all of it came back because they were labeled undeliverable.
The Women of the 6888 Succeeded Against All Odds
Considering the enormity and the importance of their mission, one would imagine that the 6888 battalion was given every resource they needed. But it wasn’t so. As if the problems posed by their task weren’t enough, the women had to deal with the problems they could easily do without. Racism and sexism from their own people, especially their superiors, became a huge hurdle in their path. They were forced to set up in a place that didn’t have proper amenities like heating and light, and the women had to work in a biting cold and unhygienic environment. Due to their race, they faced segregation, which meant that they didn’t get proper housing either. Despite this, the women banded together to make their workplace and their living spaces liveable. They didn’t just have clean sleeping quarters and a proper mess hall, but they also had a salon and a refreshment bar by the time they were done.
Once they had set up the place, they dedicated themselves to the task. With the motto “No mail, low morale,” they pushed through the mountain of mail, working three eight-hour shifts to process about 65,000 pieces of mail each day. Four postal directories were set up, and their task was to match the mail with the soldier it was intended for. From here, the mail was passed on to the locator clerks, whose job was to keep track of the units to which the mail would be sent. Meanwhile, postal clerks were put in charge of alphabetizing things based on surnames and processing the incoming mail through the system set up by the locator clerks. Even with the system, it took some time for things to kick in, and the women went through a painstaking process to make sure that every mail was sent on the right path. Eventually, their hard work bore fruit, and within three months, they were done with the backlog in Birmingham.
The 6888’s Work Didn’t End in England
Once they had wrapped things up in England, the 6888’s services were called upon in France, where they had a similar backlog waiting for them. They were first sent to Rouen, France, where they arrived in May 1945 after the Allied had already emerged victorious. The city was war-torn, but the 6888 had a mission, and they focused entirely on it. This time, they set up in a comparably remote area and relied on their already established system to process the mail. They also made the place their home, replete with its own beauty parlor, library, offices, and recreation hall. In three months, they had cleared up the backlog.
Their next stop was Paris, where they arrived in October 1945. The situation was a bit better here as they were given boarding in hotels and received a large garage as their workstation. By this time, however, soldiers had started to ship back, due to which the strength of the 6888 battalion also decreased over time. The workload, however, remained the same, which meant the battalion had to speed up their process to finish their mission as soon as possible. They tried hiring the Parisians to help them sort through the mail, but things didn’t work out, and the soldiers had to make do with whatever manpower they had. By March 1946, they had wrapped up things in Paris as well, and the entire battalion was shipped back home, where it was disbanded at Fort Dix, New Jersey, closing this incredible chapter of their lives.
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