The Six Triple Eight true story, as explained by director Tyler Perry and star Kerry Washington

As the only predominantly Black Women’s Army Corps unit to be stationed overseas during World War II, the Six Triple Eight helped change the course of history by boosting American morale when the soldiers needed it most.

Deployed to England in February 1945, they were tasked with clearing a seemingly insurmountable backlog of undelivered mail, a job no one thought they could manage.

Not only did they succeed, but they did so in the face of great adversity, rising to the challenge and completing the task in just three months instead of their allotted six.

Bringing the story of The Six Triple Eight to life was a challenge of its own, says writer/director Tyler Perry, who revealed to RadioTimes.com that there's "so much more to this story" than he could fit in the movie's two-hour runtime.

"I say it's about 90 per cent accurate," claimed Perry. "[Star and executive producer] Kerry [Washington] says it's about 97 per cent accurate. But there's so much more to the story that Lena [Derriecott King] told me, that she shared, that Charity Adams shared in her book.

"There were different levels that I wish we had an opportunity to really get in. But, you know, after about two hours in a movie, people started to tap out, so I made the choice to stick with what we had there."

The Six Triple Eight does an admirable job of telling this story, but as Perry points out, there's only so much you can fit into a film. That's where we come in.

Here's everything you need to know about the true story behind Netflix's The Six Triple Eight, along with the people who inspired it, including real-life legends Charity Adams and Lena Derriecott King.

The Six Triple Eight true story explained

In 1941, the year America joined the war effort, US women campaigned for the right to enlist in the military.

Key figures in that movement included Dovey Johnson Roundtree — who became one of the first Black female officers in the US — alongside Civil Rights activist Mary McLeod Bethune (Oprah Winfrey), who partnered with First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt (Susan Sarandon) and Congresswoman Edith Nourse Rogers to draft the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) resolution.

In 1942, the law was passed, and by 1943, the Women’s Army Corps (WAC), as it was then known, gave white and Black women alike the right to serve.

Yet only white WAC soldiers were sent abroad at first, until Bethune and Roosevelt pushed for that to change, which led to the formation of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion.

While it's often described as being "all-Black", the 855-strong battalion included at least two non-Black latina women, if not more. Still, Black women made up the vast majority of the Six Triple Eight, even at the top level, which was practically unheard of at a time when white officers still led most Black military units.

The leader in question was Major Charity Adams, who was actually the first Black woman to ever serve as a US Army officer. At the age of just 26, she also became the first Black woman to command an overseas battalion in the US Army when she was put in charge of the 6888th.

Speaking to RadioTimes.com, Washington explained that it's "super important" as people watch the film that they don't think of her iconic characters like Scandal's Olivia Pope when she plays Adams on screen: "That felt like it would be a disservice to these women. We wanted it to be that when you watch this film, you are only thinking about Lena Derriecott King and Captain Charity Adams and the women of the Six Triple Eight."

Washington added: "I worked very closely with Tyler to try to find a character, a performance that I'd never taken on before, to find new levels in my voice and in my physicality. So I'm really proud when people who are like huge Gladiators [Scandal fandom name] say, 'I never saw Olivia Pope.' That makes me feel really proud that they really were immersed in this story, because these women deserve their time, their legacy."

Before she set out on the journey that made her the legend she's known as now, Adams led her battalion in basic combat and gas mask training at Fort Oglethorpe in Georgia ahead of their mission overseas. It wasn't until they arrived in the UK on 14th February 1945 that their mail clearing objective was revealed, however.

From the outset, the 6888th experienced discrimination, just as they had during their training exercises in the US. The American Red Cross refused to accommodate Black officers, designating a separate facility for them in London. Adams led a boycott of the organisation’s facilities, which worked, although the alternative wasn't much better.

As the 6888th got to work clearing 17 million pieces of mail, they were forced to endure extremely grim conditions in cold, dirty, rat-infested warehouses which they operated out of. Many of the packages contained mouldy, spoiled food items long past their sell-by-date, which attracted said rats.

There were no heaters, either, so the battalion were forced to wear ski pants and big jackets to survive the hellish, wintry conditions, plus they had to shower outside, even in the dead of winter. Blackout conditions were also imposed to hide the group from German forces, which led to eye strain for many who worked in near darkness.

Still, the 6888th were entirely self-sufficient, running their own food hall and hair salon to maintain morale and avoid segregated working conditions.

Through all this, the women worked around the clock in eight-hour shifts, seven days a week, knowing how important their efforts were to the ongoing war effort. Damaged packages and their scattered contents were carefully matched up according to dates and packing materials while letters were also checked in case there was any compromising information that they needed to censor in aid of the war effort.

Organised under the motto "No Mail, Low Morale", the battalion were able to clear 65,000 pieces of mail per shift, finishing the mission in half the time expected, just three months instead of six.

But before they admirably completed their task ahead of schedule, a white male general paid the 6888th a visit, and he still found their efforts lacking. Angered that a third of the women were sleeping upon his arrival, the general told Adams that he would send a white lieutenant to come and show her how to do her job properly. The major's response? "Over my dead body, sir."

"Adams was 26 years old at the time," Washington told us. "Even though she believed so deeply in the rules and codes of the Army, she betrayed her own belief system to say to her superior officer, a general in the army, 'Over my dead body.'

"It was such an extraordinary opportunity," she continued, "that scene, because I felt like I got to speak for all of the women in the ways that Charity Adams was charged with the responsibility of caring for and leading all of these women. That moment was about defending their dignity and their humanity when they were fighting so hard for a system that was not fighting for them."

She added: "I will always be grateful to the actor who plays General Halt in that scene. Because in real life, Dean Norris is so nice, but he had the courage to step into that evil, to step into that misogyny and that racism of that time. It really stirred up in me something... I mean, I've been saying it's like something ancestral. I was angry at levels that I hadn't really experienced before. I'm really grateful to have the opportunity to speak for the women and their dignity and humanity in that moment."

The real-life general didn't step down as easily as he does in the film. Outraged, he immediately drew up court-martial charges against Adams, but they didn't stick because officers in the Six Triple Eight countered that with charges of their own that accused him of using prohibited racially-charged language. In response, the general eventually dropped his case, and so the 6888th then dropped theirs.

Before the Six Triple Eight returned home, Adams received a visit from the general who acted so cruelly to her just a few months earlier. According to a memoir Adams later wrote, he told her: "It’s not easy to say what I’ve come to say. The only Negroes I have ever known personally were those who were in the servant capacity or my subordinates in the Army. It’s been a long time since anyone challenged me, Black or white, but you took me on. You outsmarted me, and I am proud that I know you."

Beyond discrimination and terrible working conditions, the battalion also endured tragedy when three members — Mary H Bankston, Mary Jewel Barlow and Dolores Mercedes Browne — died in a Jeep accident. The film echoes this in a similar scene which is followed by funeral proceedings on screen. In real life, the young officers were laid to rest at the Normandy American Cemetery.

What the film doesn't depict is how the 6888th later transferred to Rouen, France, in June 1945, to sort through even more mail. This time, they cleared three years' worth of undelivered letters and parcels in just five months. By the time they finished, the war was over too, and by February 1946, the entire battalion returned to Fort Dix in New Jersey, where it was disbanded.

After the war, no parade or ceremony was given to celebrate their accomplishments. Adams received multiple accolades for her leadership, but it wasn't until March 2022 that the group as a whole would be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor by President Joe Biden.

Adams received a master of arts degree from Ohio State University in 1946 and worked multiple administration jobs before marrying Stanley A Earley Jr in 1949. The pair settled in Dayton, Ohio, where Adams served on the board of directors for the local chapter of the American Red Cross. Adams died on 13th January 2002, at the age of 83, but before she passed, the Smithsonian National Postal Museum held a ceremony to celebrate her in 1996.

While Adams plays an extremely prominent role in the film, Perry was actually inspired to write and direct The Six Triple Eight after meeting Lena Derriecott King (who's played by Ebony Obsidian here) in April 2022. She died a few years later, in January 2024, but Perry managed to take a rough cut of the film to her bedside beforehand.

"[Lena] was in hospital at the time," said Perry. "But her mind was there and she was sharp. She watched it and applauded and saluted. She was so happy and excited. It was a beautiful moment. I'm very proud of that."

At the time of writing, only two members of the 6888th Battalion are still alive today: Fannie McClendon and Anna Mae Robertson. But when they're gone, Perry's film will remain as a tribute to them and all of the women who served their country so bravely, with such dignity at a time when the odds were stacked against them.

This sentiment isn't lost on Perry, who told us: "I feel like I was tasked to help tell the story and bring it to the world, to honour these 855 women. Who can say that they got a chance to honor 855 women all at the same time? That's something I feel really, really proud about.

"I wish they all were here to be able to see it, because I would love to just see the expression on their faces."

The Six Triple Eight is streaming now on Netflix. Sign up for Netflix from £4.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream.

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