Edward F. Reed, of the Sixth Armored Division Association, writes (Letters, Nov. 19) that our documentary film "Liberators: Fighting on Two Fronts in WWII" and the accompanying book contain "discrepancies and falsehoods" and what he calls "altered" historical events, and he scolds us for not subjecting our claims to verification by means of "official records" and "military sources." Nonsense.

Our research was thorough in the extreme. This holds true not merely for "official" sources (military archives and published studies), but also as regards "unofficial" sources: namely first-hand accounts and interviews with survivors. These--as military historians know -- sometimes come into conflict with "official" history.

Occasionally, "official" history gets what amounts to a well-deserved kick in the pants. It was precisely the fact that the role of the 761st (and other black combat units) had been excluded from most "official" accounts of the was that impelled the film makers to tell the unit's story in the first place.

Let us first concede the points we and Reed hold in common: The 761st Tank Battalion did not spearhead Patton's drive across France. The battalion did not break through to the besieged garrison at Bastogne. The Sherman tank in the Bastogne town square was not one of the 761st's tanks. However, since neither the film nor the book claims otherwise, Reed is simply taking pot shots at the proverbial straw target.

If he saw the film, both his eyesight and hearing are suspect. Reed charges that the film mistakenly identifies the 761st as the "spearhead" unit in the Third Army's breakout in Normandy. It doesn't.

Reed's next charge, that the 761st didn't rescue the men of Bastogne, is equally pointless, since the film (like the book) describes the 761st's week-long armored battle with SS Panzers in the town of Tillet, 15 miles northwest of Bastogne. In the film, veterans of the battalion are seen revisiting Tillet in 1982 and are filmed conversing (in English) with a Belgian farmer who witnessed the battle and who vividly described it to the surviving tankers. Tillet, Mr. Reed, not Bastogne.

In addition to citing the accomplishments of the 761st, "Liberators" pays tribute to the role of another all-black unit--the 183rd Combat Engineers--in the Third Army's relief of Bastogne. It is this unit (and not the 761st Tank Battalion) that the film depicts assisting in the relief of Bastogne.

Some 15 kilometers to the south, at the town of Martelange, the 183rd succeeded in rebuilding a bridge that had been blown up by the Germans, thus allowing Patton's Third Army to proceed north to the relief of the units trapped at Bastogne. Just one of the many heroic contributions made by African-American soldiers that you won't find mentioned in the "official" histories.

Reed's main charge is that--contrary to the film--the 761st did not participate in the liberation of Buchenwald or Dachau!

Before showing how this charge, like Reed's others, is false, it bears repeating that the film does not claim that the 761st by itself liberated the camps. Unquestionable, most of the liberators were white, just as most of the American Army was white. But most does not mean all, and Reed and his buddies in the Sixth Armored Association are wrong to begrudge the men of the 761st their due. It's the latest twist in what turns out to be an old story.

Consider: During the Third Army's Lorraine offensive, the 761st, supporting Maj. Gen. Willard S. Paul 26th Infantry Division, captured the town of Dieuze. But Yank magazine omitted the 761st and credited the town's capture to the 4th Armored Division, which arrived on the scene hours later. On Dec. 14, 1944, tankers from the 761st were among the very first American soldiers to set foot on German soil, crossing the border between Wissembourg and Saabrucken. Yank never mentioned them either.

On May 5, 1945, the 761st, now supporting the 71st Infantry, halted at Steyr, Austria, near the Czech border. They were farther east than any other unit in the American Army, but the supply services abruptly halted their gas allocation. Why? Because the Army brass did not want a black unit linking up with the advancing Russians: The publicity would be embarrassing.

Reed insists that his own unit, the 6th Armored, is "credited" with liberating Buchenwald, while the 45th Infantry is credited with liberating Dachau. According to Reed, the liberation of these camps was thus an all-white affair. Not so!

Reed's claim that the 45th Infantry Division was the first to reach Dachau is disputed by, among others, Russell F. Weigley, widely regarded as the pre-eminent authority on the U.S. army in WWII. In his book "Eisenhower's Lieutenants," Weighley states that Dachau was first entered on April 29 by the vanguard of the 42nd Infantry, which had to overpower some 300 of the SS before seeing "the freight cars full of piled cadavers."

The 45th entered the camp somewhat later. Does this mean that they are not to be counted among Dachau's liberators? Certainly not. Just ask the survivors they helped rescue.

The point of "Liberators" is not to take credit from the 6th Armored Division or any other brave soldiers who have been justly credited in the past, but to enlarge the record of history to give credit to those soldiers who have been overlooked by historical records.

The most convincing testimony regarding the 761st's presence at Buchenwald and Dachau comes from the survivors who saw them with their own eyes. These include Ben Bender, Alex Gross, Samuel Pisar and Elie Wiesel, to name only a few. To dismiss their clear recollections of events they lived through would be presumptuous, at best. Reed doesn't so much dismiss them as ignore them altogether.

History--military and otherwise--is an ongoing process, not an ossified collection of "facts." It has been our privilege to tell the story of many veterans and survivors who have an important piece to add to the story of the Allied victory in WWII.