Bamber Bridge, England — The village of Bamber Bridge in north-west England is proud of the strike it took against racism in the US military during World War II.
When an all-black truck regiment was stationed in the village, the residents refused to accept the segregation inherent in the US military. Ignoring pressure from British and American officials, pubs welcomed GIs, local women chatted and danced with them, and English soldiers drank with men they saw as allies in the war against fascism.
But rising tensions between black soldiers and white military police erupted on June 24, 1943, when a brawl outside a pub turned into a night of shootout and mutiny that left Private William Crosland dead and dozens of truck regiment soldiers tried in court. Marshall faced. When Crosland’s niece learned of the circumstances of her uncle’s death from an Associated Press reporter, she demanded a new investigation to find out how he died.
The community has decided to focus on its stand against segregation as it commemorates the 80th anniversary of the battle now known as the Battle of Bamber Bridge and its last stand with black men and women in the US armed forces. Re-evaluates behavior.
“I think it’s probably a sense of pride that there was no bigotry towards (the soldiers),” said Valerie Fell, who was only 2 years old in 1943 but whose family owns the 400-year-old thatched-roof pub Ye Olde Used to run Hob Inn. Where the controversy started. “He deserved respect for the uniform he was wearing. …that’s how people felt about it.
This was in stark contrast to the treatment black soldiers received in the wartime military, who were still segregated by law.
According to evidence presented during court martial proceedings, men from the 1511th Quartermaster Truck Regiment (Aviation) stationed at Bamber Bridge complained that they received poor food and often had to sleep in their trucks when they stopped at white bases. Is. He also said that white military police harassed black soldiers, berating them for minor offenses that were often overlooked by other soldiers.
export segregation
About 10% of the American soldiers who enlisted in Britain during the war were black soldiers. Serving in separate units led by white officers, most were transferred to non-combat roles, such as driving trucks that delivered supplies to military bases.
US officials tried to push those policies beyond their bases, asking pubs and restaurants to segregate the races.
Bamber Bridge, home to around 6,800 people at the time, was not the only British community to resist this pressure. In a country that was almost entirely white, there was no tradition of segregation, and after the Four Years’ War people welcomed any help from abroad.
Alan Rice, co-director of the Institute for Black Atlantic Research at the University of Central Lancashire, said: “What is unique about Bamber Bridge is the desire of local people to preserve and pass on this story.
“If we’re going to fight against racism or fascism, these are the stories we need to be talking about,” Rice said. “If you’re fighting fascism, which these people were, then it’s ridiculous, absolutely ridiculous, that the US military was encouraging a form of fascism – segregation.”
Clinton Smith, head of the Black History Group in nearby Preston, was among those who revived interest in the Battle of Bamber Bridge in the 1980s when he discovered bullet holes in the side of a bank and asked longtime residents started what happened.
This helped attract widespread interest, with local blogger Derek Rogerson publishing a short book, “The Battle of Bumber Bridge: The True Story”, which described black soldiers hosting a Christmas party for the village children and accompanying the children. Photos of watching movies are included. Lap A filmmaker, Danny Lyons, compiled an oral history.
Last year, the local government council put up a plaque outside the Hob Inn outlining the community’s relationship with soldiers, the violence and its consequences.
Smith said, “The story cannot be allowed to dry on the vine.” “As much as it’s dried up, we’re trying to bring it back to life while maintaining accuracy.”
Battle of Bamber Bridge
Despite their friendship with the GIs, the villagers were not able to avoid violence when black soldiers, disheartened by their treatment and angered by reports of racial rioting in Detroit, encountered military police armed with batons and weapons.
On that warm June night, Private Eugene Nunn was sitting at the Hobb Inn bar when a white military police officer threatened to arrest him for wearing the wrong uniform. British soldiers and civilians intervened.
“Everyone was saying, ‘Leave him alone. He just wants a drink. It’s a hot day,'” Fell told his mother’s story. ”
When the nun left the pub, the police were waiting. Anger increased. A bottle broke on the windshield of the police jeep. The matter progressed from here.
Order was not restored until 4 am. Military officials called for harsher punishments to prevent unrest at other bases.
Thirty-seven black soldiers were charged with mutiny, riot and unlawfully carrying a weapon, and about 30 were convicted of some or all of the charges. Most received prison sentences of between three and 15 years, which included loss of pay and dishonorable discharge. As the Allies prepared for the D-Day landings, many of the sentences were shortened by the time limit so that men could be sent back to the war effort.
While the court martial criticized the white officers for poor leadership, the records give no indication that they or the military police were disciplined.
long standing change
Ken Werrell, a graduate of the US Air Force Academy and retired professor of history at Radford University in Virginia, studied court martial proceedings and reviewed other military records for an article published in 1975.
Verrell told The Associated Press that the documents showed the accused were ill-treated.
But the wider story is that senior generals immediately ordered a change in treatment of black soldiers, focusing on improving morale and performance. Many of the officers commanding black units were replaced, additional recreational facilities were provided, and the military deployed more racially mixed military police patrols.
“As such, the Bamber Bridge affair was much more than a minor incident in World War II,” wrote Verrell. “It was one of many incidents in the ongoing crusade for black and American freedom.”
In 1948, President Harry Truman ordered the end of segregation in the US military, although it took several years to fully achieve that goal. Lloyd Austin, a black man and retired four-star general in the Army, is now Secretary of Defense.
This progress came too late for Crosland, a former railroad worker who died when he was 25. Evidence in the court-martial proceedings gave little detail as to how he had been murdered, saying only that he had been found seriously wounded with a bullet wound near his heart. Authorities said they believe he was caught in a crossfire between two groups of black soldiers.
According to reports presented during the court-martial proceedings, investigators placed much of the blame for the violence on black soldiers and described them as a “mob” that was “bent on revenge at any cost”. But locals say they knocked on doors and asked people to stay inside to avoid injury.
reappraisal of history
Nancy Croslan Adkins, the daughter of one of William’s brothers, said she was never told the circumstances of her uncle’s death. The family later changed the spelling of their last name.
Adkins, of Upper Marlboro, Maryland, wants to know more about what happened at the Bamber Bridge.
She said, “After dealing with the direct discrimination and racial injustice my parents faced by integrating the school system in North Carolina, I would prefer an investigation.”
Aaron Snipes, a spokesman for the US embassy in London, said he could not prejudge any military decisions, but that President Joe Biden’s administration has shown a willingness to “right the wrongs of the past”.
The US Navy earlier this month made a formal apology to the families of 15 black sailors who were dishonorably discharged in the 1940s after complaining they were forced to work as mess attendants , who made the beds and waited on tables. Earlier this month, the Army renamed a base after William Henry Johnson, a black soldier who died nearly a century after being wounded 21 times while defeating invading forces during World War I. The highest military award was awarded the Medal of Honor.
Snipes also said that he planned to pay tribute to the people of Bamber Bridge at the 80th anniversary event.
“Part of this story is about their reluctance to accept the isolation orders or rules imposed on them,” he said. “They pushed back… at a time when it might have been more convenient for the local people to go along with what the United States, the United States military, had said. He should be commended for this.”
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Associated Press Writer Ben Finley in Norfolk, Virginia, and Researcher Rhonda Schaffner in New York contributed to this report.
