Tony Peake

America sent Black soldiers to fight Hitler. Then its own military police shot them. On June 24, 1943, a group of Black American soldiers were drinking at Ye Olde Hob Inn, a pub in Bamber Bridge, Lancashire. They were stationed in England to support the war against Nazi Germany. Their unit, the 1511th Quartermaster Truck Regiment, transported supplies for the US Eighth Air Force. The American military was segregated. Black soldiers served in separate units, usually commanded by white officers, and were subjected to institutional discrimination. But the people of Bamber Bridge weren't particularly interested in importing America's racial hierarchy into their pubs. Black American servicemen were welcomed, drank alongside white customers and socialised with local women. That evening, two white American military policemen attempted to arrest Private Eugene Nunn for not wearing the prescribed uniform. British locals and other soldiers intervened. Why arrest him? He wasn't bothering anyone. A scuffle followed. The MPs withdrew, promising to return with reinforcements. They did. The confrontation escalated outside. The military police opened fire, wounding Black soldiers. Back at their camp, rumours spread that white MPs were shooting Black servicemen. Then more military policemen arrived, including an armoured vehicle equipped with a machine gun. The Black soldiers feared they were about to be attacked. Some raided their own armoury, taking rifles and ammunition. And so began the Battle of Bamber Bridge. For approximately five hours, American soldiers exchanged gunfire with other American soldiers in the streets of a small English village. Hundreds of rounds were fired. Private William Crossland, a Black American soldier, was shot dead. Several others were wounded. And what happened afterwards? Dozens of Black soldiers were convicted of offences including mutiny, although many of their sentences were subsequently reduced or overturned. No white military policeman was prosecuted for the killing. General Ira Eaker, commander of the Eighth Air Force, recognised the wider problem. He reportedly concluded that white servicemen were responsible for 90% of the racial trouble in his command. The military subsequently introduced mixed-race MP patrols and other reforms. But the US armed forces remained officially segregated until President Harry Truman ordered desegregation in 1948. There's another fascinating detail. The novelist Anthony Burgess, who lived in Bamber Bridge after the war, recalled that when American authorities attempted to impose segregation on local pubs, at least one establishment instead excluded white American soldiers. Whether the famous 'Black Troops Only' signs actually existed as commonly described remains uncertain. But the hostility of some white American personnel towards the villagers' treatment of Black soldiers is extensively documented. The whole episode says something about the gap between the ideals for which America claimed to be fighting and the treatment of its own citizens. William Crossland crossed the Atlantic in the service of a country fighting Nazi Germany. He never came home. Not because a German soldier shot him. Because an American did.