June 1943 marked almost five years of World War II for Europe, and almost two years of World War II for the United States. While June 1943 wasn't completely devoid of action, there was an awful lot happening on the home front. Regard:
Nile Kinnick - the University of Iowa quarterback/halfback/punt returner who was the 1939 Heisman winner, consensus 1st Team All-American, and AP Male Athlete of the Year (beating out Joe DiMaggio, Byron Nelson, and Joe Louis) - who had passed up an NFL career, left law school after a year to join the Naval Air Reserve. He reported for duty three days before the attack on Pearl Harbor and was killed in a routine training mission on June 2, 1943 off the coast of Venezuela. The University of Iowa still plays their home football games at Kinnick Stadium.
In California on June 3 the Zoot Suit Riots began, in which 50 servicemen from the Los Angeles Naval Reserve Armory went out looking for young Hispanic or Black kids wearing Zoot Suits, beat them up, and took their suits. On June 6, a young college student from Ohio named Paul Newman was called up for active duty. On June 14 - Flag Day - the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, that schools could not threaten students and teachers with expulsion or punishment if they did not salute the flag.
The next day - June 15, 1943 - in Beaumont, Texas 4000 white workers at the Pennsylvania Shipyards Company began looting homes, businesses, and automobiles in Beaumont's Black neighborhoods. On June 20 a fistfight at Belle Island Park in Detroit set off three days of riots that resulted in 34 deaths (of which 25 were Black, and 17 of those fatalities at the hands of the police) and over 700 injuries. And this brings us to the Battle of Bamber Bridge - a notable battle as it featured Black American soldiers fighting...white American soldiers.
Bamber Bridge - situated southeast of Preston on England's northeast coast - was the home of Air Force Station 569, which also included the 1511th Quartermaster Truck Unit whose role as a logistics unit was to provide materials to other Air Force bases in Lancashire. The United States military was segregated, and had been since the Militia Acts of 1792 required "every free, able-bodied, white male citizen" between the ages of 18 and 45 to join the militia. Ever since, Black soldiers were allowed to serve in the military albeit in segregated units.
The 1511th Quartermaster Truck Unit were almost entirely comprised of Black soldiers, though all but one of their officers were white, and mostly incompetent (a defined military strategy, it seems). The all-white 234th US Military Police Unit was stationed on the north side of town, and there had been some skirmishes between the two. George Orwell would write in December 1943:
Even if you steer clear of Piccadilly with its seething swarms of drunks and whores, it is difficult to go anywhere in London without having the feeling that Britain is now Occupied Territory. The general consensus of opinion seems to be that the only American soldiers with decent manners are the Negroes.
According to Anthony Burgess who, after the War, would go on to write "A Clockwork Orange," when one Military Police officer demanded that a local pub owner segregate his bar, all three pubs in Bamber Bridge responded by placing "Blacks Only" on the doors of their establishments, and served the Black troops before their white counterparts. It wasn't lost on the Black American soldiers how differently they were treated overseas in England compared to back home in the USA, or even by the leadership of the military for which they served.
On the night of June 24, 1943 some of the Black soldiers were drinking with the locals at Ye Olde Hob Inn, in Bamber Bridge. The MPs had orders to arrest any soldier was out of camp without a pass, or was improperly dressed, or were disorderly. It was after 10pm, closing time, and a bartender had just refused a drink to some of the troops. Corporal Roy A. Windsor and PFC Ralph F. Ridgeway went to Ye Olde Hob and found Private Eugene Nunn dressed in a field jacket, not his standard Class A Uniform. Windsor and Ridgeway asked him to step outside.
Nunn allegedly refused, and a crowd gathered around with many of the British patrons (including members of the British Auxiliary Territorial Service) supporting the Black troops. A white British soldier confronted the two MPs, asking, "Why do you want to arrest them? They're not doing anything or bothering anybody." Private Lynn Adams, of the 1511th, advanced towards the MPs with a bottle in his hand, Corporal Windsor drew his gun. The 1511th's Sgt. William Byrd was able to defuse the situation and get the MPs to leave, upon which Adams threw his bottle at the MP's jeep. Windsor and Ridgeway returned to their base to get reinforcements and go back to the pub to arrest the Black soldiers.
As the members of the 1511th walked back to base, the group of MPs caught up with them and a fight broke out, Private Nunn took a swing at an MP, and MP Carson W. Bozman shot Private Adams in the neck (he survived). The other members of the 1511th scampered back to their base and, now armed with rifles and a machine gun truck, went to the MP camp just after midnight to confront the MPs, both sides throwing bottles and cobblestones, and firing off round after round in the darkness. Another Black soldier was shot in order to prevent him from throwing a cobblestone.
By 4am it was over. One Black soldier - Private William Crossland - was dead, shot in the back. Five soldiers had been shot. Another had bruises. Two MPs had a broken nose and a broken jaw, respectively.
Two trials took place shortly after the Battle of Bamber Bridge, resulting in 27 of 32 Black soldiers being found guilty of charges varying from assault to riot to mutiny. The first of these trials was held at an American base near Chorley, south of Bamber Bridge. Four soldiers involved in the first brawl at the pub were charged "with various" offenses and were found guilty. All four received between 2.5 and four years of hard labor and dishonorably discharged, though the 2.5-year sentence was overturned on appeal.
The second trial was held at Eighth Army Air Force HQ in London. 35 soldiers stood trial on charges of mutiny, seizing arms, rioting, firing upon officers and MPs, ignoring orders, and failing to disperse. Seven of those were found Not Guilty. The remaining 28 were sentenced to prison for anywhere from three months to fifteen years. The presiding officer over the court-martial "made an immediate plea for clemency," arguing that discipline at the camp was suspect at best, and poor leadership from the officers led to the fight. All of the sentences were reduced. A year later 15 of the men were restored to active duty and six others had their sentences cut to one year. It's unknown if any of the MPs were court-martialed.
However the incident did force the US military to address racial inequality. The Commander of the Eighth Air Force, Gen. Ira Eaker, wrote that "90% of the trouble...was the fault of the whites," and directed his staff officers to make necessary changes in which the Black units were reorganized, 75 mostly white officers were removed, there were joint white and Black MP patrols, and a forum to air justifiable grievances was created. It was a start, but there were 44 incidents of violence between white and Black American troops in England between November 1943 and February 1944.
Retired Air Force officer Alan M. Osur wrote, "In Great Britain, Blacks performed efficiently because military leaders took their human needs into consideration." The United States military would not be integrated until Truman issued Executive Order 9981 in 1948.
