Lest We Forget: The Experiences of World War II Westindian Ex-Service Personnel has a number of stories from black aircrews and ground crews who returned to the Indies, and some came here again on the Windrush, and other ships. To them it was the country they served and so were specifically recruited to return by the British government, who knew they had experience of the country
The Exhibition has been extended ..... shame Jerome can't get there !! hwell: Welcome to the Imperial War Museum : From War to Windrush - extended due to popular demand And you can download all kinds of stuff from here !! MV Empire Windrush - Your Archives
I will just have to visit it through your eyes Annie! Interestingly, during the war, it seems that "black" servicemen were treated as equals or honoured guests in wartime Britain whilst here, the class/race distinctions were very firmly adhered to - I must find the time to explore this further and get a better understanding of things.
I think I mentioned this elsewhere, Jerome, but I talked a couple of locals here in Bristol a couple of years back. They remember the race riot between the black and white US servicemen, when the white soldiers tried to stop the black soldiers entering the local YMCA clubs. When the fighting spilt over to the roads, the locals all sided with the black troops. Though officaldom didn't always like the fact that black (Commonwealth) and Indian troops mixed so freely, and interacted so much with the white population, the British population took them to heart. A man (or a woman) in a uniform was a man in a uniform, irrespective of colour. The general population were just pleased and grateful that so many had come from so far to fight. S/L Pujji has often mentioned that he was made most welcome here - it was only when he returned after the war that he started getting racial harrassment and abuse. Sad really
We had one ding dong of a riot in 42/43 - between black locals and black us troops! I think it was more of a case of overpaid, over here and over sexed! 10 US servicemen were court martialed, 2 found guilty and reduced in rank and in the local courts, about 6 women!!! were charged. Unfortunately the papers didn't say on whose behalf they were fighting! There were however several shooting of locals by US personnel, and to be fair, while the local coroner said murder/manslaughter, the subsequent CM in the main said justified and in reading the cases I tend to agree, but there were several between white US troops and locals which were anything but, and again I must say that the US CM which followed tended to reflect this. In these few cases there were overtly racist overtones, which again to be fair simply reflected the us norm of the times. I must make it clear that US officialdom and I suppose the majority of US troops behaved exemplary in spite of much aggravation by the locals. As to the Bristol experience, and probably being overly simplistic, I wonder if it was a case of the working class bristolian (if such exists!) identifying/empathising with the black troops against the common enemy, the OP, OH, OS us serviceman whom they saw as overtly racist and out of place in 'chastising' british colonial troops!
Oh and just to show there was no discrimination by the locals vis a vis the US, there were also altercations between the locals and the Bajan Labourers brought over to help in the massive construction of US bases here - to the dismay of both Government and US Authority!
