Battle of Bamber Bridge

During the Second World War, Bamber Bridge hosted American servicemen from the 1511th Quartermaster Truck regiment, part of the Eighth Air Force. Their base, Air Force Station 569 (nicknamed "Adam Hall"), was situated on Mounsey Road, part of which still exists now as home to 2376 (Bamber Bridge) Squadron of the Royal Air Force Air Cadets (or Air Cadets). The 1511th Quartermaster Truck was a logistics unit, and its duty was to deliver materiel to other Eighth Air Forces bases in Lancashire.[2] The 234th US Military Police Company were also located in the town, on its north side.[1]

US Armed Forces were still racially segregated, and the soldiers of 1511 Quartermaster Truck were almost entirely Black, while all but one of the officers were white, as were the MPs. Military commanders tended to treat these service units as "dumping grounds" for less competent officers, and leadership in the unit was poor.[3] Racial tensions were exacerbated by the riots in Detroit earlier that week which had led to 34 deaths, including 25 Black casualties.[4] The people of Bamber Bridge supported the Black troops, and when American commanders demanded a colour bar in the town, all three pubs in the town reportedly posted "Black Troops Only" signs.[5]

On the evening of 24 June 1943 some soldiers from the 1511th Quartermaster Truck regiment were drinking with the English townsfolk in Ye Old Hob Inn. Two passing MPs, Corporal Roy A. Windsor and Private First Class Ralph F. Ridgeway, entered the pub and attempted to arrest one soldier (Private Eugene Nunn) upon seeing he was improperly dressed (in a field jacket rather than class A uniform). An argument ensued between the Black soldier and the white MPs, with local people and British servicewomen of the Auxiliary Territorial Service siding with Nunn.[1] Even a white British soldier challenged the MPs saying "Why do you want to arrest them? They're not doing anything or bothering anybody."[6]

Black Staff Sergeant William Byrd defused the situation but as the MPs left a beer was thrown at their jeep. After the MPs picked up two reinforcements, they spoke to Captain Julius F. Hirst and Lieutenant Gerald C. Windsor who told the MPs to do their duty and arrest the Black soldiers. A group of MPs intercepted the soldiers on Station Road as they returned to their base at Mounsey Road. A fight broke out in the road leading to shots being fired. One struck Private William Crossland in the back killing him.[6]

When some of the injured Black soldiers returned to their base, the killing caused panic as rumours began to spread that the MPs were out to shoot Black soldiers. Although the colonel was absent, acting CO Major George C. Heris did his best to calm the situation. Lieutenant Edwin D. Jones, the unit's only Black officer, was also able to persuade the soldiers that Heris would be able to round up the MPs and see that justice was done.[1][3]

However, at midnight, several jeeps full of MPs arrived at the camp, including one improvised armoured car armed with a large machine gun. This prompted Black soldiers to arm themselves with weapons. Around two-thirds of the rifles were taken, and a large group left the base in pursuit of the MPs.[1] British police officers claimed that the MPs set up a roadblock and ambushed the soldiers.[4]

The Black soldiers warned the townspeople to stay inside when a firefight broke out between them and the MPs resulting in seven wounded. The shooting stopped around 4 a.m. the next morning. Eventually, the soldiers returned to the base, and by the afternoon all but four rifles had been recovered.[1][3]

The violence left one man dead and seven people (five soldiers and two MPs) injured.[3] Although a court martial convicted 32 African American soldiers of mutiny and related crimes, poor leadership and racist attitudes among the MPs was blamed as the cause.[1]

General Ira C. Eaker, commander of the Eighth Air Force, placed the majority of the blame for the violence on the white officers and MPs because of their poor leadership and the use of racial slurs by MPs. To prevent similar incidents happening again, he combined the Black trucking units into a single special command. The ranks of this command were purged of inexperienced and racist officers, and the MP patrols were racially integrated. Morale among Black troops stationed in England improved and the rates of courts-martial fell. Although there were several more racial incidents between Black and white American troops in Britain during the war, none were on the scale of Bamber Bridge.[2][5]

Reports of the mutiny were heavily censored, with newspapers only disclosing that violence had occurred in a town somewhere in North West England.[7] The author Anthony Burgess, who lived in the Bamber Bridge area after the War, wrote about the event briefly in The New York Times in 1973 and in his autobiography, Little Wilson and Big God.[5][8] Popular interest in the event increased in the late 1980s after a maintenance worker discovered bullet holes from the battle in the walls of a Bamber Bridge bank.[9]

In June 2013, to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the incident, the University of Central Lancashire held a symposium.[10] It included a screening of the 2009 documentary Choc'late Soldiers from the USA[upper-alpha 1] which was produced by Gregory Cooke, and a performance of Lie Back and Think of America, a play written by Natalie Penn of Front Room that had played at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.[10]