OT: Interesting news article about Townsville

[YankeeAirRat]

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-02-10/h ... ny/3821906

It appears that in 1942 early on in the Pacific an all colored US engineer support unit mutintied against thier officers over violence and racial slurs. It is just amazing that 70 years since this is all just starting to come to light at least in Australia and I think too in the US.

[crsutton]

Pretty amazing. Just goes to show home much history of the war has not been written.

[zzodr]

Yeah, I'd be upset being posted to Townsville too.

[Treetop64]

ORIGINAL: zzodr

Yeah, I'd be upset being posted to Townsville too.

Yeah. Those Power Puff Girls would get pretty annoying after a while, methinks.

[zzodr]

I didn't know what you meant at first Treetop... but I looked it up.  [;)]

[Lifer]

I wonder how 600 people could keep a secret for 70 years. How could an embedded journalist not get a story out at some point after the war. There wasn't just one unit in the Townsville area at this time was there? So how could word of some type of investigation at another camp not leak. Hard to believe just a few documents survived buried in the archives. It just doesn't sound right to me. MAybe I'm being cynical but it just doesn't have the ring of truth.

Greg

[YankeeAirRat]

It is amazing how folks who don't want to talk about something will put it away in thier minds. I would also hazard a guess that this was known at the time, but only locally with in Townville, doing some more research via Google-Fu, it appears that the unit in question was placed way out in the boonies near a place called Kelso which is on the outskirts of Townsville, also considering that they arrived on in SWPAC just days after Watchtower started. So more then likely to keep bad press and bad blood from happening all while the Marines were ashore in the 'Canal and the US was using Australia as a Supply/Personnel depot. I would also humbly suggest that for the US it wasn't until the mid-90's that supposedly Exercise Tiger fiasco came out; even though it was reported on constantly in offical military traffic. Just that some historians didn't look too much at a line about some E-boat that attacked some LST's just days before the D-Day landing. However, some claimed there was an attempt to hide away the supposed scandal. Again, some just didn't look too deeply into the archives. The same would be true about this situtation is that I would bet that if some historians had some gusto to dig not only through US archives but also throuh Australian archives they would find the offical military records about this situtation.

[JeffroK]

But, the 96th Engineer Battalion (Colored) arrived in Aus in early April 1942 and were at Port Moresby by the end of April 1942, not August when the Gcanal ops started.

While Kelso wanst in the middle of downlown Townsville, it is adjaceant to Mt Stuart which was one of the camps for Australian Militia units.

I also find it hard to believe we hear about the "Battle of Brisbane" but not about this, its VERY HARD to keep a couple of hundred Aussies quiet.

Needs a bit more digging.

[noguaranteeofsanity]

It was probably kepts from the press and the Australian people because Australia had a 'White Australia Policy" at the time, which limited immigration to whites only and this would have caused some controversy.

Coincidentally in March 42, MacArthur actually ordered that black troops be kept out of Australia and said "I will do everything possible to prevent friction or resentment on the part of the Australian government and people at the presence of American colored troops. Their policy of exclusion against everyone except the white race known locally as the 'White Australia' plan is universally supported here".

[JeffroK]

I have read that in many cases Australian civilians found the African-Americans very well behaved and had few problems with them. Aussie troops in the Middle East had few problems fighting alongside coloured men from places such as India.

The White Australia policy was aimed towards Asia, and more particularly China. Not unlike the attitude of many nations. Afterall, the First Fleet included people from many nations including a black skinned person from Barbados!

The "Colored" units of the US Army which came via Australia, usually for very short periods, were:
91st and 96th Engineer General Service Regiments (Became Bns)
810, 839, 855, 857, 868, 870 & 1871 Engineer Aviation battalions.

[redcoat]

There's an Australian TV documentary about the experiences of black US soldiers in Australia called Black Soldier Blues. It's on Youtube - in six parts - and the first part is here.

[geofflambert]

Thanks for the link, redcoat. You should include in your signature a clip from that Citi Card commercial. I'm pretty sure the lyric is "Nobody likes potato..." though I've heard another likely possibility: "Somebody mashed potatoes..."[:D]

[zzodr]

ORIGINAL: JeffK
While Kelso wanst in the middle of downlown Townsville, it is adjaceant to Mt Stuart which was one of the camps for Australian Militia units.

True, but there is a river in the way with no bridges.
You can't walk over to the Mt Stuart camp from there. It's a bit of a drive around.
Kelso is a perfect place for things to be "hushed up"

[msieving1]

A portion of a letter from Lyndon Johnson about the mutiny:

http://www.ozebook.com/test/townsville-mutiny.pdf

"One of the biggest stories of the war which can't be written- and which shouldn't be written, of course--is the mutiny among American Negro troops which took place near Townsville on May 22."

I find it a bit disturbing that a Congressman, and future President of the United States, didn't know the proper usage of "which" and "that".