The Battle of Bamber Bridge

 by Jack R. Johnson 08.2020

“The general consensus of opinion is that the only American soldiers with any manners are the Negroes.” –George Orwell

In 1943, the race riots in Detroit made headlines in the United States, while quite another battle of racial tension drew to a bloody close in Lancashire, Great Britain.  The so called battle of Bamber Bridge was hardly mentioned in the U.S. Press at the time. It didn’t involve US troops battling German or Italian fascists, but rather white U.S. troops battling black U.S. troops.

 The small village of Bamber Bridge did not share the United States’ attitude toward black service men. Blacks were not shunned, or told that they couldn’t mingle with whites. According to author Anthony Burgess who lived in Bamber Bridge, the US Army’s segregationist attitudes were out of step with the locals, who appreciated blacks, especially the ladies who wanted to learn the new ‘jitterbug’ dance. When U.S. military authorities demanded that the town’s pubs impose Jim Crow type segregation, the landlords responded with mocking signs that read: “Black Troops Only.”

This didn’t go over well with the white troops, and especially not the white MPs.

 On June 24, 1943, a group of Black servicemen were ‘drinking up time’ at Ye Olde Hob Inn and stayed a little past closing time. Two MPs passing the pub noticed that one of the African American troops, Private Eugene Nunn, was improperly dressed (as he was wearing a field jacket), and attempted to arrest the soldier. But they faced new solidarities: a white British soldier challenged the MPs: “Why do you want to arrest them? They’re not doing anything or bothering anybody.”

Nunn backed away and a crowd surrounded the two policemen. One of the MPs drew his gun when another soldier advanced on him with a bottle in his hand, they fought and the MPs retreated. As they left the Inn, the Black soldier threw the bottle and hit the windshield of the MPs’ jeep.  

Thinking that was the end of it, the Black soldiers began walking back to their station at Adams Hall. But that wasn’t the end of it. The MPs were angry that the soldiers hadn’t been arrested and had sent a bottle smashing against their windshield.  They caught up with the soldiers strolling to Adams Hall and tried to arrest them again.

The Black soldiers resisted, throwing bottles and cobblestones. An MP fired a shot to stop one of them throwing a cobblestone, hitting Private William Crossland in the back. It proved fatal.

Under fire, the Blacks ran to Adams Hall and the MPs went for reinforcements. Rumors spread at Adams Hall that a serviceman had been shot in the back and that the MPs were gunning for Blacks. Up to 200 men then formed a crowd in the area of Adams Hall. The MPs showed up again, this time with an armored vehicle sporting a machine gun.  When the Black soldiers saw this, they armed themselves with rifles.

After that, all hell broke loose.

Miraculously, only four soldiers were wounded, but Crossland was dead. One British resident said that the firing went on until 3 am.

According to the BBC, in total, “Thirty-five soldiers were accused of mutiny, seizing arms, rioting, firing upon officers and MPs, ignoring orders and failing to disperse.” Seven were found not guilty, and the remainder received prison sentences from 3 months to fifteen years. Seven men received sentences of twelve years or more.

General Ira C. Eaker, 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, 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.

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.

Meanwhile, stateside, reports of the incident were heavily censored. Newspapers only disclosed that violence had occurred “in a town somewhere in Northwest England.” It wasn’t until years later, in the late 1980s when a maintenance worker discovered bullet holes from the battle in the walls of a Bamber Bridge bank that the real history of the incident became known.

Graphic by Doug Dobey