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Revealed: How Britons welcomed black soldiers during WWII, fought alongside them against racist GIs
Daily Telegraph (UK) ^ | 6 Dec 2015 | Patrick Sawer

Posted on 12/06/2015 5:02:49 PM PST by PotatoHeadMick

This was no ordinary Saturday night punch-up outside a pub.

At the height of World War Two, with the country gripped in a life or death fight for freedom against fascism and dictatorship, dozens of local drinkers fought alongside black soldiers against white Military Police officers harassing them outside a Lancashire pub.

It was just one extraordinary example of the active support shown by ordinary Britons for the thousands of black American troops stationed amongst them during the war - in stark contrast to the vicious racist abuse they received from their fellow countrymen.

(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: 2thelastamericanlife; agitprop; blackcannonfodder; ntsa; stfu; unitedkingdom
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To: The Ghost of FReepers Past

Nope, nobody is, never claimed we were. I am sorry you met some idiots, most British and Irish really like America and Americans. You have the chip on the shoulder leftwing Americanophobes though. Frankly, they hate their own country as well.


61 posted on 12/06/2015 7:15:13 PM PST by the scotsman
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To: SunkenCiv

You are clearly no fool, yet come out with comments like fighting as little as possible. You know the history, so you know comments like that are nonsense.


62 posted on 12/06/2015 7:17:36 PM PST by the scotsman
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To: the scotsman
Jumping right in to European abatoirs created by the politicians from every last participating country? No, we were too busy burning crosses, haven't you heard? Or said it yourself? Up yours.

63 posted on 12/06/2015 7:18:21 PM PST by SunkenCiv (Here's to the day the forensics people scrape what's left of Putin off the ceiling of his limo.)
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To: the scotsman

Well I agree with that. Apply that to the race issue. It never included everyone either.

In general, it seems to me Americans like Brits better than Brits like Americans. I think it is the accent that charms us so. LOL.


64 posted on 12/06/2015 7:19:45 PM PST by The Ghost of FReepers Past (Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light..... Isaiah 5:20)
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To: The Ghost of FReepers Past

The Brits were mad at Americans over money and the ability to have sex with their women for more than a minute


65 posted on 12/06/2015 7:23:02 PM PST by scooby321
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To: driftless2

The famine wasn’t an isolated event for one year only; there was plenty of opportunity for “charities” to send food. The fact is that England wanted the land cleared of poor tenant farmers (rent was paid in crops), and the potato failure (during which time England actually imported potatoes from Ireland) was a perfect pretense to throw the tenant farmers off the land.


66 posted on 12/06/2015 7:28:00 PM PST by kearnyirish2 (Affirmative action is economic warfare against white males (and therefore white families).)
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To: SunkenCiv

“The rapid collapse of France in 1940 is often attributed to that previous lost generation.”

France still had plenty of people, but few that believed Hitler was worse than Stalin. The atrocities in Ukraine and Spain were known by the time WWII started, and French Catholics saw little reason to oppose the only people who were vehemently anti-communist: Germany.


67 posted on 12/06/2015 7:30:53 PM PST by kearnyirish2 (Affirmative action is economic warfare against white males (and therefore white families).)
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To: the scotsman

Actually I think Patton deserved the hype. I also thought Montgomery was far better than history gives him credit.

I once saw an interview of one of the top German general who was in a prison in Britain at the time.

He thought Patton and Montgomery were the best and I bet he knew.


68 posted on 12/06/2015 7:42:57 PM PST by yarddog (Romans 8:38-39, For I am persuaded.)
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To: SunkenCiv

“It can’t compare with the blanket statement above — that the entire US armed forces was made up of racists”

I made no such statement. I posted an article and I did so specifically without comment.

So, with respect, up yours too.


69 posted on 12/06/2015 11:07:04 PM PST by PotatoHeadMick
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To: Mollypitcher1

you have any links to descriptions of this?


70 posted on 12/07/2015 1:01:36 AM PST by Cronos (Obama�s dislike of Assad is not based on Assad�s brutality but that he isn't a jihadi Mosl)
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To: The Ghost of FReepers Past
"when I visited there I got quite a bit of attitude just for being American"
You have to understand that UK mainstream media has been rabidly anti-american for years. (Despite broadcasting an endless stream of Hollywood films and TV shows.) The BBC's Andrew Marr is a prime example, he boasts of his own contribution. This has undoubtably slanted peoples' attitudes.
71 posted on 12/07/2015 1:55:15 AM PST by Mr Radical
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To: yarddog

I think Patton was vastly overrated. Great man-manager, but tactically poor. Close examination of his campaigns and you see several tactical/strategic errors. There are several US generals that deserve more praise: Collins, Patch, Hodges etc.

Monty has been over-criticised by American historians, he was a skilful general, but too cautious at times. The irony is that he WASNT too cautious in Normandy, but that’s the example always given. The historias who criticise his Normandy campaign ignore what he and the Anglo-Can forces actually had to defeat. The best British generals of WW2 were Slim and Wingate. Auchinleck and Alexander probably deserve more credit.

As to THE best, imo you have to look at Zhukov and the great German generals. No allied general in the west to be honest came close to Manstein, Rommel, Model, Guderian.....


72 posted on 12/07/2015 7:09:58 AM PST by the scotsman
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To: PotatoHeadMick

Bookmarking for never.


73 posted on 12/07/2015 7:13:26 AM PST by Stentor (RIP -- Nicholas Thalasinos.)
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To: Cronos

I learned of it during a conversation with an extremely well read Scot who grew up in England. We were discussing World War II (I am writing a book) and he gave me a several leads which proved beneficial. I have no reason to question his word. As it was outside the scope of my book I never pursued his comment with research. Since he now lives in Australia, I would assume he knows what he is talking about.


74 posted on 12/07/2015 7:23:44 AM PST by Mollypitcher1 (I have not yet begun to fight....John Paul Jones)
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To: PotatoHeadMick

Why aren’t the Arabs identified with the slave trade? They did far more damage to Africa than America has.


75 posted on 12/07/2015 7:43:21 AM PST by Chgogal (Obama "hung the SEALs out to dry, basically exposed them like a set of dog balls..." CMH)
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To: the scotsman

Strongly disagree with regards to Patton, who was the best. Can’t say the same for the strutting little poppycock Montgomery.


76 posted on 12/07/2015 7:58:29 AM PST by Mollypitcher1 (I have not yet begun to fight....John Paul Jones)
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To: Mollypitcher1

See my reply to yarddog.


77 posted on 12/07/2015 8:09:22 AM PST by the scotsman
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To: SunkenCiv

America’s official entry into the European Theatre was Operation Torch, the invasion of North Africa in November of 1942.

Germany was trying to destroy our aid to Britain early in 1942 with their Operation Drumbeat, a massacre by their U Boats of our shipping which was at its height in February, but was practically over by July when we finally got our act together and started using convoys.

The lend lease program was Roosevelt’s way of aiding Britain before we officially got into the act.


78 posted on 12/07/2015 8:11:36 AM PST by Mollypitcher1 (I have not yet begun to fight....John Paul Jones)
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To: kearnyirish2

I can’t agree with your analysis.
Briefly, the French believed the line of Forts they had been building for years were impregnable, so I’d call it the Maginot Safety Syndrome. In fact, they were extremely difficult to overcome and provided a strong defense in certain areas, however the Germans simply went around the line and through where the line had not been completed. Thionville and Metz are unbelievably fortified with dozens of forts protecting the Lorraine region.

The Germans attacked with an entirely new tactic, the Blitzkrieg which rapidly rolled through whatever stood in its way. The mounted cavalry, once considered a great fighting force was wiped out in Poland and subsequently France. No horse or even armored vehicle can stand against a tank.

France had lost the Flower of its youth in W.W. I, only twenty years earlier and sustained enormous losses in the Spanish Flu epidemic as well. It had not yet recovered.

The great hero of France, Petain, an old and some say senile man was persuaded that he could save France from destruction by working with a benevolent Germany. The Vichy government, filled with German sympathizers, led the old man to terrible decisions and the French people were betrayed.

The French were disarmed! It was not until the Americans and Brits began arming them that they had the wherewithal to fight. Nevertheless, they began underground movements all over France and prepared to aid the Allies when they came.

The French people were definitely not German sympathizers as you seem to believe. I’ll warrant there were more German sympathizers in England and America than in France.

Many French Catholics in certain parts of the country were Communist sympathizers and indeed, the man known as the First Maquisard of France, Georges Guingouin, was a Communist school teacher. He led the Maquis of Limousin and succeeded in liberating the city of Limoges, among many operations against the Bosch.


79 posted on 12/07/2015 8:44:28 AM PST by Mollypitcher1 (I have not yet begun to fight....John Paul Jones)
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To: PotatoHeadMick

This is well known, the excellent book by historian David Reynolds on Anglo-American relations 1942-1945 has a superb and revealing chapter on this. And I know of a couple of other books by black British historians on the subject.

There is a famous anecdote where an old man was asked what he thought of the Americans, to which he replied he thought they were great, he didn’t like the white men they brought with them though. LOL


80 posted on 12/07/2015 8:45:26 AM PST by the scotsman
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