Vicious racial abuse = one drunk MP
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rationing_in_the_United_Kingdom
There was plenty of racism by the Brits, but rationing was so severe families were welcoming any gi that could help put food on the table.
Passing out spam and cigarettes would make anyone popular in a pub regardless of skin color.
America sucks so bad, it is a wonder we can live with ourselves. //sarc
Still waiting for the first black Prime Minister.
My dad wasn’t black but he thought MPs were Aholes.
This is great. Its not too late to invite the descendents of these abused GIs to come back to live in England.
this only happened because that racist democrat Wilson re-segregated the US military.
Always victims, never perps is a white “journ-O-lists” dream article and bookseller
Beggers! who never saw the war and still carping about our American friends. I remember my old WW1 veteran grandfather and him bringing in a huge plate of scrambled eggs. Yes, reconstituted eggs, in a carton with two hands shaking each other. We all cheered. Eggs a luxury. This after an "all clear" had sounded. On the cuffs were the United States flag on one and the Union Jack on the other.
I am proud of my own country for helping defeat Hitler. I do not kid myself, if America did not help with Lend Lease things would have been different. Once starvation set in there would have been riots and probably started by the British communists. They were already fomenting trouble.
Those that never saw that war are the "experts". Few know how close Britain came to disaster.
A rant by me. I do remember. Thanks America!
Many “racists GI’s” saved a lot of the limeys’ asses & gave up theirs
I wonder how many Africans returned after the war?
I was stationed in Ft Campbell in early 70’s & no black soldier there had any room to call a white soldier racist.
While I do not doubt that there are anecdotal stories regarding just about everything, I do know that black soldiers were not always treated well by Britons or anyone else in Europe. There are plenty of anecdotal stories about that as well.
The city of London (during WWII)may well be the place where you might see less racial issues, as London has been a melting pot for all of the British conquests and protectorates, but not so much in the countryside villages and towns.
I think it’s best that the British remember their slavery past and accept that we in the US bought slaves from their traders. We did not engage in that part of the process.
I get very tired of their snooty chin in the sky crappola.
My ancestors were driven out of Ireland about 150 years ago by a deliberate policy of genocidal mass starvation.So the Brits should be careful when they talk about respect for those who are “different”.
His assessment of these troops was mixed, although he generally held the NCO's in high regard. The rank-and-file did their jobs, and during the Ardennes offensive, they put in long hours and faced pretty awful driving conditions in trucks that had gotten the living crap pounded out of them since they arrived. They endured the same chances of getting killed by artillery and small arms fire - and what was left of the Luftwaffe in daylight - as any other support troops. Traffic accidents and road hazards (of which there were many) took them out too, which is something many people don't stop to consider.
I'll just say that in his estimation they were certainly neither angels nor boy scouts, and were generally very prone to wandering off, enjoying the local entertainments, and taking their time returning. Some of the goings on could go bad, and those times still revolted this man a quarter of a century later. Essentially, everyone more or less endured each others' presence for the duration.
There was, incidentally, a "caste system" during and after the war that unofficially looked down on the officers of these units, and that was another issue that didn't get talked about.
Mr. niteowl77
71 years ago.
Brits are living in the past,as usual.
Bookmarking for never.
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
They may have had something to do with the Middle East -- but still, the Brits have no reason to act high and mighty.
Anti-Black riots came in the 1950s, after enough West Indians had arrived.