Posted on 02/10/2012 4:28:22 PM PST by naturalman1975
BLACK US troops mutinied in Townsville in 1942 and turned machineguns on their officers, in a secret chapter of the war in the Pacific that has come to light through the papers of the late US president Lyndon B. Johnson.
The scandal was hushed up for nearly 70 years after being described in a report given to and apparently kept by Johnson as "one of the biggest stories of the war which can't be written, shouldn't be written".
The subject of rumour and speculation for decades in the north Queensland city, it has now emerged that the mutiny was probably reported at the time to the White House by Johnson, then a young and ambitious US congressman, after he visited Australia in June 1942 on a fact-finding mission for president Franklin D. Roosevelt.
The report Johnson took back to Washington, written for him by US journalist Robert Sherrod, tells how 600 African-American GIs seized their base and went on the rampage, trying to kill their white officers.
Some terrorised local civilians.
Armed Australian troops were sent in at the height of the emergency on the US base.
George Gnezdiloff, then a 20-year-old private in the north Queensland-raised 51st battalion, was told to block Ross River Road with his bren gun carrier. Other soldiers were issued with a password, Bucks, as they deployed to bottle up the Americans.
Gnezdiloff and his crew were ordered to shoot the mutineers on sight. "We had ammo, the lot," the now 90-year-old recalled yesterday from his home in Proserpine, 300km south of Townsville.
"We weren't mucking around, I can tell you."
(Excerpt) Read more at theaustralian.com.au ...
Article is behind a paywall - contact me if you want to see it (Fair use under Australian copyright law - one article from a publication may be copied for educational purposes)
What happened that would lead to mutiny?
saving
bookmarked with maximal non-surprise.
If they covered THIS up in the bad old days, how much more is covered up in these P.C. NEW days, huh..?
According to a site I found when using the title in the search engine.
“After some serial abuse by two white US officers, there was several ringleaders and they decided to machine gun the tents of the white officers,” Mr Holyoak said.
"Holder's People" have a way of being kept "covered".
It’s a little bit hard to believe that something of this magnitude could have been hushed up for 70 years.
Allegedly a black Sergeant was killed by a white officer, and there was no real investigation.
This came on top of a belief by the black soldiers that they were being given the worst work details. It should also be said that black soldiers based in Australia - as well as having to deal with the realities that the US Army was segregated, were also having to deal with very racist Australian laws of the time. It’s not surprising tensions existed even without specific triggers.
Port Chicago = OK to talk about
Townsville = Not OK
Gotta get the rules straight
How about the history, background and controllers of our president?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10784814
The Kiwi’s don’t seem to be as keen to make a buck.
For later
Can’t really blame them then. If a military camp is segregated and the black side is being treated as if they were in the gulag, can’t really blame them.
Search Exercise Tiger to see the magnitude of things that could be covered up, then forgotten.
ping for your list
Most mutinies are sparked by genuine problems and often unfair treatment but mutiny is still mutiny.
Thanks for the info. That incident was not covered up though. Rush Limbaugh talked about it during the period of the Iraq War when the MSM was going wild every time a US soldier got killed with "the war is lost" stories.
If you copy the link and Go ogle it and click the link there then the story will come up.
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