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Mutiny
Topic Started: Feb 12 2012, 05:47 AM (196 Views)
George K
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Finally
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-02-10/historian-reveals-details-on-townsville-mutiny/3821906

An Australian historian has uncovered hidden documents which reveal that African American troops used machine guns to attack their white officers in a siege on a US base in north Queensland in 1942.

Information about the Townsville mutiny has never been released to the public.

But the story began to come to light when James Cook University's Ray Holyoak first began researching why US congressman Lyndon B Johnson visited Townsville for three days back in 1942.

What he discovered was evidence detailing one of the biggest uprisings within the US military.

"For 70 years there's been a rumour in Townsville that there was a mutiny among African-American servicemen. In the last year and a half I've found the primary documentation evidence that that did occur in 1942," Mr Holyoak told AM.

During World War II, Townsville was a crucial base for campaigns into the Pacific, including the Battle of the Coral Sea.

About 600 African-American troops were brought to the city to help build airfields.

Mr Holyoak says these troops, from the 96th Battalion, US Army Corps of Engineers, were stationed at a base on the city's western outskirts known as Kelso.

This was the site for a large-scale siege lasting eight hours, which was sparked by racial taunts and violence.

"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.

He has uncovered several documents hidden in the archives of the Queensland Police and Townsville Brigade detailing what happened that night.

According to the findings, the soldiers took to the machine guns and anti-aircraft weapons and fired into tents where their white counterparts were drinking.

More than 700 rounds were fired.

At least one person was killed and dozens severely injured, and Australian troops were called in to roadblock the rioters.
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Piano*Dad
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Bull-Carp
Can you imagine keeping something like this quiet today? Actually, I'm surprised that an event of this magnitude could have been hushed up even at that point. The place is isolated, to be sure, and militarized. But hundreds of people were involved, many of them from Australia.
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George K
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Finally
Piano*Dad
Feb 12 2012, 05:54 AM
Can you imagine keeping something like this quiet today? Actually, I'm surprised that an event of this magnitude could have been hushed up even at that point. The place is isolated, to be sure, and militarized. But hundreds of people were involved, many of them from Australia.
As I was reading this, I was thinking along similar lines. Now they're telling us?

I can't imagine the impact such a report would have had on the morale of the US troops in the early days of the war. Seventy years hence, I imagine that few, if any of the involved or their close relatives survive.
A guide to GKSR: Click

"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... "
- Mik, 6/14/08


Nothing is as effective as homeopathy.

I'd rather listen to an hour of Abba than an hour of The Beatles.
- Klaus, 4/29/18
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Jolly
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Geaux Tigers!
Guys,

A small incident like this wouldn't raise a pimple on a good cow's butt.

Remember us talking about Cajun Pawn Stars a few days ago. CPS's store is on Lee Street in Alexandria. During WWII, the U.S. Army set up machine guns on that street and shot black soldiers. Some folks say they shot a few white ones, too, but I don't know if that is a fact, or not.

And I'm not sure of the total death toll, as records of what was termed the Lee Street Riot, were destroyed by the Army and local law enforcement. I've heard over the years figures ranging from a few to over a dozen.
Edited by Jolly, Feb 12 2012, 06:31 AM.
The main obstacle to a stable and just world order is the United States.- George Soros
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Aqua Letifer
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ZOOOOOM!
Jolly
Feb 12 2012, 06:25 AM
Guys,

A small incident like this wouldn't raise a pimple on a good cow's butt.


I wouldn't be so sure. Remember Patton's slapping incident with the shellshocked GI? It was a big deal here, and pissed a great deal many people off, including many in uniform. And heck nobody even got shot.

I think George is right, I think it'd be a major incident during that time.
I cite irreconcilable differences.
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Copper
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Shortstop
George K
Feb 12 2012, 05:47 AM

More than 700 rounds were fired.

At least one person was killed

Marksmanship needs work.
The Confederate soldier was peculiar in that he was ever ready to fight, but never ready to submit to the routine duty and discipline of the camp or the march. The soldiers were determined to be soldiers after their own notions, and do their duty, for the love of it, as they thought best. Carlton McCarthy
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ivorythumper
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I am so adjective that I verb nouns!
So where are all the court martial records? FOIA.
Edited by ivorythumper, Feb 12 2012, 09:41 AM.
The dogma lives loudly within me.
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Jolly
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Geaux Tigers!
Aqua Letifer
Feb 12 2012, 07:02 AM
Jolly
Feb 12 2012, 06:25 AM
Guys,

A small incident like this wouldn't raise a pimple on a good cow's butt.


I wouldn't be so sure. Remember Patton's slapping incident with the shellshocked GI? It was a big deal here, and pissed a great deal many people off, including many in uniform. And heck nobody even got shot.

I think George is right, I think it'd be a major incident during that time.
A. Patton was a major general and slapped a white soldier in front of multiple witnesses.

B. You also probably never heard of soldiers being palced in some of the cabs of the Red Ball Express, with orders to shoot the black drivers, if they stopped the truck and ran, while under harassing fire.

Different time, back in WWII...
The main obstacle to a stable and just world order is the United States.- George Soros
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