The Battle of Bamber Bridge: When Race Wars Came to a Tiny Lancashire Village

Bamber Bridge, Lancashire. It is the town I grew up in and has a beautiful pub with exposed beams and a thatched roof called ‘Ye Old Hobb Inn’. It is an unassuming pub in an unassuming village that no one has really heard of. And yet, it was the centre of a race riot in June 1943, and the people of Bamber Bridge made it clear that although black soldiers were welcome, the discrimination and injustice of Jim Crow was not.

In 1942, the Second World War was reaching a crucial phase. The RAF had halted Hitler’s advance across Western Europe by destroying his air force during the Battle of Britain and plans for launching D-Day were starting to form.

In 1942, the first of over 1.5 million American servicemen arrived on British shores in preparation for the Allied offensives against Germany during the Second World War. Due to the endemic racism in the United States military, clashes between black and white American troops were not uncommon in Britain Bases – 44 between November 1943 and February 1944 alone. This was especially the case in a foreign setting where the black soldiers saw around them a very different reality from that they faced at home – a non-segregated society where they were welcomed as fellow fighters against fascism, rather different than how they were treated back home.

In 1943, the 1511 Quartermaster Truck Regiment, a logistics unit for the Us Eight Air Force, were based in Bamber Bridge where they ran supplies to other US regiments across the county. They were decamped next to the 234th US Military Police Company who had quarters on the north side of the town. Due to the segregated nature of the American army, the 1511 regiment were all black, the Military Police Company were all white.

Like all US troops, the 1511 Regiment were given a pamphlet to guide them on how to act whilst stationed in Britain. Advice included:

British are reserved, not unfriendly
British like sport
The British are tough
The British have theaters and movies (which they call “cinemas”) as we do. But the great place of recreation is the pub.

This is how we end up in ‘Ye Old Hobb Inn’. Following the race riots in Detroit, the military police called for a ‘colour ban’ in Bamber Bridge – hoping that this would curtail any of the black soldiers from replicating the riot in Lancashire. The three Bamber Bridge pubs reacted by putting up signs that read: ‘Black Troops Only.’

On the evening of 24th June 1943, black troops and white locals were drinking in the pub. Two passing military police (MP) officers were alerted after some soldiers attempted to buy a drink after last orders had been called. They arrived and tried to arrest Private Eugene Nunn for a minor uniform offence and an argument broke out with the military police on one side and the African American troops, with locals, on the other. A white British soldier challenged the military police:

“Why do you want to arrest them? They’re not doing anything or bothering anybody.”

Things escalated from a war of words when Private Lynn M. Adams brandished a bottle at the MPs causing one of them, Roy A. Windsor, to draw his gun. A staff sergeant was able to diffuse the situation but as the MPs drove away, Adams hurled a bottle at their jeep. This turned into a fist fight with the MP’s beaten back. They went to get reinforcements. The rumour spread like wildfire causing soldiers from the 1511 Regiment to arm themselves against the MP’s for fear they were targeting black soldiers.

By midnight several jeep loads of MPs had arrived with an armoured car, fitted with a machine gun. British officers claimed that the MPs then ambushed the soldiers and a fire fight began in the night.

Troops warned locals to stay in doors as they exchanged gun fire but the darkness ensured that the fighting had quelled by 4am and that there were few casualties.

One solider, Private William Crossland, was killed whilst seven others were wounded.

Aftermath

battle of bamber bridge — African American soldiers following a court martial in which they were found guilty of crimes during the Battle of Bamber Bridge.

No less than 32 soldiers were found guilty of several crimes including mutiny, seizing arms, firing upon officers and more at a court martial in October 1943, in the town of Paignton.

Their sentences were, rather understandably, reduced following an appeal, with poor leadership and the obvious racism of the MPs used as mitigating factors.