Forgotten History - Mark Webb
Another forgotten history. This one on the theme of WWII cover-ups, there's no finer collection of incidents swept under the carpet than in Australia. Over one million US troops, aircrew, seamen and marines were stationed/based in Oz at some point or other during the war. Including 100,000 black US troops. They brought big changes to Australian life. Over 12,000 Aussie women had married US servicemen by the end of the war and American culture had entered Australia permanently. In order not to give the Japanese negative stories that would be turned into anti-US propaganda, most of these events I'm going to write about, that took place between 1943 and 1944, were just covered up.
March 1942 Brisbane, for ten nights there was fighting (often with knives) between the all white US 208th Regiment and the all black 394th Regiment. The cause was the issue of black men being in the company of white women.
In May 1942 an all black US labour regiment were tasked with building an airstrip and buildings, called Kelso Airfield, at Townsville, North Queensland. They staged an armed mutiny. They had been sleeping on the ground, not receiving proper rations, not paid, refused leave, treated badly by white officers and could not do the work they had been tasked to do, as the equipment they required had not been delivered. A black Sgt was beaten by white officers. The next day, on the 22nd, six hundred men took up arms, they machine gunned the white officer's tents, set fire to the ammo dump, and took the white officers as hostages. A short siege was in effect. The Australian Army was called in and they surrounded the base, sandbagged the roads and deployed Bren gun carriers. The following day some two hundred black soldiers were missing having gone AWOL. US congressman LB Johnson (later to become US President) flew out to assess the situation.. It was said that the missing soldiers were rounded up and the regiment shipped back to the US. The building of the airfield was abandoned. The fate of the ringleaders is very hazy. It was stated by several sources that they were executed. Regardless, the entire incident was covered up. Details only came out in 2012.
September - October 1942, in Inkerman a US soldier shoots and kills an Australian soldier in a gunfight and was in turn shot dead by other Aussie troops. An Aussie civilian was shot and killed by US military police in Townsville. Reports of knife fights between black US troops and white US troops in Brisbane over the issue of black men dancing with white women. The incidents of March flared up again. Reports of Australian police and US military police firing on and killing black US troops. One Aussie soldier is knifed to death and three other Aussia soldiers and a local woman are also stabbed by a US soldier who went on a rampage. It is reported that there are over twenty brawls a night in Brisbane. A group of American submariners and US Navy shore patrols are beaten and badly mauled by a mob of Aussie locals in Brisbane. There was also a race riot in Wacoi, a suburb of Brisbane.
November 1942. The Battle of Brisbane, two days and nights of rioting and fighting between US military police, Australian troops and civilians and US troops. In the morning an Australian trooper was attacked by a US military policeman who was then attacked by Australian troops, resulting in one Aussie soldier shot dead by US military police, and half a dozen shot and wounded. The American PX and American Red Cross buildings both looted and burned to the ground, hundreds of people on all sides injured and wounded. Unconfirmed reports of US soldiers killed by Australians, eye witnesses reported seeing them beaten to death. They also reported at least one US soldier was shot and killed by an Australian citizen. Unconfirmed reports of civilian deaths. None of this was reported at the time. Later, war correspondent John Hinde who saw the events from a hotel balcony said that: "The most furious battles I ever saw during the war was that night in Brisbane. It was like a civil war."
December 1942. Melbourne anti-US riots. Few details of this incident.
February 1943. The Bondi anti-US riots, very few details of that incident. Second Melbourne anti-US riots saw 3,500 American and Australian troops and civilians in an all out brawl, further riots in Fitsroy and Shepperton quickly followed.
November 1943. The sinking of the US troopship USAT Cape San Juan off the coast of Fiji. An all black US regiment travelling from San Francisco to Townsville, to replace those troops that mutinied in May 1942, Japanese submarine 1-21 slams a torpedo into her and she sinks. Many of the men are in the water or on rafts when a massive school of Oceanic White Tipped sharks ripped them to pieces. 1,462 men went into the water, only 448 came out. Totally hushed up.
January 1944. The Perth anti-US riots, very few details on this incident.
April 1944. The Freemantle anti-US riots in which two New Zealand servicemen were killed by US troops outside the National Hotel.
August 1944. The Cowra Breakout, which I will cover in detail in a later article.
As you can see it was not all friends and allies working together! The wartime period was marked by race hate, boiling resentment, poor treatment and the feeling by Australians that they were being occupied by a foreign army. 99% of what happened was censored, made to 'go away' and left out of the news.
Taking Liberties
A rebellious faction refuses to wear face masks during the current pandemic. Medical advice is that masks help to prevent the spread of the virus, but the refuseniks will not be dictated to by the government. They claim it's their right as free citizens to be infected and to infect others. And they attempt to back up their arguments with ridiculous conspiracy theories.
This is the old argument between those of us who respect authority and those that reject it. If the anti-authoritarians really believe in total freedom they should go and live in the woods, drink water from a stream, and defecate behind a tree. That's the only way that they can avoid paying taxes, obeying the law, and wearing face masks.
The vast majority of us value the protection of the police, the fire brigade and the ambulance service, and we don't object to paying taxes and complying with emergency measures. We know that civilisation depends on our respect for others and we dismiss the selfish arguments of the so-called libertarians.
This gulf between responsible citizenship and anarchy is most obvious in the United States where the freedom junkies carry guns, and object to state funded health care for the poor. They believe in privatising everything and reducing the power of the state. The logical conclusion of their twisted thinking would be a return to the wild west, when everyone was armed and the poor simply died of starvation.
There are seven billion people living on our planet. In order to feed, educate, and look after them we need good government at all levels. International co-operation is necessary to regulate trade between nations and to prevent border disputes leading to wars. Aggressive nationalism and excessive individualism have no place in the modern world. Nations and individuals cant just do as they please.
I used to know a merchant seaman who went on a drinking spree in Leningrad, now St Petersburg, in 1959. He tried to leave the bar without paying and found himself in front of a Soviet judge, who sentenced him to five years imprisonment for 'hooliganism'. As luck would have it, British prime minister Harold Macmillan was visiting the USSR, and as a gesture of friendship Nikita Khruschev freed a number of British prisoners, including our man, who has behaved himself ever since.
The Death of Democracy
The Coronavirus pandemic has killed thousands of people, damaged the economy, and helped to put an end to democracy. It's impossible to hold a public meeting because of social distancing regulations, and it's almost impossible to make use of the Internet if your opinions fall outside the narrow confines of political correctness. Many browsers block access to political groups that are labelled 'far-right'. And if you do manage to reach such a website you run the risk of being prosecuted for 'hate crimes'.
It's allowed to call for an end to immigration but its illegal to specifically call for an end to non-European immigration. That would constitute discrimination against non-Europeans and could lead to a heavy fine or imprisonment. Those groups still campaigning against non-European immigration are in constant danger of being shut down.
Zionism is another minefield. Any criticism of Israel is likely to be interpreted as 'anti-Semitism'. The recent trouble in the UK Labour Party was the result of some members of the Party supporting the Palestinians. Even Jews who protested against Israeli aggression were threatened. The Tory press, the BBC, and most of the mass media are pro-Zionists. That's not conspiracy theory, if you look up who owns the mass media you will find that they are all Zionists, not necessarily Jews but Zionists all the same. You may think that Zionism is harmless but it's really Jewish supremacism, based on the ridiculous idea that the Jews are God's chosen people.
It's perfectly reasonable for black and brown people to join the police force. They are part of the population and it's only fair that they are represented. But the police go too far when officers take part in political demonstrations such as 'taking the knee' at Black Lives Matter demonstrations. All lives matter, not just black lives. The BLM movement is racist by implication and should suffer the same constraints as 'far-right'.
We are facing a major recession as the result of the pandemic and our decision to declare UDI from Europe. (For those too young to remember, UDI was the Unilateral Declaration of Independence, Ian Smith's brave attempt to maintain white rule in Rhodesia). With millions unemployed and hungry the liberal consensus will be abandoned as we stop worrying about alleged insults to minorities to concentrate on our very survival.
JFK's Letter to Ben-Gurion
The American presidential election has brought forth pledges of loyalty to Israel from both candidates. But this was not always the case. President John F Kennedy sent the following letter to Israeli prime minister David Ben-Gurion in May 1963. Unfortunately, JFK was assassinated six months later and every American president since, except for Jimmy Carter, has turned a blind eye to Israel's nuclear arsenal.
Dear Mr Prime Minister
I welcome your letter of May 12 and I am giving it careful study.
Meanwhile, I have recieved from Ambassador Barbour a report of his conversation with you on May 14 regarding the arrangements for visiting the Dimona reactor. I should like to add some personal comments on that subject.
I am sure that you will agree that there is no more urgent business for the whole world than the control of nuclear weapons. We both recognized this when we talked together two years ago, and I emphasized it again when I met with Mrs Meir just after Christmas. The danger is in the proliferation of nuclear weapons systems are so obvious that I am sure I need not repeat them here.
It is because of our preoccupation with this problem that my Government has sought to arrange with you for periodic visits to Dimona. When we spoke together in May 1961 you said that we might make whatever use we wished of the information resulting from the first visit of American scientists to Dimona and that you would agree to further visits by neutrals as well. I has assumed from Mrs Meir's comments that there would be no problem between us on this.
We are concerned with the disturbing effects on world stability which would accompany the development of a nuclear weapons capability by Israel. I cannot imagine that the Arabs would refrain from turning to the Soviet Union for assistance if Israel were to develop a nuclear weapons capability - with all the conseuences this would hold. But the problem is much larger than its impact on the Middle East. Development of a nuclear weapons capability by Israel would almost certainly lead other larger countries, that have so far refrained from such development to feel that they must follow suit.
As I made clear in my press conference of May 8, we have a deep commitment to the security of Israel. In addition this country supports Israel in a wide variety of other ways which are well known to both of us. (4-1/2 lines of source text not declassified)
I can well appreciate your concern for developments in the UAR. But I see no present or imminent nuclear threat to Israel from there. I am assured that our intelligence on this uestion is good and that the Egyptians do not presently have any installation comparable to Dimona, nor any facilities potentially capable of nuclear weapons production. But of course, if you have information that would support a contrary conclusion, I should like to receive it from you through Ambassador Barbour. We have the capacity to check it.
I trust this message will convey the sense of urgency and the perspective in which I view your Government's early assent to the proposal first put to you by Ambassador Barbour on April 2.
Sincerely, John F Kennedy
Comments
European Outlook
Forgotten and real history. I do wonder what other gems will appear in years to come about more recent events where we think we know the "real" story but instead only what we are allowed to think. Another great blog Bill. Keep it up.
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