11 June 2025.
Over paid, over sexed and over here.
Geoffrey Kaye.
This talk was inspired by Geoffrey meeting a man who told him a tale of how his local pub had to decide during the Second World war whether it was going to entertain the black American troops or the white American ones.
As he explored the invasion of Americans in East Anglia and beyond, he began to realize the huge impact this friendly influx had on the local population. 1 in 7 people in Suffolk at this time were American. Many American celebrities visited to keep up morale during this time, including Joe Lewis, James Cagney and James Stewart.
The Americans initially stored the planes for the war effort at Stansted. Next the many airfields in this area had to be built. This was carried out by the black Americans who could construct the runways for the heavy bombers in an impressive 6 days.
The air crews then arrived. Each bomber crew consisted of 10 men. The pay that the Americans received was 7 times that of a British soldier, their uniforms were tailored to fit each man, and they had their own food shipped over. Some of our civilians were over-awed by these brash confident soldiers and they were not always approved of, especially in the way they behaved towards the black American soldiers.
There was a difference in how the white Americans were treated by their army. They were housed in Nissan huts, the black Americans in tents and to keep confrontation to a minimum, towns in this area were designated white or black on different days of the week. Pubs were categorized as either white or black and the plane crews were almost entirely white. This segregation was in the main unfamiliar to our population and by most accounts the black soldiers enjoyed their experience of staying in England. It has also been hinted that the treatment they received here may have paved the way to the civil rights movement that later began in America.
To Churchill’s credit he refused to give in to American pressure to pass any segregation laws in parliament.
The huge sacrifices made by the Americans during this time are commemorated in war memorials throughout East Anglia, including Great Ashfield and Bury St Edmunds.
Sally Card.
Photo: American servicemen and local girls at a dance on the Chilton USAF airbase, near Sudbury. 1944-5.
Photo from https://photoarchive.sudburyheritagecentre.co.uk/ .