• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

The British drew comfort from the fact that these disturbances were less serious than a major mutiny by black French tirailleurs which took place at Thiaroye near Dakar that year, and uprisings by battalions of the Belgian Force Publique in the Congo. Commanders were dismayed, however, by the conduct of some colonial units on the battlefield, such as the King’s African Rifles battalion which broke and ran when first exposed to fire in Burma, and two battalions of 11th East African Division which refused to cross the Chindwin river into Burma, saying, ‘We will do whatever we’re told to do, but we are not going any further.’ Brigadier G.H. Cree reported that, given the widespread grievances of the African formations, ‘We were lucky to have escaped with a few flare-ups instead of a more general revolt.’

It is important to view such remarks and incidents in the wider context: hundreds of thousands of African troops performed their duty as labourers or riflemen under fire with considerable courage and some effectiveness. But it seems foolish to romanticise their contribution. They had no stake in Allied victory, and most served as mercenaries, drawn from societies schooled to obey white masters. A Rhodesian officer recorded the burial of African battlefield dead in the unyielding stony soil of Somaliland:

Poor Corporal Atang, self-abnegation and retiring modesty were part of you in life … How it would distress you to know that your grave is giving such trouble and keeping weary men from rest … They lower him gently. The bloodstained blanket is thrust aside … Lastly there is Amadu, the Musselman [sic] who died clutching his beloved Bren gun. The sergeant major of D company and a group of co-religionists are there. Two descend into the grave, the body being passed to them from the stretcher, they lower it slowly to the bottom … In a high, resonant voice the chief mourner intones an old Arabic phrase, a prayer for the dead.

Here was a sentimental view of the contribution of colonial subjects, to be contrasted with that of black South African Frank Sexwale, who called the conflict ‘a white man’s war, a British war. South Africa belonged to Britain; everything that the Afrikaner did, he got the notion from the master, Britain.’ Sexwale’s perception accurately reflected the indifference of almost all his black and coloured compatriots to the struggle, but he overlooked the complexities of white South African sentiment. Among Afrikaners there was a long-standing pro-German tradition. Field Marshal Smuts, South Africa’s prime minister and a close friend of Churchill, only narrowly defeated a 1939 parliamentary motion demanding his country’s neutrality. Having dragged South Africa into the war, Smuts ensured that it made a substantial contribution to the Allied cause. From beginning to end, however, he faced domestic opposition, and never dared to introduce conscription. White volunteers remained in limited supply, and towards the end of 1940, anti-war demonstrations took place in Johannesburg. Some avowed pro-Nazis were interned for the duration, including future Nationalist prime minister John Vorster.

In Australia, support for Britain was much stronger. In 1939, tens of thousands of volunteers responded like Rod Wells, who thought, ‘There’s a war going on! The Old Country needs help … Let’s go and show them what we can do.’ Three divisions of such men fought with distinction in the Mediterranean, and a further two later joined them in New Guinea and other Pacific campaigns. But the war also revealed political stresses and divisions ‘down under’. Most of the half-million Americans who passed through Australia between 1942 and 1945 warmed to the country socially, but their commanders deplored Australian parochialism, vicious trades union practices especially in the docks, and supposed lack of energy in pursuing the war. MacArthur suggested sourly that the Australian spirit had been corroded by twenty years of socialist government. On 26 October 1942, the New York Times military correspondent