大象传媒

One of the outstanding features that made the British Airborne soldier amongst the finest and most feared of fighting men during the Second World War was 'Esprit de Corps' - the loyalty and devotion uniting those members of the armed forces who felt themselves to be highly privileged to wear the Red Beret.
Feats of outstanding valour in battles across the world have already been written into the history books, yet it was in non-battle situations that this great spirit can best be demonstrated.
Those American and British soldiers who were stationed in many camps across barren Salisbury Plain managed to get in a good deal of practice in the art of street fighting and unarmed hand-to-hand combat, although the method employed will not be found in any Military Manual, nor did it have the approval of the Mayor, Aldermen, Councillors or citizens of the City of Salisbury where most of the battles occurred on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights - that was assuming that the Airborne soldiers meagre pay had not run out, or the Taverns of the city had not been drunk dry. (It was not unusual for the public houses to have sold their quotas of beer by Friday night - in which case the long suffering people of Salisbury enjoyed a comparatively peaceful weekend.
The worst trouble usually began when a group of Airborne lads entered a pub and met up with some coloured Americans. They were friendly lads and we always seemed to get on well with them. The only form of entertainment was normally a battered old piano but the coloured lads were very musical and there was usually one amongst them, or us, who could knock out a few tunes so we would soon be enjoying a sing-song.
All would be enjoyable until some white Americans came in. The coloured lads would tell us that they had to drink up and go. When this first happened we could not believe our ears. We were all in this bloody war together, and would all be dying for the same cause - the right to individual freedom - so what the hell gave the white Yanks the right to expect their coloured countrymen to leave any pub that the whites chose to enter?
After experiencing this inequality we got mad and told the coloured lads "You stay put - you were here first and if they don't like drinking in the same pub as you they can push off and find another one"
This was easier said than done, for when a pub ran dry it was a case of touring round the city centre to find another one which was still open.
When the colour problem arose the whites would stand just inside the door glaring at the coloured lads, and us, until we told them in no uncertain terms to "Push Off".
They would then withdraw with shouted threats and when we eventually emerged it was not unusual to find a large mob of them waiting for us.
If we were outnumbered we would immediately yell out our Airborne battle cry which had been originated by our 1st Airborne Division in North Africa and adopted by all Airborne men thereafter. Up would go the cry "Waho Mohammed".
The effect of that cry was truly amazing. Within minutes, and from all directions, Red Berets would appear and a pitched battle would commence.
Our unwritten Airborne law was clearly understood by every Red Devil - at least amongst the lower ranks - and regardless of which Airborne unit they served in; if an Airborne man was in trouble and called out our battle cry, it didn't matter what you were doing, you immediately responded to the call.
Many a lass, out walking with an Airborne lad, would be dumbfounded as her escort, on hearing the battle cry, would say "Sorry - I've got to go" and would rush off to join in the battle.
If it dragged on it often meant a long walk back to camp with a black eye or bleeding nose and/or mouth because the last lorry transport would have left in order to return the troops before midnight. (The long walk also meant that we would not arrive back in camp until well after midnight, which forced us to find a way of getting inside without entering the guarded entrance gate).
What always amazed me was that the white Yanks never cottoned on to our system and adopted their own battle cry. Time and again they started fights in which they greatly outnumbered us but, invariably, when our battle cry was yelled, within moments they were overwhelmed beneath a sea of Red Devils.
It was all good and brutal fun and, when the chips were really down, we all managed to achieve a degree of togetherness that enabled us to beat the real enemy and win the war. And, who knows, perhaps our frequent battles around Salisbury helped to give us the courage to fight hard when it was really needed - with the odds stacked against us and when no amount of battle cried would bring us reinforcements!
At that time much of America - particularly in the South - operated a strict segregation policy where coloured people were required to live in certain parts of town, to sit together at the rear of a bus, eat in separate restaurants, attend separate entertainment establishments and were barred from attending many of the better schools.
In Britain the American Forces considered coloured men as being totally unsuitabl for combat and used them as cleaners of barracks and toilets; skivvys in the cookhouse and suitable for carrying out other menial tasks.
This changed to some extent with the arrival of the highly trained 761 Tank Regiment staffed exclusively by coloured men but they were not used during the initial Normandy landings as most American Generals were not prepared to have them under their command but later, in dire need of reinforcemtns, General George 'Blood and Guts' Patton discovered that a fully equipped American Tank unit was sitting idly in England and said "As long as they are ready to fight for me I don't give a damn what coloured skin they have"
During the so-called 'Battle of the Bulge' when news came through that the American 101st Airborne Division was surrounded and trapped in Bastogne it was the 761 Tank Regiment that led the counter-attack to punch a hole in the German's 'ring of steel' and suffered heavy casualties but, because it was considered inappropriate for an elite all-white American Airborne Division to be rescued by, what was seen as a lowly coloured American outfit, their valient role went unrecorded.
Fortunately things have moved forward in America and today coloured people can become senior Generals and close Advisors to the political leaders - including the Conservative right-wing President of the Republican Party.

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