Black Yanks

Defending Leroy Henry in D-Day Britain

by Kate Werran

Black Yanks is set in the weeks leading up to D-Day and how trial of a black American serviceman on charges of rape was interlinked with the complex Anglo American relationships driving the invasion of Europe. It throws a fresh light not only on the tense military and political lead up the invasion but also the opinions and attitudes of the British people to the American racial prejudices being imposed on their system of justice.

Leroy Henry was arrested and charged for rape in Bath on the 10^th of May. It was never going to be an easy case as it revolved around two contradictory accounts of the events, from the alleged victim and Leroy Henry. Henry was treated badly when arrested and coerced into giving a confession which he later denied and gave his own version of events. The account of the trial is true courtroom drama, but Henry was convicted at court martial and sentenced to death.

The American forces had secured wholesale jurisdiction over their forces in Britain and were free to impose which ever sentence they wanted despite the fact that rape had not been a capital crime in Britain for over a century. The author points out that in the American system black men were much more likely to be sentenced harshly than white people

A ground swell of opposition to the sentence was started in Bath by a petition and soon the campaign had  reached the newspapers and the house of Lords and in the days before D-Day  reached the desk of General Eisenhower  The decisive actions of the  British public and press led to the eventual decisions  being taken about Leroy Henrt at the highest level, at a time when it was important that Anglo American relations stayed calm.

The book explains many of the contradictory and rapidly changing ideas on racial issues including interracial sexual relations. There was undoubtedly still racial prejudice in Britain but a larger complaint was the strains put on British society by large numbers of American military, black and white who were stationed in Britain in the lead up to D-Day,

The story of Leroy Henry been described as a milestone in the civil rights movement, but as well as the case of Leroy Henry it sheds much light on the strains and tensions in British society at war and also on the special relationship between the USA and Britain in the build-up to D-Day. It is well researched and moves at a good pace and is a significant addition to the literature of the Second World War.

 Linda Parker