Australian and America go to war. With each other!

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#1

Although kept under wraps during the war for morale purposes, there were problems between Australian and American servicemen on occasions in Australia during WWII. There were numerous fights, usually alcohol-fuelled. The most serious was the so-called Battle of Brisbane which left one Australian dead and several with gunshot wounds, and many others injured on both sides.

http://home.st.net.au/~dunn/ozatwar/bob.htm
http://www.diggerhistory.info/pages-battles/ww2/battle-brisbane.htm
http://www.anzacday.org.au/history/ww2/homefront/overview.html about halfway down page.

There were plenty of smaller fights. My father got into one with US Marines in Melbourne’s best hotel, and got himself locked up by the cops while the Americans were left to drink in peace without being troubled by uncouth colonials. At the same time, my father had some friends among American troops at a major American camp near his home while his parents, like many other Australian families, often had American troops home for meals and company. This was a tradition that carried on for some years as I remember my father having visiting American sailors home for meals with the family in the 1950’s. (I don’t remember him feeding any Marines. :slight_smile: )

It’s also worth remembering that many servicemen will happily fight anyone who isn’t part of their group. Just being from another regiment is enough, never mind another country. Add in grog and disputes over women and there’s bound to be trouble.

The problem expressed in the fights was more of a conflict between (some) servicemen from each country rather than expressing a general resentment by Australians toward Americans, as Australians generally were bloody grateful to the Americans for being here to fight the Japanese who threatened to invade us.

#2

Quite interesting post Risin Sun, thanks.
I have never heare before about simular problems besidew Americans and Australians

-American pay levels compared to the Australians

  • smarter American uniforms compared to the Australians
  • shops and hotels favouring the well-paid Americans
  • Americans pinching their Aussie girls (and in some cases their wives)
  • and the Americans’ custom of caressing girls in public

Last two will make a “happy” the newest members of NATO from the Eastern Europe.:wink:
It should be like their wives after the soviet occupation.

Cheers.

#3

I don’t know anything about this.

Could you tell me more?

#4

I know it seems like the marines get everything in world war 2 like Rising Sun* said after the fight only some of the Australians went to be locked up without the Marines getting locked up. This is nothing uncommon either for the US Marines in World War 2. Marines always got in fights with coastal guards, army, navy, and the airforce american troops. Usually there were wounds. Even that pay was different for the Marines you have to remember that they got payed differently because they are from a different country. I still thank it is a little selfish for Marines to fight your father just because he walked into a hotel. It just shows that people are over protective on certain things. Sorry for your dad in that fight. Was not fair at all.

#5

If you knew my father, you wouldn’t feel sorry for him. He started it alone with a few Marines and couldn’t finish it. Given the time I think it happened, they were quite likely fresh from Guadalcanal. He was in the Militia and hadn’t fired a shot in anger. The Marines did him a favour by not kicking the shit out of him.

The pay issue was a problem in Britain too, I think. Like Australia, the Americans were better paid, better dressed, better equipped, and generally better off (and in Australia at least, better behaved) than a lot of the locals, and especially the servicemen.

#6

I do agree with you, but just because they were allies doesn’t mean we need the same pay, dressed, and equipment as each other. It is not the U.S. responsiabilty to worry about different nations pay or equipment. They are worried about there own servicemen. So if the men of the Australian army have a problem with it then they can discuss it within there own country and keep the U.S. out of the discussion. The U.S. had nothing to do with it in the first place.

#7

It just wasn’t WWII this happened. My cousin was a Nasho and he and a few mates got into a blue with some Yanks up at the Cross one night and were copping a bit of a hiding until some nice American sailors intervened. Seems the sailors didn’t have much affection for the Marines for some reason.

Regards Digger,

#8

True!

But it can become an issue if it is flaunted for the sake of expressing some mis-informed sense of superiority.

#9

Instructions for American Servicemen in Australia 1942 (extracts).

“…Unlike cricket, which is a polite game, Australian Rules Football creates a desire on the part of the crowd to tear someone apart, usually the referee…”

“…Don’t mistake the emblem on an Australian soldier’s hat for a Rising Sun. It’s just the opposite. It’s a rising ring of bayonets…”

“…SOLDIER…Tough Guy! He’s called ‘Digger’ or an ANZAC (Australia and New Zealand Army Corps)…”

“…There are 120 million (scared…32b) sheep in Australia - 40 sheep for every square mile…”

“…The Australian has few equals in the world at swearing…the commonest swear words are bastard (pronounced “barstud”), “bugger”, and “bloody”, and the Australians have a genius for using the latter nearly every other word…”

Special Services Division, Services of Supply, United States Army and issued by War and Navy Departments Washington D.C.

The Turks at Galipoli hearing the Australians calling out Bastard, so often, they presumed it to be Australian for Allah! 32B :slight_smile:

#10

Wrong. The person we Aussie Rules supporters wanted to tear apart was the umpire. Referee! US BS! Standard chant: “Kill the ump! Kill the ump!” This was just normal banter in a friendly game when all was going well. The rare prospect of imminent ump death was normally signalled by a shower of pies, beer bottles and other rubbish before the oval was finally assaulted, giving the umps time to piss off.

I can’t comment on the states to my north where they played rugby, which is a notoriously uncouth game played by brutal ruffians. I expect that up there, coherent language not being one of the strong points in the game of the thick short necks, they just killed the umps, without any warning chant. :smiley: (I know 32Bravo supports rugby, which is precisely why I’ve made this comment. :smiley: )

“…There are 120 million (scared…32b) sheep in Australia - 40 sheep for every square mile…”

And about ten times that density in New Zealand, where they have a much closer relationship with their sheep.

Q. Why do New Zealand farmers put the back legs of female sheep into the farmers’ gumboots and place these female sheep with their front legs on the edge of cliffs?

A. Because it makes the sheep press back against the farmers. :smiley:

The Turks at Galipoli hearing the Australians calling out Bastard, so often, they presumed it to be Australian for Allah! 32B :slight_smile:

Nah, bastard is just Australian for bastard, which depending upon inflection and relationship to the speaker means anything from ‘mate’ to ‘immediate murder candidate’. However, calling someone ‘Allah’ could lead to serious conflict.

#11

Is that the 1 Para, D.Z. flash?

#12

Similar, although not fatal, clashes occured between British and American forces for exactly the same reasons.

-American pay levels compared to the Australians

  • smarter American uniforms compared to the Australians
  • shops and hotels favouring the well-paid Americans
  • Americans pinching their Aussie girls (and in some cases their wives)
  • and the Americans’ custom of caressing girls in public

As previously mentioned it is not the Americans fault that they were overpaid or how they were dressed. Their customs around girls is also not neccesarily their fault, although regardless of all of this pinching another mans wife is the lowest of the low.

#13

Young men of different cultures and seperated by a common language, about to go to war and, perhaps, die. Young, nubile women, lonely,frightened and with needs; swept off their feet by these glamorous, exciting and exotic men who spoke fast and large, and satisfied a need. It was a war, no one could be blamed. Not the men nor the women. Aussie and Brits would, and did, do the same when opportunity knocked…I could tell tales of the girls of Great Falls, Montana ;)…but I’ll leave it to your imagination!! :wink: :slight_smile:

#14

Canada (esp Medicine Hat).
Norway.
German.
Miami.
One particular US Reservist in Qatar.

Yep, we know the score… :stuck_out_tongue:

#15

Canada (esp Medicine Hat).
Norway.
German.
Miami.
One particular US Reservist in Qatar.

Yep, we know the score… :stuck_out_tongue:

#16

Ocho Rios…Montego Bay…Discovery bay …JAMAICA!!!(still talking American gals - they loved Jungle Green!)…:wink:

#17

It is absolutely true that Rugby is a game for brutal ruffians, but it is played by gentlemen…don’t you know?

They say that in Wales where, also, there are lots of sheep, that “men are men, and sheep are scared”…is it the same in the land of Auss… or is it just the the Kiwis that are so much better in the scrum? :smiley:

#18

yes it is. Now that would call for a fight. I could see the Australians getting mad at the Americans for doing that.

#19

Probably an apocryphal story as I’ve heard it from various sources, including one from an American officer who married an Australian woman and said he attended a movie where it happened.

During the scene in the Disney cartoon film Bambi (about a cute baby deer), Bambi gets lost in the forest and calls out plaintively “Where’s my mother?”

An Australian soldier in uniform in the audience brings the house down by standing up and shouting out “She’s out with a bloody Yank!”

#20

Well I guess he got him there. If I was in the theatre I would of started laughing. Even that I am American. It would be funny to me.