Today in History: The Battle of Manners Street
Yesterday in fact but I was busy and with the time zone I get some slack.
On the 3rd of April 1943 friction between US and New Zealand servicemen reached a peak that resulted in the Battle of Manners right here in down town Wellington.
There are many a varied versions of events, all hard to pin down since censorship was total. But I have managed to get what I think is a reasonable handle on it by referring to as many sources as possible (I could only find three on line and I was one of them) and by going to the font of all wisdom and knowledge, my father.
What is accepted is that 6 pm on the evening of the 3rd – which was closing time for all drinking establishments – New Zealand soldiers (evidently sober) engaged in a “brawl” with US servicemen (mainly a little the worse for drink).
The results have been stated as ranging from “a fight” to “a four hour running battle” with the results being, “some people were hurt” to “two Americans dead, many hospitalised”. It does appear that the Americans came off the worse of the encounter giving credence to the ambush theory.
The cited causes have been listed as:
“Bad attitude” on the part of the Americans, the, we’re here to save your asses defence. While this did occur it would appear generally that this was not a major issue.
“Racism” This clearly was a problem as evidenced that a number of educational programs were instituted. It has been said the members of a unit of Georgian’s did not take too kindly to the men of the Maori Battalion and it is further alleged that they prevented these men from entering a combined services club. In truth I would have expected an instant and direct response from the North African vets.
“Women” Well duh. It’s a hard choice really, a poorly paid man in baggy clothes who has been away form two years, or a well paid, well dressed, usually painfully polite man who is actually there! Worth noting, 1500 New Zealand women married US servicemen in spite of a lot official resistance from the US military.
The real issue, I believe, was simply jealousy on the part of the New Zealand men combined with a serious case of disillusionment. The Ruapehu Draft, the first contingent of the NZ Div to be given leave after service in the Balkans, Crete and North Africa had come home to find that they had effectively been replaced by Americans who were better paid, better dressed and infinitely more popular with the ladies. There was also a strong feeling among them that they had been more or less forgotten about and the rest of the nation was carrying on as normal. “As if” one man recalled, “there was no war on”.
Their frustration was extreme and many refused to re-embark to return to duty as they felt “no man should have to serve twice until every fit man had served once”. The draft was declared to be in a state of mutiny and courts martial were held with many losing their benefits and being dishonourably discharged. To put the timing in perspective it was on 6th April that the High Court overturned the courts martial, so it is reasonable to assume the guys were a little tense about the 3rd.
And so there it is. There were reasons, not necessarily good ones on either side but it was an event that was repeated to a lesser degree in Auckland and throughout Australia whenever allied servicemen ended up in the same place.
Whatever the reasons one point my father did make was that the stories that the 2nd NZEF were a bunch of bronzed gods who were the finest men ever to tread the earth and deal to Rommell was a myth. My grandfather, a sergeant in the division described them as being, “for the most part a bunch of bloody rat bags”. The divisions nickname, “Freyburg and his forty thousand thieves” apparently well earned.
As may be, you still don’t want to get in their way.
This is the War Cemetery at Etaples, in Picardy. Nearly 12,000 Allied servicemen who died in WWI, and a few from WWII, lie buried here. Last night a filthy coward with clearly no fear of the Eternal Judge, and hate in his/her/it's heart, scrawled obscenities on the memorial. You can 