Sorry if that seems a little bit of an odd question but I can't find anything on it.

I was watching a documentary about blacks in the US Army and how they initially were only allowed to do service jobs but eventually got combat roles though in segregated units.

It kinda got me to thinking that I had never seen a photo of any blacks serving in the British Army in WWII.

I know there were Indian troops and Gurkhas etc but does anyone know if there were just random blacks ( would that be West Indians ? ) in service ?

I know our own Maori Battalion was sort of like a segregated unit though that was voluntary, Maori served in all units but the Maori Battalion was seen as being something of their own and helped enlist rural maori.

So excuse the question, just curious as it had never occured to me before that in 1940s europe there wasn't really much in the way of a black populace anywhere and I think it would be cool to do something like a 25pdr being served by mixed ethnicities crew.

I would say yes due to the fact the the British Empire still excisted at that time, and troops from the whole Empire would have been sent to war.

It doesn't necessarily mean that they were part of the British army. Most Australians fought as part of the Australian Army, not the British Army. There were Aboriginal solders serving the WWII but they initially had to lie about their race in order to enlist.

As its an interesting queston, let me try to partially answer it. There were a considerable numbers of volunteers from Empire such as the Carribean. So the answer is a 'Yes'.

Also, since recruitment in the British Army was done on the Regimental system, battalions would have been formed where they were (locally) recruited. For example, my 'Family' Regiment were the Covenanters who recruited from Central Scotland. West Indian Regiments would recruit locally as well. So, it's unlikely there would be much 'ethnic mix' in the same Infantry regiment..

It's an interesting subject.
There's some info here on Black Soldiers serving within units of the British Army.


I haven't read it but apparently Stephen Ambrose mentions two Black soldiers serving with the Ox and Bucks in his book about the Capture of Pegasus Bridge.

I get "Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage" from that link.

Sorry - fixed

Hi,
I just visited the National Army Museum a few weeks ago (A great museum, far, far better than the IWM!) and it showed how black soldiers were serving in the British army back in Wellington's day so I'm sure that they would have served in WW2.

There were blacks in the Chindits. (3rd West African Bde)

See here:

http://www.chindits.info/Units/Units.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_81st_(West_Africa)_Division

http://www.specialforcesroh.com/browse.php?mode=viewc&catid=35

Thanks, that was an interesting read.

As Jim Rae says, while there would've been non-white troops in the British Army in WW2, they would have served in their own units. My grandfather served in North Africa with the Ceylon Light Infantry, which had detachments attached at various times to the British and Indian Army brigades, but they still remained CLI detachments. I have seen pix of him with white troops, including one of a Matilda tank, but they are all obviously posed, and they weren't really fighting together.

I guess the only exception would be special forces units like the SAS, LRDG, Force X, etc which had individual volunteers from various regiments. Even the Chindits and Commandos mostly retained regionally recruited units.

There were black soilders in british regiments and not just within colonial reiments. There were at least two black soliders within the glider coup de main force that landed at pegasus bridge and they vare visible within the company photos. There was also at least one black solider within 7 para that also fought at the bridge, The perseption is that we only had a large coloured commuity in britiain until after the war whilst in relaity there was a significant coloured communities in the large ciites such as london and even in places like cardiff lonfgbefore the war. There was even the case of a black solider commisioned during world war one within a british regiment, who was a famous footballer before the war.

Pat

Sorry didnt see your ealier post, your right Ambrose mentions a number of black soldiers within the ox and buxs and one of them Baines is in the pre d-day company photo. The oxs and buxs were a london regiment and were therefore more likley to have had a more diverse racial mix than some other regiments. Cardiff has had a large african and west indian community for over 100 years and there was a recent local exhibition on the role of these communities in WW11. I believe there was also a significant number of west indians serving within the RAF as ground crew and aircrew. Ethic origin did not appear to be a bar on achieving higher rank, at least officially, as many were commissioned officers.