In a welter of flying fists and flailing boots, drunken Australian soldiers laid into their erstwhile allies, lone and small groups of US servicemen out for a night on the town.

This was what has become known as the Battle of Brisbane, fought over two nights, November 26 and 27, 1942, the most notable of many wartime punch-ups between Australian and American personnel.

American GIs on the back of a Castlemaine Brewery truck in Charlotte Street, Brisbane, in 1942. Credit:Mark Muller

"There'd be a circle and in the circle would be a Yank or two and they were being kicked and hit anyway the Aussies could do it ... there were three or four circles. Those guys were just being beat," recalled one American soldier.

The end result was a significant number of injured but just one death, Australian Private Ed Webster, fatally wounded by a blast from a shotgun wielded by an American military policeman (MP).