Josh Bavas reported this story on Friday, February 10, 2012 08:25:00

TONY EASTLEY: An Australian historian has uncovered hidden documents which reveal that more than 600 African-American troops turned their guns on their white officers during a siege on at base in North Queensland in 1942.



Josh Bavas reports from Townsville.



JOSH BAVAS: Ray Holyoak from James Cook University first began researching why US congressman Lyndon B. Johnson visited Townsville for three days back in 1942.



What he discovered is evidence detailing one of the biggest uprisings within the US military.



RAY HOLYOAK: For 70 years there's been a rumour in Townsville that there was a mutiny among African-American servicemen. In the last year and a half I've found the primary documentation evidence that that did occur in 1942.



JOSH BAVAS: During World War II, Townsville was a crucial base for campaigns into the Pacific, including the Battle of the Coral Sea.



About 600 African-American troops were brought to the city to help build airfields.



Ray Holyoak says these troops from US 96th Engineers were stationed at a base on the city's western outskirts known as Kelso. This was the site for a large-scale siege lasting eight hours, which was sparked by racial taunts and violence.



RAY HOLYOAK: After some serial abuse by two white US officers, there were several ring-leaders and they decided to machine gun the tents of the white officers.



JOSH BAVAS: He's uncovered several documents hidden in the archives of the Queensland Police and Townsville Brigade detailing what happened that night.



According to the findings, the soldiers took to the machine guns and anti-aircraft weapons and fired into tents where their American counterparts were drinking.



More than 700 rounds were expended.



At least one person was killed and dozens severely injured and Australian troops were called in to roadblock the rioters.



RAY HOLYOAK: As with anything like this, there is the people who were fairly aggressive about it. There is the people who were scared of the repercussions and there was the other ones who probably didn't want anything to do with it but when you've got gunfire going on all over the place, people sort of run for their lives and it was that week before everybody was rounded up.



JOSH BAVAS: Ray Holyoak also discovered a report written by Robert Sherrod, a US journalist who was embedded with the troops.



It never made it to the press, but was handed to congressman Lyndon B. Johnson at a Townsville hotel and eventually filed away into the National Archives and Records Administration.



RAY HOLYOAK: I think at the time, it was certainly suppressed. Both the Australian and the US government would not have wanted the details of this coming out. The racial policies at the time really discluded people of colour.



JOSH BAVAS: Both the Australian Defence Department and the Australian War Memorial say it could take months to research the incident and have no details readily available for public release.



But local Townsville historian Dr Dorothy Gibson-Wilde says the findings validate 70 year old rumours.



DOROTHY GIBSON-WILDE: Any time it was raised, people usually sort of said, 'Oh you know, no that can't be true, you know. Nobody's heard about that' and in fact it must have been kept pretty quiet from the rest of the town.



JOSH BAVAS: She says local farmers must have heard the commotion but remained silent.



DOROTHY GIBSON-WILDE: Any event here, you know, in Townsville would probably have been engulfed by the other terrible things that were happening around you know, in New Guinea and the bombing of Darwin.



JOSH BAVAS: Ray Holyoak will spend the next two years researching the sentences handed out to both the antagonists and the mutineers involved and why the information has been kept secret for so long.



TONY EASTLEY: Josh Bavas in Townsville.