Mary Roberts - What Soldiers Do

72 These issues are raised in Gail Williams O’Brien, The Color of Law: Race, Violence, and Justice in the Post–World War II South (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina, 1999).

73 Wiener, Military Justice , xi–xii.

74 Hilary Kaiser, ed., Veteran Recall: Americans in France Remember the War (Paris: Graphics Group, 1994), 108.

75 NARA, RG 498, Box 27, carrier sheet dated 16 November 1944.

76 SCRBC, Alan Morrison Papers, “Armed Forces,” unpublished mss., nd, 7–8. Morrison also states here that it “cannot be denied that many Negro soldiers were guilty of criminal offenses which warranted severe punishment.”

77 MHI, WWII Survey, Box Quartermaster, Companies, Unprocessed, William R. Preston survey. See also the testimony of MP Alvin Bridges in Studs Terkel, ed., The Good War: An Oral History of World War Two (New York: Ballantine Books, 1985), 390.

78 To determine if the rape charges followed any geographical pattern, I mapped their locations in August and September 1944, as reported in HOBR, vols. 16–23. Of seventy rape accusations during these months, only five were made in Cherbourg. There were no rape accusations at all in small cities such as Rennes, Brest, Saint-Lô, Saint-Malo, and Coutances, where the GIs had a presence during these months. There was one rape accusation in Le Mans, two in Morlaix, and one in Valognes. Otherwise, the accusations arose in small and often obscure rural villages. It is possible that the alleged rapes took place in locations where there was greater war damage, more fervent Catholicism, or more collaborationist activity. But such distinctions are difficult to analyze systematically given the paucity of information about the small villages and towns where most of the rapes occurred.

79 Marcel Leveel, Rails et haies: la double bataille de l’Elle et de Lison (Marigny: Éditions Eurocibles, 2004), 182.

80 Lilly, Taken by Force , 94.

81 ADM, Séries 3 U, reports dated 11 July, 17 August, 5 September, and 2 October 1944.

82 HOBR, CMC 5170, 14:227–39.

83 HOBR, CMC 5363, 15:357–65.

84 HOBR, CMC 7209, 18:7–13.

85 USAJ, CMC 3858, Davis and Jordan, 30. The accuser claimed that one of her attackers was short, the other tall. But Davis and Jordan were the same height. For other cases in which the crimes took place after dark, see HOBR, CMC 5362, 14:339–55; CMC 6585, 17:153–61; CMC 8166, 19:65–69; CMC 9246, 20:157–63.

86 HOBR, CMC 3859, 10:391–407. See also USAJ, CMC 3740, Sanders, Wilson, and Anderson.

87 HOBR, CMC 5362, 14:339–55.

88 HOBR, CMC 6193, 16:157–73.

89 HOBR, CMC 7209, 18:7–13.

90 HOBR, CMC 7867, 19:269–83.

91 USAJ, CMC 18599, Joseph E. Striggle.

92 HOBR, CMC 4292, 12:221–31.

93 NARA, RG 338, Box 75, “Report,” 12.

94 Ibid., 23.

95 One of the accused left a raincoat at the crime scene with his name and unit written in it. But the owner of the raincoat had reported it lost several days before the alleged rape, so he did not become a suspect in the case.

96 Ibid., 22.

97 Lilly, Taken by Force , 38.

98 USAJ, CMC 4775, Teton and Farrell.

99 Three cases in which no medical evidence was presented are USAJ, CMC 3740, Sanders, Wilson, and Anderson; HOBR, CMC 3141, 8:351–61; HOBR, CMC 3749, 10:283–87. Two cases in which the medical exam occurred several days afterward are HOBR, CMC 5362, 14:339–55; HOBR, CMC 6545, 17:87–91. A case of medical examination by candlelight was HOBR, CMC 10103, 22:91–95.

100 See, for example, ADM, Séries 3 U, report dated 4 November 1944. Pregnancy was not an issue in any case I examined.

101 USAJ, CMC 3933, Ferguson and Rorie, 23–24.

102 See, for example, USAJ, CMC 8163, Tommie Davison; ADM, Séries 3 U, report dated 28 August 1944.

103 See USAJ, CMC 4194, Scott; USAJ, CMC 3750, Bell. See also HOBR, CMC 3141, 8:351–61; CMC 4072, 11:337–43; CMC 4253, 12:185–87; CMC 6224, 16:217–23; CMC 6545, 17:87–91; CMC 7869, 18: 291–301; CMC 11589, 24:219–25; CMC 11590, 24:227–33.

104 ADM, Séries 3 U, report dated 17 August 1944. Peronneau took possession of the soldiers’ dog tags, which was how she was able to identify them.

105 Extortion could explain what happened in Le Havre some months later when a prostitute was allegedly assaulted in her home by a black soldier who wanted to have sexual relations with her. When a fight broke out between them, the soldier shot her and fled. See AMH, FC H4 15-6, letter dated 11 May 1945.

106 ADM, Série 3 U, report dated 12 June 1945.

107 USAJ, CMC 14986, John Robert Louis Phenix. A physical examination of Rouvrière “showed no evidence of external violence or trauma.”

108 ADM, Séries 3 U, report dated 12 June 1945.

109 USAJ, CMC 14986, Phenix. The original sentence for Phenix was hard labor for life. But the reviewing judges claimed to find no strong evidence of lack of consent on the part of Rouvrière, so they changed the charge from “Rape” to “Intent to Rape,” and reduced Phenix’s sentence to ten years. Phenix requested and was denied clemency in 1947 and 1948.

110 Another case that came down to “the relative credibility of the witnesses,” according to the JAG review was USAJ, CMC 8163, Davison. Davison was sentenced to death by hanging, and he proclaimed his innocence on the scaffold.

111 USAJ, CMC 3933, Ferguson and Rorie, 23–25. For another case in which a refugee was an accuser, and whose uncorroborated testimony was key to the conviction of the defendant, see USAJ, CMC 4309, Theron McCann.

112 USAJ, CMC 3933, Ferguson and Rorie.

113 USAJ, CMC 4589, Powell, Clay, Sweet, and Ketchum. Once a conflicting testimony had been resolved by court-martial in favor of the accuser, it could not be changed by the board of review. See USAJ, CMC 8163, Davison; HOBR, CMC 9246, 20:157–63. For two other cases in which black soldiers were prosecuted for rape and the word “orgy” was used, see USAJ, CMC 3740, Sanders, Wilson, and Anderson; and USAJ, CMC 3933, Ferguson and Rorie.

114 USAJ, CMC 4155, Ora Broadus.

115 Service Historique de la Gendarmerie Nationale, (hereafter SHGN), 76E 200, Brigade territoriale de Cany-Barville, registres de correspondance courante au départ, 7 September 1944 to 11 December 1946, report dated 8 August 1945. For other positive civilian assessments of black behavior, see SHGN, 76E 173, Section Yvetot, registres de correspondance courante au départ, 16 July 1945 to 12 April 1946, report dated 11 August 1945; NARA, RG 338, Box 14, Folder “Race; Walter White, A Rising Wind .”

116 Terkel, The Good War , 276.

117 Ibid., 369.

118 See HOBR, CMC 3749, 10:283–287; CMC 4775, 13:281–89; CMC 5170, 14:227–39; CMC 5363, 14:357–65.

119 Jack Sacco, Where the Birds Never Sing: The True Story of the 92nd Signal Battalion and the Liberation of Dachau (New York: Harper Collins Publisher, 2003), 193–96.

120 See Marie-Thérèse [Cointré], Histoire d’une prostituée (Paris: Éditions Gonthier, 1964), 75–77.

121 Lilly, Taken by Force , 90, 93.

122 Hodes, White Women, Black Men , 201–2.

123 USAJ, CMC 3750, Bell, 10, 14. Bell was sentenced to hard labor for twenty years. His requests for clemency were repeatedly denied.

124 See also USAJ, CMC 3740, Sanders, Wilson, and Anderson, 22.

125 See HOBR, CMC 3707, 10:195–99; CMC 4309, 12:277–83; CMC 4775, 13:281–89; CMC 5009, 14:53–65; CMC 10103, 22: 91–95. See also USAJ, CMC 4309, McCann.

126 See USAJ, CMC 3740, Sanders, Wilson, and Anderson; USAJ, CMC 8163, Davison. For still other cases, see also HOBR, CMC 3691, 9:183–87; CMC 3707, 10:195–99; CMC 3858, 10:385–89; CMC 4294, 12:239–59; CMC 4775, 13:281–89.