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Defending Leroy Henry in D-Day Britain
Black Yanks is the story of how an African American soldier from Missouri ended up on death row in D-Day Britain – and the extraordinary campaign that set him free. The drama plays out over a tumultuous six weeks, set against a backdrop of the most audacious sea-borne invasion ever attempted.
As the build-up to D-Day escalates, Leroy Henry’s story unfolds, allowing us to view a pivotal point in history with an entirely new perspective: making race, the ‘special relationship’ and the British peoples’ collective powerful key considerations.
This fascinating, alternative timeline reveals an edgier wartime society, hidden tensions in Anglo-American relations and the moment the British tabloid press learned to roar. Ultimately, Leroy Henry’s court martial – and everything it stood for – provoked mind-blowing decision-making at the highest military level.
Kate Werran unearths a wealth of archival material to help disclose the story behind the first significant, if uncelebrated, win in the civil rights movement; a story that has been overlooked for nearly eight decades. Until now.
'as compelling as any TV crime drama'
DAILY MAIL,
'The author takes the complex threads of this culture and weaves them together expertly. The result is superb. A rich retelling of a vital episode in history.'
HISTORY OF WAR,
‘… a pivotal point in history with an entirely new perspective making race, the 'special relationship' and the British people's collective power key considerations.’
THE BATH MAGAZINE,
'It is a remarkable story, and one told with considerable flair...'
'This is as good a tale as any thriller'
BRISTOL POST,
‘In describing the background, the trial, the subsequent British reaction to Henry’s being sentenced to death, Kate Werran illuminates changing British views and the longer-term influence on American Civil Rights.’
ARMY RUMOUR SERVICE (British Army forum),
5th June, 2024 in Biography & Memoir, Military
‘Good God!’ I thought after being shown a map with a small area on it that we had taken back, ‘We’ve just taken part in D-Day!’ Flight Lieutenant Noble Frankland (DFC CB CBE) is one of those for whom 6th June 1944 might have been just another ‘ordinary day’ in the operational c…
22nd April, 2024 in Military, Society & Culture
The thought arrived as I was hovering inside a crowded coffee shop directly opposite the Royal Courts of Justice on the Strand. Tables and bars pulsed with suited, brief cased, device-bashing professionals; the buzz from conversation being shouted and spoken into phones and faces…
26th January, 2022 in Local & Family History, Military
Neil R. Storey author of Norwich in the Second World War tells the story of the city and its people, as far as possible, in the words of those who were actually there. When the acclaimed Norfolk author George Borrow described Norwich as ‘a fine old city’ in the nineteenth century…
16th December, 2015 in Military, Society & Culture
The near-total exclusion from our history books of black servicemen in the First World War is shameful. One of the few exceptions has been Walter Tull (1888-1918). In recent years he has become the most celebrated black British soldier of the First World War. Walter Tull enlisted…
