Black GI mutiny in WW2 uncovered

New research shows black US soldiers and their white officers exchanged machine-gun fire in a confrontation in Queensland in 1942.

A Queensland historian has released new research, showing black United States soldiers and their white officers exchanged machine-gun fire in a racially fuelled confrontation near Townsville in 1942.

Hundreds of thousands of US troops in racial segregated units poured into Australia after the fall of the Philippines to the Japanese forces in 1942.

There are many documented fights between troops, most famously the Battle of Brisbane, but the severity of what is being called the Kelso Fields Uprising surpasses them all.

Historian Ray Holyoak told Queensland correspondent Stefan Armbruster he has finally found evidence of what has long been rumoured in Townsville.