Eighty years ago this summer, 150,000 American servicemen were in the UK to support the allied campaign against Nazi occupied Europe. The British government hoped their presence would strengthen the “special relationship”. But controversy over the administration of justice soon challenged that assumption.
Tension first emerged when an English court convicted two American soldiers of armed robbery. Each was sentenced to hard labour and one faced additional punishment by whipping (the Whipping Act of 1530 permitted whipping or flogging for a wide range of offences and until 1948 courts retained power to order whippings in cases involving violent crimes).
