AFTER more than five years of
brutal conflict - and the loss of
millions of lives - the end of the
Second World War in Europe
was finally within sight.
The Western Allies had liberated France and were
pushing Adolf Hitler's Nazis back into Germany,
while the Red Army continued to march into Central
Europe.
However, on October 5, 1944, blood was to be spilt
once more on the streets of Hampshire - but this time
it would have nothing to do with Hitler.
It was just before closing time at The Crown Inn, a
pub in the north Hampshire village of Kingsclere,
when ten American soldiers from the all-black 3247
Quartermaster Service Company suddenly turned on
their own side.
Brandishing automatic rifles, they opened fire on the busy pub, killing an American military
policeman, a soldier and the landlady, Rose
Napper.
This dark chapter of the Second World War
was hushed up by both the British and
Americans, and is long forgotten by the
history books.
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Earlier that evening, there was no warning
that the night was to end in bloodshed.
The soldiers, who had arrived at the nearby
American base that day, had gone out drinking
in the village when they were ordered by
the MPs to change from their working clothes
into their best uniforms.
The original Echo report
The men hitch-hiked back to camp - but not
to change. Instead, they stole guns and ammunition
and set off back to Kingsclere to get
their bloody revenge.
At about 9.30pm rural England took on the
appearance of the Wild West as the soldiers
walked back into the village, loading their
weapons as they went.
They searched pubs until finding the men
they wanted to kill at The Crown Inn, just
before 10pm.
Knowing their intended victims were inside
and that last drinks had been called, they hid
in the churchyard opposite and waited.
As an MP and soldier stepped outside, a
single shot rang out, followed quickly by a
hail of gunfire.
The soldier dived for safety back into the
pub, while the MP was hit in the chest.
He somehow managed to get up and run 150
yards to the corner of the road, where he
collapsed and died in a garden.
The soldiers continued to fire into the pub,
where the drinkers inside dropped to the floor
as a volley of bullets flew
through the windows.
When the smoke finally cleared
the pub was riddled with bulletholes,
and two more people lay
dead in pools of blood.
One, a soldier who had been
drinking with his back to a window,
was shot in the back of the
head and died instantly.
The other was 64-year-old Mrs
Napper, who had been dragged
to the ground by her husband.
In a freak accident, a bullet
had ricocheted and passed
through her left cheek and out
through the right side of her
neck.
She died at Newbury Hospital
in the early hours of the next
morning.
In all, 33 empty bullet cases
were found by police as they
combed the area the next
morning.
The first suspects were
caught that night, while it took
a further 12 days to round up
the rest.
At their court martial in
Thatcham five weeks later, nine of the men
were sentenced to imprisonment for the
whole of their natural lives after being found
guilty of murder, riotous assembly and
absence without leave. The tenth man, found
guilty of being AWOL, was sentenced to ten
years' hard labour.
They were all sent back to the United States
to serve their sentences.
Nothing is known of what became of them,
or exactly what drove them to act with such
murderous intent.
While the whole affair was hushed up and
received little media coverage, General
Dwight Eisenhower, who would later become
the US President, told his second-in-command
to apologise to the people of Kingsclere
for the affair.
Today, there is nothing to mark the bloody
night. However, the spirit of the dead soldier
is said to haunt The Crown Inn.
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