West Indian Women at War: British Racism in World War II

This study documents the hitherto unrecorded contribution made by West Indian women in the British armed forces during the World War II and highlights the racism of government recruitment policies. Based on original research and interviews, the book charts the obstacles placed in the way of the recruitment of black women by a very reluctant War Office. The authors uncover much documentary evidence of British racism. But the women interviewed in this book emerge as doughty fighters, as capable of taking on the War Office as they were of joining the battle against Hitler.