Many U.S. personnel were stationed in and around Brisbane, which was the headquarters for General Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Allied Commander, South West Pacific Area.

[3] The city was fortified, schools were closed, brownouts enforced, crime increased, and many families sold up and moved inland.

[2] At the height of the Pacific war, Australian Prime Minister John Curtin exploited American journalists to engender U.S. enthusiasm for his country's defence.

This showed a new way for leaders of allied nations to utilise American press interaction to influence the White House during the war.

"As a former journalist, Curtin extended his candid press talks and the fledgling Australian radio and newsreel media to involve U.S. reporters in his campaign for an escalated offensive from America’s Southwest Pacific headquarters in Brisbane, Australia," says Coatney, who wrote about the subject in his journal.

Curtin still lost American press support he needed in order to prevent some of Australia's troops from fighting in the Battle of Burma.

[4] Although the military personnel from Australia and the United States usually enjoyed a cooperative and convivial relationship, there were tensions between the two forces that sometimes resulted in violence.

[5] Many factors reportedly contributed to these tensions, including the fact that U.S. forces received better rations than Australian soldiers, shops and hotels regularly gave preferential treatment to Americans, and the American custom of "caressing girls in public" was seen as offensive to the Australian morals of the day.

Even MacArthur was upset and humiliated by reports that during an earlier attack against the perimeter's eastern flank at Buna, American soldiers had dropped their weapons and ran from the Japanese.

From 1 January 1941 it was compulsory for all single males to serve a 3 month period of full time training in the militia.

Racial issues and segregation also played a substantial role in conflict between locals and Americans in both New Zealand and Britain.

[18][note 2] Troops of the U.S. 208th Coast Artillery rioted for 10 nights in March 1942, fighting against African-Americans from the 394th Quartermaster Battalion.

[2] According to Australian historian Barry Ralph,[1][20] on 26 November an intoxicated Private James R. Stein of the U.S. 404th Signal Company left the hotel where he had been drinking when it closed at 6:50 p.m. and began walking to the Post Exchange (PX) on the corner of Creek and Adelaide Street some 50 metres (55 yards) further down the road.

He had stopped to talk with three Australians when Private Anthony E. O'Sullivan of the U.S. 814th Military Police Company (MP) approached and asked Stein for his leave pass.

In the meantime, a crowd of up to 100 Australian servicemen and civilians had gathered and began to besiege the PX, throwing bottles and rocks and breaking windows.

Police Inspector Charles Price arrived but could do nothing as the crowd continued to grow, with the American Red Cross Club diagonally opposite the PX also coming under siege.

The Tivoli Theatre was closed, with servicemen ordered back to their barracks and ships, while soldiers with fixed bayonets escorted women in the city from the area.

People in the crowd took umbrage at this demonstration of force and attempted to relieve Private Norbert Grant of C Company of his weapon.

In the confusion, Grant managed to run back towards the PX, hitting an Australian over the head with his shotgun, breaking the butt of his weapon while doing so.

The PX building was under heavy security and heavily armed American MPs were located on the first floor of the Red Cross.

In Queen Street, a group of soldiers armed with MP batons ran into 20 U.S. MPs who formed a line and drew their handguns.

Grant was later court-martialled by the U.S. military authorities for manslaughter in relation to the death of Webster, but was acquitted on the grounds of self-defence.

It is believed that the incident was never reported by U.S. media and American servicemen in Brisbane had their mail censored to remove any mention.

As a result of the secrecy many rumours and exaggerated stories circulated in Brisbane over the following weeks including one saying that 15 Australian servicemen had been shot by Americans with machine guns with the bodies being piled on the Post Office steps.

[2] Following the Battle of Brisbane, resentment towards American troops led to several smaller riots in Townsville, Rockhampton and Mount Isa.

Similar riots in other states also followed: Melbourne on 1 December 1942, Bondi on 6 February 1943, Perth in January 1944 and Fremantle in April 1944.