World War II Woman

December 7, 1941 (3)

November 17, 2008 – 6:00 am

More memories of December 7, 1941 - Pearl Harbor Day

Ann writes, “I remember well December 7, 1941. I was 15 years old living in Wilmington, Delaware. My mother, sister an aunt, and I were visiting friends. It was customary to visit friends and relatives on Sundays. While there, the phone rang and we were told to turn on the radio. And then we heard the terrible news. We were horrified and, I am sure, unbelieving. I also remember the speech by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt the next day. It was so powerful. Of course, none of us can ever forget those horrifying events, which still reverberate in our memories to this day.”

From the book Dead Reckoning by McAvoy and Sigfred, we have this story. On December 7, 1941, Sture Sigfred stopped at a gas station on a rural road in Wisconsin. The voice on the radio in the background indicated that something had just happened at Hickham Field in Honolulu. The gas attendant was about to turn the radio off, suggesting the report was some sort of soap opera. Surge, a pilot, told the attendant he had just been in Honolulu four weeks ago and this was no soap opera. And then they both listened intently as the announcer reported the devastation at Pearl Harbor, hangars burning and battleships sinking into the sea. As if in a daze the attendant went to the phone and dialed. “Rose,” he said. “Call Joe at the co-op and order 100 pounds of sugar.” It appeared that his message was meeting with some resistance, so he repeated his order. “Don’t ask questions. Just call Joe at the co-op and order 100 pounds of sugar. I’ll be home soon.”

Jeanne remembers that she was visiting young friends in her hometown of Phoenixville, Pennsylvania on that fateful day. Other family members including older brothers were listening to the radio when suddenly they became quite agitated. Jeanne knew that something terrible had happened – a really major event. She knew her parents were not accustomed to listening to the radio on Sunday afternoons, so she ran home to tell them to turn on the radio. She recalls they all went to church that evening.

For World War II stories go to www.peggeorge.com  

Posted in Blog | No Comments »

December 7, 1941 (Day 2)

November 13, 2008 – 6:00 am

More memories from women whose stories appear in my book, We Knew We Were at War: Women Remember World War II.

• December 7, 1941 is very vivid in Carol’s mind. Her grandparents, cousins, and other family members were together that Sunday afternoon in Union, New Jersey. As usual, all of the cousins were laughing, giggling and having lots of fun. They were used to hearing the adults telling them to be quiet, but this particular Sunday, someone shouted, “Be quiet!” in such a way, that they knew something momentous had happened.
• Annabelle’s birthday is December 7. In 1941, she recalls that she, her parents, and some friends drove to a turkey farm in Maryland. Here her father, a butcher, made arrangements to purchase turkeys for the Christmas season. They returned home late. It wasn’t until the next day that Annabelle learned of the attack on Pearl Harbor. She recalls vividly the assembly at school when the students and teachers all listened to President Roosevelt’s radio speech calling December 7 “a day which will live in infamy.” Most of the girls were crying, and to add to the trauma, the math teacher stood up and said he was enlisting. High drama!
• Annabelle’s husband Bob was attending graduate school at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. His apartment was close to the elevated line, so close that riders in the cars could see the window of his apartment. When Bob heard the news of the Pearl Harbor attack, he prepared a large sign with the word, “WAR” in large letters and put it in the window. He often wondered how many people may have learned of the attack from his sign.
• On December 7, 1941, Irene and her family were visiting an uncle in Metuchen, New Jersey. After a midday dinner, her brother and she left the adults to go to the soda fountain at the local drugstore. While there, they heard on the radio that Pearl Harbor had been attacked. They ran home to tell the adults who had not yet heard the news.

For more World War II stories, go to www.peggeorge.com

Posted in Blog | No Comments »

Armistice Day

November 11, 2008 – 11:11 am

It’s 11 minutes after the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month of the year.

Do others of you remember sitting at your desk as a moment of silence descended upon the classroom while church bells tolled in the distance? This moment solemnly reminded us of the end of the Great War.

It was known as Armistice Day

 

Posted in Blog | No Comments »

Where Were You December 7, 1941?

November 10, 2008 – 4:16 pm

Beginning today and going into the next few weeks, I will be focusing on Pearl Harbor day. I will share memories that have already been passed on to me, and I hope that you will participate in this exercise.

To do so, please press the “No Comment” button at the bottom of this post, or email me your memories at margaretgeorge@verizon.net. Also, to receive this blog twice a week in your email, go to subscribe and fill in the necessary information.

To begin I will share memories from some of the women in my book We Knew We Were at War: Women Remember World War II.

• Joan was a freshman at Emerson College and had just been to Quaker meeting in Cambridge. While returning to her dormitory on a bus, she heard excited conversation about bombs and Pearl Harbor. She soon learned that her sorority sister’s home was in Honolulu, and there was much concern about the safety of her Japanese father and her English mother. It was many weeks before it was learned that her friend’s house had not been bombed and that her parents were safe. Within a week of the bombing, Joan was learning, along with several hundred other students, how to identify aircraft that might possibly do harm to us.
• Mary, along with her sister Margaret and brother Rick, were making fudge in her home near Pittsburgh. The fudge hardened in the pan as they pulled it off the stove to run into the living room to listen to the radio. As the news came over, her mother had a worried look and her father said, “I had a feeling we would be drawn into this conflict.” As was the family’s custom, they prepared for evening church service.
• Kathy was a thirteen years old holding the hand of her twenty-five year old brother as they joined friends and neighbors who had gathered to discuss with fear and awe the catastrophic attack on Pearl Harbor. As Kathy and her brother wandered from group to group, there was the common feeling that this meant war. Kathy recalls her brother looking down at her from his six foot two inches of height and saying, “This is a day both you and I will remember because it will change our country’s history forever.”

 

More memories to come. For World War II stories, go to www.peggeorge.com.

 

 

Posted in Blog | No Comments »

Picking crops

November 3, 2008 – 6:00 am

Another person at my recent appearance shared the following World War II story.

She was a student at George School in Newtown, Pennsylvania during the war. Farm workers were in short supply. As you will recall, all available men were serving in the military, so the usual supply of hired hands, some permanent and some itinerant, was greatly reduced.

On occasions, George School students were loaded into busses and taken to King’s Farms in lower Bucks County. (These farms later became the Fairless Steel Works.) There the students picked the ripening crops, returning to school at the end of the day, tired but glad for a day’s reprieve from their studies.

In my book, We Knew We Were at War: Women Remember World War II, other women recall similar other experiences.

Jeanne attended Phoenixville High School in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. Her school was on half-day sessions – the juniors and seniors attending in the morning and the freshmen and sophomores in the afternoon. This schedule left the juniors and seniors available for afternoon and evening work shifts; and freshmen and sophomores available in the morning for selected work opporunities. Many of the students found employment in the many defense factories in that area.

Jeanne and some of her friends who were sophomores found employment in the mornings at the nearby Kimberton Farms, a collection of seven farms each with a different purpose dedicated to organic or regenerative farming at a time when the trend was toward increased use of chemicals. There they cared for a large herb garden, cut up potatoes, making sure each piece had an eye, burned caterpillar tents in trees, and many other chores. The pay was thirty-five cents an hour.

And then there is Barb who lived in on a 235-acre farm in Buckingham, Pennsylvania where she cut asparagus, drove trucks for loading bales of hay and straw, sorted corn, and many other farm chores. Again, because of the severe shortage of farm workers, she and her high class were also tapped to pick apples.

Additionally, as a patriotic duty and in order to provide scarce produce, many Victory Gardens appeared in many backyards. Food was just one more weapon on the way to victory.

For more World War II stories, go to www.peggeorge.com.

 

 

 

 

Posted in Blog | No Comments »

The Stowaway

October 31, 2008 – 11:43 am

At one of my talks the other day, a number of the attendees shared memories of World War II days.

One woman told the following story.

During the war years, she recalled a German family living nearby. Some of the neighbors wondered if they were German sympathizers, or even possibly spies. One evening around dusk, she and a friend were out walking her dog. Suddenly they saw a man walking across the yard. As he approached the girls, her dog growled viciously and attempted to attack the man. She held the dog with all her might, straddling the dog to keep him from tearing the man apart.

He approached the girls cautiously and began talking in a foreign tongue. With great difficulty they figured out he was looking for the home of the German neighbors. They directed him to the house. When he left them, they were almost certain that he was a spy and would find refuge in the home of the neighbors.

However, to their relief, the following day the story came out. He was a stowaway who had managed to escape on a ship making port on the Delaware River. He was not well received by the German neighbors. Indeed, they called the authorities and he was arrested.

That settled the question concerning the loyalty of the German neighbors.

Other stories concerning possible German spies are found in my book, We Knew We Were at War; Women Remember World War II on pages 3, 19, and 88.

For more World War II stories, go to www.peggeorge.com. 

Posted in Blog | 1 Comment »

Germany trip continued

October 27, 2008 – 6:00 am

As I mentioned in the last blog, World War II was much on our minds as my daughter and I traveled through Germany.

Even while I was still at home before leaving on our trip, an elderly neighbor, who had served with the 4^th Armored Division during World War II, and I were discussing my upcoming trip. When I mentioned I was going to Koblenz, he told me had crossed the Mosel near Koblenz and had liberated the town. He also shared his written memoir that tells of crossing the Rhine River on a pontoon bridge under cover of artificial fog, while German bombers dived down at them in an attempt to stop their progress. From his memoir, it appears that he spent a considerable amount of time in the mud.

When we arrived at Koblenz, we learned that the town had been almost totally destroyed during the war. The square where our hotel was located had been completely restored to resemble its appearance before the war. It was a lovely square surrounded by a variety of buildings - church, restaurants, stores, and our hotel.

Even though the majestic Cologne cathedral had received fourteen hits by aerial bombs, it remained standing while all around was rubble. Some attributed its good fortune to divine intervention, but others suggested the structure of the cathedral was such that it could survive these bombings.

One area that was severely effected was the country of Luxembourg. Many of the men were drafted for the German army, others were sent to concentration camps or prisons, 81% of the Jews living in Luxenbourg before May 10, 1940 died, and a third of the houses were completely destroyed along with several churches and monasteries. Seeing the modern city that has arisen, one would not have thought such devastation could have occurred.

And finally, the city of Trier was heavily bombed during World War II, but one would not realize that visiting there now. Many of its ancient building and ruins from Roman times are still standing, most famous being the Porta Negra, a Roman wall from the year 2000.

The amount of history these cities have recorded is astounding. We like to think of our historic cities – Philadelphia, Boston, and Williamsburg – and come up short when we realize they are only a few hundred years old. I don’t know how anyone can master the history of Germany, or many other countries, for that matter.

For World War II stories, please go to www.peggeorge.com.

 

Posted in Blog | No Comments »