World War II Woman

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Charlie grew up in Rye, New York. He was still in high school during the war years, and remembers the older fellows going off to war. By the time he was a senior, veterans were coming back to high school to complete their education. Most of these fellows had not been in battle, but had assisted in the final stages of the war.

Charlie remembers rationing, stamps, and the various inconveniences of those times. As for the gas rationing, Charlie relates that he and some of his buddies would wander around at night to several gas stations in the area and take the hoses off their hooks to see if there was any gasoline remaining in the line. If they were lucky, they could coax out of the hoses possibly a quart of gasoline. He recalls doing a lot of walking.

Charlie took part in both football and basketball. He recalls the synthetic rubber used for sneakers and the black streaks which they left on the gym floor. Naturally, I asked about girls’ interscholastic sports. There was none in his area. On special Field Days, girls might participate in a soccer game, but basically cheerleading was the extent of girls’ sports. I realize once again that Pennsylvania back in those days was ahead of many of our neighboring states.

Charlie went on to Boston University, where he was the only non-veteran in his class. He was just a kid compared to most of the battle-scarred men returning from war and making use of the GI Bill. He felt as though he had many older brothers, who treated him very kindly. He says of them, “They were so, so good to me. I was lucky to have had those experiences.”

Many of these men went on to become high school coaches, principals, and athletes in their own right, even participating in the Olympics.

More of Charlie’s story tomorrow.

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Candy for the Berliners (repeat)

This past week, Stephen Colbert had as one of his guests Andrei Cherny, the author of The Candy Bombers: The Untold Story of the Berlin Airlift and America’s Finest Hour. In spite of the silliness of Colbert’s interview, I did learn something about the period following World War II when Russia placed a blockade around Berlin, preventing anything to pass in or out of the city in the American, French and British zones. This blockade continued from June 24, 1948 until May 11, 1949, and represented the initial event in the Cold War.

The Western powers had a major decision to make – whether to leave Berlin or try to figure out how to feed and keep the people of Berlin warm in the months ahead. After considering various options, it was determined to provide supplies by air power. A monumental effort was launched resulting in the opening of the roads and rails a little short of a year later.

Along with the lifesaving food, coal, and other essentials, candy and chewing gum dropped from planes helped win the hearts of the children. The planes delivering these goodies came to be known as the Candy Bombers with Lt. Gail Halvorsen as one of the major players.

In thinking about the Berlin Blockade, I recalled one of the stories in my book We Knew We Were at War: Women Remember World War II. Molly went with her family to Berlin when her father was the American liaison working with the rail systems in the four sectors of Berlin. The family was in Germany from immediately after the war in 1945 until 1947. This was before the blockade but she does recall the tension as she and her mother and brother visited the Russian zone. Soldiers with guns were everywhere and the checkpoints were particularly onerous.

Aside from the Colbert Report, another reminder of World War II came last week in the form of the Saturday afternoon opera – John Adams “Doctor Atomic.” The story brings together young scientists under the leadership of J. Robert Oppenheimer in July of 1945 after the defeat of Germany as they consider the moral implications of the use of the bomb.

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A Weekend in the Mid-West

Recently I had the opportunity to visit friends of many years who have moved to the Mid-west. Rachel has advanced Alzheimer’s disease and lives in a nursing home; Bill is slowing down somewhat and lives alone in an apartment. They manage, thanks to caring communities and because of the loving care of grown children who also live in the vicinity.

I was anxious about the visit, but my daughter and their daughter are friends and together they engineered this opportunity for us to meet after six years in which many changes have taken place in our lives. After a brief five seconds and my repeating my name twice did the recognition seep into Rachel’s brain. With cries of delight and arms extended, we embraced as we have never embraced before. She may have forgotten my visit the next day, but I shall remember it as long as I live.

Bill has always been a great storyteller, and he delighted us once again. I managed to steer the conversation to his experiences during World War II. (Rachel’s memories appear on page 79 of my book We Knew We Were at War: Women Remember World War II.) At the age of 18, Bill, who grew up in north Jersey, joined the Army Air Corps. He first trained at Albright College in Reading, Pennsylvania, and then on to various training camps throughout the country, finally arriving at Seattle to be transported to Hawaii by ship. He then flew to Saipan where he was flight engineer on a number of bombing missions.

Bill was not only seasick traveling to Hawaii, but also airsick, not a pleasant experience for a young man assigned to a bomber. The pilot on his first aircraft refused to have him aboard. He did manage to last out most of the war until one of his comrades, while cleaning his gun and not realizing a bullet remained inside, shattered Bill’s tibia. No more airsickness.

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Memories from a small town

Janet was a high school student in a small town in central Pennsylvania during World War II. On a high hill outside of town, the Civilian Air Patrol (CAP) had a station set up to detect possible enemy airplanes.

Her dad was a carpenter and tended the family victory garden. Her mother tried to make the family like oleo, or margarine as we say today. She remembers her mother saying, “It’s really good.”

Janet recalls making mischief during air raid blackouts. She and a neighbor girl would go out and hide behind cars, scampering from one to another as in a game of hide ‘n seek, making noises to tease the air raid warden. They were never caught. She’s lucky she lived in a relatively rural area where these blackouts may not have had the importance that they had in more industrialized places.

One of her neighbors quit school to join the Navy. It wasn’t long afterwards that he was reported killed in action. Another friend, a returning soldier whom she dated, had a severe physical reaction when the newsreel appeared on the screen showing scenes of the war. He became terribly agitated. His ears were sensitive to the sounds of bombs, having been injured in the war.

Janet had five uncles who went off to war. Her mother was one of eleven children. The oldest brother was in World War I and was said to have been “gassed.” Another uncle joined the Seabees and another was in the Army tank corps. When he came home on leave, she recalls how upset she was when he showed her how he had learned to use a bayonet. She couldn’t believe her beloved uncle would ever use that weapon to kill someone.

On the way home from school one day in April of 1945, Janet was greatly saddened to hear of the death of our president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. She felt as though a great loss had appeared in her life. Her family members were great admirers of FDR.

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

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War Comes to the West Coast (a repeat)

For some time, I have wished that I had some wartime stories from the West Coast. I still don’t have any first-person accounts, but a friend did suggest I might want to write about the Japanese balloon bombs, which actually landed on the West Coast of the United States. I had never heard of them, although I’m sure some of you have. Fortunately, the Internet has been a great help.

The balloons were made of paper or rubberized silk, and carried anti-personnel and incendiary bombs. Their intent was to cause forest fires in our country, which could have been quite serious. To me this seems preposterous that balloons launched in Japan could arrive here in our country, but some of them actually did.

During late 1944 and early 1945, Japan launched about 9,000 balloons, which were to be carried by high altitude winds eastward more than 6,000 miles to our coast. Reported incidents amounted to almost 300, with some of the balloons landing in many of our western states, Canada, and Alaska. Some were even spotted as far east as Michigan.

On February 1, 1945, a Japanese bomb was spotted in Hayfork, a small community in northern California. Residents watched the balloon slowly descend finally resting atop a dead fir tree, shortly before it exploded. On May 5, 1945, a balloon bomb killed six people in Oregon, who were enjoying themselves at a picnic.

Although the incidents were fairly numerous, little was known about them. The government requested the media and the people involved to keep silent about them. Again, this seems difficult to believe that this policy of silence actually worked. I don’t think it would today.

Since most of the accounts in my book, We Knew We Were at War: Women Remember World War II, have been reported by persons living in the eastern part of the country, comments and stories from other parts of the country would be very welcome. Please share them by using the Comment section of my blog, or email directly to me at margaretgeorge@verizon.net.

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It Wasn’t Fruit Juice

Roger, the brother of my friend Ellen, has provided a detailed account of his war experiences in Europe during 1944 and 1945. He was involved in some very heavy fighting, but he also included some incidents of a less serious nature.

While attached to a British unit, he recalls getting up in the dark one morning. With his canteen cup and mess kit, he joined the chow line and received an inch of what he thought was fruit juice. He drained the cup with one gulp so as to prepare for some coffee to be poured into it, when he realized he had not been drinking fruit juice. He was just about floored by the jolt of rum.

During the Battle of the Bulge, company headquarters was always several miles behind the line. The cooks never knew for sure where the soldiers would be but they always loaded up the jeep and trailer with a hot breakfast, K rations for lunch, and a clean pair of socks for everyone in the company. Most of the time they brought a hot meal at night. Their appearance was always most welcome.

At one point, some of the men were stricken with food poisoning from food which had been left unrefrigerated too long. They were fed a solution of soap suds and water to clean out their stomachs. They spent the afternoon resting in an attempt to recover.

In April of 1945, he recalls sitting on the banks of the Elbe River watching and processing German soldiers come across the river to surrender rather than be captured by the Russians. They came by the thousands by boat or by anything that would float. Some of them even swam across.

Towards the end of his tour of duty, every morning he would pay a German POW two cigarettes to shave him and to trim his mustache. As he mentions, “Think about a POW wielding a straight razor.”

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Girls’ Sports

Since our eyes and ears are very much focused on the Olympics these days, I thought it would be a good time to think about girls’ sports during the early 1940’s.

First of all, I checked to see what was happening with the Olympics back then. Not much. The 1940 Olympics was scheduled to be held in Tokyo, but a number of countries planned to boycott because of Japan’s aggressive actions in Asia. Then Japan decided the Olympics would be a distraction to their military goals, so the games were to be moved to Helsinki, Finland. But with the outbreak of World War II, they were cancelled as were the 1944 Olympics.

Meanwhile, back in our country, girls’ interscholastic sports were somewhat hit or miss. We had both hockey and basketball in much of Pennsylvania. In our high school our coach also scheduled volleyball games with neighboring schools. I seem to have a recollection that many of my college friends from New Jersey did not have sports teams in their high schools, although I would be happy to be corrected if I am wrong. In my book, We Knew We Were at War: Women Remember World War II, some of the women recount their sports activities.

On page 24, Shurley tells us she played both hockey and basketball, but because of the gasoline shortage, transportation to and from games was eliminated. Usually parents were called upon to drive, but on one occasion a parent wasn’t available, so Shurley at 16,with her father’s permission, drove some of the team members to the games.

Mernie, on pages 41-42, also mentions the gasoline restrictions and the elimination of buses for the girls’ teams. In her case, public transportation was available most of the time, thereby treating the other passengers to much singing and loud laughter, particularly if her team had won. As she recalls, the boys’ teams did have bus transportation.

On page 42, Jean tells of her disappointment when girls’ sports were eliminated during the war because of gasoline rationing. She had been selected for the basketball team.

And on page 37, Liz tells of her gymnastic interest. From the age of five until she was fourteen, she took lessons twice a week, hoping someday to be a gym teacher. But her father felt that gymnastics was unladylike and that she would develop unseemly muscles, so she had to give it up, much to her sorrow.

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

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