A Tribute to Andrew Jackson Higgins and the Boats that Won the War

Andrew Jackson Higgins

Andrew Jackson Higgins, the man Dwight D. Eisenhower once credited with winning World War II, was a wild and wily genius.

At the New Orleans plant where his company built the boats that brought troops ashore at Normandy on June 6, 1944, Higgins hung a sign that said, “Anybody caught stealing tools out of this yard won’t get fired — he’ll go to the hospital.”

Whatever Higgins did, he did it a lot. “His profanity,” Life magazine said, was “famous for its opulence and volume.” So was his thirst for Old Taylor bourbon, though he curtailed his intake by limiting his sips to a specific location.

“I only drink,” he told Life magazine, “while I’m working.”

“It is Higgins himself who takes your breath away,” Raymond Moley, a former FDR adviser,  wrote in Newsweek in 1943. “Higgins is an authentic master builder, with the kind of will power, brains, drive and daring that characterized the American empire builders of an earlier generation.”

Higgins was not native to the South, despite his love of bourbon. He grew up in Nebraska, where, at various ages, he was expelled from school for fighting. Higgins’ temperament improved around boats. He built his first vessel in the basement when he was 12. It was so large that a wall had to be torn down to get it out.

He moved South in his early 20s, working in the lumber industry. He hadn’t thought much about boats again until a tract of timber in shallow waters required him to build a special vessel so he could remove the wood. Higgins signed up for a correspondence course in naval architecture, shifting his work from timber to boats.

In the late 1930s, he owned a small shipyard in New Orleans. By then, his special shallow-craft boat had become popular with loggers and oil drillers. They were “tunnel stern boats,” whose magic was in the way the “hull incorporated a recessed tunnel used to protect the propeller from grounding,” according to the Louisiana Historical Association.

The Higgnins’ “Eureka” boat

Higgins called it the “Eureka” boat. The war brought interest by U.S. forces in a similar style vessel to attack unguarded beaches and avoid coming ashore at heavily defended ports. The Marines settled on the Higgins boat, transforming what had been a 50-employee company into one of the world’s largest manufacturers.

“To put Higgins’s accomplishment in perspective,” historian Douglas Brinkley wrote in a 2000 article in American Heritage magazine, consider this: “By September 1943, 12,964 of the American Navy’s 14,072 vessels had been designed by Higgins Industries. Put another way, 92 percent of the U.S. Navy was a Higgins navy.”

Though Eisenhower and even Hitler acknowledged the importance of the Higgins boat — military leaders came to call it “the bridge to the beach” — its builder went mostly unmentioned in histories of the war. That is, until 17 years ago, when the World War II Museum opened in New Orleans and recognized Higgins’ life, displaying a reproduction of his boat.

Still, there’s been just one biography written: “Andrew Jackson Higgins and the Boats that Won World War II” by historian Jerry Strahan.

“Without Higgins’s uniquely designed craft, there could not have been a mass landing of troops and matériel on European shores or the beaches of the Pacific islands, at least not without a tremendously higher rate of Allied casualties,” Strahan wrote.

Higgins Hotel, New Orleans, LA

The WWII Museum in New Orleans officially broke ground on the Higgins Hotel directly across the street from the museum in 2017.

“The one man in the South I want especially to see is Andrew Jackson Higgins.  I want to tell him, face to face, that Higgins’ landing boats such as we had at Guadalcanal are the best in the world.  They do everything but talk; honest they do.”  ___ Warrant Officer Machinist, James D. Fox, quoted in the Shreveport Times, 6 March 1943

AJ Higgins held 30 patents, mostly covering amphibious landing craft and vehicles.

Higgins died in New Orleans on 1 August 1952, and was buried in Metairie Cemetery.  He had been hospitalized for a week to treat stomach ulcers when he suffered a fatal stroke.

Article resources: The World War II Museum in New Orleans (2018 Annual Report), The Marine Corps & the Washington Post.

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Current info – 

May – Military Appreciation Month –

From: Cora Metz posters

May 18, 2019 – Armed Forces Day

A day set aside to pay tribute to men and women who serve in the United States’

Armed Forces. Learn more…

May 27, 2019 – Memorial Day (Decoration Day)

A day set aside to commemorate all who have died in military service for the United States. Typically recognized by parades, visiting memorials and cemeteries.

The coloring books include pages for Mother’s Day.

Learn more…

LINK – Coloring page for military children

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Military Humor – 

Military Contractors

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Farewell Salutes – 

Louis J. Abshire Sr. – Amelia, LA; US Navy, WWII, PTO

Courtesy of Dan Antion @ https://nofacilities.com/

Theodore “Bud” Benard – Payson, UT; US Army, WWII, PTO, 96th Infantry Division

Ray Cline – WV; US Navy, WWII, USS Biddle (DD-151)

Owen R. Dievendorf – Fort Plum, NY; US Army Air Corps, WWII, PTO, Medical Corps, x-ray tech, Sgt.

Glenn Francis – Santa Monica, CA; US Navy, WWII, PTO, Quartermaster, USS Natoma Bay

Edgar L. Galson – Syracuse, NY; US Army, WWII, ETO, Field Artillery, radio/forward observer

Charles Haughey – Chicago, IL; Civilian, WWII, Dodge B-29 engine plant

Charles ‘C.C.’ Lee – Lexington, KY; US Navy, WWII & Korea, Chief Flight Deck Electrician, USS Corregidor & Block Island

Luther H. Story – Americus, GA; US Army, Korea, Cpl. A Co/1/9/2nd Infantry Division, KIA (Sangde-po, SK), Medal of Honor

Olive Thompson – ENG/CAN; WRoyal Naval Service WREN, WWII

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OKINAWA 78 years ago Stars & Stripes – Pacific

Stars and Stripes Pacific

By PFC. WILLIAMS LAND | STARS AND STRIPES May 22, 1945

Stars and Stripes presents these archive reports as they were written by the reporters in the field. The graphic and politically incorrect language used may be offensive to some readers.

Medic on Okinawa

Editor’s Note: A fortnight ago Bill Land, one of our battlefront reporters, learned that he was a father. Back to us by radio came this story of Oki’s orphans. Unable to go home to see his own daughter in Baton Rouge, La., Bill let himself go on Oki’s orphans – being left to die by the Sons of Heaven. But the GIs wouldn’t let the kids die… 

OKINAWA – Here’s a story you could call “The Children’s Hour.” Ever since I got that radio about my new baby daughter I’ve had in mind writing a children’s story, especially since the material is so plentiful.

It is said that there are more children on Okinawa than there are goats, and, brother, that is some statement.

Very rarely does one see a woman who isn’t carrying either a born or unborn child around and most of the time it’s both.

For doughboys and leathernecks, the care of children started on the first day of the invasion, and from the way it keeps on, it looks as though “the Children’s Hour on Okinawa” will outlast Lillian Hellman’s play on Broadway.

Military government has even set up an orphanage, probably the first the island has seen.

“Since the natives showed interest only their own babies, we had to do something to care for children whose parents were killed or missing,” said Army Capt. W. W. McAllister of Iowa City, Ia., the officer in charge.

Nipples are made from surgical gloves and the orphans seem to take kindly to their new diet of canned milk through a glove.

Okinawa 1945

In another part of the island, Chief Pharmacist’s Mate Hugh Bell of Iberia, La., found himself playing the role of a mother when his outfit, a Marine reconnaissance unit, was scouting for suspected enemy installations and suddenly came upon a whole colony of natives hiding in a cave. Most of them were starving and sick and 35 children required immediate medical attention.

Bell, being the only “doctor in the house,” had all of them on his hands. For 24 hours he treated them, giving them plenty of food and feeding them canned milk while his buddies drank their coffee black.

“The kids thought I had used magic to fix them up,” he said, “and followed me around whenever I went. The headman of the group of cave dwellers told the unit command later that Bell was called “Mother” whenever they referred to him.

It is not at all a strange sight to see kids running around in cut-off GI woolen underwear or rompers made of fatigues, but Sally’s diapers made of green camouflage cloth really take the cake. Sally’s one of the orphans.

Sitting on the hard coral rock playing with the ration can, it looks as if she selected a soft tuft of grass to place her little behind on.

Pfc. John J. Stroke of Olmsted Falls, Ore., found her. She’s a two-year-old girl, and Stroke supervised her bath and sprinkled her with anti-vermin powder. Then, with the help of marine fatigues, a jungle knife and couple of pins, he went into the diaper business.

With most able-bodied Japs in the Imperial army or navy there seems a definite shortage of obstetricians among civilians and therefore many deliveries have to be performed by American soldiers and medics.

Relating his first attendance at childbirth here, First Class Pharmacist’s Mate Richard P. Scheid of Napoleon, O., warned, “I knock down anybody who calls me a mid-wife.”

Medic, Okinawa

As in the play, “The Children’s Hour,” and everywhere else, for that matter, there are good little children and naughty ones.

The other day, Sgt. Elvis Lane, marine combat correspondent from Louisville, Ky., ran across a couple of them who didn’t want to take to the American way of life at first. Dressed in a ragged Jap soldiers’ suits, they kept hoping to fight the “American devils” who were soon to be blasted by superior Japanese power.

That night, enemy units attacked the camp in which the two boys were staying and the air was filled with screams of the Jap wounded, the rat-tat-tat of machine gun fire and explosions of hand grenades. When morning came, the boys stared in horror at the Jap bodies and one of them said:

“Jap is a big liar. I think my brother and I want to be like our father – farmers.”

Marine First Lieutenant Hart H. Spiegal of Topeka, Kansas, uses sign language as he tries to strike up a conversation with two tiny Japanese soldiers captured on Okinawa. The boy on the left claims he is “18” while his companion boasts “20” years.

CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE.

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SHOUT OUT !!!

ANZAC   DAY

MAY WE ALL REMEMBER ON ANZAC DAY

Please keep in mind that Tuesday, 25 April is a remembrance day for Australians and New Zealanders.

It is one that I have tried to show respect and honor to…

https://pacificparatrooper.wordpress.com/?s=ANZAC+Day

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Military Humor – 

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Farewell Salutes – 

Thomas E. Button – NZ; RNZ Navy, CPO (Ret. 20 Y.)

Australian soldier pays tribute

Robert G. Cole – Montague, NJ; US Army, Vietnam, 101st Airborne Division, Bronze Star

Trevor Crawley – Hawkes Bay, NZ; RNZ Air Force # D80250, Flight Lt.

James Graham – Dunlap, TN; US Army, Korea, 187th RCT/11th Airborne Division

Ernest E, Hamilton Sr. – Key West, FL; US Air Force, Korea

Noah Evans – Decatur, GA; USMC, Pfc, M Co/3/Recruit Training Regiment

Peter W. Leufkens – Palm Springs, FL; US Army, Korea

William Peterson – Tamp, FL; USMC  /  US Coast Guard

Ken Potts (102) – Honey Bend, IL/Provo, UT; US Navy, WWII, PTO, coxswain, USS Arizona survivor

Robert R. Samples – Charleston, NC; US Army, Japanese Occupation, 187/11th Airborne Division, Army boxing team

Jozef Subritzky-Kusza – NZ; RNZ Army # A483345, Sgt.

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From GP –

I apologize if I happen to be missing some posts lately.  The routine here has been disrupted somewhat.

Thank you for being understanding.

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How Disney aided the troops in WWII

Disney in WWII

Just one day after Pearl Harbor, Walt Disney received his first military contract and began creating promotional reels, war bond advertisements, short training and instructional films, and other WWII materials.  Also at this time, he received requests from military units all over the world requesting Disney-designed insignia’s and mascots.

David Lesjak, a former employee and Disney historian says, “Insignia helped build morale.  Having a cartoon character you grew up with on your plane or shoulder patch helped remind you of home.  In my mind it was a happy diversion from the horrors of war.”

Hank Porter designs for Disney

One of the purest expressions of Walt Disney’s genuine patriotism during the war years was his decision to establish a unit devoted to producing customized military unit insignia free of charge for U.S. armed forces and their allies.  Headed by the talented draftsman, Hank Porter, whom Walt referred to as a “one-man department,” a unit of 5 full-time artists worked steadily throughout the war, turning out 1,300 insignia.

By far, the single most requested and used Disney character was Donald Duck, who was featured in at least 146 designs.  The numerous requests for Donald’s likeness resulted in a wealth of drawings that successfully channeled his irascibility as patriotism and military zeal, often with a comedic flourish.

Next, the character that appeared most was Pluto in about 35.  Pluto was popular and his trademark facial expressions made it easy for the artists to incorporate him into a variety of insignia.  Goofy followed in popularity at 25 insignia and Jiminy Cricket appeared in 24.

B-29 Disney design

Sometimes a unit had a special design in mind and was seeking a Disney artist’s skill to bring it to life, attaching a rough sketch to their request letter for reference.

The bulk of insignia were designed for Army units and Navy vessels, but occasionally individuals requested their own personal design.  These requested were accommodated and executed with the same level of care as an insignia for an entire ship, bombardment group or battalion.

The requested letters were often addressed simply: Walt Disney, Hollywood, California.  Once a letter was received in was placed in the queue of pending requests, and the turnaround time was usually 3-4 weeks, though a wait of several months was possible when the insignia unit was particularly swamped.

The procedure for the creation of the insignia design varied, but it typically involved a preliminary pencil drawing in which the image was established, then a full-color pencil version and finally a full-color gouache on art board that would then be forwarded to the requesting unit or party.  This would often hang in the unit headquarters and serve as a template for reproducing the emblem on aircraft, tanks, and other military equipment – as well as uniforms and letterheads.

Disney war bond

It is difficult today to fully appreciate how it felt for a serviceman to have his unit represented by a Disney-designed insignia.  For the generation that fought WWII, Disney character images possessed and iconic heft that has no analog in contemporary animation

A Donald Duck insignia boosted morale, not just because it reminded soldiers of home, but also because it signified that the job they were doing was important enough to be acknowledged by Walt Disney.

The 127th Airborne Engineers/11th Airborne Division’s first insignia was Donald Duck with combat engineer equipment and aviation goggles.

This article and information was printed in the “Voice of the Angels” 11th Airborne Division Association newspaper.

CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE.

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Military Humor – 

Disney humor

Tracking

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Farewell Salutes – 

Dominick Amoscato – Hypoluxo, FL; US Navy, WWII

George E. Bisk – Oaklawn, IL; US Army Air Corps, WWII, Purple Heart

C. Boyd Call – Magna, UT; US Navy, WWII

George “Rudy” Greear – Kingsport, TN; US Navy, WWII, PTO, Quartermaster, USS McCoy Reynolds (DE-440)

James ‘Dick’ Hopkins – Midland, MO; US Army Air Corps, WWII, PTO, Sgt., 11th Airborne Division

Don Kepler – Massillon, OH; USMC, Korea

Donald Klein – Hayward, CA; US Army Air Corps, Japanese Occupation, 11th Airborne Division

Bernard Lipoff – Brooklyn, NY; US Army, Army basketball team

In Memoriam:  Amzi R. McClain; Chester, NJ; US Army, WWII, ETO, TSgt., Batt A/721 Field Artillery/66th Infantry Division

William ‘Billy’ Waugh – Bastrop, TX; US Army, Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Green Beret, (Ret. 20 y. Special Forces and 30 y. CIA), Silver Star, 8 – Purple Hearts

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A BAD Military Monday!

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Chocolate in WWII

Chocolate is a fighting food.

Seventy-five years ago, more than 160,000 Allied troops stormed the beaches of Normandy during the D-Day invasion.  And while we all know that day served as a huge turning point for the Allied cause, you probably haven’t thought much about what those soldiers carried with them to eat during and after the invasion.

Food had to be lightweight, nutritious and very high in energy; after all, these men were about to invade Nazi-occupied land.  As it so happens, the one substance that could fulfill all those requirements was a very unlikely it — a Hershey’s chocolate bar.

The Hershey Chocolate company was approached back in 1937 about creating a specially designed bar just for U.S. Army emergency rations.  According to Hershey’s chief chemist, Sam Hinkle, the U.S. government had just four requests about their new chocolate bars: (1) they had to weigh 4 ounces; (2) be high in energy; (3) withstand high temperatures; (4) “taste a little better than a boiled potato.”

The final product was called the “D ration bar,” a blend of chocolate, sugar, cocoa butter, skim milk powder and oat flour.  The viscous mixture was so thick, each bar had to be packed into its 4-ounce mold by hand.

As for taste, well – most who tried it said they would rather have eaten the boiled potato.  The combination of fat and oat flour made the chocolate bar a dense brick, and the sugar did little to mask the overwhelmingly bitter taste to the dark chocolate.  Since it was designed to withstand high temperatures, the bar was nearly impossible to bite into.

Troopers had to shave slices off with a knife before they could chew it.  And despite the Army’s best efforts to stops the men from doing so, some of the D-ration bars ended up in the trash.

Later in the war, Hershey introduced a new version, known as the Tropical bar, specifically designed for extreme temperatures of the Pacific Theater.  By the end of the war, the company had produced more than 3 billion ration bars.

In 1942, 200,000 pounds of M&M’s were produced weekly in the Newark, NJ factory, most of it going to the military. Soldiers in WWII carried the m&m’s with them. By the end of the war, the factory was producing 600,000 lbs each week. In 1946, with the war over, M&M’s was readily available to the general population. In 1947, a ¼ lb bag of m&m’s was sold for 15 cents.  Going to the tropics, now you know why they were created to melt in your mouth and not in your hand.

Along with the D rations, troops received 3 days worth of K ration packs.  These were devised more as meal replacements and not sustenance snacks like the D rations, and came complete with coffee, canned meats, processed cheese and tons of sugar.  The other chocolate companies would soon join in with the production.

Soldier with a Tropical Bar

At various points during the war, men could find powdered orange or lemon drink, caramels, chewing gum and of course – more chocolate!!  Along with packs of cigarettes and sugar cubes for coffee, the K ration packs provided plenty of valuable energy for fighting men.

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 Military Humor –

JOINING THE SPACE FORCE

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Farewell Salutes – 

C.A. “Jack” Bates – Sterling, OH; US Army, 188/11th Airborne Division, Germany

Edgar L. Mills – Tampa, FL; US Army Air Corps, WWII, ETO, SSgt. 816BS/483BG/15th Air Force, B-17 gunner, KIA (recently identified)

Anthony Mitchell – Ogdensburg, NY; US Navy, WWII, dive bomber pilot, USS Bennington

Charles A. Spencer – Trinidad, CO; US Air Force

John ‘Mike’ Stetson – Stuart, FL; US Air Force

FROM: the 2 Black Hawk medevac helicopter’s crash – 101st Airborne Division

Jeffery Barnes – Milton, FL; US Army, Afghanistan, Warrant Officer

Emilie Bolanos – Austin, TX; US Army, Cpl.

Zachary Esparza  – Jackson, MO; US Army, Afghanistan, Chief Warrant Officer

Isaac Gayo – Los Angeles, CA; US Army, Sgt.

Joshua Gore – Morehead City, NC; US Army, SSgt., flight paramedic

Aaron Healy – Cape Coral, FL; US Army, Afghanistan, aeromedical evacuation pilot

Taylor Mitchell – Mountain Brook, AL; US Army, SSgt., flight paramedic

Rusten Smith – Rolla, MO; US Army, Afghanistan, Chief Warrant Officer, instructor pilot

David Solinas – Oradell, NJ; US Army, Sgt., combat medic                                                                               Flag, courtesy of Dan Antion

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You don’t need to be Superman to be a Hero!

Following his U.S. Army service in World War II, James Thompson joined the Air Force, retiring with more than 20 years of service at the rank of major and earning his master’s degree. Courtesy of Jeremy P Amick

Growing up with dyslexia, James Thompson faced many challenges in his early learning experiences, which tempered his ambitions toward pursuing an education in future years.

Additionally, while in the eleventh grade in the fall of 1944, he received his draft notice and believed it to be the end of any formal education; instead, the military later provided the spirit and resources to earn a master’s degree.

“I was 18 years old when I received my draft notice for the U.S. Army and left Columbia by bus on October 20 (1944),” said the veteran. “When we arrived at Jefferson Barracks (St. Louis), we were given another physical, issued our uniforms and the next morning put on a train to Camp Crowder.”

For the next few weeks, he underwent his basic training followed by lineman training, instruction as a radio operator and cryptographic training.

General William J. Donovan reviews Operational Group members in Bethesda, Maryland prior to their departure for China in 1945.

“The first sergeant came and got me and said there’s a guy (in civilian clothes) who wants to interview you,” Thompson said. “After that, I was in the Office of Strategic Services (OSS)—the forerunner to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA),” he added.

Serving as “the first organized effort by the United States to implement a centralized system of strategic intelligence,” the OSS was established on June 13, 1942 and conducted many covert functions such as receiving and decoding enemy communications.

In the summer of 1945, Thompson received orders for overseas service. He took a train to California and, from there, sailed aboard a troop ship to the island of Eniwetok. His journey ended with his arrival at Clark Air Base in the Philippines, where he spent the next several months as a cryptographer.

“The OSS was disbanded because the war was over,” said Thompson. “I can remember that in late November 1945, there were about six of us transferred from the Philippines to Tokyo, Japan, at the headquarters of General Douglas MacArthur who was there as oversight for the occupational forces.”

The veteran explained that he was part of a group who processed messages sent to and from Sixth Army and MacArthur’s headquarters. While there, he was later promoted to sergeant and placed in charge of the code room, which had the responsibility of decoding message traffic.

While in Japan, his enlistment expired but he chose to remain there as a civilian to continue the work he enjoyed at McArthur’s headquarters. However, in June 1947, he returned to the United States and was able to enroll in college at the University of Missouri despite having not completed his high school education a few years earlier.

Gen. Douglas MacArthur in Japan

“In 1951, I earned my bachelor’s degree in psychology,” recalled Thompson. “While I was at MU, I was informed that since I had held the rank of sergeant in the Army, I could complete one semester of ROTC and qualify for commission as a second lieutenant in the Air Force upon graduation.”

The former soldier began his Air Force career as an officer when assigned to Bangor, Maine, administering entrance exams for new recruits and draftees. It was here that he met the former Barbara Longfellow while taking courses at the University of Maine and the two soon married. The couple went on to raise three sons.

From there, he was briefly transferred to Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma, before receiving assignment to Wheelus Air Base in Tripoli, Libya, spending time as an administrative officer for the 580th Air Materiel Assembly Squadron.

Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma

“I became the adjutant for the base administrative officer at Selfridge Field (Michigan) in 1959,” he explained. “I made captain while I was there and then became the administrative officer and later commander for the 753rd Radar Station at Sault St. Maria, Michigan.”

He would later attend the first class of the Defense Intelligence Agency in Washington D.C., as the various military service branches learned to combine their intelligence gathering capabilities.

From 1962 to 1966, he was stationed in Ramstein, Germany, gathering intelligence on the Soviet air capabilities.

In Germany, he took courses through the University of Southern California, earning his master’s degree in systems management. He was then transferred to Little Rock, Arkansas, for a year followed by his assignment to Vietnam. During the war, he was stationed in Nha Trang and briefed pilots prior to their aerial missions.

“I was given my base of choice when returning to the states in 1969, so I chose Whiteman Air Force Base,” said Thompson. “I spent the last few months of my career there and retired as a major with 20 years, 1 month and 1 day of service,” he grinned.

Whitman AFB

His military career, he explained, was a collection of unique experiences that did not follow a linear path. As a child, he further noted, he would never have imagined the opportunity for an advanced education or the option of pursuing his interest of becoming a member of the military.

“When I was younger, the military was something I always wanted to do and I never believed I could join the Army or Air Force because of my dyslexia,” he said. “My ambitions weren’t all that high as a child but then I was drafted, I encountered people who I admired and inspired me to achieve.”

He concluded, “When it was all said and done, I not only got to serve both in the Army and Air Force, but this young man,” he said, pointing to himself, “who didn’t finished high school, was able to earn a master’s degree … all because of the military.”

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Military Humor – from 2 newspapers from the CBI Theater – 

Navigator to pilot…navigator to pilot…HALP!!

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Farewell Salutes – 

Kenneth Beck Sr. – Kalispell, MT; US Army, WWII, ETO

Flag at half-staff at Veterans Park, courtesy of Dan Antion

Wallace W. Brooks – Anderson County, KS; US Navy, WWII / US Air Force, Korea (Ret.)

Robert W. Church – Utica, KY; Virginia National Guard

Waldo Dohman – Janesville, MN; USMC, WWII, PTO

Carlos Evans – Petersburg, VA; US Army, Iraq, HQ Battalion/US Army Central, Command Sgt. Major, Bronze Star

John T. Frankfurth – Wayne, MI; US Army

Jimmy Gantt – Conover, NC; US Navy, WWII

Joseph E. Maloney, Jr. – Louisville, KY; US Air Force, Captain

Earle Sherman – West Nyack, NY; US Coast Guard, WWII

Talmage Wilson Jr. (101) – Rockville, MD; US Army, WWII

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“Beware the man who makes a fortune in a flood.”

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SMITTY WAS HERE !!

Miyajima Hotel

Miyajima Hotel

Being that Smitty so enjoyed taking in the sights of 1945 Japan and it is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, this post will continue with the brochures he brought home with him. Above is the Inland Sea and Miyajima Island that is approximately 45 minutes from Hiroshima; the entire island is considered a park being that two parks are actually on the island, The Omoto and the Momijidani, both famous for their cherry blossoms in spring and colored leaves in autumn.

The Great Torii

The Great Torii (52′ tall [16 metres]) is the red religious structure within the bay is from the 16th century. The earlier one had been destroyed by a typhoon. The Itsukushima Shrine has stone lanterns that remain lighted throughout the night. Senjokaku is the hall of a thousand mats and beside the shrine is a hall filled with countless rice ladles offered by worshipers. There is a five-storied pagoda (100 feet high) for Buddha close by and in the Omoto Park is a two-storied pagoda built by “Hidari-Jingoro” an ancient famous artist.

The center photo showing a patio, Smitty indicated that that was where they ate. And the circle to the right, dad wrote, “Damn good fishing and crabbing here.” It seems you can’t even take the Broad Channel, NY fisherman out of the soldier.

At the bottom picture here, Smitty wrote, “I slept here in a room like this.” On the right-hand side of the page is written, “I managed to get behind the bar at this place.” (Can’t take the bartender out of the trooper either, I suppose.)

Gamagori Hotel

At the Gamagori Hotel, above the bottom-left photo is written, “Good Food. Chef here studied under a Frenchman. Boy was the food tasty.” The right-hand photo has, “Fishing good here.”

Gamagori Hotel, interior

On this page of the Gamagori brochure, Smitty marked on the center diagram where his general stayed. (If viewing is a problem, please click on the photo to enlarge.) The bottom-left photo is marked, “Had a room like this at this place.”

Gamagori Hotel, interior

This brochure is entirely in Japanese and therefore unable to give the reader a clue as to where it was or still is located.  Thanks to our fellow blogger, Christopher, we have a translation here…

1. The colorfully illustrated brochure says “Sightseeing in Miyagi Prefecture” （観光の宮城縣）and lists several of the highlights (skiing, cherry blossoms, shrines). The 3-D illustrated map shows the whole area, featuring the famous destination of Matsushima. Now, today it’s considered old-fashioned, but there is this thing called “The Three Sights of Japan” （日本三景）, pronounced Nihon Sankei, which refers to what were traditionally considered the three most beautiful places in the country: Matsushima, Miyajima, and Ama no Hashidate. It looks like your dad hit at least two of them — I wonder if he also made it to Ama no Hashidate! Here is a modern link to “things to do in Miyagi Prefecture”: https://www.google.com/search?ei=42UuXZ7LMc3B7gLEwpzACQ&q=%E5%AE%AE%E5%9F%8E%E7%B8%A3&oq=%E5%AE%AE%E5%9F%8E%E7%B8%A3&gs_l=psy-ab.3..0l2j0i30l8.29273.32641..38871…1.0..0.80.438.6……0….1..gws-wiz…….0i71j0i4i37.nNS_NTAA6-Y
   Fun stuff… Thanks for sharing!

CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE.

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Military Humor –

Paratrooper School.

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Farewell Salutes – 

William J. Bumpus (101) – Broken Arrow, OK; US Army, WWII, PTO

Melvin Cakebread (100) – Alpena, SD; US Army, WWII, PTO

Melvin Dart (100) – Santa Ana, CA; US Army Air Corps, WWII, ETO, B-17 navigator

Edward Eisele (102) Cinnaminson, NJ; US Army, WWII, US photographer

Dale Ferguson – Atlantic, IA; US Army Air Corps, Japanese Occupation, 11th Airborne Division

Robert Gallagher – Cumming, GA; US Navy, WWII

Joseph B. Love Jr. – Atlanta, GA; US Army, Defense Intelligence Service

Charles McCarthy – Detroit, MI; US Army, WWII, 87th Infantry Division

Carroll “Terry” Newman – New Orleans, LA; Merchant Marine Academy grad / US Coast Guard, WWII, (Ret.)

Anthony Romero (101) – Sante Fe, NM; US Navy, WWII

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The Postcard Read… “Your Son Is Alive!”

James MacMannis and his wife listen to their ham radio

James ‘Dad Mac’ MacMannis is believed to have sent as many as 33,000 postcards during World War II.

WEST PALM BEACH — Dad Mac sat in his living room and furiously scribbled the names the German propaganda machine rattled off. Names of GIs whose moms and dads and siblings and sweethearts in Florida and Iowa and Oregon. Loved ones who for weeks or months had wondered and worried and wrung their hands. Mac would fill out and address a postcard. It would say: Your boy is alive.

As World War II raged, and before and after D-Day, James L. MacMannis wrote as many as 33,000 postcards to families across America. After a while, people called him Dad.

At first, he said, he sent out just a few cards, and he got few responses.

“I was discouraged,” he told Palm Beach Evening Times Editor Tom Penick for a June 1944 column. “It was weeks before I heard from any of the folks I had written. Then they started.”

One parent wrote, “You are doing marvelous work. May God bless you.”

The date of Penick’s column was June 2, 1944. Neither he nor most of the country knew at the time that in four days, on June 6, the world would change.

 ‘Keeping faith’

Postcard for Ray J. Sherman

James L. MacMannis was a veteran of both the Army and Navy and both world wars. He’d been a barnstorming pilot in those first days of flight — a relative claimed he got America’s fourth-ever pilot’s license, something that couldn’t be independently verified — and taught pilots in World War I, when military aviation was in its infancy

He was a parachute jumper who later became an airplane inspector. He joined World War II via the Coast Guard in the Baltimore area.  Around 1943, he moved to West Palm Beach, believed to be about a block south of what’s now the Norton Museum of Art.

MacMannis did have a hobby: shortwave radio.

In August 1943, he tuned in to a Berlin station. Naturally, it was a propaganda broadcast by the Third Reich. Night after night, the feminine voice would rattle off each soldier’s name and serial number, along with messages the GI hoped would get back to their families in the U.S. The Berlin fräulein even gave the GI’s home address so that anyone listening could drop a line to the family that he was OK, at least relatively.

Whether the idea was to show how humane the Germans were or was a ploy to get parents to pressure the U.S. government to push for peace, only the Nazis could say.

But for Dad Mac, a light went on.

Ray J. Sherman

Every night at 7, Dad would settle into his rocking chair. He listened even when the static made broadcasts pretty much undecipherable. Some nights he would listen until dawn.

“He doesn’t dare leave because he fears he may miss some of the broadcast with the prisoners’ list,” Mary MacMannis said, “And he tries to get all.”

Some nights it was 20 names, some nights 60 or 80. One night he heard 157 names. Some nights, there was no list.

Dad Mac didn’t tell families everything. Sometimes the broadcast would impart that a boy had had both legs blown off or had bullets still lodged in his body.

“It’s enough to let them know that Berlin says they (soldiers) are alive and a POW,” MacMannis said.

He also worried at times if he was a dupe, forwarding details to desperate families about which the Nazi propaganda machine might be lying. He said he felt better when the War Department began verifying to him what he was hearing.

Once word got out about “Dad’s Listening Post,” others stepped up to help; fellow radio enthusiasts, the West Palm Beach fire chief, an assistant chief and a printing firm donated everything from radio parts to postcards. Dad Mac graduated from a small radio to a big receiver.

By January 1945, MacMannis estimated he’d heard 20,000 messages about American POWs and mailed out about 15,000 cards.

Life magazine got wind of him and ran a photo of Dad and Mary in their living room in front of a giant radio. That story quoted a total of 33,000 messages from POWs, including Canadians.

“War Prisoner Information,” Dad Mac’s cards said. “A free humanitarian service given by ‘Dad MacMannis’ Listening Post.′ ” And, “A veteran of both wars keeping faith with his buddies.”

“Howdy, folks,” one postcard quoted G.I. Ray Sherman. “I won’t be long. These Germans treat us mighty well. I will write you soon. Don’t worry. Love Ray.” The form was dated July 22; no year.

A search of databases shows a Ray J. Sherman, born in 1923, had enlisted in Milwaukee and served in the infantry in both the North African and Italian theaters before the Germans captured him at Anzio on Feb. 16, 1944.

Article located in the Palm Beach Post.

We spoke once before about the ham radio operators during WWII and the great job they did, read HERE!

 

Click on images to enlarge.

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Ham Radio Humor –

AARS Cartoon

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Farewell Salutes – 

Robert Blake (Michael James Vijencio Gubitosi) – Nutley, NJ; US Army   /   beloved actor

Robert C. Blair (103) – New hope, PA; US Army, WWII, PTO

Rosemary Campbell – Braidwood, IL; Civilian, WWII, Joliet Arsenal

William H. Dillow – Kingsport, TN; US Navy, WWII, PTO, gunner’s mate & disarming mines, Sr. Chief (Ret. 20 y.)

Charles Dougherty – Clarkston, MI; US Navy, WWII & Korea, diesel mechanic

Frank C. Ferrell – Roby, TX; US Army Air Corps, WWII, ETO, TSgt., 328BS/93BG/9th Air Force, B-24 navigator, KIA (Ploiesti, ROM)

Virginia Hanson – Odessa, NY; US Navy WAVE, WWII

Terrance Larkin (102) – Davenport, IA; US Army, WWII, PTO, Cpl., 1881st Engineer Battalion

Bill McNeil – Wheeling, WV; US Army, 11th Airborne Division / Chairman of the 82nd Airborne Association

Robert McHugh – Woburn, MA;  US Air Force, pilot, flight instructor

Paul R. Sheridan – Detroit, MI; US Air Force, Vietnam, F-4 pilot, Colonel (Ret. 24 y.)

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The Occupation Olympiad

11th Airborne troopers attempting to fix a coal-burning vehicle.

 

While some of the troopers continued to await the arrival of the good ole’ American jeeps to replace the coal-burning vehicles in Japan, General Swing was striving to make the occupation as bearable as possible. They had endured some horrendous hardships and accomplished more than anyone expected from them and he felt they deserved whatever he could provide. On his orders, a Japanese auditorium was transformed into the 11th Airborne Coliseum. The complex was large enough to hold a theater that would seat 2,500, four basketball courts, a poolroom with 100 tables, a boxing arena that held 4,000 spectators, six bowling alleys and a training room.

The camp entrance.

Aside from the sports theme, the coliseum contained a Special Services office, a snack bar, a Red Cross office and a library. I can just picture my father spending some off-duty time in the poolroom or bowling alley. When I was growing up, we had a pool table in the basement and Smitty would teach me how every shot was related to angles and geometry. My aim improved – once I figured it out.

The post NCO Club.

In the fall of 1945, an Olympiad was held in Tokyo for all the troops stationed in Japan and Korea. Football became the highlighted game. The 11th A/B Division coach, Lt. Eugene Bruce brought them to winning the Japan-Korea championship. They then went on to take the Hawaiian All-Stars in Mejii Stadium with a score of 18-0. This meant that the 11th Airborne Division held the All-Pacific Championship. The troopers went on to win in so many other sports that by the time the finals were held for the boxing tournament at Sendai, the headlines read in the Stars and Stripes sports section:
Ho-Hum, It’s the Angels Again”

Japan

On the reverse side of the photo seen above, Smitty wrote, “This is the hotel where we are now staying. That dot in the driveway is me.” The 11th A/B commander had made his home here on 16 September. After the occupation, it re-opened for business as a hotel, but unfortunately was destroyed by fire on 2 March 1969.

Smitty on far-right.

The division had a reputation for mission accomplishment despite being nearly half the size of other divisions. This was often attributed to their somewhat unorthodox methods. This carried over into their occupation of Japan. General Swing converted an old Japanese factory and had it turning out American-style furniture for the troops. General Headquarters wasn’t very happy about the project because they wanted the Japanese to build furniture for the entire command. But Swing was not one to wait for all the red tape. After General Eichelberger inspected the better-than-GHQ- standard brick barracks under construction, he said to Swing, “Joe, I don’t know whether to court-martial you or commend you.” (Later on, he was commending Swing.)

CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE.

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Military Humor – 

‘I TOLD YOU GUYS,,, TO GO BEFORE WE LEFT!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Farewell Salutes –

Albert D. Accurzio – Utica, NY; US Army Air Corps, WWII, PTO, Co A/675 Artillery/11th Airborne Division

George H. Anderson – Brockton, MA; US Army, WWII

Carroll Bierbower – Los Angeles, CA; US Navy, WWII, USS Comfort, hospital ship

Harding Bossier (102) – Baton Rouge, LA; US Army, WWII, PTO, Signal Corps

Harold E. Conant – Wyandotte, MI; US Merchant Marine / US Army Air Corps, WWII, (Ret. 20 y.)

Jack E. Dutton – Gardena, CA; US Army, Vietnam, Pfc.

Kenneth Fuller – Bacolod City, P.I.; US Army Air Corps, WWII, PTO, 511/11th Airborne Division, MP

Jane Hansen (101) – Portersville, PA; US Army Air Corps WAC, WWII, dietitian

Adeline Ney – Wilkes-Barre, PA; Civilian, WWII, ammo production

Frank C. Roop – Fairfax, TX; US Army, WWII, ETO, tank gunner

Ida (Mitchell) Wongrey – Nova Scotia, CAN; Canadian Civilian Navy Intelligence

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Humorous look back at the war

 

Zoot Suit craze, 1945

 

I’VE GOT URGES FOR SERGES

I’ve gotta passion for fashion,
I’ve gotta run on fun,
‘Cause I’m Ten million new civilian
Ex-G.I.’s in one.
I’ve got urges for serges,
I’ve gotta need for tweed;
I’ll put the smile in a world of stylin’
No War Department decreed.
I’ll be the zoot-suit-suitor,
I’ll be the rainbow beau,
I’ll be the luminous,
Most voluminous,
Viva-Truman-ous-
Leader of the Freedom Show.
Long I’ve thirsted for worsted;
Ain’t I the plaid-glad lad?
Open the haberdash!
Here comes a color-flash! Here comes the post-war fad!
– Cpl. R. CHARLES

India

Getting into the scrb brush business

They’re telling the story around New Delhi about a certain G.I. building supervisor who recently had a bit of trouble with his 19 Indian employees. Seems that one evening towards closing time, the G.I. bossman discovered that someone had made off with 12 of his good scrub brushes. He promptly called his staff together. “None of you guys leaves here ’til you bring back those brushes,” he ordered. The Indians thought it over for a moment, then scattered. A few minutes later, they reported back, each carrying a brush. Only 12 brushes lost. Nineteen returned. That’s good business.

______ September 1945, C.B.I. Roundup newspaper

 

U.S. Navy, off Attu Island

David Lake was in charge of Mount Two of the 5-inch guns on USS Pennsylvania. The ship was among those sent to the waters off Alaska to aid in re-capturing islands there that had been occupied by Japanese troops.

“It was pretty darn cold up there, too. I stood my watches on Mount Two all the time … And we bombarded Attu and it got cold up there, I kid you not. The ice inside them guns mounts, you’d fire them and that ice would fly everywhere. ”

 

The one who served in Africa

Gen. Patton

“I was a private, a tank driver. Anyways, I was sitting by the side of my tank, reading a newspaper and just relaxing. All of a sudden I felt a horrible itch when I breathed out…and the normal human reaction? I picked my nose. Half-way through the nose picking, a shadow fell over me. I looked up with my finger stuck full up my nose. General Patton…standing over me…with a bunch of Army planners and such. I slowly started to take my finger out of my nose. “Soldier, did I give you an order to take your finger from your nose?” He asked. I, of course, gave him a full blown no sir, which sounded very high pitch. “Carry on soldier, and hunt that booger down.” He then walked off, with the group of Army people staring at me.

 

 

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MORE Military Humor – 

Solving the defense budget

 

Future War Stories

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Farewell Salutes will return in next week’s post.

flag image curtesy of Dan Antion

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MOVIN’ ON for the 11th AIRBORNE

Smitty and friends in Japan

This photograph was signed by two of my father’s buddies, John S. Lodero and Phil Martorano, both of Brooklyn, New York.  Smitty (Everett Smith) circled, but which two men are John and Phil is unknown.

When the SCAP Headquarters was set up in Tokyo, MacArthur was determined to create a “Peaceful and responsible government…” He also had to administer to a nation with nearly 70 million near-starving civilians and a constantly growing population of soldiers. The Japanese made the transition of being under one totalitarian rule to another quite easily and the general proceeded to supervise the writing and implementation of a new constitution. This was adopted in 1947, retaining the Emperor as a constitutional monarch and reestablished the primacy of the Diet. The zaibatu industrial combines were broken up and women were given rights.

The 11th Airborne was amazed by the change of attitude of the populace; without ever having actually been invaded, the Americans were being accepted. It made their future missions so much easier to accomplish. The Americal Division relieved the 11th Airborne on 14 September at their present locations and the following day, they began moving out by truck and railroad to their newly assigned zones in northern Honshu. Gen. Swing requested Gen. Dorn, who had served with Gen. Stilwell in China, to head the convoy.

In the Sendai area and billeted at the Japanese arsenal [name to be changed to Camp Schimmelpfennig, [named after the chief of staff who was killed in combat] were the – Division Headquarters, 127th Engineers, 408th Quartermaster, 711th Ordnance, 511th Signal, 221st Medical, Parachute Maintenance and the 187th and 188th regiments. The 511th went to Morioka [ name would be changed to Camp Haugen, for their leader killed in combat], the 457th and the 152d moved to Akita, the 472d went to Yamagata, the 674th was divided and sent to Jimmachi and Camp Younghans and the 675th went to Yonezawa.

In the Sendai area, Japanese authorities turned over hotels in the Matsushima area for officer’s quarters and their staff, which explains how Smitty came home with these beautiful brochures you will see pictured here. If you click on and enlarge the photo, you can see where Smitty pointed to the sort of room he was given.

At one point while moving supplies, Eli Bernheim (S-4 Section of the 187th reg.), remembered the convoy of 40 Japanese charcoal burning trucks always breaking down and they became lost. The interpreter and Eli took out their map and became surrounded by curious townspeople. Eli slung his rifle over his shoulder and they scattered. The interpreter suggested laying the weapon down, the civilians regrouped and began touching his hair – turns out they had never seen an American before.

I suppose the word must have spread, because after that incident, the convoy was warmly greeted in every town they passed through. Once in their respective areas, the first priority was living conditions and the Japanese barracks were primitive with ancient plumbing and sewage deposited in reservoirs to be picked up later by farmers and used as fertilizer. The division historian recorded that of all the traffic accidents within the 11th A/B’s zone, NO trooper was ever guilty of hitting one of those “honey carts.”

General Swing made General Pierson commander of the 187th and 188th joint group which became known as the Miyagi Task Force. They set up their headquarters in an insurance company building in Sendai. The principle responsibility of the Miyagi Task Force was to collect and destroy all arms, munitions and armament factories. They were also charged with seeing that General MacArthur’s edicts were all carried out. Many of the military installations had underground tunnels filled with drill presses and machine tools of all types. The entire zone needed to be demilitarized and equipment destroyed. Colonel Tipton discovered a submarine base for the two-man subs and a small group of men still guarding them. They told the colonel that they just wanted to go home.

Inside this brochure my father wrote, “No liquor here so didn’t have to go behind the bar, we drank our own. This is where I had my first real hot bath since coming overseas.”

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 Military Humor –

Click to enlarge.

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Farewell Salutes – 

Burt Bacharach – Kew Gardens, MO; US Army,  /  composer, musician, producer

Emett “Ole Sam” Brown – Spirit Lake, ID, US Navy, WWII

Donald Cherrie – Nanticoke, PA; US Army, WWII

Donald L. Dupont – WI; US Army, Korea, Cpl., B Co/1/32/7th Infantry Division, KIA (Chosin Reservoir, NK)

Morton L. Gubin – Mount Vernon, NY; US Navy, WWII, PTO, LCT command

Julia LaFlamme – Gardner, MA; US Army WAC, WWII, aircraft mechanic, Windsor Locks Army Air Base

Vivian Nostrand – Kearny, NJ; US Navy WAVES, WWII, Aerographer’s mate

Robert Reynolds – Pasadena, CA; US Army, 11th Airborne Division

Rand K. Shotwell – Dallas, TX; US Army, Vietnam, 173rd Airborne, 3-Bronze Stars, West Point class of ’67

George W. Winger – Chicago, IL; US Army Air Corps, WWII, ETO, 1st Lt., 66BS/44BG/8th Air Force,B-24 pilot, KIA (Ploiesti, Rom)

John P. Younger (103) – Himlerville, KY; US Army Air Corps, WWII (ETO), Korea & Vietnam

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