Tag: World War 2

Black Women In WW2

It is Sunday and what better time to offer up some history?

There have been stories about black units in WW2…..movies and TV shows that celebrate the heroics of these units at the time of war.

But have you ever heard or seen any thing on the black women that served during those dark days?

If not then you are in for a lesson from the Old Professor.

The unit is the 6888th Central Postage Directory Battalion……

In 1927, an unlikely friendship arose between educator and civil rights activist Mary McLeod Bethune and future First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, based on a shared belief in the power of education. When Franklin D. Roosevelt became president in 1933, Bethune served as an advisor on minority issues, and eventually was named Director of Negro Affairs in 1939. Her work with the administration led to the creation of the Black Cabinet, an informal group of advisors who worked on issues facing Black communities across the United States. The Black Cabinet helped the Roosevelt administration draft executive orders that ended the exclusion of Black Americans in the Army during World War II. In 1944, with the support of the First Lady, Bethune pushed for the admittance of Black women in the military, through inclusion in the Women’s Army Corps (WAC), a branch of the Army created in 1942. Though there was a backlash against having women in uniform from conservative elements in military leadership, tens of thousands of women were trained in a variety of non-combat specialties that were thought appropriate for women at the time: switchboard operation, baking, mechanics, stenography, postal work, and more.

All were critical to the operation of the Army during wartime. Sending and receiving mail, for example, was a lifeline for soldiers, and the only way to stay connected to the friends and families they left behind. In 1945 alone, more than 3.3 billion pieces of mail went through the military postal service. Around 8 million Americans were stationed in Europe that year. The task of organizing and delivering all that mail was daunting, and a shortage of qualified postal workers led to a massive backlog. Army officers reported that the undelivered mail was hurting morale. Something had to be done, and a unique WAC battalion answered the call.

The task of sifting through this growing stack of letters and packages—some of which had been mailed years before—was given to the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, the only all-Black, all-female battalion to serve overseas during World War II. The 6888th—nicknamed “Six Triple Eight” and led by Major Charity Adams Earley—was originally expected to sort through 7 million pieces of mail and packages in Birmingham, England, over the course of six months. They did the job in three.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/all-black-women-battalion-wwii-6888th.amp

These women should be celebrated for their service….not pushed aside for the more glamorous units.

I salute all women that served their country with pride and honor.

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“Best Thing Since Sliced Bread”

It is Sunday and I would like to drop some history on you as well as a bit of FYI……

First I would like to thank my blogging friend, Pete, for playing along with the photo quiz on yesterday’s post.

Now for the history….

I am old enough to remember that oleo had a color packet because it could not be yellow to confuse the consumer.

How many times have you heard something like that is the ‘best thing since sliced bread’?

Did you know that sliced bread was banned at one point in our history?

The year was 1943, and Americans were in crisis. Across the Atlantic, war with Germany was raging. On the home front, homemakers were facing a very different sort of challenge: a nationwide ban on sliced bread.

“To U.S. housewives it was almost as bad as gas rationing—and a whale of a lot more trouble,” announced Time magazine on February 1, 1943. The article goes on to describe women fumbling with their grandmothers’ antiquated serrated knives. “Then came grief, cussing, lopsided slices which even the toaster refused, often a mad dash to the corner bakery for rolls. But most housewives sawed, grimly on—this war was getting pretty awful.”

The ban on sliced bread was just one of many resource-conserving campaigns during World War II. In May 1942, Americans received their first ration booklets and, within the year, commodities ranging from rubber tires to sugar were in short supply. Housewives, many of whom were also holding down demanding jobs to keep the labor force from collapsing, had to get creative. When the government rationed nylon, women resorted to drawing faux-nylon stockings using eyebrow pencils and when sugar and butter became scarce, they baked “victory cakes” sweetened with boiled raisins or whatever else was available.

So by January 18, 1943, when Claude R. Wickard, the secretary of agriculture and head of the War Foods Administration, declared the selling of sliced bread illegal, patience was already running thin. Since sliced bread required thicker wrapping to stay fresh, Wickard reasoned that the move would save wax paper, not to mention tons of alloyed steel used to make bread-slicing machines.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/america-banned-sliced-bread

The moral of this post is….never take anything for granted….it could change in the blink of an eye.

Enjoy your Sunday….be well and be safe….

“I Read, I Write, You Know

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That ‘Day Of Infamy’

Today is 07 December and the country takes time to remember those that died 80 years ago today(or they should take the time)……

As the ‘Greatest Generation’ slowly slips from our collective memory let us take some time and look at the events around the surprise attack (or was it)……

There has been a debate for decades on whether FDR knew the attack was coming and kept quiet…..and the debate continues……

The rulers of Japan and Germany, rather than Franklin Roosevelt, chose the moment at which the United States would enter the world war. Japan had decided back in early July to undertake the southward advance at the risk of war with the United States, the Japanese Navy had insisted on including an attack on the United States in its military plans, and Hitler had decided to declare war if Japan attacked. But Roosevelt obviously did not shrink from entry into the world war in early December 1941. His administration had adopted the objective of defeating all the Axis powers and had begun the military and the economic planning to achieve it. He had shared that objective publicly with the American people, a large majority of whom now accepted war as inevitable. In October, fully three-quarters of respondents to a Gallup poll said either that the United States would inevitably get into the war in Europe or that the United States was in the war already. Stark’s and Marshall’s last-minute memorandum suggested that the early months of the war might be perilous indeed, but the administration’s Victory Program could not possibly be implemented in peacetime. With the Germans now halted before Moscow, ultimate victory over the Axis seemed at least possible, and the time to enter the war had come.

From Monday, December 1, through Thursday, December 4, new Magic intercepts conveyed Tokyo’s instructions to its diplomatic representatives in London, Singapore, Manila, Hong Kong, Washington, and various Chinese cities to destroy their codes and other publications. On December 6 in Tokyo—December 5 in the United States—the Foreign Ministry told the Embassy in Washington to await the delivery of a long message giving the Japanese reply to Hull’s November 26 note. War was obviously imminent. We must now look at both the manner in which the Japanese had decided to begin it, and the reasons why the key commanders in the Far East disregarded their warnings and so much available evidence and remained almost completely unprepared on the morning of December 7.

https://www.salon.com/2014/04/06/pearl_harbor_did_fdr_and_the_navy_know_what_was_coming/

Any thoughts to share?

Please do not let the sacrifices made by our ‘Greatest Generation’ fade from our memory….take some time today to think about all that was asked and all that was given by the American people.

Remember Pearl Harbor!

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D-Day Remembrance

Today is the 77th anniversary of the Allied landing on the beaches of Normandy……our “Greatest Generation” saving the world from fascism………..

D-Day In Remembrance - 720

Some say this was the beginning of the end of the European theater of World War 2….and yet there is a large sector of the country that thinks that we should not have entered this conflict…..(originally posted on Memorial Day)…..

A new poll timed to Memorial Day shows that a surprising number of Americans say that the United States may have made a mistake in sending troops to fight in World War II.

An Economist/YouGov poll out this week asked respondents “Do you think the United States made a mistake sending troops to fight in the following wars?”

As expected, there were significant divisions over conflicts like the Vietnam War, with 48 percent responding that “yes” it was a mistake to send troops there, and narrower divisions for recent Middle East conflicts like the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

And the decision to send troops to fight i World War II received more support than any other in the poll, but it was far from unanimous. A third of respondents said it either was a mistake to send troops to fight the Nazi-led Axis powers, or they weren’t sure if it was a mistake to contribute troops to the prevention of Nazi world domination.

While 68 percent said it wasn’t a mistake, 14 percent said it was, and an additional 18 percent weren’t sure. Skepticism was highest among respondents between the ages of 30 and 44, of whom a majority were either opposed to or unsure of sending troops to fight in WWII — 26% said it was a mistake and 25% were not sure.

Wait, WHAT? One-THIRD of Americans Aren’t Convinced We Should Have Sent Troops — To Fight World War II

That is about 33% of the American people…..think about that.

Should the US have fought in that war?

My thought is yes we should have….it maybe the only war that we needed to participate in….a growing cancer on mankind needed to be surgically removed for the good of all.

No photo description available.

Please take a moment to remember the sacrifices made by those that answered the call….there are so few of them left….we owe them a debt and we should be working to preserve the ideals that they fought for and died.

After that watch this video from the Lincoln Project…..

Turn The Page!

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Parachuting Puppies

My regulars know that I am a dog person and I write about them as often as I can. I have written about our canine vets many times….and this is a story from World War 2 and our canine heroes of the effort against the Nazis.

Did you know that there were parachuting dogs in that war?

No?

Then read on……

On the eve of the Normandy invasion, three planes carrying the members of Britain’s 13th Battalion took off for France. In addition to the 60 men aboard, each plane carried one dog. The story of how these paratrooping canines got there — and what happened next — is nothing short of remarkable.

Lazar Backovic has penned a fascinating article for Spiegel Online chronicling the brief but astounding story of Britain’s parachuting dogs, or “paradogs.” Much of the information in the article was drawn from a recent book written by Andrew Woolhouse, 13 – Lucky for Some: The History of the 13th (Lancashire) Parachute Battalion.

Animals have been used in war throughout history, the Second World War being no exception. Famous examples include message-carrying pigeons, soldier-bears, and anti-tank dogs.

In the case of the 13th Battalion, the dogs were trained to perform tasks such as locating mines, keeping watch, warning about enemies, and even serving as morale boosting mascots (indeed, dogs were also commissioned at US and British air bases for that sole purpose).

https://io9.gizmodo.com/remembering-the-heroic-parachuting-dogs-of-d-day-1485892775

These canines are truly the unsung heroes….time for them to enter the light…..

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Closing Thought–07Dec20

Most American know this day in our history…if not from school then from some programming on the History Channel……this is what became known as Pearl Harbor Day.

Most know that I do like history…..and most of what we know, or think we know, is basically propaganda….and the attack is no different.

Yes it was a dastardly attack…..but it should have been anticipated because of our actions toward Japan in the Pacific……and yet we were caught flat footed?

This is a look at the events that lead up to the attack on Sunday, 07 December 1941…..

One of the holiest days of the year is fast approaching. Are you ready? Remember the true meaning of Pearl Harbor Day!

The U.S. government planned, prepared for, and provoked a war with Japan for years, and was in many ways at war already, waiting for Japan to fire the first shot, when Japan attacked the Philippines and Pearl Harbor. What gets lost in the questions of exactly who knew what when in the days before those attacks, and what combination of incompetence and cynicism allowed them to happen, is the fact that major steps had indisputably been taken toward war but none had been taken toward peace.

The Asia pivot of the Obama-Trump era had a precedent in the years leading up to WWII, as the United States and Japan built up their military presence in the Pacific. The United States was aiding China in the war against Japan and blockading Japan to deprive it of critical resources prior to Japan’s attack on US troops and imperial territories. The militarism of the United States does not free Japan of responsibility for its own militarism, or vice versa, but the myth of the innocent bystander shockingly assaulted out of the blue is no more real than the myth of the war to save the Jews.

Have a Blessed Pearl Harbor Day

With that bit of history in the book….let me say…please take some time to remember our greatest generation and their hard knocks to win the war and to solidify America’s place in the world.

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Another Can’t Fix Stupid

It is Sunday and I am always amazed just how stupid Americans are about history….especially those that want to help rule the country….

I am referring to the Senator-elect from Alabama, Tommy Tuberville.

This is his reason for the US fighting in World War 2……

“It’s concerning to me that a guy can run for president of the United States and have an opportunity to win when he leans more to a socialist type of government, you know, one-payer system in health care, raise taxes 20 percent, when the other half the country is basically voting for freedom, let us control our own lives, stay out of our life,” said Tuberville, a former college football coach. “You know, as I tell people, my dad fought 76 years ago in Europe to free Europe of socialism.”

Think about that for a moment…..

Did you spot the stupid in that statement?

In case you are confused…..

In World War II, the United States was fighting against the Axis powers, which were mostly right-wing fascist governments. In fact, Americans fought alongside the socialist USSR as allies.

I guess he took too many hits to the head….or maybe his bad knees go all the way to his head…..either way….

There is No Fixin’ Stupid

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Has The Amber Room Been Located?

I have watched about a ga-zillion TV docs that try to say they are on the track of the Russian Amber Room looted by the Nazis in 1942…..wait!

What the Hell is the Amber Room?

Construction of the Amber Room began in 1701. It was originally installed at Charlottenburg Palace, home of Friedrich I, the first King of Prussia. Truly an international collaboration, the room was designed by German baroque sculptor Andreas Schlüter and constructed by the Danish amber craftsman Gottfried Wolfram. Peter the Great admired the room on a visit, and in 1716 the King of Prussia—then Frederick William I—presented it to the Peter as a gift, cementing a Prussian-Russian alliance against Sweden.

The Amber Room was shipped to Russia in 18 large boxes and installed in the Winter House in St. Petersburg as a part of a European art collection. In 1755, Czarina Elizabeth ordered the room to be moved to the Catherine Palace in Pushkin, named Tsarskoye Selo, or “Czar’s Village.” Italian designer Bartolomeo Francesco Rastrelli redesigned the room to fit into its new, larger space using additional amber shipped from Berlin.

Now you know and there have been treasure hunters looking for it since the end of the war, that is WW2…..some say it was destroyed by Russian artillery barrage….others think it is somewhere in a cave in Western Poland….and others think it was shipped to Germany and stored for later plunder.

This last story that I recall was that it was in a cave and that some “hunters” using the top notch equipment have located it…..

Third Reich scientists used the cave complex during the war – but all records of just what went on there have mysteriously vanished from local archives.

Now homeopath Leonhard Blume, 73, scientist Günter Eckardt, 67, and georadar specialist Peter Lohr, 71, believe they know where the treasure lies.

Lohr used specialist radar imaging to detect underground booby traps and what appear to be bunkers under the soil.

He scanned the hill in September after Lohr claimed a “reliable source” told him of the missing treasure’s whereabouts in 2001.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/4724263/amber-room-germany-mountains-nazi-loot/

That was three years ago and so far no news that the artifact has been located.

That is in a cave…but recently news has been leaking out that it may be located on a Nazi shipwreck……

Divers say they have found a shipwreck that could solve one of World War II’s most enduring mysteries: The fate of the dazzling Amber Room looted from a Russian palace by Nazi soldiers. The Polish divers say they have found the wreck of the Karlsruhe, a cargo steamer that was sunk with a heavy cargo in 1945 after leaving Koenigsberg, the last known location of the dismantled chamber, reports Reuters. Records show that the Karlsruhe left the port in a hurry during the evacuation of East Prussia. It was sunk by Soviet warplanes off the coast of what is now Poland. Diver Tomasz Stachura says the wreck is almost intact. “In its holds we discovered military vehicles, porcelain and many crates with contents still unknown,” he says.

“The history and available documentation show that the Karlsruhe was leaving the port in a great hurry and with a large load,” says diver Tomasz Zwara, per UPI. “All this put together stimulates the imagination,” he says. “Finding the German steamer and the crates with contents as yet unknown resting on the bottom of the Baltic Sea may be significant for the whole story.” It’s not clear when divers plan to return to the site. The room, donated to Tsar Peter the Great by a Prussian king in 1716, was looted from St. Petersburg’s Catherine Palace in 1941. A reconstruction at the palace was completed in 2003.

For more info…..https://newseu.cgtn.com/news/2020-10-06/Could-Nazi-shipwreck-discovery-solve-World-War-II-mystery–UlIpFdVU9a/index.html

Still NO concrete evidence that it has been located….but these treasure hunters just want to keep hope alive.

As long as we are talking about “legend”….is it possible that Nessie has been located in the Loch?

The object picked up by sonar technology is said to be ‘solid and pretty big’ sonar contact.

It measures around 10m and was detected by a boat owned by Cruise Loch Ness, in Fort Augustus, Scottish Highlands.

The mystery creature is likely to feed on trout and eels at the bottom of the loch, which has the largest volume of freshwater in Britain.

Director Ronald Mackenzie, 48, said: “Who knows what it is, there is quite a lot of fish at the bottom of the loch, there is carnivorous trout and eels.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/loch-ness-monster-found-sonar-22801900

Whatcha think?

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09 August 1945–1100 Hours

The second and final A-bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan.

Thus ending the Second World War.

Ever since there has been a debate on whether the bombs were necessary for the Allies to have won the war……I thoughts are NO.

But most people see it differently…I offer another view…..

At a time when Americans are reassessing so many painful aspects of our nation’s past, it is an opportune moment to have an honest national conversation about our use of nuclear weapons on Japanese cities in August 1945. The fateful decision to inaugurate the nuclear age fundamentally changed the course of modern history, and it continues to threaten our survival. As the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ Doomsday Clock warns us, the world is now closer to nuclear annihilation than at any time since 1947.

The accepted wisdom in the United States for the last 75 years has been that dropping the bombs on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, and on Nagasaki three days later was the only way to end the World War II without an invasion that would have cost hundreds of thousands of American and perhaps millions of Japanese lives. Not only did the bombs end the war, the logic goes, they did so in the most humane way possible.

However, the overwhelming historical evidence from American and Japanese archives indicates that Japan would have surrendered that August, even if atomic bombs had not been used — and documents prove that President Truman and his closest advisors knew it.

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2020/08/06/dropping-atomic-bombs-hiroshima-and-nagasaki-was-unnecessary

Final note…..Americans hatred for the Japanese after WW2 lead to the events of the A-bombs…….and among the Black community were the loudest opponents to the use of these weapons…….

…  missing is the recognition that African-Americans were some of the first in the country to voice concern about or even condemn the bomb, and that Black leftists were some of the first to draw the connections between colonialism, racism, capitalism and war. 

The general American hatred for the Japanese during World War II cannot be overstated. Thanks to the tireless activism of younger Japanese-Americans in the 1960s and 1970s, many Americans now know about the inhumane internment of Japanese-Americans during WWII — less know that Nazi POWs held in American camps were often treated with musical, theatrical, and even movie showings on most nights, set up volleyball leagues with their guards, were invited to dances and other social events, and would even be able to visit shops and restaurants in town that Black American G.I.s could not. Some historians have pointed out that most Americans at the time could differentiate between Nazis and Germans, fascists and Italians — but with Japan, all Japanese people were not only suspect, but by their very nature the enemy. Everything was done to dehumanize Japanese people, from seemingly all major forces of society: 

Early opposition to the atomic bomb came from Black America

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The Sixth Of August

On this day in history, and it was a busy one, many historic events took place……

1888–Martha Turner is murdered by Jack the Ripper

1904–Japanese army in Korea surrounds the Russian army

Then there was 1945……

But one of the biggest events was the first A-bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

Even by the heightened standards of a nation’s capital during wartime, the gathering of generals, admirals, and high government officials in the White House Cabinet Room on the afternoon of Monday, June 18, 1945, was impressive. Only one, however, could claim resident status—the newly sworn in president of the United States, Harry S. Truman.

A veteran of the First World War and a long-serving Democratic senator from the state of Missouri, Truman was an unlikely candidate for the job he now held. A compromise candidate for the office of vice president in 1944, Truman was no close confidant of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Indeed, he had little insight into Roosevelt’s thinking about postwar relations with the Soviet Union and no knowledge of the existence of a major program—the Manhattan Project—to produce an atomic bomb.

In a series of meetings conducted shortly after being sworn in as president, Truman overcame this deficit, maintaining a pledge to adhere as closely as possible to the policy directions set forth by President Roosevelt. But some decisions would have to be taken by the new president, which is why he had convened the Cabinet Room meeting.

ATOMIC BOMBINGS AT 75: The Decision to Drop the Bomb on Japan and the Genesis of the Cold War

More on this event in previous post……

But for the US it was the passing and signing the Voting Rights Act of 1965…..that gave alienated Americans free use of the ballot.

Congress passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 which aimed to increase the number of people registered to vote in areas where there was a record of previous discrimination. The legislation outlawed literacy tests and provided for the appointment of Federal examiners (with the power to register qualified citizens to vote) in certain jurisdictions with a history of voting discrimination. In addition, these jurisdictions could not change voting practices or procedures without “preclearance” from either the U.S. Attorney General or the District Court for Washington, DC. This act shifted the power to register voters from state and local officials to the federal government.

Because the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was the most significant statutory change in the relationship between the Federal and state governments in the area of voting since the Reconstruction era, it was immediately challenged in the courts. Between 1965 and 1969, the Supreme Court issued several key decisions upholding the constitutionality of the law [See South Carolina v. Katzenbach, 383 U.S. 301, 327-28 (1966) and Allen v. State Board of Elections, 393 U.S. 544 (1969)].

https://www.archives.gov/legislative/features/voting-rights-1965

More information…..https://www.justice.gov/crt/history-federal-voting-rights-laws

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