World War II

Good Monday morning everyone! We have a nice little collection of “left overs” to start the week. (The two stories about the impact of the war on California would appear to be good companions to the upcoming Ken Burns series on the war.)

- World War II Ace Rarely Spoke of Heroic Acts from the Courier-Post Online: A touching story of what a brother and sister learned about their father, a retired one-star Air Force general, after his death.

- The Lasting Impact of World War II on California from News Blaze: Announcement of a documentary produced by KCET Los Angles to air in conjunction with Ken Burns “The War.”

- For a related piece on the impact of the war on California, see “World War II Created Industrial, Cultural Revolution in Bay Area” from the San Francisco Chronicle

- Medals Given to World War II Veterans from Newsday.com: More than 60 years after the deeds for which they were recognized, two veterans received long overdue recognition on September 14.

- Former Crew Bids Farewell to Its World War II Captain from the Quincy Herald-Whig: I find these stories of comrades bidding one another farewell incredibly moving. This is the account of men who served under Capt. William G. Grote on the USS Tinsman during World War II attending their commander’s funeral.

Note: Just a quick word of thanks to the World War II Talk readers. We made the 451 Press “Top 20 Growth for the Month of August” list! Many thanks to all of you for visiting and reading. - Rana

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On this day in 1944, U.S. Marines landed on the island of Peleliu, one of the islands of the nation of Palau in the Western Pacific. They were there to capture an airstrip, and like most of the fighting in the South Pacific, the battle, which lasted into November, was bloody. By the end of the engagement 2,336 Americans were killed and 8,450 wounded with 10,695 Japanese soldier killed and only 202 captured.

- Wikipedia entry on the Battle of Peleliu
- Official website of the Republic of Palau
- Results of a flickr search for “Peleliu”
- Official website of the USS Peleliu
- A Tribute to Michael A. Lazaro and All Other Peleliu Veterans

Sometimes I get in sort of a mood about the war. In my house when you said “the war” you meant World War II, unless you were at a family reunion where the phrase could possibly still refer to the Civil War depending upon to whom you were speaking. (It’s a Southern thing.)

I confess I get cranky . . . no . . . I get angry when it seems that veterans and the war as a whole are being forgotten. Sure, I know we’re 66 years out from Pearl Harbor and young people today just look at the war as another question they need to get right to get the hell out of history class. I taught history after all and the indifference of 90 percent of my students to our collective past saddened, tortured, and infuriated me in equal measure back in the day.

But sometimes the neglect can get even more personal than that. I still maintain close ties to the little town in West Texas where I was born. My mother lives there as do many old friends. Several years ago the publisher of the local newspaper, the daughter of the former editor and publisher, himself a WWII vet, wrote a Veteran’s Day article about the town’s servicemen. The thing stretched on column after column and referred to many men both living and dead. It did not refer to my father. You see, the current editor and I have a personal feud. To get to me she ignored and insulted my father’s World War II service and left him out of the piece.

I won’t go into what followed. Suffice it to say I’d be hard put to walk across the street to spit on the woman if she were on fire. Since then, however, I’ve been even more sensitive to the feelings of living veterans who feel they’re forgotten. So this morning when I read this beautiful tribute to Seattle area veteran Al Weddle written by Robert L. Jamieson, Jr. for seattlepi.com, I cried. Yeah, I know, I cry alot about things related to the war. But what struck me most was the guy-to-guy tenderness of the piece. There are few things more touching than the respect of a young man for an old man. And I suspect there are few things old men enjoy more, even if they would never admit it.

At my own father’s funeral I was doing pretty well, holding it in and sucking it up to deliver the eulogy. Then I looked at the back of the church and saw two young men who worked for my Dad sitting erect, trying and failing to keep the tears from rolling down their cheeks. It is one of my most vivid images of that day. Those boys gave me a gift, although they didn’t realize it, in the love and respect they silently expressed for my Dad. And Jamieson’s piece is a gift to Weddle’s family and to World War II vets everywhere because it says, “I remember. I remember you and I remember your stories.” Bravo!

WWII, vets, Al Weddle, Paul Jamieson

Last week was an incredibly busy one both for me personally and for World War II related stories. I do want to pluck one story out of the Monday Roundup list to feature, “Group Campaigns for Stamp Honoring World War II Nisei Veterans” from ksby.com in California. The role of these American-born Japanese-Americans in the fighting is one that has not yet been fully recognized and honored and supporting a memorial stamp is but a small step in the right direction. (Click here for the Wiki article on Nisei Japanese American.)

Other stand-outs from the RSS reader that did not find their way into posts here include:

- Letter: Heroic World War II Veterans Are Fading from the Journal Gazettte Times-Courier.
- WWII Show Rekindles Some Sad Memories from the Tucson Citizen.
- 15 Vets Take Final Cruise from the Chicago Tribune.
- Hong Kong Detonates Massive World War II Bomb from Reuters
- Local Volunteers Help Preserve World War II Bomber from The Canadian Jewish News

WWII, Nisei, news stories

Even those of us who are not Jewish can have a rabbi, a wise counselor who listens and dispenses advice on difficult subjects. In the case of General Dwight D. Eisenhower, however, the rabbi was a rabbi, Judah Nadich.

Nadich, a military chaplain, served as an adviser to General Eisenhower on Jewish matters after the discovery and liberation of the concentration camps. Rabbi Nadich died of a heart attack at his home in Manhattan on August 26 at the venerable age of 95 years.

In April 1945 Nadich was a lieutenant colonel and the senior Jewish army chaplain in Europe. Eisenhower was one of my early heroes and I vividly recall the photos of the general, grim-faced and tight-lipped, as he toured the camps. For all of his life Eisenhower struggled with his temper. His anger over the Holocaust was towering and he ordered the entire population of neighboring German towns to walk through the horror about which they claimed they had no knowledge.

In later life Rabbi Nadich was the author of several books including Eisenhower and the Jews published in 1953. (The book is available on Amazon for a whopping $93. If you’re interested, I suggest calling the library and looking into interlibrary loan.) You can read the Wikipedia entry on Rabbi Nadich here.

We will never know what Rabbi Nadich and General Eisenhower discussed in private, but I cannot imagine a time when a man in a position of authority needed a wise adviser more than Ike in those days after the war. The Rabbi outlived the general, going on to fight for women’s rights and undoubtedly to see his children and grandchildren prosper.

May his memory be for a blessing.

WWII, Rabbi Judah Nadich, Dwight D. Eisenhower, concentration camps

On August 24, I wrote a post about the discovery of the wreck of the USS Grunion off the Aleutians. (See “Sons Locate Father’s WWII Submarine.”) The Grunion disappeared the night of July 30, 1942 and was rediscovered August 22, 2007 by an expedition funded by the three sons of the submarine’s skipper Lt. Cmdr. Mannert L. Aberle.

Today I ran across a lovely notice from a North Dakota news site. (See: World War II Sub Recovered.) A member of the Grunion’s 70-man crew, Sidney Loe was a native of North Dakota. Mike Loe, the deceased man’s nephew, told the reporter that his father, Amber Loe, was informed of the discovery of the Grunion just days before his death last week at 84. The news gave him a sense of closure about his brother’s fate after so many years of uncertainty.

There’s a marker in the Sanish Riverview Cemetery honoring Sidney Loe, but now his people know where he actually rests, with his shipmates, in a thousand feet of water. I’m sure that the experience of locating the Grunion was incredibly moving for Lt. Cmdr. Aberle’s sons, but were I in their position, I would be equally moved to know that my actions had given an 84-year-old man an even greater measure of peace at his passing. No matter what anyone says, these World War II recovery operations matter. They really do.

WWII, USS Grunion, Mannert Aberle, Sidney Loe, submarine, Aleutians

Some of you may recall my earlier post about the Ghost Army documentary project. I received the following encouraging update from Rick Beyer this morning plus a link to the trailer on YouTube:

“I just wanted to let you know how it is going with the Ghost Army Charity badge campaign. As of this writing, 65 people have donated more than $3000 to the film through the badge.(Many are people who didn’t even know about the project until we started this charity badge campaign.)

“Two donor families have pledged to match whatever we raise through the badge, meaning that $3000 in donations will translate into $9000 for the film.

“And of course we’re not done. We’re making a big push to double our numbers in the last two weeks.

“FYI, we enjoyed the Disney propaganda film. I assume you have seen our trailer, also posted on youtube, but if you have missed it, check it out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQVsR_HO5aA.”

Totally my bad for not posting a link to the trailer sooner. Click over and check it out. Excellent stuff.

WWII, documentary, Ghost Army, Rick Beyer

There are three items for the round-up today that sat in my RSS reader all week. All involve specific individuals - a pilot believed lost, a man who went to war at 32, and the death of a war correspondent:

“Deep Regret for WWII Fighter Pilot Premature” from The Plain Dealer - The story of a son, James Frolking, lost and returned and the memories of the 83-year-old man he is today.

World War II Vet Marks 100th Birthday from the Dothan Eagle - Glenn Marble had a quiet time of the war and was known to his shipmates at 32 as “the old man.”

Correspondent Russell J. Hill; Covered WWII and Postwar Europe from the Washington Post - The obituary for Hill, 88, a war correspondent for the New York Herald Tribune and noted author.

WWII, Glenn Marble, Russell J. Hill, James Frolking

In 1942 the USS Grunion a World War II Gato-class submarine with a crew of 70 disappeared near the Aleutian Islands off Alaska.

She left Hawaii on June 30 touching base at Midway before heading to the Aleutians for patrol duty. A Japanese destroyer attacked the Grunion off Kiska Island and the Grunion returned fire. Throughout the month of July she sank two patrol boats. The night of July 30, after sending a report of heavy anti-submarine activity, the Grunion fell silent and was never heard from again.

Air searches found nothing. The Grunion’s name was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register in November 1942 and she received a single battle star for her wartime service. That wasn’t good enough, however, for the three sons of the Lt. Cmdr. Mannert L. Abele, the skipper of the Grunion. After years of searching, Bruce, John, and Brad Abele found their Dad on August 22, 2007.

The Grunion lies in approximately 1,000 feet of water, imploded by the pressure at that depth. Photos were taken by a remote vehicle, but no signs of human remains were detected. Still, the Abeles now know where their father lies and what happened to his vessel. One more mystery of World War II laid to rest.

(Site Note: Since I was unable to post yesterday, today’s WWII Friday Five will appear later in the day.)

USS Grunion, Aleutians, submarine, Abele

When I first told friends I’d be writing a blog about World War II the reaction was pretty much uniform, “How are you going to find anything to write about? That’s going to be really hard.” The truth of the matter is that there’s always more coming through my RSS reader than I can possibly cover. On Monday’s I’m going to try to provide links to and small descriptions of stories that caught my eye but didn’t make it into posts the week before.

USS. Houston Survivor Honored - This story from the Deland-Deltona Beacon recounts the story of 90-year-old Guy Rose who survived the sinking of the USS Houston and subsequent imprisonment by the Japanese. I had never heard the story of the Houston and found the tale compelling.

Paper Balloon Bombers of World War II - Any war has its fair share of bizarre experimental weapons, but this account, by Walt Sehnert, discusses an effort by the Japanese to use prevailing winds to deploy unmanned balloon bombs against the United States.

Remains of German Flying Ace Recovered - The Washington Post reports on a group of amateur researchers who located the wreckage of Flight Sgt. Maximilian Volke’s plane as well as the pilot’s remains. Volke was credited with 37 kills.

World War II Memorial Dedicated to Texans - A brief story from the Austin American Statesman covering the dedication of a WWII memorial on the grounds of the state capitol on August 16.

WWII, USS Houston, Japanese balloon bombs, Maximilian Volke, memorial, Texas

Five surviving Navajo code talkers met with Marine General Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Pentagon yesterday.

Pace told the men, “You all are legends of our corps and Marines who demonstrated the resilience and capacity that made an enormous difference during the course of the war.”

Altogether there were more than 400 Navajos trained between 1942 and 1945 to take part in operations in the Pacific Theatre.

In 1995 a permanent code talkers’ exhibit was dedicated at the Pentagon and in July 2001 the 29 original code talkers were presented with Congressional Gold Medals by President George W. Bush.

The men who visited with Pace are recipients of the Silver Congressional Medal and included:

Cpl. Alfred Peaches (82)
Cpl. Joe Morris, Sr. (82)
Pvt. Arthur J. Hubbard, Sr. (95)
Pvt. George Willie (81)
Pfc. Samue Smith (82)

Fewer than 70 of these Navajo veterans survive today. Their organization, the Navajo Code Talkers Association, maintains a website here, although it seems pretty badly out of date. (Wikipedia offers a reasonably decent article and a nice list of links to external sources.)

Certainly the work of these men was among the most unique in the overall panorma of the war effort and it’s good to see they’ve lived long and honored lives.

I especially liked this quotation from Samuel Smith’s son, Michael. “If you’d ask my Dad about the code and how it was for him in battle, he will tell you that he was a Marine first. That was his job: to be a Marine.”

(For the source article from the Student Operated Press, click here.)

WWII, Navajo, code talkers, General Peter Pace, Pentagon

On the night of May 31, six Japanese submariners staged a bold raid on Sydney Harbour in Australia. Two of the midget submarines that slipped into the harbor that night to attack allied warships were destroyed before they saw action. The third sub intended to go after the USS Chicago but wound up putting a torpedo into the HMAS Kuttabul, a converted ferry, which sank. Twenty-one of the sailors sleeping onboard were killed.

That third sub disappeared only to be rediscovered by amateur divers in 2006. On August 6, relatives of Sub-Lieutenant Katsuhisa Ban and Petty Officer Memoru Ashibe cast flowers from the deck of an Australian warship and poured sake into the water in tribute to the men and the wreckage below.

The submarine is largely intact although filled with sand. It is believed that the remains of the crew lie inside the vessel, which will be left undisturbed as a protected monument. The younger brother of Lieutenant Ban, speaking through an interpreter, said, “We were all feeling uneasy about where it was so we are very happy the Australian divers found it.”

That “little” brother is now 74-years-old. Their story, like many in recent years, is being concluded after long years of wondering. During my childhood the news would occasionally report on an isolated Japanese soldier pulled off some nameless island after years of solitary waiting for the war to be over. I was fascinated by these men who remained at their post years beyond the official end of the conflict.

I won’t lie. In our household the Germans and the Japanese were referred to in derogatory terms replete with racial slurs. I don’t blame my father. These were the people who were trying to kill him when he was just 21-years-old. I’m not sure he lived long enough to see them as anything but the enemy. But part of the act of reconciliation is to remember that 21-year-old boys were dying on both sides, some, like these two men, entombed at the bottom of the ocean. Now their relatives know where they lie, in a sense, still at their post beneath the waters in the vessel they so daringly piloted. Two more boys who have finally come home.

(Click here for the International Herald Tribune story.)

WWII, Sydney, Australia, Japanese midget submarine

Yesterday an interesting documentary project came to my attention. The Ghost Army will tell the story of an Army unit unlike any other — provided a much needed matching funds grant comes through.

Activated before the Normandy invasion, the mission of the unit was obfuscation. Armed with inflatable tanks and sound effects among its toolbox of tricks, the 23rd Headquarters Special Tropps, the Ghost Army, worked on deceiving the Germans about the location and strength of American troops from Normandy to the Rhine.

Even more fascinating, however, is that many of the soldiers were young artists like fashion designer Bill Blass and painter and sculptor Ellsworth Kelly who used their skills for the war effort in a completely unique way.

Documentarian Rick Beyer wants to tell their story and he needs some help. If you visit The Ghost Army site, you can not only watch video clips from the production, but under the News section you can learn more about the matching funds campaign underway. There you’ll find tools to make a personal donation or to help spread the word. (See the right sidebar for donation and “share” options.)

Here’s the real kicker. They’ve only got until September 16 to reach their goal and earn a $10,000 matching grant from Kevin Bacon’s “Six Degrees” organzation. This is a story that needs to be told and valuable history that must be preserved. Visit Beyer’s site and if nothing else, help spread the word about his project.

WWII, documentary, Ghost Army, Rick Beyer

Ron Modro (whose haunting video of a Nazi stronghold in Bretagne, France I featured in this entry) has a new project set to commemorate the anniversary of the Hiroshima bomb, which was dropped at 8:15 a.m. on August 6, 1945.

According to Ron’s site Once Upon A Time on Planet Earth, 80,000 people died in an instant and 60,000 have since died. On the 62nd anniversary of the bombing more than 40 photographers in 25 countries will take a single photograph and share the story behind the image. The goal is to raise awareness about the considerable challenges and crises that face our planet today.

I’m greatly looking forward to the exhibition on many levels — as a total shutterbug, as a concerned citizen of the world trying to live as “green” a lifestyle as possible, and because I have a particular memory.

When I was in the 8th grade a very fine social studies teacher taught a unit on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Among the materials provided was an address to a retirement home where many of the elderly survivors received care. I selected a name and wrote a letter expressing my deep regret for the suffering of so many innocent civilians.

To my great surprise I received a reply a couple of months later. The note had been written by an orderly who explained that the woman to whom I had written did not see well and no longer attempted to write. She did, however, want me to know that she had appreciated my letter and that I must not feel guilt about what happened at Hiroshima. It was war time and many horrible things happened. She blamed no one and was thankful to have had a long life.

I’ve never forgotten that letter nor the sentiment and each year on the anniversary I think of that woman who I am sure is now long dead. Grace and forgiveness are rare commodities in our world. I applaud Ron’s project and am curious to see what thoughts go through the minds of other people on the anniversary of the dawn of the atomic age.

Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Ron Modro, photography

Writing for the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune on July 19, Jeannine Aquino recounts a recent expedition to the jungles of Papua, New Guinea by a team of dedicated MIA hunters.

Three separate teams on three two-week trips searched for missing World War II crash sites in an effort to recover the remains of 60 American airmen missing 62 years.

A non-profit organization based in Minnesota and known simply as “MIA Hunters” makes it their mission to locate, recover, and bring home for burial these long-lost servicemen.

On this series of expeditions, eleven crash sites were located and potentially 38 American and 22 Japanese servicemen will finally be returned to their families.

There are still 78,000 servicemen listed as missing in action from World War II with about 70 percent of those in the Pacific Theatre of operations.

When the MIA Hunters find a site, they document its location, photograph the area, and leave identification markers. They then plan an American flag and offer a prayer for those who died there.

For more on the MIA Hunters, click here for their homepage.

MIA, Papua, New Guinea, MIA Hunters, Pacific Theater