The War Years
"There will be wars and rumors
of wars," Jesus predicted as he surveyed that expanse of time before he
would return. How true that has been and
continues to be. President Wilson in the
Great War (World War I) promised that that would be "the war to end all
wars," but two decades later the world would once again be engulfed in
another massive conflict.
In 1936 Italian Fascist dictator
Benito Mussolini grabbed the weak African nation of Ethiopia, and in Spain the
Fascist General Franco overthrew the democratic government of that country in a
bitter civil war. In 1937 the Japanese
invaded northern China. These events
received prominent coverage in the newspapers of those years and I was aware of
them, but the dangers seemed far away.
By this time also, Hitler, in violation of the Treaty of Versailles, had
built an impressive war machine in Germany and had moved troops into the
Rhineland. Britain and France, still
reeling from the tremendous loss of life and crippling expense of the recent
World War, trembled as they watched this little, dark-haired, mustached fanatic
whip his countrymen into a frenzy, promising to restore Germany to pride and
greatness again. In 1938 Hitler and his
Nazi party took over Austria, and then proceeded to demand the German-speaking
Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia.
The world breathed easier for a
time, however, when Hitler met with British and French leaders at Munich in
September of 1938 and assured them that he only wanted to restore what was rightfully
a part of Germany: Austria and the German-speaking regions of
Czechoslovakia. To avoid war, France and
England agreed to yield to these demands, and British Prime Minister Neville
Chamberlain returned to England with the wonderful news that "we have
achieved peace in our times." But
the next spring Hitler took all of Czechoslovakia, and the world suspected that
it had a monster on its hands.
This suspicion was soon confirmed
when in September 1939 Hitler
blitzkrieged Poland, and within a month Poland had fallen. By this time France and England, though
woefully unprepared, had declared war on Germany. The United States, still fondly nursing the
illusion that we did not have to get involved in European wars, stood nervously
by and watched with apprehension--watched as Hitler turned westward and
successively overran Denmark, Norway, Holland and Belgium.
Meanwhile, back in Kanawha, Iowa, I
was 11 years old and learning a lot about the geography of Europe. The Des Moines Register, our daily
newspaper, showed maps of what was happening every day. I can still draw a fairly accurate map of
Germany, resembling a wolf, crunching helpless Czechoslovakia between its huge
jaws. We followed events in the
newspapers and heard the foreign news correspondents like Clifton Utley, H.B.
Kaltenborn and Edward R. Murrow report on radio from various points in Europe.
In May of 1940 Hitler began his
invasion of France. Things were getting
serious. France, however, had a highly
vaunted, fortified defense line called the Maginot Line, which ran diagonally
accross France between Germany and Paris.
Surely it would stop the German tanks and troops and give Britain and
France time to build up their forces in defense. Hitler, however, seeing no gentlemanly reason
to challenge the line, simply flew his bombers over it and skirted his troops
around it through the Holland and Belgium.
Within weeks, France had fallen and Britain had suffered tremendous
losses as it evacuated its troops from France in the Battle of Dunkirk. Dark days had descended on England and on the
world, and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill addressed the English
people, giving one of the most inspiring speeches of all time, promising to
"...fight on the beaches,... fight in the fields and in the streets,...
fight in the hills; we shall never surrender." Blood, sweat and tears, he said, would be
their lot. The major concern now was: How soon would Hitler invade England itself?
By this time, many Americans were
beginning to realize that our country would have to get involved in some
way. At least we could help supply
England with guns and planes and tanks.
And we did, first by sale, and later, in the Lend-Lease program. American factories began gearing up to
produce these materials. In the fall of
1940 the military draft was instituted and American young men began to be
inducted into the Army or to join the Navy, Marines or Air Force. If England should fall, would Hitler be
content to stop there? Or was he intent
on world domination? It was best to be
prepared.
There was a lull in the conduct of
the war as Hitler contemplated whether he could successfully invade and conquer
England. Meanwhile, he continued to bomb
London and other cities night after night.
1940 merged into 1941. I was now a seventh grader. Franklin Roosevelt had been elected to an
unprecedented third term as President, defeating the Republican Wendell Willkie
and vowing that American boys would not be sent into any foreign war. Then, in the summer of 1941, Hitler made an
astounding decision. He decided to
invade Russia. After quick and easy
successes which brought his troops almost to Leningrad and Moscow, Hitler's
army bogged down and was later stifled by the severe Russian winter.
Meanwhile, our government was negotiating
with Japan to get that country out of China; and we eventually cut off all
shipments of steel, oil and gasoline to Japan.
Japan proceeded to strengthen its existing alliance with Germany and
Italy, and their envoys continued to carry on talks with the United States
Government.
December 7, 1941 was a moderately
cold, cloudy day in Iowa. Being a
Sunday, we had gone to church that morning as was our custom. That afternoon my parents and I visited with
Uncle Ben and Aunt Annie Assink and the cousins on the old farm where I was
born. I, like my cousin Alvin, was in
the eighth grade, and getting a bit too sophisticated to play cowboys and
Indians or cops and robbers; but Helen and Harlan were younger; so with some
toy six-shooters which fired with convincing blasts from powder caps, we
engaged in what would prove to be our last episode of cops and robbers. Alvin and I, the criminals, were hiding out
in a grain bin of their corn crib when their older brother Henry intruded upon
the scene. We shot him several times,
but after dutifully collapsing and quickly recovering, he informed us that we
were at war. The Japanese had bombed
Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
The gray skies darkened a shade or two as
we headed to the house to discover more details. The radio was giving the unhappy description
of the catastrophe which abruptly turned our world into one of gloom and
apprehension. Several important American
battleships had been destroyed, many lives were lost, and most distressing to
us, we had been helplessly unable to retaliate.
That night in church, Rev. Plesscher talked about it and prayed about
it. (Somewhat to my surprise, even he
had listened to the radio that Sunday afternoon.) People knew what this attack meant. They knew that now our young men would
certainly be involved in real war. There
was generally at that point, however, an unrealistic optimism. "Six weeks,
maybe two months, and we would be able to bring the dirty Japs to their
knees." We were at war, but the
U.S. had never lost a war, and we would make quick work of this one now that we
were actually involved.
The following day President
Roosevelt addressed Congress and called for a declaration of war on Japan,
Germany and Italy. In describing the
Japanese attack on December 7 he said that the day "would live in
infamy." Contrary to popular, early
expectations, however, the Japanese were not to be brought to their knees
soon. As a matter of fact, within six
months Japan had conquered a good share of Southeast Asia including Guam, the
Philippines, Indonesia, French Indo China (Vietnam) and a host of other
islands. Japan's position was solid, and
the United States soon recognized that it would be a long war.
With the help of a history textbook
to refresh my memory I could give an account of the progress of the war to its
conclusion almost four years later. I
shall not do that. The early events of
the war seem especially significant to my story because they reveal how my life
was so dramatically changed and affected by them. As time passed, however, things settled down,
the war moved along, and life continued in many ways almost as if there were no
war.
We, of course, continued to monitor
the progress of the campaigns and battles in the newspapers and by listening to
the morning and evening news broadcasts on radio. But our lives were most impacted by the
absence of so many young men. The United
States Armed Forces were built up to include over 15 million men (and a few
women). Almost every male who could pass
the physical was put into the armed forces.
Brother Harold, having had a heart murmur all his life, did not pass the
physical and was classified 4-F. Even
before we officially entered the war he had gone to an aircraft school in
Omaha, Nebraska to receive training to build planes. Shortly thereafter he was employed by the
Bell Aircraft Corporation in Buffalo, New York, building the P-39 fighter
plane. Harold continued working there
until 1942 when he returned to Kanawha, bought a truck and became a
trucker. He married Nettie Christians on
November 17 of that year. Somewhat
later, he became the manager of the Farmers Produce station in Kanawha.
Henry, much to his chagrin, was also
first classified 4-F. He had an
enlargement on the side of his head, something he had had since he was born,
but the examiners thought it to be a more serious problem. As soon as possible, Henry headed off to the
San Francisco area and worked in a shipbuilding yard. Early in 1943 he was re-examined, passed the
physical and joined the Navy. After
training on the east coast, he spent most of his time until the war ended
serving as a radar operator on the battleship Alaska in the Pacific Fleet.
There were some farm boys who avoided the
draft because they were needed on the farm.
To fortify that need, many farmers bought more land to insure that their
sons could avoid serving in the military.
There was a general disapproval by the public against those who did that
and the name "draft-dodger" was designated for such who valued their
safety and security above the patriotic call to risk their lives in the service
of their country. Pa had given
consideration to purchasing more land, but neither of his draft-age sons would
have approved of such action. As things
turned out, people who avoided the draft were "winners" in more
ways. Not only were they guaranteed
safety from the hazards of war, they also profited greatly from rapidly rising
prices of farm products. This prosperity
left them in a good position after the war to purchase even more land and
equipment to expand their agricultural operations.
Life in Iowa and most of the nation
carried on quite routinely during the war.
No armies invaded our soil, no battles wreaked destruction of the
countryside, no German or Japanese bombers ever ventured across the expansive
oceans to disturb our tranquility. The
worst feature of the war, especially in the early stages, was the anxiety we
all experienced about the eventual outcome of the war and, equally, of the
safety of the friends and relatives in the armed forces fighting in faraway
places. One soldier from our church,
Kort Delger, was killed in action, and two or three others from the town of
Kanawha lost their lives as well.
Families with men in service proudly displayed in their front windows a
little banner with a blue star on it.
When a gold star was shown, we knew that someone in that family had
given his life in the cause of freedom.
There were inconveniences that we
all experienced because of the war.
Since many products were hard to obtain either because supplies of them
had been cut off by enemy control or because they were needed in the war
effort, a system of rationing was introduced by the government. Sugar was rationed, and to make it serve our
family needs, Mom determined that each of us would be allowed one cup of sugar
per week. Honey or syrup was often used
on our breakfast cereal to stretch the supply.
Gasoline was drastically
curtailed. Most drivers were allotted
four gallons per week, unless they could prove that their need for more was
essential. Farmers were allowed much
more gasoline because they needed it for their tractors. Tractor gas could also be used in cars and
few farmers had scruples against diverting some of the tractor gas for
automobile use. Some farmers even helped
out their fellow citizens with extra supplies of gasoline. To help conserve the gasoline, auto speed
limits were lowered to 35 miles per hour.
Loyal citizens helped to enforce that by giving the "V for
victory" signal--3 short toots of the horn and a long toot--to those who
passed them on the highway at obviously higher speeds.
Rubber, produced mostly in Southeast
Asia, was almost impossible to obtain.
Synthetic rubber was used for most automobile tires and was of such poor
quality that flat tires were frequent.
Two spare tires were not uncommon in the trunks of many cars.
Another material, hemp, used in the
manufacture of rope, was also cut off during the war. To substitute for the high quality Philippine
hemp a related hemp product was introduced into northern Iowa in 1943. It grew six to eight feet tall and was ready
to harvest in the month of November.
Because there was no machinery to bundle it for shipment to market, high
school students were let out of school for several days to bundle it and load
it on to trucks to be sent to processing plants. This was also an opportunity for me as a
sophomore to make good money since farmers paid about 75 cents per hour for our
efforts. Years later I would learn that
the name for this hemp plant was Cannabis or, more popularly, Marijuana.
The course of the war gradually
shifted in favor of the Allies (the good guys).
The American army had grown immensely and had become trained for
action. War materials--tanks, planes,
bombs, guns--were rolling off our assembly lines in phenomenal quantities. By June 6, 1944 we were able to launch a
massive invasion of northern Europe on the French coast. D-Day, the name given to the day of the
invasion, had finally arrived. I heard
the news on the radio early that morning and remember distinctly reflecting on
the turn of events as I walked to the pasture to get the cows. The corn in the adjacent field was already
five or six inches tall that sunny morning, and the future looked more
promising than it had for a long time.
It would now be only a matter of time before the enemy would be defeated
and the war would end.
And that end would come within a
year. Although there had been stiff
fighting, especially at the Battle of the Bulge in December of that year, the
Germans were on the run. VE Day (Victory
in Europe Day) came on May 8, 1945. I
remember that day vividly because we learned of it during a high school
baseball game against Britt in which I, now a Junior, pitched a one-hitter.
With the war in Europe over, the
Allies could now devote their undivided attention to the war against Japan,
which still held out in the Pacific War theater. Japan was already being pushed back, however. The Philippines had been retaken, as had much
of Southeast Asia. On August 6, 1945,
while I was drinking orange nectar during the afternoon break in the farm work,
we heard on the radio the news of an awesomely, devastating bomb having been
dropped on Hiroshima, Japan. Three days
later a similar bomb was dropped on Nagasaki.
The world knew the end had come for Japan, and that was confirmed when
on August 14 Japan officially surrendered.
Henry could soon come home.
The long war was over. The greatest, most massive alignment of
opposing forces ever to have taken place had ended. The world could return to sanity and pursue
more noble purposes again. At least that
was the fond hope entertained by most.
Our church, and I think other churches too, gathered that evening for a
service of thanksgiving and prayer. Later
the whole town assembled on main street and a bonfire was lit to celebrate the
happy
occasion.
And how was my life affected by
World War II? I've mentioned some of the
things in the pages above, but did it shape me in any significant way to make me
a different person than what I would have been?
These are difficult questions to answer.
Who really knows how the forces bearing on one's life really affect him. I suspect that in waiting for the long
conflict to end, I may have learned something about taking the long view,
knowing that goals are not achieved in a day and that big changes don't occur
instantaneously. Certainly, I learned
more about the world and its peoples.
And I learned more about what the larger community means, because so
much of what went on during the war affected us in community beyond the family
and the church community. But more
important than how my own life was affected, were the enormous changes that
would occur in the world and society as a whole. The world was thrown together, and that, with
the enormous advances in technology the war brought about, would mean the
beginning of our world becoming a global village. And this would bring a new perspective to our
lives forever.
Grab the paperback copy of "Looking Back" HERE!
Read more stories by clicking on the links below:
