Author: Alexa Bigwarfe

This author has written 17 articles

Gas Stamps and Rubber: Precious Commodities During The War

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Rationing During World War 2 Last week, I wrote about the horrendous trip from India to Washington DC made by LT. Elsie Ott, the first flight nurse,  and her patients. This week I'm writing about a trip my dad made during WW II. The section below is a cut from my forthcoming book Our Duty, and highlights the impact of rationing during World War 2. Johnny, one of the important men in the true novel, had taken his sister-in-law to Lincoln, Nebraska to tell her young pilot husband goodbye before he headed to the conflict in Europe. Johnny had to borrow old tires and enough gas stamps  to try to make the 400+ mile trip. A Sad Trip Home “We left for home right after the ceremony. We tried to talk about how keen the send-off was, and that Ben had lost a lot of weight. Margie said it was such a wonderful gift for me to take her, and then she had to gulp and turn to the window. I know my stomach was tied up in knots and felt a boulder in my gut. Poor Margie had to have been even worse. But she was strong and held it together pretty good until she thought I was asleep that night. Must have had a towel over her mouth in the bathroom, but her sobs bout ripped me apart.” “You two shared a room?” Polly could not hide her incredulity. “Oh hell, we had planned to be home by dark, but that wasn’t in the cards. Barely got on the road when we had the first flat tire; another gave out before we got to Topeka. By that time, thunderheads were piling up, and the sky was as dark as our mood. When it started pouring, l decided we had to find a place to stop for the night. I didn’t want to take the chance of getting hit by a truck while changing a tire in that downpour. Margie and I agreed it was a waste of dough to get two rooms, so I took the floor.” “That makes sense.” “Our rotten luck still wasn’t over, though. We left before sunup, so I could get home and help Dad in case it hadn’t rained there. Luckily we stopped for gas and breakfast less than an hour outside of Topeka.  That’s when I discovered my wallet missing---left in such a rush forgot it on the night stand.” Polly shook her head, “Oh my gosh. What did you do?” “I left the owner of the gas station my watch as security that I’d return with stamps if he gave us enough gas to get back to Topeka. I prayed my billfold would be safe-- and it was.  The people at the motel were gonna mail it, but hoped Margie had money to get us home.” “What a trip!” Polly sighed, “Thank goodness those folks were all honest, and helpful.” During World War 2, gas and rubber rationing was an important part of…

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Lt. Elsie Ott—First Flight Nurse of WW2

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Lieutenant Elsie Ott had never flown before being assigned to the first medical evac. flight.On that flight Lieutenant Ott would have the  lives of several soldiers in her hands. Doctors did not even clear the patients for air travel, much less a trip that would take them almost half way around the world.Lieutenant Elsie Ott was a nurse at a military hospital in Karachi, India (now Pakistan) in January 1943. She had never flown and had no training about the effects of high altitude on any type of injuries or illness. However, she was given orders to accompany five soldiers in serious condition to Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, D.C.She was given no list of supplies needed or directions as to what to expect---just to be ready to leave the next day. Lt. Ott used her nursing intuition to gather basic medicine and equipment she felt might be necessary during the flight that would take an entire week. "Ott was responsible for the medical care of five casualties during the flight. Two patients were paralyzed from the waist down, one had tuberculosis, one had glaucoma and           another patient had manic-depressive psychosis. She collected a bedpan, urinal, aspirin tablets, and other medical supplies during her flight preparations. She also received blankets, pillowcases, sheets, two Army cots and two mattresses. 'A medical department staff sergeant with chronic arthritis, who had recently been a patient himself, accompanied Ott on the flight as her medical attendant'." (Source)  Because the Germans controlled Europe and Northern Africa, the flight had to take a course across the middle of Africa. Along the way 11 more patients were added.A detailed description of the flight with it's many stops for refueling and overnight layovers is a testament to the human spirit to overcome sleep deprivation, inept officials, and multitude of diverse tasks to complete the job. Judith Barger's book BEYON.D THE CALL OF DUTY  Army Flight Nursing in World War II,  details Lt. Elsie Ott's odyssey. This wonderful book is a tribute to flight nurses, and Barger gives a vivid picture of the terrible ordeal of Lieutenant Ott. Years later,  Elsie  told an interviewer that she was so tired when the flight arrived in Washington, she was unable to answer simple questions and requested permission to fill out paperwork the next day. She couldn't even remember her name and had to sneak a peek at her dog tags to provide that information.As a result of the success of her mission, the bureaucrats who thought medical evacuations and a flight nurse program were ridiculous to consider had a change of heart. This mission would have taken at least two months by air and ship;  therefore the first school for training flight nurses was soon opened at Bowman Army Air Field in Kentucky.  Due to her actions,Lt. Elsie Ott was the first woman to be awarded the Air Medal by the United States Army.Lt. Elsie Ott receives Air Medal from Brigadier General Fred  BorumThe citation accompanying the award read:Second Lieutenant Elsie S. Ott,…

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Father John McHugh, B-24 Bombardier, Miracle Man

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Consolidated Aircraft built the “B-24 Liberators [which] were not designed for crew comfort. The bombers were not pressurized or heated. Crews wore oxygen masks above 10,000 feet and were exposed to temperatures as low as 50 degrees below zero. Crew members’ heated jackets didn’t work most of the time. They were heavy, but not heavy enough to keep out subzero temps for up to 10 hours at a stretch.” ( https://inmilitary.com/world-war-ii-bombardier-shot-everything/ )

During the early days/years of writing Our Duty, my daughter, Kristine, told me that I really needed to include Father John McHugh, a priest she had met over the weekend. I explained that the book was about people who I knew and their contributions during WW II; it was mainly honoring family members. Anyone who knows Kristine is aware that she is pretty adamant in her convictions, and also pretty persuasive. (If for no other reason than she just wears you down.) Because of her story concerning a man I knew nothing about, a priest who had lived thirty years of his life helping the poor of Belize began inching his way into my book. I really needed to include Father John McHugh,  By this time Father was ministering to Native Americans in Mora, New Mexico. Through phone calls at first, which entailed much yelling due to Father’s hearing impairment, (He would rather the money for hearing aids be spent helping the poor.) and later through “turtle mail,” a total stranger was also inching into my heart, and becoming better known than many family members. John McHugh was just a twenty year-old farm boy from Oklahoma when he, like millions of others, joined the military to fight the Nazis and the “Japs.” He became part of the new Army-Air Corps because he was enthralled with the idea of flying. After extensive testing, both physical and mental, John was selected for officer training as a bombardier. In this precarious place, aptly called the “greenhouse” he had a bird’s eye view of the sky and the earth around him. This was not a great place to be on a bomber when other planes are attempting to  shoot you from the skies. Looking at the front of the B-24 in the WW II museum When my husband Paul and I visited the WW II museum in New Orleans, LA, one of the first things I saw was the front end of a B-24. I suddenly realized what an awful position the bombardier had---even more so than the ball turret gunners. The area was cramped and the airman inside was a sitting duck, visible from all but the back side. It was definitely like sitting in a flying greenhouse. In her award-winning book Unbroken, Laura Hillenbrand detailed the critical job of the bombardier. The main character of the book Louis Zamperini told her, “For flat runs he (the bombardier) used the Norden bombsight, an extremely sophisticated analog computer that, at $8,000,cost more than twice the price of the average American home [at that time]. On a straight bombing run …[the bombardier] would visually locate the target, make calculations, and feed information on speed, altitude, wind, and other factors into the device. The bombsight would then take over flying the plane, follow a precise path to the target, calculate the drop angle, and release the bombs at the optimal moment. Once the bombs were gone, [the bombardier] would yell, ‘Bombs away!’ and the pilot would take control…

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Women in the Fields Feed the Nation and the Military

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The landscape is changing daily as huge combines cut thousands of acres of grain each day. The fields are like the head of a huge blond haired boy that the barber takes a clipper to. At first there are wide swaths through the blond landscape. and quickly the scalp is bare. The weather is miserably hot, dry and windy---perfect for wheat harvest. Most all farmers today have air conditioned combines and trucks for hauling grain. They go home to air conditioned homes for a good nights sleep. Of course, things were completely different during WWII. Glancing through WW II pictures while preparing a different post, I came across photos and posters of women working the fields during the war. I thought it appropriate this week to give recognition to some of the millions of women who gave up their desk jobs and home making to provide food for the nation and the world while so many men were away fighting.  Those women didn't have air conditioned tractors or combines.  And, after a long day in the hot fields, they felt like queens if they had running water and could possibly take a bath before falling asleep, again without air conditioning In 1943  nine states had  WLA training facilities. By 1944 the number had risen to 44. As the war continued, the government not only encouraged city women and girls to give up their free time and vacations to help on the fields, they initiated the Women's Land Army (WLA)  to provide agricultural training and transport women to places needed. At first women worked on farms near home where they returned each evening. Eventually, with fewer and fewer men left in the country to work, the government transported the girls and women all over the US. They lived in work camps, some not as sanitary or comfortable as would be expected.  Child care became a huge issue during the war for both the farm and factory working women.  Some women took children to the fields with them, but the government stepped in and created at least 3,100 day-care centers which helped alleviate the problem for some.  "USDA officials estimated that as many as 800,000 women and 1.2 million young people would be needed in 1944 to assist in agricultural work." " WLA recruits included farm wives and daughters, college students, school girls, teachers, store clerks, stenographers, service wives, and homemakers. These women raised vegetables in New England, topped onions in Michigan, detasseled corn throughout the Midwest, shocked wheat in North Dakota, picked cotton in the South, planted potatoes in Maine, and harvested fruits and nuts on the West Coast. They also drove tractors, fed livestock, and performed dairying and poultry work. In total, 250,000 women were placed on farms during the 1943 crop season[alone]." "The WLA reported that year-round wages averaged between $25 and $50 dollars a month, with room and board furnished, while hourly rates for seasonal workers ranged from twenty-five to fifty cents.[an hour] . . .  However, the WLA conceded…

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BEAUTIFUL ARMY AIR CORPS FLIGHT NURSE, GRACIOUS LADY , WONDERFUL FRIEND

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I inherited Aggie from my mother.That's Mom, (Pauline Garrity Wetta) in the picture to the left. It's amazing that Aggie  is such a dear friend considering our age difference. I think that Aggie is my inheritance from my mother. They became best friends in nursing school during WW II. Without Aggie, Mom may not have graduated because she was quite the rebel.  After becoming an RN (registered nurse), Aggie joined the Army where she qualified to be a flight nurse so she became part of the Army Air Corps.She is such a humble lady that she never discusses this part of her life unless prodded. Then her usual comment was, “Oh I don’t remember much. We all just did what needed to be done."She helped keep 28 wounded soldiers and crew safe when the flight had to ditch over the Pacific.When her twinkling eyes try to bluff as they look over the top of a hand of cards, you’d never guess the things she has done and seen. One dark night she helped keep 28 wounded soldiers and crew safe when their two engine plane lost one over the Pacific, and had to ditch. This occurred shortly after the war ended, and the men were being air-lifted from far-outlying islands to Hawaii. The flight was blessed with a pilot who had flown the route so often that he was able to find a deserted atoll to set down on.  Because most of Aggie’s service, during the action, was spent on medical flights within the US, she always down-played her work saying the nurses in the battle zones were the angels. Transporting the wounded in the States may not have been as dangerous as in the areas of conflict, but it was still difficult and required constant work with multiple types of injuries. The first soldiers Aggie treated were returning from hospitals in Europe where they had received basic treatment after suffering horrible wounds on the battle fields. Some of the worst were  mutilations suffered during the horrible, freezing Battle of the Bulge. Many men still required extensive hospitalization and care once shipped to the US.  Aggie said that the burn victims, amputees, and psyche cases broke her heart the most. The latter because she knew very few people in the ‘40s understood mental illness at all.Some of the worst were the injuries and mutilations suffered during the horrible, freezing Battle of the Bulge.At first Aggie was stationed at in Florida where her flights originated. They would fly to Washington so men could be treated at Walter Reed, then on to New York, Chicago and out to San Diego. At each stop they delivered wounded to hospitals closer to home, and picked up others to transport to facilities farther west.Aggie was bound for Hawaii aboard a solitary troop transport from Seattle when Japan finally surrendered.  Because of the constant threat of attack from Japanese, all were on high alert.  When the whistles started sounding and "All hear this," came over the…

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D-Day: 74th Anniversary

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This week’s blog is dedicated to the thousands of young men who set aside their fear and homesickness to finally make a foot-hold onto European soil. After five years of terror by a madman, on June 6, 1944, the allies finally initiated the long awaited invasion D-Day. This was the first day most of the people of Europe truly celebrated since Hitler began his horrible rein over most of a continent and into Africa. The day immortalized in such movies as Saving Private Ryan and The Longest Day. D-Day which, hopefully, 90% of the baby boomer generation immediately call to mind heroic acts, and the horrible slaughter of thousands of young men on beaches far-away from their farms, schools and businesses in Australia, New Zealand, many European countries led by Americans, British, and Canadians. Strategic plans for the invasion were deliberated for almost 18 months to better assure victory for the Allies. We know that Eisenhower, Bradley, Montgomery, Leigh-Mallory and other generals and admirals were the brains for the invasion. However, I had never thought of how much tedious work was done so the most specific aspects of the five beaches of Normandy would be known. This was done to give the men coming ashore a better chance of survival. In her book The Sea Before Us, Sarah Sundin recounts the detailed work of British Wrens in painstakingly assembling vital information. As always, her much researched novel provides a different, mostly unknown look at the War in a compelling manner.  The book also details some of the drills and preparations of thousands of soldiers that were taking place in Great Britain. At 6:30 in the morning of June 6th, the assault began, and many died in floundering boats before reaching shore. For over a year, young men who had never seen action trained in England. Many were part of the 29th Division that would be in the first landing vessels because the generals knew they would be enthusiastic and also naïve as to the reality of battle. All were soaking wet from the waves splattering their crafts during the long night crossing the channel in secrecy. Hundreds were so sea-sick they thought they were dying without a shot being fired.  At 6:30 in the morning of June 6th, the assault began, and many died in floundering boats before reaching shore. Many more died as the landing craft ramps lowered and they were hit by German artillery. The young men who made it to shore expected to be able to take cover in craters created by allied bombing just for this purpose. Because pilots feared hitting the approaching landing craft, they failed to drop the bombs on the beach. Those who made it through the water faced wide-open space with no protection. The hamlet of Bedford, Virginia (3,200 people in 1942) has the unfortunate distinction of contributing the most young men from one town in the first minutes and hours on Omaha Beach. 19 of their beloved boys were killed on that day. Forming Company A,…

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About This Blog

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This blog is an endeavor to shine a light on some of those humble heroes of the WW II. If you ever think back to the long ago (longer for some of us) days of grade school, what do you most remember? Recess, of course, and if you were lucky to have wonderful cooks like Mrs. Demming and Mrs Nigg, the aroma and to-die-for cinnamon rolls, breads, and casseroles will always be a special memory.

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