The Air-Raid Warden Was a Spy: And Other Tales From Home-Front America in World War II by William B. Breuer Page A
Authors: William B. Breuer
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raid had taken place on the 167th anniversary of Paul Revere’s fabled ride.
In Tokyo, the Imperial General Staff was bewildered by Roosevelt’s mention of Shangri-la, unaware that it was a mythical Himalayan retreat in James Hilton’s novel, Lost Horizon. Scouring maps, the generals concluded that Roosevelt had used the code name for Midway Island, the nearest U.S. post, twenty-one-hundred miles east of Tokyo. 24
Comic Strip Puzzles Tokyo Warlords
I N THE WAKE OF the surprise bombing of Tokyo, Japanese warlords were trying to unravel the mystery—and significance—of a full page of comic strips that had appeared in hundreds of American newspapers on the same day that Jimmy Doolittle’s raiders struck.
That comic strip—by an amazing coincidence—featured the hero American pilot, Barney Baxter, sneaking his airplane through Japanese defenses and bombing Tokyo.
Apparently the Japanese leaders believed that the comic-strip artist was somehow connected to the cloak-and-dagger operations and that he had a direct pipeline into the office of General George C. Marshall, the Army chief of staff, in Washington. Many puzzled Americans had reached the same conclusion. 25
Disaster Impacts Two U.S. Towns
I N THE SPRING OF 1942, America suffered its worst military disaster in history. Racked by disease, starving, exhausted, and out of ammunition, some 75,000
U.S. and Filipino soldiers on Bataan and Corregidor in the Philippines were forced to surrender.
Despite their pitiful physical condition, the POWs were forced to trudge on foot for fifty-five miles in what came to be known as the Death March. During the trek to a prison camp, 2,300 Americans and about 9,000 Filipinos perished from being bayoneted, shot, or tortured.
Only later would the citizens of two small towns tucked away in obscure corners of America feel that they had been struck by some biblical plague. Salinas, California, with a population of 11,596, had contributed 152 men to the tragedy of Bataan and Corregidor, and Harrodsburg, Kentucky, population 4,673, had lost 76 of its sons. 26
“A Date with Destiny”
A WEEK AFTER the American tragedy in the Philippines, Secretary of War Henry Stimson telephoned thirty-seven-year-old Oveta Culp Hobby, an executive with the Houston Post in Texas. Congress had been shocked into realizing that the United States was fighting for its existence and would have to fully mobilize. Consequently, on May 13, 1942, it authorized the creation of a Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC), and now Stimson asked Hobby to take charge of the new organization.
Hobby promptly accepted and became America’s first woman colonel. Her role was to train members of WAAC for certain army jobs to free able-bodied men for combat duty.
Colonel Hobby plunged into the demanding and frustrating task of building the WAAC from scratch. Often she met hostility rather than cooperation from the War Department. Male reporters at her first press conference bombarded her with irrelevant questions. “Can officer WAACs date men who are privates?” “Will WAACs underwear be khaki?” “What if an unmarried WAAC gets pregnant?”
For months to come, newspapers and magazines carried stories about America’s new “petticoat army, Wackies, and powder magazines.” Despite the boos and catcalls, Hobby persevered, and within weeks she had recruiting, staffing, facilities, uniforms, and training programs operational.
Hobby set the tone when she addressed the WAAC Officer Candidate students at Fort Des Moines, Iowa, in July 1942. “You have taken off silk and put on khaki,” the colonel said. “And all for essentially the same reasons—you have a debt and a date. A debt to democracy, a date with destiny.” 27
A Tumultuous Homecoming
E ARLY ON THE MORNING of May 8, 1942, Alice Bulkeley drove to La Guardia Airport with her father-in-law, Frederick Bulkeley. Alice was the wife of Navy Lieutenant John Bulkeley, who two months earlier had rescued General
In Tokyo, the Imperial General Staff was bewildered by Roosevelt’s mention of Shangri-la, unaware that it was a mythical Himalayan retreat in James Hilton’s novel, Lost Horizon. Scouring maps, the generals concluded that Roosevelt had used the code name for Midway Island, the nearest U.S. post, twenty-one-hundred miles east of Tokyo. 24
Comic Strip Puzzles Tokyo Warlords
I N THE WAKE OF the surprise bombing of Tokyo, Japanese warlords were trying to unravel the mystery—and significance—of a full page of comic strips that had appeared in hundreds of American newspapers on the same day that Jimmy Doolittle’s raiders struck.
That comic strip—by an amazing coincidence—featured the hero American pilot, Barney Baxter, sneaking his airplane through Japanese defenses and bombing Tokyo.
Apparently the Japanese leaders believed that the comic-strip artist was somehow connected to the cloak-and-dagger operations and that he had a direct pipeline into the office of General George C. Marshall, the Army chief of staff, in Washington. Many puzzled Americans had reached the same conclusion. 25
Disaster Impacts Two U.S. Towns
I N THE SPRING OF 1942, America suffered its worst military disaster in history. Racked by disease, starving, exhausted, and out of ammunition, some 75,000
U.S. and Filipino soldiers on Bataan and Corregidor in the Philippines were forced to surrender.
Despite their pitiful physical condition, the POWs were forced to trudge on foot for fifty-five miles in what came to be known as the Death March. During the trek to a prison camp, 2,300 Americans and about 9,000 Filipinos perished from being bayoneted, shot, or tortured.
Only later would the citizens of two small towns tucked away in obscure corners of America feel that they had been struck by some biblical plague. Salinas, California, with a population of 11,596, had contributed 152 men to the tragedy of Bataan and Corregidor, and Harrodsburg, Kentucky, population 4,673, had lost 76 of its sons. 26
“A Date with Destiny”
A WEEK AFTER the American tragedy in the Philippines, Secretary of War Henry Stimson telephoned thirty-seven-year-old Oveta Culp Hobby, an executive with the Houston Post in Texas. Congress had been shocked into realizing that the United States was fighting for its existence and would have to fully mobilize. Consequently, on May 13, 1942, it authorized the creation of a Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC), and now Stimson asked Hobby to take charge of the new organization.
Hobby promptly accepted and became America’s first woman colonel. Her role was to train members of WAAC for certain army jobs to free able-bodied men for combat duty.
Colonel Hobby plunged into the demanding and frustrating task of building the WAAC from scratch. Often she met hostility rather than cooperation from the War Department. Male reporters at her first press conference bombarded her with irrelevant questions. “Can officer WAACs date men who are privates?” “Will WAACs underwear be khaki?” “What if an unmarried WAAC gets pregnant?”
For months to come, newspapers and magazines carried stories about America’s new “petticoat army, Wackies, and powder magazines.” Despite the boos and catcalls, Hobby persevered, and within weeks she had recruiting, staffing, facilities, uniforms, and training programs operational.
Hobby set the tone when she addressed the WAAC Officer Candidate students at Fort Des Moines, Iowa, in July 1942. “You have taken off silk and put on khaki,” the colonel said. “And all for essentially the same reasons—you have a debt and a date. A debt to democracy, a date with destiny.” 27
A Tumultuous Homecoming
E ARLY ON THE MORNING of May 8, 1942, Alice Bulkeley drove to La Guardia Airport with her father-in-law, Frederick Bulkeley. Alice was the wife of Navy Lieutenant John Bulkeley, who two months earlier had rescued General
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