December 1941

by Craig Shirley

  A small Associated Press story moved on the wires, though many papers chose not to run it. But the Birmingham News did print it under the headline, “Nazis Execute 5 Jews in Occupied France.” The story, as picked up from Vichy Radio, said the executions were punishment for “renewed attacks” on German military.41

  There was an air of desperation blowing in Berlin. For the first time in years, there would be no Christmas furloughs for the German army. Every man was ordered to stay at his post. They were also dealing with a huge outbreak of typhus among their troops in Russia, as well as their faltering military campaigns in Libya and Russia.

  Illustrating how tenuous their positions had become on the Eastern Front and in North Africa, Berlin began pulling troops out of Norway and reassigning them to the two battle zones. Norway had been occupied by Germany, though they were a courageous people with an active underground working to trip up the Germans. Crown Prince Olav was a thorn in the side of the Germans but they dared not execute him. He was hugely popular, in part because of his frank way of speaking. He wanted to join the Allies and declare war on Japan but lamented, “We can’t get a parliament together to do it.”42

  Hitler fired his top military commander and took over direction of the German army personally, after telling the German people he did so because of an “inner call.”43 In light of his stunning early successes, Hitler fancied himself a military genius. However, even though his bold gambles had paid off in the beginning of the war, he was a mediocre military strategist whose stubbornness paved the way for many colossal blunders, as would soon become apparent. But he was riding high in 1941, and no German officer dared oppose him, yet.

  The Monor family of Ft. Myers, Florida got an unexpected Christmas gift. Previously notified by the War Department that their son, Kenneth, had been killed at Pearl Harbor, they received another notice—this one saying that the telegram was in error and their boy was alive after all.44

  The news was not so welcome in other homes. In Humboldt, Tennessee, Mr. and Mrs. V. A. Kennington learned of their double loss at Pearl Harbor, sons Cecil, 21, and Milton, 20. When informed by the navy, Mr. Kennington said, “I have four more sons. I will give them all and I, too, would fight to put down such sneaking and deadly enemies as the Japs, Hitler and Mussolini.” The family had already lost their eldest son fighting “in the first World War.”45

  The Barber family in New London, Wisconsin, received the terrible news in triplicate. The three eldest sons, Malcolm, 22, LeRoy, 21 and Randolph, 19, had all been aboard the Oklahoma, serving as firemen. Just hours before attending services at the Most Precious Blood Catholic Church, Mrs. and Mrs. Peter Barber received the horrible report. All three of their boys died in the attack. The family priest, Fr. Raymond Fox, announced the news to the stunned congregation. “I am glad they died like men and could give their lives for their country,” said Peter, their dad. The parents told of how their sons had asked the navy to serve together and how in Hawaii they had met the actor and singer, Gene Autry, who then hosted the three in his home in California when the Barber boys had received a furlough. Mr. and Mrs. Barber still had two sons left at home, aged 16 and 9 and the father said, “When their brothers are old enough, I am sure they will avenge their deaths.”46

  Their church planned a requiem high mass for the lost sons of New London.

  Revenge was also on the mind of Fletcher Lindsay, 20, of Alabama. His big brother James, 23, had been killed on the Arizona. The young man walked into a Navy recruiting office in Mobile and signed up only twelve hours after finding out his brother was dead. Fletcher’s mother signed his papers without hesitation. Bereaved and angry brothers all over America were swearing revenge.47

  Lou Boudreau received an early Christmas gift when he was appointed manager of the Cleveland Indians. This made the shortstop the youngest manager in the history of major league baseball.

  The day also marked the sixty-second birthday of Josef Stalin. Two years earlier, when they were uneasy allies, Hitler had sent “Uncle Joe” a birthday greeting. “Accept my most sincere congratulations on your sixtieth birthday, my best wishes for your personal wellbeing and a happy future for the Soviet people.”48 That was before Hitler invaded his country, an act which tended to put a damper on friendships of convenience and strategic alliances. The strange fact was, the incessantly suspicious Stalin had actually trusted the German dictator. Stalin was genuinely shocked when Hitler violated their nonaggression pact and sent his Panzers rolling toward Moscow. The rest of the world was less surprised.

  Not everybody in America was interested in home and hearth for the holidays. Many liked to travel and though cruises to South America were still available, the seas seemed uncertain to many and travel and touring closer to home was becoming more attractive by the minute. The state of Alabama took out big ads in the New York Times “inviting Winter tourists to visit Alabama on the trips South. The ad advised travelers to take time to see Alabama’s giant power dams, huge defense industries, army camps, surging cities, stately ante-bellum homes, cotton fields, fine herds of cattle, historic scenes of the Civil War and glorious azaleas of Mobile.”49

  Congress was looking at a national sales tax as a means of raising even more revenue for the war. It was proposed as an alternative to the “so-called withholding tax which the Treasury suggested for consideration a few weeks ago and which employers would be required to deduct from workers’ pay checks.”50

  A national sales tax was seen as a “less painful” way to collect new revenue. A Republican member of the House, Bertrand Gearhart of California, touted the sales tax and believed it “would lose much of its ‘bugaboo’ when contrast with such proposals as the 15 percent withholding tax being proposed by Secretary of the Treasury Morganthau.” Others fretted that the sales tax would adversely affect those “least able to pay” while others argued for increasing the excess profits tax on corporations.51

  More and more evidence of the effects of the war appeared in the daily lives of the American people. At first they were told there would be plenty of food, then that story changed, and then it changed again. Now the government advised exactly what foods they should stock in their pantries. Government nutritionists recommended the following: Sixteen cans of evaporated milk, cans of beans, cans of corn, cans of “meat or fish,” cans of peas, cans of tomatoes, cans of sauerkraut, cans of luncheon meat, cans of salmon, cans of sardines, cans of tomato juice, cans of grapefruit juice, soda crackers, whole wheat crackers, sixteen bars of chocolate, chocolate syrup, sugar, jam, coffee, peanut butter, tea, and “one pound of prunes.”52

  Women were advised that while there was not a foreseeable shortage of gloves, they should engage in “wise buying.”53 Doctors were advising Americans of the healthfulness of whole milk. “For the adult, whole milk alone and without fortification can serve for complete nutrition for a long time,” said Professor E.B. Hart of the University of Wisconsin. Of course, he advocated that if one tried to live by milk alone—for, say, six months—they might try “fortifying their diet with copper, iron and manganese.”54

  Just as the government warned people not to hoard sugar, Americans did precisely that, cleaning out stores in many parts of the nation. There appeared to be no shortage of booze however. All sorts and manner were recommended to help with the holiday cheer. “What every woman wants to know about a man. . . . That he is adept in mixing holiday cheer . . . and equally considerate in choosing the whiskey he gives and serves his friends. Old Schenley.”55

  To get to the supermarket or department store or liquor store and stock up on groceries and milk and gloves and whiskey, the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. came out with the “War Tire.” It was made from regenerated rubber. The idea behind it was to keep “the civilian wheel of America from coming to a stop.”56 The contrivance was flimsy and unreliable.

  Goodyear was in danger of losing its rubber plantations in Sumatra, just across from Malaya, where the fierce fight for Singapore was raging on. The president of the Good
year Company, P. W. Litchfield, told the American consumer his company could keep rolling out War Tires indefinitely as long as automobile operators did not drive “over 35 miles per hour.”57

  CHAPTER 23

  THE TWENTY-THIRD OF DECEMBER

  Churchill In Unity Talks At White House

  New York Times

  U.S. Ship Fired On Only Six Miles Off Pacific Coast

  The Birmingham News

  Japs Land on Luzon

  Evening Star

  Japs Land on Wake Island

  Lethbridge Herald

  In the low, backwater country around Orlando, Florida, a “cracker” hurried into a Navy recruiting office, demanding an immediate haircut and shave for his excessively long locks and beard. The chief machinist mate who was in charge of recruiting, inquired why he wanted it so badly and why now. “Well, I’ll tell you. I been out huntin’ and fishin’ down on the St. Johns—kinda away from things. An’ by doggo, I just found out them danged Japs is a-fighin’ us.”1

  The people pushing into the ranks of the U.S. military came from all walks and ways: oldsters, youngsters, blue collar, white collar, Sun Belt, Farm Belt, Bible Belt, Mid-West, Mid-Atlantic, West Coast, East Coast, Gulf Coast, Confederates, Yankees, city slickers, country boys, black men, white men, Hispanic men, Asian men, fathers, sons, grandfathers, and even a few elected officials. The army said over 28,000 men had enlisted in the first two weeks after December 7.2 Truth be told, some women wanted to go and fight too.

  “Although the Army has called most of the lieutenants, captains and majors in the . . . Field Artillery Reserves to active duty, for the present at least it does not need its commanding officer, Col. Harry S. Truman, junior Senator from Missouri, and his confidential aide, Lieut. Harry Vaughan, it was learned yesterday.” As it turned out, Truman and Vaughan had been berating the War Department for days to put them into active duty. “They volunteered to serve as soon as this war was declared, but were told that they have a more useful function to fulfill as Senator and Senator’s aide.”3 Truman was then fifty-seven years old, only two years younger than FDR.

  With all the men pouring into the lists, they were draining the work pool. The male labor shortage was such that the owner of a large cab company in San Diego complained that with all the men either going into war industries or enlisting, he might be forced to hire women to drive his taxis. He “petitioned the City Council for ‘chauffeurette’ licenses.”4 A New York legislator was advocating the full use of the thousands of prisoners in the state penitentiaries to be mobilized to make up the country’s labor shortage.5

  The day after the NFL championship, the most poorly attended in league history, the annual college draft began. Because of their records, the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Washington Redskins went first. The Redskins drafted Bill DeCorrevont of Northwestern and the Steelers took Bill Dudley of Virginia. Dudley went on to a Hall of Fame career as a star running back in the forties and fifties. DeCorrevont—in four seasons for the Redskins, Chicago Cardinals, Chicago Bears, and Detroit Lions—rushed 75 times for 233 yards and a 3.1 yard-per-carry average, fumbling on eight occasions, which meant he gave up the ball over 10 percent of the time. At quarterback, he threw for 155 yards, tossing ten interceptions and only three touchdown passes, completing just 42 percent of his passes. DeCorrevont went into the rug cleaning business in Chicago after his less-than-illustrious pro-football career. At the end of his career and with little left to give the game, Dudley finished his remaining days with the Redskins.6

  FDR was more astute in his draft choices than the Redskins. He nominated, for U.S. attorney for Northern Ohio, Don Miller, who in a previous incarnation had been one of the famous “Four Horsemen” of the great Notre Dame teams coached by Knute Rockne.7 At 5:00 p.m., FDR again had cocktails in the Red Room with Eleanor and some guests.8

  In the battle of wills, the U.S. Patent Office stared down the FDR White House, so rather than moving to New York, a frantic search was on to find suitable office space elsewhere in Washington or even in suburban Virginia, or at last resort, as far south as Richmond.

  The government agency, like all the others, came to the battle well-armed and well-flacked. Of the 153 government bureaucracies in Washington, all told they had nearly 35,000 “press agents” all ready to do battle to trumpet their good works, protect their fiefdoms and live and die by their code: the first rule of the bureaucracy is to protect the bureaucracy. “They agree on one point—the value of the work they describe and the indispensability of the agency engaged in it,” sniffed the Birmingham News.9

  Roosevelt’s Labor-Business conference was still deadlocked over the issue of the closed shop and a war-long no-strike pledge. The union and corporate bureaucracies had been at loggerheads for days with no resolution in sight.

  Gossip columnist and Roosevelt acolyte Walter Winchell was still pushing the rumor that Charles Lindbergh and his wife, Anne Morrow Lindbergh were headed for a divorce. Why? Because she’d been spotted dining with her mother, sans husband Lindbergh. In his characteristically snide manner, Winchell referred to the aviator as “the Lone Dodo.”10 In Winchell’s mind, anyone who ran afoul of him wasn’t merely an opponent—they were an enemy who had to be destroyed. Winchell was a supporter of FDR and his policies; after the war, the hugely influential opinion-maker would sing a different and considerably darker tune, embracing the McCarthyism of the day to smear many of his former Democratic friends as communists, homosexuals, and spies. Winchell always trimmed his sails to the prevailing winds. In 1941, he tacked toward the winds of war.

  The heroine of the South, Margaret Mitchell, authoress of Gone with the Wind, journeyed above the Mason-Dixon Line to attend the launching of the USS Atlanta, a new cruiser. Garbed in a Red Cross uniform, photographed at the Brookwood station, she looked happy for the entire world to see, though she was painfully shy.11

  Incredibly, yet another American tanker was fired upon—and sunk—off the California coast. The 400-foot-long Montebello went to the bottom, though four life boats did make it to shore, but not before they too were fired upon by the submarine. The seamen cursed and yelled at the sub, wishing for their own weapons. “Sherriff Murray C. Hathaway said longboats and fishing craft trying to rescued (sic) survivors from the Montebello were [also] shelled and fired on by machine guns from the attacking craft.”12

  Another America ship, the Larry Doheny, was fired upon as well, though not sunk. “It was the eighth submarine attack on American freighters and tankers in nearby Pacific waters since opening of the war with Japan.”13 Overnight, people along the coast around Morro Bay and Estero Bay heard loud gunfire and explosions.14

  Americans were getting jumpy and rightly so. An American freighter was making for San Diego under full steam, bellowing a thick trail of black smoke out of her stack. Thinking a naval battle was underway, nervous residents along the West Coast called the police and other officials.15

  The dribble of announcements of the dead or missing from Pearl and other battle scenes became a torrent. In San Diego, four young men, all city natives, were revealed to have been killed.16 In Alabama, a seaman in his forties who had been called back to active duty in August of 1940 was missing in action.17 In Los Angeles, the first of many of the sons of the city, Lieutenant Commander Charles Michael, who’d been lost on the Utah, was announced as among the dead.18 Then two sons of an employee of the Los Angeles Times, Wesley Heidt, 24, and Edward J. (Bud) Heidt, 25, both firemen–first class on the Arizona, were both reported missing.19

  As part of a campaign to buck up American morale, the War Department made available some of the survivors of the attack on Pearl to give their firsthand accounts of what happened. “Graphic first-hand narratives of what happened at Pearl Harbor December 7 [were] told with dramatic coolness today by three naval officers who had leading parts in the titanic defense of giant warships against a sky full of Japanese planes that pounced on them suddenly ‘from out of nowhere.’” They told of the attacks, heroism, and tra
gedy. “During the early morning attack a marine said to an officer, ‘Pull this piece of metal out of my back.’ It was a bomb splinter so hot the officer had to use a rag to remove it. The wounded marine returned to his machine gun and remained on duty until late that afternoon.”20 There were hundreds of such tales of can-do Americanism. This was the first of such revelations about the attack, though Washington officials were still guarded about the extent of the damage.21

  Another story from CBS radio told the story of Lt. Walter Cross, an Army Air Corps pilot whose aircraft had been hit by enemy planes. Cross bailed and hit the silk, as Japanese planes buzzed around him, taking turns shooting at him as he floated helplessly to earth. Miraculously, they failed to hit him, “and his only injury was a pair of blistered feet in an eight-day hike back to Manila through mountainous terrain inhabited only savage tribesmen.”22

  Another pilot found himself in a similar situation. As he floated to the ground, natives waited. They were going to tear him to shreds. Their village had already been bombed by the Japanese, and to them all airplanes and pilots were alike. That’s when the American flyer doffed his airman’s cap. “This intruder definitely was not a Japanese—he had a shock of flaming red hair.”23

  By now America thought it was immune to surprise. Who should show up for breakfast the morning of the twenty-third, but British Prime Minister Winston Churchill!

  Only a handful knew of his and FDR’s plans to meet in Washington and nary a word of it leaked out. Some reporters intimated that they knew in advance but knew such reporting was now verboten and writing about it before the prime minister completed his sojourn could get them into a lot of hot water. He’d actually arrived late Monday and went directly to the White House, getting there around 5:40 p.m.24

  A brief statement was issued: “The British prime minister has arrived in the United States to discuss with the president all questions relevant to the concerted war effort. Mr. Churchill is accompanied by Lord Beaverbrook and a technical staff.”25 They had many things to discuss, large and small, from the size of the Allied army to how to handle Ireland and how to convince the Irish to allow Allied sub bases there. They would be later joined by Canadian Prime Minister Macenzie King. The Nazis believed Churchill had left London and suspected he was headed for conferences in the Middle East, but did not rule out Moscow or Washington.26