CHUBBO's rationing post reminded me of a few things told by my elders. My dad was only 15 when the war ended, and he said 22 long rifle ammo was impossible to get but 22 shorts could be bought anywhere. My wife's grandfather was a dry land farmer in the little town of Joes Colorado. Since fuel and ammo was rationed, the rabbit population exploded in the war years. As soon as the war was over, and fuel was readily available people started driving for pleasure again. He said for the first year after the war, the roads were slick from run over rabbits.
WW2
- Thread starter Chubbo
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Rationing... mom said that each British household was allocated one egg per person per week. Most everyone used them for baking as it stretched the egg farther. Every part of an animal found a use. My grandad kept his eel pots going when he wasn't putting out fires at the boatdocks.
My dad never knew he was part of the Greatest Generation until Tom Brokaw said it in 1998.
My dad never knew he was part of the Greatest Generation until Tom Brokaw said it in 1998.
Mine too...He and Mom had been married a month and a day when Pearl Harbor was attacked...He was exempt because of his age and marriage status, but he volunteered for the draft the next day...He was injured a couple of times requiring hospitalization, but not in combat...When he was declared fit, he shipped out to Attu, the westernmost US possession on the planet, only several hundred miles from the northernmost Japanese Islands...
He served the rest of his enlistment there...I wrote of his service in my books...Here he is in an off-duty moment in his Quonset hut...That's Mom's picture on his desk...The next pic is the roof of his Quonset hut on a balmy day following one of the frequent Aleutian weather events...He is also shown on a brilliant Aleutian summer day modeling the latest in Attu beachwear...The last pic is of the David W. Branch, which brought him back from Attu to Seattle in 1946, from where he made his way home to Houston...
...BenAttachments
I was born in 41, and recall seeing the newsreels at the movies showing war footage. At home it was my job to put the ration stamps and plastic money for groceries away in the pantry drawer.
When I was in the USAF in England and France I saw still remains of bombed out buildings from the war.
When I was in the USAF in England and France I saw still remains of bombed out buildings from the war.
This is picture taken of me and my uncle (dad's brother) during WWII when he was home on leave. He was, as pictured, a lieutenant in the Army Corps of Engineers.
One of my wife's uncles was a waist gunner on a B-17 in North Africa.
My stepfather-in-law served under Patton and Gen. Abrams as an Army captain during WWII, and later in Korea where he was wounded behind enemy lines. The .45 that was his only protection then was willed to me when he passed several years ago.
I remember rationing and the scarcity of many items during the war. I was six years old when it ended in 1945.
John
One of my wife's uncles was a waist gunner on a B-17 in North Africa.
My stepfather-in-law served under Patton and Gen. Abrams as an Army captain during WWII, and later in Korea where he was wounded behind enemy lines. The .45 that was his only protection then was willed to me when he passed several years ago.
I remember rationing and the scarcity of many items during the war. I was six years old when it ended in 1945.
John
mckenney99
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mckenney99
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Couple more images. There are ration coupon books for what looks like wheat/flour, coffee and some other unidentified items, for my grandfather, grandmother and mom. Grandpa was a master carpenter for one of the largest builders in Cincinnati so I believe he got additional fuel ration coupons to get to and from work or the buses.
In the same box with the above items are several red or blue hard press board 1/2 inch round tokens with OPA 1 point embossed on them that I'm not sure what they are for.
In the same box with the above items are several red or blue hard press board 1/2 inch round tokens with OPA 1 point embossed on them that I'm not sure what they are for.
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My mother was 7 when the war broke out shortly after her fathers death.They had two farms. The farm in York became an airfield and they stayed on the farm in Swanston. Their eggs were in high demand,but there was no meat to speak of other than the odd chicken and the rabbits my uncles caught using nets and a pet ferret. She was evacuated to an estate that became a boarding school down on the borders the second year of the war.
Her aunt owned a hotel with a restaurant that was popular with American officers (she was a great cook) They would ply her with drinks that she dumped in potted plants and the locals would sell her fish at the back door they caught while the game wardens looked the other way
My father was an adult in Switzerland and one story he told me as an old man (he never talked about the war years) happened after " Patton began to move" Two airman were ready to bolt,he didn't think they had a chance and told them to be patient,but they were going to go for it regardless. He got them to the train station.As they were walking towards it they saw soldiers and one of the men began to panic and turned to run. Dad grabbed him,told him to shut up and play along. He walked them past the soldiers chattering away and put them on the train.
Two of my dads sisters worked for Swiss ambassadors and had arrived in the US a few weeks after Poland was invaded. Both married GIs and one followed her husband to Denver when he was sent to Camp Hale with the tenth mountain division. She worked at the Remington Arms plant.
When she was in her 90s she told me a story of going to Leadville and driving up to the matchless mine for a look (Horace and BabyDoe Tabor) The Tabors were bankrupted in the silver crash and Horace told Baby Doe to hang on to the mine when he died.And she did,living in a tiny shack.
When they got to the mine my aunt saw a furious old woman staring at her from a window in the shack and refused to get out of the car. It scared her to death. It was several years later that I realized Baby Doe had died in the mid 30s and my aunt hadn't come the US until 1939.
My neighbor is a German born in Odessa in 1931. When the tides turned and the Russians came back,he,his sister and father hid in coal cars and escaped to the west. The Russians killed his mother.
Her aunt owned a hotel with a restaurant that was popular with American officers (she was a great cook) They would ply her with drinks that she dumped in potted plants and the locals would sell her fish at the back door they caught while the game wardens looked the other way
My father was an adult in Switzerland and one story he told me as an old man (he never talked about the war years) happened after " Patton began to move" Two airman were ready to bolt,he didn't think they had a chance and told them to be patient,but they were going to go for it regardless. He got them to the train station.As they were walking towards it they saw soldiers and one of the men began to panic and turned to run. Dad grabbed him,told him to shut up and play along. He walked them past the soldiers chattering away and put them on the train.
Two of my dads sisters worked for Swiss ambassadors and had arrived in the US a few weeks after Poland was invaded. Both married GIs and one followed her husband to Denver when he was sent to Camp Hale with the tenth mountain division. She worked at the Remington Arms plant.
When she was in her 90s she told me a story of going to Leadville and driving up to the matchless mine for a look (Horace and BabyDoe Tabor) The Tabors were bankrupted in the silver crash and Horace told Baby Doe to hang on to the mine when he died.And she did,living in a tiny shack.
When they got to the mine my aunt saw a furious old woman staring at her from a window in the shack and refused to get out of the car. It scared her to death. It was several years later that I realized Baby Doe had died in the mid 30s and my aunt hadn't come the US until 1939.
My neighbor is a German born in Odessa in 1931. When the tides turned and the Russians came back,he,his sister and father hid in coal cars and escaped to the west. The Russians killed his mother.
GypsmJim
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My Dad served in the Navy in the Pacific. All I ever knew was that he quit high school and joined the Navy. He never spoke about the war.
I did a lot of Family Genealogy a few years ago, so I got more info. Dad was on a Destroyer Escort. Only 1 is left in existence and we had the opportunity to visit the Naval Park this summer. They had a guided tour and when my wife mentioned that Dad had served on one I was escorted to the office of the Park's commander. They had data available to them on their computer that I was never able to access.
Dad quit school right after Pearl Harbor and got a job as an apprentice in his profession. The day after he turned 18 he enlisted. 3 months later he was in the pacific in battle.
My family (from Bavaria) came to the USA in 1894. A few relatives stayed behind. Communications between the 2 countries were regular, and my relatives were very scared of the Nazi republic. We were only farmers. Death records showed that a distant cousin was a motorcycle patrollman in the Wehrmacht (by conscription) and he died (the translation of the death card was "killed") in 1943.
My USA relatives volunteered for the service to fight the Japanese, but requested not to go to Europe and face their cousins.
My cousin that emigrated to the USA in 1954 said that Germans that argued conscription were treated worse than the Jewish people. She married a Russian man that was in a labor camp for the duration of the war. After he was released he went back to Russia (Ukraine) and found his home was destroyed and all his relatives were dead.
Yeah, WWII brings a lot of memories. But current events at home bring even worse thoughts.
I did a lot of Family Genealogy a few years ago, so I got more info. Dad was on a Destroyer Escort. Only 1 is left in existence and we had the opportunity to visit the Naval Park this summer. They had a guided tour and when my wife mentioned that Dad had served on one I was escorted to the office of the Park's commander. They had data available to them on their computer that I was never able to access.
Dad quit school right after Pearl Harbor and got a job as an apprentice in his profession. The day after he turned 18 he enlisted. 3 months later he was in the pacific in battle.
My family (from Bavaria) came to the USA in 1894. A few relatives stayed behind. Communications between the 2 countries were regular, and my relatives were very scared of the Nazi republic. We were only farmers. Death records showed that a distant cousin was a motorcycle patrollman in the Wehrmacht (by conscription) and he died (the translation of the death card was "killed") in 1943.
My USA relatives volunteered for the service to fight the Japanese, but requested not to go to Europe and face their cousins.
My cousin that emigrated to the USA in 1954 said that Germans that argued conscription were treated worse than the Jewish people. She married a Russian man that was in a labor camp for the duration of the war. After he was released he went back to Russia (Ukraine) and found his home was destroyed and all his relatives were dead.
Yeah, WWII brings a lot of memories. But current events at home bring even worse thoughts.
Exaviator
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My father joined the British Royal Navy as a boy seaman in 1921 and retired as a Master at Arms in 1948. His service saw him serving on several ships and shore establishments, throughout both peacetime and WW2, including on both the Atlantic and Russian convoys.
Born in 1940 U.K, My own experiences of the war were going down into the Anderson shelter buried in the back garden when the air-raid siren sounded and listening to the bombs exploding in the locality.
Fortunately we were never hit, or aside from a few broken windows the house damaged.
The other memory was food rationing, which didn't fully end until the 1950s.
After the war I followed in my father's footsteps attending a naval training school from the age of eleven, and on graduation joining the Australian Navy and serving four years in the Fleet Air Arm and seeing action in South East Asia.
The medals below are, my father's on the bottom row and mine above.
Exaviator - Proud to have served.
Born in 1940 U.K, My own experiences of the war were going down into the Anderson shelter buried in the back garden when the air-raid siren sounded and listening to the bombs exploding in the locality.
Fortunately we were never hit, or aside from a few broken windows the house damaged.
The other memory was food rationing, which didn't fully end until the 1950s.
After the war I followed in my father's footsteps attending a naval training school from the age of eleven, and on graduation joining the Australian Navy and serving four years in the Fleet Air Arm and seeing action in South East Asia.
The medals below are, my father's on the bottom row and mine above.
Exaviator - Proud to have served.
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