Wednesday, March 26, 2008

"An Army at Dawn"--1941

Before I start the next part of my father's story, I wanted to share this photograph because of its historic interest.  I believe it must be of my Uncle Mel on maneuvers with the Oregon National Guard, somewhere on the northern Oregon Coast.  The caption below the copy of the photo says, simply, "1941".   My uncle is probably one of the two soldiers in the foreground.  The Oregon Guard had been federalized in the Fall of 1940. My uncle had joined the guard with only a year of a high school education. He was married and  worked as a truck driver and at other jobs for several years. 

   The interesting thing about this to me--apart from the familial connection--- is that this combat unit is without any real armour to maneuver with--just trucks and automobiles, no tanks or any heavy equipment. And things had been even worse two to three years later before FDR and General George Marshal and others began to push the country to arms against the Axis Powers.    

  Of course this is only a guard unit, but the regular army was not much better and many of  these men were going into combat in less than a year in the Pacific with the 41st Division of the US Army, mainly serving in New Guinea. 

In the picture, the soldiers are dressed in puttees of World War I vintage and wearing the old-fashioned "tin helmets" that were based on British design from 1917.  Many of the men reportedly carried outdated Enfield rifles that were from also from that late conflict.  I imagine the Nazis and Japanese took  great confidence in seeing the "arsenal of democracy" in this condition.  Of course, this was an era when democratic nations did not prepare for war with any great enthusiasm.   

 Most of the "tanks" in the American Army on the eve of Pearl Harbor were trucks like these with the word "Tank" painted on the side.  Despite its size and population, the United States was not able to support an army big enough to defend its own shores, much less be of much help to Britain or to its small force in the Philippines.  Of course, that changed over time, but at the time this picture was taken the US military proper was smaller than Romania and its navy barely the size of Italy. * 

*Theodore H. White, "In Search of History", 1978.

To fill the gap of the federalized National Guard, various branches of the  "Oregon State Guard" sprang up to defend the cities and coastline in case of what to many seemed like a probable Japanese attack somewhere on the West Coast. According to an Oregon State website:      

At that time, guard forces would "retire to serve as snipers and serve as guerrilla-type soldiers concentrating upon the destruction of parachute and air-borne troops. In the event of sabotage, the guardsmen would surround any area threatened or subjected to sabotage." Authorities conceded that "the Oregon State Guard would never win a battle against well-equipped forces of an invading enemy - that would be the lot of the regular army." Still, officials insisted that they would be a "fast striking" force of "immeasurable value" by cutting communication lines, destroying supply depots, and delaying the enemy, thus destroying their morale.(8)

Taming the guerrillas
The Oregon State Guard also encouraged many of the independent local home guard organizations that had popped up around the state to integrate with the state guard. Some of these groups, such as the Tillamook Guerrillas, were large and very zealous.

The "Bushwhackers" of southeast Portland were another such group. Comprised of men from 20 to 60 years old, most members were in their late 40s. The group formed in January 1942 and counted 150 volunteers by April. Each Monday they would meet in the basement of the Laurelwood Methodist Church for close-order military drill and to "bang away at a series of targets." ("The Oregonian", April 23, 1942) Army officials were not excited about the idea of numerous groups such as the Bushwhackers traipsing through the woods with loaded weapons so they asked the state to at least check the reliability of each group's leaders. The Bushwhackers planned to bring their ranks up to 240 men and apply to join the Oregon State Guard as four new companies.

Governor Sprague also worked to bring these local forces into the fold, starting with flattery:

"One thing made clear in this war is the value of guerrilla fighting; and our local fighters, familiar with the terrain, can be of great value in repelling the enemy. They should be enrolled in a military body, however; otherwise they would not be entitled to the rights of prisoners of war, if captured, but would be subjected to immediate execution. They should also be regularized for training and for proper coordination with regular troops."(10)

There was also an attempt to bring women into a type of Oregon Home Guard, khaki uniforms and a chain of command to serve auxiliary duties, such as British women were already doing overseas.   The sponsorship of such a bill was floated to the governor.   Governor Sprague, however, was not a far-sighted man, seeing women's contribution to national defense as limited "merely for use as clerical assistants," (he) went on to caution that...

 "I am afraid, though, if you get started you will wind up with a woman's army, officers and enlisted personnel as well. This would give you a lot of worry and many headaches." The governor's conclusion: "I do not feel at the present time that there is a need for a complete woman's army in Oregon."

"Women were needed, it seems, as long as they stayed at their typewriters."*

 

Above quotes from "The National Guard is Off to War: Who Will Protect US Now?", Oregon State Archives Exhibit.  

6 comments:

  1. Interesting look at America entering the war. I remember my unit was in Panama we were sent out into the bush with blanks and blasting caps. What would have happened if we were attacked?

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  2. Blanks and blasting caps??? Sounds like a movie company on location, not a real military unit. Glad for you and the country nobody tried to grab the Canal Zone.

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  3. In Britain my mother worked in factories making parts of guns that were on planes or radios. One of her brothers returned from WW2 with pictures of Singapore in that period (possibly some other places too, I can't quite remember) and he also returned with money from Singapore and from India which was before it was independent.

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  4. An interesting episode to me too, my dad was in the 'home guard' with similar stories of no ammunition and general chaos especially at the start of the war, although later he manned the anti aircraft guns during the Coventry blitz and frequent bombing raids on Birmingham . My mom was in the fire brigade going out to redirect firefighters on her bike because the phones were knocked out by the Luftewaffe.

    My view of history is I think somewhat different to your own Doug, but the experiences of our families are united by a common thread of geopolitics and the unfolding of 'events' of the world we have been 'thown' into (to paraphrase the Nazi approved pedogog and existential philosopher Martin Heidegger).

    Given the trials and tribulations of our parents I feel entitled to ask.....'who won'?

    Another great blog Doug.

    Cheers AA

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  5. My mother had one of those military-related office jobs that Governor Spauge would have approved of. However, as you probably know, eventually American women were in all types of defense work, in and out of the Armed Services, including being trained to fly bombers and fighters to get them from factories like Lockheed to their intended bases. Some documentarians have traced this job-mobilization of women into vital parts of American defense as the beginning of the modern feminist movement, as well as jump-starting the call for civil rights for African-Americans.

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  6. Those had to be interesting...and harrowing times. You must have heard some amazing stories from your parents.
    No matter what one's view of history, you have to admire British resolve in the face of what some isolationists in America viewed as their certain defeat after Dunkirk. If Americans had gone through the Blitz--and of course I wouldn't wish that on any people--perhaps more of our citizens would have questioned the Vietnam/Cambodian bombing campaigns.
    Heidegger was certainly a great disappointment among "the great philosophers". He was lucky some of his friends, specifically Hannah Arendt, came to his defense after the war.

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