Seventy Years Ago: Is This Trip Necessary?

Railroad waiting rooms were decorated with posters. The messages were urgent: "Loose Lips Sink Ships," "Is Your Trip Necessary?" "Buy War Bonds."

Railroad travel for civilians and soldiers and sailors on leave was a lot like the picture in the poster. Gasoline and tire rationing brought highway travel to a halt.

Soldiers on troop trains, though, didn't have to read the posters. They didn't have to decide whether the trip was necessary. Someone else decided.

They didn't get to tell anyone where they were going or on what schedule. They didn't know themselves, and weren't allowed contact with anyone not on the train. Army censors read every letter and telegram before it went and excised classified information - or for that matter, any information at all. Especially about troop movements. After all, as the poster warned, "Loose Lips Sink Ships."

On September 1, 1942, 27th Air Depot Group's troop train arrived in San Francisco and the soldiers boarded the ship that would take them to Australia or wherever else the army decided to send them.

My stepfather asked permission to send a telegram. Western Union. His lieutenant referred him to the unit censor, who was also the chaplain. "Only for emergencies," the chaplain explained. "I just want to let my wife know of my promotion," my stepfather explained. The chaplain agreed.

The telegram said, "I made master sergeant today."

My mother received the telegram and got the real message: "He's going overseas today." She knew he would be promoted the day the ship left.

Forebears

My grandfather was a coal miner. In Texas. Yes, I know he should have been in oil. But Palo Pinto County in 1902 when he went to work in the mines only had coal. Not very good coal at that.

He only had a third grade education. In Palo Pinto County in 1894, that's as far as school went. Of course, you had a choice. You could send your child east seventy miles to boarding school in Fort Worth. It was a bit far to go by train every day.

My grandfather worked hard. Never made much money. Had a lot of friends and close relations with his family, but by republican standards wasn't a success.

After listening to speeches at the republican convention, now I understand the problem. He wasn't an immigrant. He should have borrowed money from his uncle or his father and started a business.

The immigrant part is a real problem. No immigrants in my family since about 1741.

Ok, the money part was a problem, too.

Spectacular Moon

Blue moon tonight. Bright, round, clear. Nice to see.

Seventy Years Ago: Saratoga Torpedoed - Again

August 31, 1942, east of the Southern Solomons, Japanese submarine I-26 put a torpedo into USS Saratoga's starboard side. The 888-foot carrier tried to avoid the torpedo, but couldn't turn in time.

The explosion damaged one of the electrical switchboards and shorted out the ship's turbo-electric propulsion system. By early afternoon, the electricians had jury-rigged enough power to drive the ship at ten knots toward a repair anchorage at Tongatapu. Two weeks later, she left Tongatapu and on 21 September pulled into the Pearl Harbor shipyard for more permanent repairs. She returned to the Solomons area in November.

This was the second time Saratoga had been put out of action by Japanese submarine torpedoes.

Seventy Years Ago: Overseas Movement

By 1942, America's total miles of railroad had declined slightly from the peak of 1910, but still there were nearly 250,000 miles of rail.

By late August, the soldiers making up the 27th Air Depot Group thought their troop train had covered most of that distance as they wound back and forth, north to south and east to west from Mobile, Alabama to the West Coast.

The rail cars lacked air conditioning. To get a breath of ventilation, the soldiers had to lower the windows. What they breathed in was not fresh air, but air mingled with the sulphurous smell of either coal or barely processed fuel oil that burned in the locomotives. From time to time the troop train pulled into a siding to make way for a freight train with high priority munitions or other machines of war to pass them by.

The soldiers passed their time as soldiers do, with talk of home and wives and girlfriends. For entertainment they played poker and rolled dice, hiding their chips or piles of money any time an officer was spotted walking through the cars. They were seldom interrupted. By the time the train huffed its way down the western side of the High Sierra, there was little mystery about the cards that were dealt. They had all memorized the irregular spots on the backs.

No officer had yet disclosed the group's ultimate destination, but it wasn't hard to guess. The Philippines had fallen, as had Guam. None had heard of New Caledonia, but they knew of Australia. Guadalcanal was in the news, but that was a navy and marine corps show. None had heard of New Guinea, but they knew of the Coral Sea and Midway.

It must be Australia.

Jim Hightower

I really miss Molly Ivins, but at least we still have Jim Hightower. I just came across his web site by accident and felt I must share it. Here it is.

Seventy Years Ago: Northern Exposure

August 30, 1942 - US Army lands on the Island of Adak in the Aleutians, to build a seaplane base. Adak is 250 miles from the Japanese-occupied Aleutian island of Kiska.

Here is a picture of the base in about 1943 with Mount Moffitt in the background.



In the 1960's, Navy Construction Battalions (SeaBees) visited the island each summer
to remove the quonset huts. This wasn't as easy as you might think.

Gasoline Prices

There was some discussion this evening of gasoline prices. The only price that matters is the price adjusted for inflation. Here is a chart of inflation-adjusted  gasoline prices and nominal prices (that is, what it says on the pump, not adjusted for inflation) since 1918.

Chart Source- www.InflationData.com    Read more about this Chart

How to save on Gas

 

 
Historical Note: Prices from 1942 to 1946 were Set By Office Of Price Administration. Gasoline Was Strictly Rationed - DRC