The Air-Raid Warden Was a Spy: And Other Tales From Home-Front America in World War II Read Online Free Page A
Author: William B. Breuer
Tags: History, World War II, Military, aVe4EvA
inconspicuous at night) and instructed his officers to make arrests without warrants, otherwise they could not act “even if they saw an offender preparing to blow a bridge.”
Oregon’s governor proclaimed a state of emergency, although he explained he didn’t know what kind of emergency he was heralding.
In Galveston, Texas, a civilian guard thought a blinking light in a house was flashing signals to unseen enemy ships offshore, so he fired a rifle round into the building.
“San Francisco Is Being Bombed!” 15
Farmers armed with shotguns posted themselves at each end of the Missouri town of Rolla and carefully inspected each passing vehicle, halting those that “looked suspicious.”
In the northeastern United States, a week-long spy scare erupted after the Army released aerial photographs showing fields that appeared to have been plowed in such a way that arrows pointed in the direction of several aircraft factories. Law enforcement officers took into custody two farmers and grilled them for several hours.
After three days, the badly frightened “suspects” were released when it was found that the photographs were a hoax perpetrated by an Army public-relations officer who was gifted with more zeal than brains. He explained that his goal had been to shock Americans into realizing that Nazi spies could be everywhere.
At the same time on the Pacific shore sixty miles north of Los Angeles one night, a man, his voice dripping with anxiety, telephoned the local police department. A spy was sending signals with a flashlight to Japanese submarines.
Two policemen rushed to the scene and detected the subversive—an elderly woman who was prowling around in the dark outside her house in search of her cat. 9
A Stop-and-Go Railroad Trip
A LMIRA BONDELID, A SOUTH DAKOTA SCHOOLTEACHER, was married to a marine taking boot training at Parris Island, South Carolina. On the day after Pearl Harbor, her husband telephoned and asked her to come there immediately. A few hours later the young bride was on a train rolling southward.
The trip was frustrating. Each time the train approached a bridge, the engineer halted the train while the crew got out to see if a bomb had been placed on the span.
After crawling around under the bridge for a period of time, the crew would get back on the train, and it would continue to the next bridge.
This stop-and-go technique was followed all the way to Chicago, where Almira changed trains. The remainder of the trip to South Carolina was routine. 10
“San Francisco Is Being Bombed!”
O NLY TWENTY-FOUR HOURS after the Japanese attack, Fiorello La Guardia, the rotund, feisty mayor of New York City, and Eleanor Roosevelt, the First Lady, boarded a plane outside Washington to fly to the West Coast. La Guardia was the director of the Office of Civilian Defense (OCD), an agency created only the previous spring, and Eleanor was his assistant, whose task it was to mobilize woman power and keep up the physical fitness of those on the home front.
They were a curious duo, many journalists held. La Guardia spoke rapidly with a rash of arm waving. Eleanor was regal, even reserved. They did not always agree on priorities, but they learned to compromise to keep the OCD program rolling.
La Guardia was fearful of perceived danger to New York City and Washington. At a press conference before departing for the West Coast, he told reporters that “we who live on the Atlantic Coast are in as much danger of being bombed as our countrymen who were bombed yesterday in Honolulu.”
Doom and gloom seemed to be hovering over the airplane carrying the two officials. It took off into the blackness and was soon gripped by bad weather. Perhaps halfway on the trip, the pilot came back into the cabin and excitedly told the OCD officials: “I just picked up an Associated Press report on the radio. San Francisco is being bombed!” They told him to continue the flight course as planned. Actually, the nearest Japanese
Oregon’s governor proclaimed a state of emergency, although he explained he didn’t know what kind of emergency he was heralding.
In Galveston, Texas, a civilian guard thought a blinking light in a house was flashing signals to unseen enemy ships offshore, so he fired a rifle round into the building.
“San Francisco Is Being Bombed!” 15
Farmers armed with shotguns posted themselves at each end of the Missouri town of Rolla and carefully inspected each passing vehicle, halting those that “looked suspicious.”
In the northeastern United States, a week-long spy scare erupted after the Army released aerial photographs showing fields that appeared to have been plowed in such a way that arrows pointed in the direction of several aircraft factories. Law enforcement officers took into custody two farmers and grilled them for several hours.
After three days, the badly frightened “suspects” were released when it was found that the photographs were a hoax perpetrated by an Army public-relations officer who was gifted with more zeal than brains. He explained that his goal had been to shock Americans into realizing that Nazi spies could be everywhere.
At the same time on the Pacific shore sixty miles north of Los Angeles one night, a man, his voice dripping with anxiety, telephoned the local police department. A spy was sending signals with a flashlight to Japanese submarines.
Two policemen rushed to the scene and detected the subversive—an elderly woman who was prowling around in the dark outside her house in search of her cat. 9
A Stop-and-Go Railroad Trip
A LMIRA BONDELID, A SOUTH DAKOTA SCHOOLTEACHER, was married to a marine taking boot training at Parris Island, South Carolina. On the day after Pearl Harbor, her husband telephoned and asked her to come there immediately. A few hours later the young bride was on a train rolling southward.
The trip was frustrating. Each time the train approached a bridge, the engineer halted the train while the crew got out to see if a bomb had been placed on the span.
After crawling around under the bridge for a period of time, the crew would get back on the train, and it would continue to the next bridge.
This stop-and-go technique was followed all the way to Chicago, where Almira changed trains. The remainder of the trip to South Carolina was routine. 10
“San Francisco Is Being Bombed!”
O NLY TWENTY-FOUR HOURS after the Japanese attack, Fiorello La Guardia, the rotund, feisty mayor of New York City, and Eleanor Roosevelt, the First Lady, boarded a plane outside Washington to fly to the West Coast. La Guardia was the director of the Office of Civilian Defense (OCD), an agency created only the previous spring, and Eleanor was his assistant, whose task it was to mobilize woman power and keep up the physical fitness of those on the home front.
They were a curious duo, many journalists held. La Guardia spoke rapidly with a rash of arm waving. Eleanor was regal, even reserved. They did not always agree on priorities, but they learned to compromise to keep the OCD program rolling.
La Guardia was fearful of perceived danger to New York City and Washington. At a press conference before departing for the West Coast, he told reporters that “we who live on the Atlantic Coast are in as much danger of being bombed as our countrymen who were bombed yesterday in Honolulu.”
Doom and gloom seemed to be hovering over the airplane carrying the two officials. It took off into the blackness and was soon gripped by bad weather. Perhaps halfway on the trip, the pilot came back into the cabin and excitedly told the OCD officials: “I just picked up an Associated Press report on the radio. San Francisco is being bombed!” They told him to continue the flight course as planned. Actually, the nearest Japanese
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