shooting down nine enemy planes. All was quiet in Rangoon, Burma, where an
air-raid alert passed without incident. 5 Earlier in the week, British forces were repelling two enemy assaults against Hong Kong, 6 although the Japanese claimed that Hong Kong’s fate was sealed. 7
It would not be long before many of the sunny reports were shown to be less
than the whole truth. As defensive bastions fell in Malaya, Hong Kong, in the
Netherlands East Indies and the American-held islands of Wake and Midway (as
the President had warned), and as the “sunken” Japanese battleships later proved
themselves very much afloat, the Philippines would soon become the scene of
defeat and tragedy for the American and Philippine defenders.
Perhaps the clearest-headed appraisal came from Prime Minister Tojo. He
warned the Japanese people not to be intoxicated by their initial victories. They
must be prepared, he said, for a long war and all that goes with it, to suffer any
234 First Sunday at War: December 14, 1941
form of hardship in the name of self-defense and righteousness. For the moment,
he would appear to have been the farthest-seeing prophet. 8
While the attention of the American people was riveted on events in the Pacific,
wars were being fought on a grand scale in Russia and in Africa, where America’s
allies were also reporting favorable results. After holding the front before Moscow
until the Germans retired to winter positions, the Soviets expected no new attacks
to be launched until the spring. The Russians had now opened a new drive from
the besieged city of Leningrad where, it was reported, the Germans were in full
retreat. 9 In Libya, the Germans were also in retreat under effective British air attacks. In a hugely important naval battle where control of the Mediterranean
was the prize, the Royal Navy sank the Italian cruisers Zara , Pola , and Fiume and numerous small craft. 10
“We Won’t Be Beaten”
Would the rush to the recruiting stations on Saturday, December 13, have been
tempered had the aspiring soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines known how
truly grim the situation was and would soon prove to be? Long lines of New
York volunteers stood outside in the rain and snow at offices that opened at 7:30
a.m. and would stay open as long as possible to accommodate the applicants.
There had been expectations that the numbers would fall off on Saturday. But
the opposite had proved to be the case. Perhaps many came whose workday
schedule held them back until Saturday. The stand of the Marines on Wake
Island had inspired many to enlist in a Corps that was in the forefront of the
battle. Surely there was a special quality to the gallant underdogs, f linging well-
publicized defiance against a foe who must in the end prevail. 11
There was another institution whose activity mirrored that of the recruiting
stations. That was the New York Marriage License Bureau, which experienced
the greatest Saturday in its history with applications double those of any other
Saturday of the year. The applicants included an interesting range of humanity:
messengers, stock clerks, porters, elevator operators and . . . lawyers. Among them
were William F. Dicks, a student at the Roosevelt Aviation School at Roosevelt
Field, Long Island, and Virginia French; Raymond Rogers Foltz, a pilot in the
Royal Air Force, and Clare Smith, a stenographer; and Captain Solomon Mizroch
of the Army Medical Corps and Miss Muriel Gottheimer. These three men and
their fiancées were clearly serious about their part in the war. 12
Enthusiasm ranged across all ages and conditions of life. In Milwaukee, Wis-
consin, William T. Knight, Sr., forty-four, was a veteran of service in both the U.S.
and Royal Navies in World War I who had found time to sire thirteen children.
His son William, Jr., was at the time serving on a U.S. aircraft carrier. “We talked
it over at home,” Knight said, “and we agreed that I should enlist to help Billy fight
the Japs.” No mention was made of Mrs. Knight, Sr., except that she was at home
with her youngest, age eighteen months. 13
Nor was age a barrier to Denver’s “sizzling mad” Earl Hancock. He was an old
cavalry sergeant who had served in the Philippine Insurrection and in the First
All in It Together 235
World War. The age limit for first enlistments was thirty-five, but Hancock was
not to be denied. He produced “more honorable discharge papers than a broker
has bonds” and demanded his rights.
For an old soldier who could pass the physical examination, the recruiting
officer, Major Thomas F. Mishue, an old cavalryman himself, said there was no
age limit. And indeed, Hancock passed the physical before doctors “who could
scarcely believe their stethoscopes.” 14
The war held special fascination for the young. At the Fannin Elementary
School in Houston, the members of the Paul Revere Club, who were sponsored
by the DAR and selected for their good conduct and excellent grades, made
joke books for the soldiers who would have been bemused and amused if the
elementary-school jokes ever arrived at any intended destination. 15
Houston was a veritable beehive of patriotic youth. Four-year-old Richard
Spinks was gathering pennies from family and friends to be deposited in his world
globe tin bank and exchanged for defense stamps bought from the equally patri-
otic Houston Chronicle delivery boy. 16
Locked into poses of seriousness and determination and photographed in their
Smokey the Bear hats and neckerchiefs, the Boy Scouts of Houston’s Berring
Memorial Church Troop 21 had by Saturday collected 3,700 pounds of wastepa-
per in their assigned district. They might have felt a special sense of participation:
their Scoutmaster had been in the Army for a year. With some of the proceeds
they bought an $18.75 Defense Bond at the Guardian Trust Company.
Perhaps the most imaginative youthful patriot was Joseph Reid of Flushing,
New York. A twelve-year-old seventh grader at P.S. 162, he was already a section
air-raid leader at his school. But by his own account he “wanted action.” Young
Reid had followed closely the radio news from Pearl Harbor. He had thought about
it all night and the next morning he made up his mind. He wrote a letter to the
Navy seeking to enlist as a “cabin boy.” As he told reporters: “I wanted to go in the
Navy because I wanted to get back at the Japs and the Navy is chasing them. I read
in Treasure Island how the one job on a ship for boys under the age of a regular sailor is cabin boy and I thought I’d try for that.” He wrote the letter and mailed it on
his way to school. He didn’t tell his mother what he had done. It was one of those
well-intentioned untruths; he told her instead that it was a letter to Santa Claus.
His grandmother had mentioned boys as young as sixteen enlisting. Would his
mother grant such permission if he were sixteen? “She would” she said, “if they
would take him.” “I wouldn’t want to spoil that kind of spirit,” she said. 17
It was an eternal lament among the young. “By that time,” Joseph said, “the
war will be won.”
He received a prompt and gracious reply from Admiral Adolphus Andrews com-
manding the Third Naval District. On
e thing that would bring an American vic-
tory, the Admiral wrote, was the American spirit. It was just that spirit that had
moved Joseph to offer his services to the nation and his mother to offer her consent.
If the Navy couldn’t accept this patriotic offer because of Joseph’s age, his
willingness to serve, and his mother’s willingness to consent would be an inspira-
tion to all “in the grim work that lies ahead.” Surely, through school, church, and
236 First Sunday at War: December 14, 1941
Civilian Defense, the admiral assured him, he would find work consistent with his
courage and his Americanism. 18
If Joseph Reid was barred from service by reason of his age, Margaret Lyle Crouter
was frustrated by her gender. The wife of a Navy commander, she was the sponsor of
a new naval vessel; but out of concern for secrecy neither the name or type of vessel
nor the place of its christening could be divulged. She smashed a champagne bottle
across the bow and cried: “I christen you blank .” As the ship slid down the ways, she shouted after it, “. . . and dammit, I’d serve upon you if they’ll let me.” Dabbing her
eyes, the commander’s wife added: “I didn’t mean as a cook, either.” 19
This was the spirit behind a full-page ad in the Houston Chronicle headlined
“ LET’S GO TEXANS
.” Uncle Sam, it said, needed 180,000 flying cadets. It
was a chance to serve their country and to master the world’s “most interesting
occupation”—a portal to action, excitement, and thrills. 20
The Los Angeles Times offered a different take on patriotic duty. A full-page ad proclaimed “ MORALE IS A WOMEN’S BUSINESS .” The advertiser was Revlon and the product was Revlon nail enamel. How a woman looked, it advised,
affected family, friends, even passersby on the street. “To them a woman’s beauty
stands for courage, serenity and a gallant heart . . . all the things that men need so
desperately in these days.” So the time spent in a woman’s favorite beauty salon
every week wasn’t selfish or frivolous. It was a part of her job of morale. It was a
woman’s way of saying “ WE WON’T BE BEATEN .” 21
Another patriotic advertiser was Ritz Camera Centers in Washington, D.C.,
which told the readers of The Washington Post that giving generously to loved ones was the American way. Ritz Camera Centers made a solemn pledge: “If you want
cameras for Christmas, Ritz has them ‘ BUT BUY DEFENSE BONDS FIRST .’ ” 22
It was probably less than a matter of cause and effect, but reported sales of
defense bonds in the District of Columbia spurted that week. 23
In the nation’s capital, blackouts did not halt plans for the President to light the
National Community Christmas Tree on the south grounds of the White House.
Selected to deliver greetings to the President were Eagle Scout Jay Robert Thrower,
eighteen, and Girl Scout Louella Boyd, sixteen. The decorations on the tree were
of course to be red, white, and blue. An audience of 10,000 was expected, all of
whom, led by a mixed choir of a hundred voices, would join in community sing-
ing. The program would begin at 4:30 p.m. with an invocation by a prominent
clergyman and the singing of three carols. All this would precede the appearance
of the President, who would then give a seven-minute address. Radio listeners
throughout the nation were urged to join in the community singing.
Not that there weren’t warnings of hardships and losses to come. The arch-
isolationist publisher of the Chicago Tribune , Colonel Robert McCormick, painted a stark picture of the horrors of war and the need for stern training and strict
discipline in the armed forces. It was by these qualities, he proudly assured his
readers, that America had not only won the 1918 Battle of Cantigny (where he
had been himself then notably present) but indeed the First World War. Germany
had won great initial victories because her enemies had not learned the lessons
All in It Together 237
of modern war. And if, he declared, America had gone to war two years ago, its
armies would have been as helpless as those of our allies in 1939 and 1940. It was
fortunate, that “time was obtained for the lessons to be driven home,” for them to
become so clear that “no old man, steeped in the past, could ignore them.” And
who had “obtained” those two years so that today the country would know what
arms were needed and how to use them? Readers of the Chicago Tribune might
have more than an inkling of those to whom the credit was due. 24
The day belonged to the new men. Two of the new men promoted to the
temporary rank of colonel were Matthew B. Ridgeway, who would in 1944 com-
mand the 101st Airborne Division in its D-Day assault, and Norman Cota, whose
imperturbable bravery on Omaha Beach would rally his 29th Division troops amid
the chaos of the beach and would win him the Congressional Medal of Honor. 25
As the wreckage in Pearl Harbor still smoldered, there was unfinished business
to be done. In the House of Representatives, John Dingell, a Michigan Democrat,
demanded that court-martial proceedings be brought against the Pearl Harbor
commanders: General Walter Short, Chief of the Hawaiian Department; Major
General H. H. Arnold, Deputy Chief of Staff for Air; General George H. Brett,
head of the Army Air Force; and Admiral Husband E. Kimmel, Commander of
the Pacific Fleet. To this Representative Bullwinkle of North Carolina responded
that it was time for members to keep their feet on the ground, and to defer action
until they knew the facts. 26
For the moment it was the Navy’s war. On this Sunday after Pearl Harbor, The
New York Times published a stirring tribute to the Navy under the heading “The Navy Takes Up the Challenge.” The Navy mourned its dead but “confident and
unafraid,” it was utterly determined to smash the enemy forces. The Navy had
risen from defeat before. It was Captain Lawrence who in defeat had spoken the
Navy’s signature message: Don’t Give Up the Ship. Then there were the traditions
of the sea, the traditions of wind, sea and stars and that particularly American
daring, cocky and assertive, that came from both the great cities and from the
windswept plains of America. The size of the Navy and of the naval establishment,
sustained by the country’s immense industrial capacity, would back up those who
would carry on the Navy’s ultimate tradition, devotion to duty and valor. 27
The U-boats would be continually in action off the U.S. East Coast and Gulf
Coast, at first with great success in 1942; but by 1943 they would be under con-
trol. There would be several instances of German spies and saboteurs infiltrating
the coasts and borders of the United States. Japanese submarines would lob futile
shells on locations in Oregon and southern California, and a submarine-launched
aircraft would drop harmless bombs, again in Oregon. Japanese fire balloons
would fail to ignite Northwest forests, succeeding only in killing a curious child.
There would be no other attacks on the U.S. mainland in the course of the war.
None of this could, of course, be known in December 1941. The fate of other
cities, Guernica, Warsaw, Rotterdam, and especially London under the blitz of
1940–41, were vivid in the memory of all those who fo
llowed the progress of the
war. America had to make itself ready.
238 First Sunday at War: December 14, 1941
FIGURE 21.2 See color plate section.
Poster by Zebedee Johnson. Courtesy of Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, LC-USZC2-5680.
The War of Nerves: Civil Defense
At the head of the U.S. Civil Defense effort was the colorful, hyperactive reform
mayor of New York City, Fiorello La Guardia, appointed on May 20, 1941, as
director of the National Office of Civil Defense, with none other as his deputy
than the First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt. She was one of the few who for energy and
versatility could match the five-foot-two-inch fireball Mayor, who sometimes con-
ducted the municipal orchestra, who during a newspaper strike read the comics to
the children on the radio and who shut down the burlesque theaters of 42nd Street,
where a wit reported that the celebrated ecdysiast, Margie Hart, ground to a halt.
As well as the national, La Guardia also led the New York City effort. The city
was divided into 152 zones containing 1,515 sectors, manned by 115,433 air-raid
wardens. To these were added the fire departments, and an auxiliary corps of 200,000
volunteer firefighters, trained at their local stations to handle incendiary bombs.
All in It Together 239
Their duties were not only to fight fire but to police strategic areas, render first aid, clean up debris, rescue trapped victims, provide emergency transport, and maintain
utilities and services. Trained by the Red Cross, women had varied roles to play
in canteen services, as nurses’ aides, clerical workers, and social workers, and in the
production of surgical dressings—a gender division that reflected the culture of the
time. This organization was repeated up and down the Atlantic coast where 40,000
civilian observers were posted at 1,300 locations from Maine to North Carolina. 28
There had been enough false alarms. To avoid conflicting air-raid alarms, Brig-
adier General John McConnell was named by the Army, the Navy, and the gov-
ernors of New York, New Jersey, and Delaware as the sole authority for giving
air-raid alarms over a broad swathe of territory around New York City.
The American people had only in the last week been propelled into war. The
Crucible of a Generation Page 37