December 1941

by Craig Shirley

  As FDR and Churchill were wrapping up their historic meeting outlining a plan for defeating the Axis Powers, it was revealed that Anthony Eden, Foreign Secretary in the Churchill government, had made a secret trip to Moscow to meet with Marshall Josef Stalin and his generals to work out the plans to defeat the Axis as it pertained to Russia. It was a “momentous” development, “paralleling the Roosevelt-Churchill meetings in Washington,” said the Associated Press.45 Discussions between the British and the Russians were also held on a post-war world and a “communiqué [outlined] the Anglo-Soviet exchange of views regarding [a] post-war organization of peace ‘provide much useful material which will facilitate further elaboration of concrete proposals on the subject.’”46 The Eden-Stalin meetings were termed “friendly.”47

  Several names had been devised to identify what the Roosevelt administration called the “War Council” but the press also called it the “Supreme War Council,” the “Allied Command,” and the “World G.H.Q.” Roosevelt was also exploring a sort of “National War Council” whose composition and purpose was “to consist of a few top military men and civilians; with broad executive powers to order coordination of the domestic war effort on the military, industrial, civilian and labor fronts . . . Meanwhile through the government men snapped orders and made decisions that changed or would change the lives of millions . . . ” According to sources, as many as six thousand new government employees were headed to Washington each and every month to join the war effort.48

  The Allied plan didn’t explicitly dwell on what was obvious at the time: the Allies were on the defensive. The Axis Powers had been chopping up the world piecemeal, taking one territory at a time—and at quick clip. Japan followed this tack in the Pacific, and the Third Reich had perfected this strategy in Europe, taking nation after nation. Though the invasion of Russia was of questionable efficacy, in December 1941, the German army still had a huge if embattled presence inside the country. For all the recent ballyhoo about Soviet pushback, they were fighting on their own soil. However, the Germans were withdrawing from Yugoslavia, where a ragtag guerrilla army of Serbs had beat the stuffing out of Reich soldiers. Three times the Germans had launched offensive operations to root out the tough Serb nationals and neutralize the country and three times, they were forced to withdraw.

  The idea of a united front—an “Allied High Command”—did not originate with FDR or with Winston Churchill but interestingly, with Generalissimo Chaing Kai-shek, leader of the Free Chinese forces in Asia. Immediately, Churchill ordered “General Sir Archibald Wavell to further British cooperation with China” and directed Eden to Moscow to hold the paranoid hand of Joe Stalin and on him the plan.49 Roosevelt immediately sent a classified letter to Chiang suggesting an immediate meeting of the representatives of all the nations warring against the Axis Powers.

  “It is our thought that, in order to make such command effective, a joint planning staff should at once be organized consisting of representatives of the British, American and Chinese governments. If you consider it practicable, and Russia agrees, a Russian representative might be included. This staff should function under your supreme command. Your views in this matter will be greatly appreciated by me. ROOSEVELT.”50

  The Allies knew they needed to defend their six strongest naval positions; England, Gibraltar, Singapore, Pearl Harbor, Suez, and the Panama Canal. Despite Roosevelt’s public pronouncements to the contrary, the Philippines were not on the list. Each of these was an important chokepoint and from each of these assaults could be launched against the Axis. And each of these was in the crosshairs of the Axis Powers as they knew exactly what the Allies knew. “These fortresses are the key points in the Allies mobility, vitally necessary if the Allies are to continue helping each other fight on farflung battlefields. By breaking any two of those key points, the Axis could virtually cut hemisphere from hemisphere.” Gibraltar was a concern because the British “suspected Spain and were not sure of Portugal.” Germany had invaded North Africa in the hopes of controlling the Mediterranean and still had a strong force there and the Japanese were making progress in their drive down the Malayan peninsula towards their goal of capturing Singapore. The “Allied High Command” was beginning “the battle of the world” very much on the defensive.51

  Stitching together another part of the Allied High Command, Winston Churchill arrived in Ottawa on schedule, to the wild cheers of the Canadians. As he stepped off the train, with cigar stuck in his mouth, he doffed his hat with one hand and gave the “V” sign with his other hand. He’d arrived in Roosevelt’s own special Pullman car, “with the crew of porters and secret service men who normally look after the president’s safety and comfort.”52

  The Ottawa station was jammed with admirers, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and Boy Scouts tried to maintain control. Even in the deep of the Canadian winter, clerks and secretaries in the nearby office building flung open their windows to get a glimpse of one of the most famous men in the world.53

  The wire story noted that Churchill had left Washington in “wartime secrecy” and then proceeded to relay every detail of the trip including his department time from Washington and the stops in New York and Springfield where the local police cleared the platforms of all people. He’d made the trip with Canadian Prime Minister MacKenzie King and spent much of the trip, which carried them through a Massachusetts snow storm, in deep conversation with his parliamentary counterpart. He also worked late into the night on the speech he would deliver on Tuesday to the Canadian Parliament.

  On the trip, he slipped into his favorite “Teddy Bear” coveralls. During the London Blitz, on cold evenings, it became uncomfortable and inconvenient to try to switch from pajamas to suits so Churchill took to wearing the zippered garment. “The gray . . . coveralls gave the Prime Minister the appearance of a jovial Kewpie puffing on a cigar as he lounged and worked. He has both lights and heavies, and the red flannel weather of Vermont and Quebec called for the heavies.”54

  With Churchill gone, Washington got back to the business of running a wartime economy. Since rubber usage has been so severely restricted, gasoline consumption was now under study as well. Gas was plentiful, oil stocks were high, and ever since Great Britain had returned some tankers she’d borrowed the year before, the East Coast restrictions had been lifted. Also, it was noted that “Petroleum supply in the United States, which possess great resources of oil, is principally a matter of transportation.” Still, the “petroleum coordinator,” who reported to Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes, was ordered by Ickes to make a feasibility study of a gas rationing plan. The initial figure bandied about was a 35 percent reduction in gas usage for 1942.55

  The citizens of Manila were astonished to wake up and hear over station KGEI that Japanese planes were bombing San Francisco and it was already in flames. It was a hoax; officials suspected that the Japanese had used a more powerful transmitter to interrupt the regular broadcast by an “English speaking announcer” reading “Flash” bulletins several times. “The interference obviously came from a powerful Japanese station deliberately intruding on the KGEI wave[length].”56 A government official said, “This was the first evidence of an apparent new propaganda technique by the Japanese—an effort to create panic by means of the direct lie.”57

  Government officials began a public awareness campaign aimed at curbing venereal diseases especially, they said, around industrial plants and among the military. “The American Social Hygiene Association, at the urgent request of the army [and] navy . . . is playing an indispensible role in the nation’s all-out effort to protect soldier, sailor and marine from syphilis and gonorrhea.” An editorial in the Birmingham News said “The problem, however, remains to be solved, and in wartime, naturally, it becomes more acute. This is true not only with respect to our armed forces, but also with regard to industrial workers, particularly those in the war industries.”58

  At the same time, ill-mannered women were the target of a new, “anti-profanity campa
ign.” Arthur S. Colborne was on a one man mission to wipe out swearing in America. Not just the garden-variety four lettered words either, but also “hell” and “gee-wizz” and doggone” and “dad burn it” because as far as he was concerned, these were “leader on words,” (gateway drugs, as some might later think of them). He said women in bars were the worst offenders. They, in turn, thought he was full of . . . well, it’s better left unsaid. Curiously, Colborne was also the founder of the “Safe and Sane Fourth of July Movement.”59

  A young ill-mannered German woman in New Jersey, Helga Schlueter, was arrested and convicted on the charge of “defiling” the American flag. During a fire fighter’s parade in Lakewood in 1940, in full view she tore up a flag and threw it on the ground. She was in the custody of the FBI, although she had already been sentenced to two years in a reformatory for women. The New Jersey state Supreme Court had already upheld her conviction by an Ocean County court.60

  Another woman of ill fame, “heiress Gloria Vanderbilt” as she was commonly known, finally got married in Santa Barbara after day upon day of stories about her, her money, her much older fiancé, her family, her controversial young life—all printed ad nauseum in the country’s newspapers.61 There were also plenty of photos in the papers of the pretty young heiress. The righteous were also quite prurient at times.

  The Reverend Samuel Shoemaker of the Calvary Episcopal Church thought he knew what was ailing America. It lacked, he said, a “national philosophy. The strength of the enemy countries lies in their unity, and their unity comes from the way they as nations look upon life. I believe that Christianity is the forgotten ideology of America. . . .”62 The Reverend Dr. Norman Vincent Peale said what was needed in America was a “Spiritual Army.”63

  A woman of no fame, just good spiritual character, was volunteering in New Jersey to spot for enemy planes. Lavina Mount Minton was no stranger to war, having once nursed injured Civil War soldiers. Lavina was 97-years-old and going strong. “I’ve lived through three horrible wars and I’ll see the finish of this one.”64

  At an army base in Illinois, a young lonely private, Joseph Dee Everingham, sent a letter to the Chicago Tribune, announcing: “I am certainly the loneliest private this side of the Mississippi.” Within days, his barracks were deluged with cards, letters, cakes and “lots of lonely girls sent along their pictures. Even a Lonely Hearts club sent a list of wealthy widows.” He received cookies, lobsters, candy, sweaters, socks. “He got enough Sunday dinner invitations to last him through the emergency.”65

  As was now an everyday occurrence, another young man thought dead in the Pacific turned up alive. Carl Frank Stewart, 19, had been mistakenly thought to have been killed and the navy notified his mother, who for three weeks through her grief could not bring herself to believe it was true. She took to her bed, dreaming of her boy. She refused to accept the proceeds from an insurance policy on young Carl’s life. Then she got another missive from the navy, advising her that Carl was not dead but had been wounded “seriously, but will recover.”66 Perhaps it was mothers’ intuition.

  Without any fanfare, a gentleman by the name of George Herman Ruth Jr. walked into the Manhattan Bond office and quietly ordered $100,000 worth of War Bonds. Told that the restrictions only allowed for the purchase of $50,000 per year, the man who went by the nickname of “Babe” bought $50,000 and left an order for another $50,000 to be picked up on January 2, 1942.67 War Bonds and Defense Stamps had become so interwoven in society, appliance stores offered them for free with the purchase of washers, dryers, and ranges.68

  The Archbishop of New York, Francis Joseph Spellman, donated $1,000 to the Red Cross for the war fund and “disclosed that he had contributed one pint of ecclesiastical blood for the blood bank.”69

  And the Archbishop of Canterbury, following Franklin Roosevelt’s suit, called for the British to be in church on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. “Throughout this countrymembers of the various religious faiths will join with their co-religionists in the United States in observing a day of prayer. . . .” The Anglican Archbishop fired a rhetorical shot across the bow of his church’s old adversary saying, “We recommend that in all Catholic churches there be prayers.”70 Lambs did not always play well together.

  A former associate of Mr. Ruth, Louis Gehrig, had died several years earlier but Hollywood thought so much of him, his life, and his courage in facing death, it decided to make a movie about him and announced Gary Cooper would portray the “Iron Man.” Hollywood also announced the beginning of filming of a new Tarzan movie starring Johnny Weissmuller, who was, for a generation, the only and the best Ape Man.

  Japanese, German, and Italian “Axis Aliens” began showing up at police stations all over the West to surrender thousands of cameras and massive amounts of radio equipment, per the directive of the federal government. For each item, a receipt was given “if Federal authorities release it at some future date.”71

  More war songs were pouring forth, but not the type found in church. The popular band leader Sammy Kaye penned, “Remember Pearl Harbor.” The lyrics revealed Kaye’s Catholicism: “We’ll always remember Pearl Harbor, Brightest jewel of the blue southern sea, Our lips will be saying ‘Pearl Harbor’, On each bead of our rosary.”72 As many as 260 patriotic songs were submitted to Tin Pan Alley, slang for the group of music publishers clustered in New York City who dominated songwriting in America at the time. The very first song about the war they rushed out was “We Did It Before and We Can Do It Again,” by Dinah Shore and Eddie Cantor. Other song titles by various artists included: “You’re a Sap, Mr. Jap,” and this particularly blunt tune: “We’re Going to Find a Fellow Who is Yellow and Beat Him Red, White and Blue.”73

  In accordance with the new restrictions in Hawaii, all 215 buses of the Honolulu Rapid Transit Company had their roofs painted black.74 All movie theatres in Hawaii stopped showing films at 4 p.m. including the Roosevelt, Waikiki, Kaimuki, Kapahulu, Kewalo, Kalihi, and Wahiawa theatres.75

  New information and tales kept coming out about the attack.

  A young wife, Margaret Bickell, 20, was in Oahu on December 7 with her husband, First Lieutenant George Bickell, 25, eating breakfast when they heard the first attack. Lt. Bickell reported immediately to his base and got up and flew against the Japanese until being shot down and crashing in the ocean, right in front of his wife. She then saw her husband swim to shore, get another plane, take off, and resume the fight.76

  Mrs. Bickell also told of “sullen Japanese servants” in Oahu who, after December 7, had turned on lights during blackouts and smoked cigarettes out of doors when the general order was to not light anything for fear the enemy would spot it.77

  CHAPTER 30

  THE THIRTIETH OF DECEMBER

  Britain Bombed Heaviest in Weeks

  The Sun

  F.D.R. “Pushed Europe into War Against Me,” Nazi Leader Complains

  International News Service

  Red Men Bury Hatchet to Aid War on Axis

  Associated Press

  As a means of helping Germany with their war effort, a committee of Frenchmen appointed by Vichy French President Marshal Petain seriously considered demolishing the Eiffel Tower and salvaging the 1,000 tons of steel in the edifice worth at the time some $1,000,000. “Paris’ 984-foot Eiffel Tower, known to millions since it was built 52 years ago, may be scrapped by a national metal collection committee working under Marshal Petain. . . .”1

  The committee’s stated purpose was to identify buildings that lacked any real artistic or historical value. Surprising as it might seem, the tower didn’t make the cut. One member of the French Academy, writer Henry Bordeaux, deemed Alexander Eiffel’s 1889 creation for the World’s Fair “an insult to aesthetic taste.”2 However, although controversial when it was first erected, the pioneering steel tower soon became an object of affection and veneration for Parisians—and a symbol of France itself.

  After June 1940, the French Tricolor no longer flew from the Eiffel Tower but
rather the flag with the menacing black spider of the Third Reich, as German troops had marched into what had been known as the City of Light with near impunity, save the tears of a few old Frenchmen pining for the days of lost Napoleonic glory.

  The news of the tower’s intended destruction arrived to the world by a circuitous path. “Tokyo radio tonight carried a Domei agency dispatch from Lisbon quoting a dispatch from New York based on a British broadcast heard by American short wave listeners.” It had originated on Berlin radio coming from an official announcement from Vichy.3

  Small wonder Winston Churchill had little respect for the men of the Seine. In his speech to the Canadian Parliament he acidly said,

  The British Empire and the United States . . . are going to fight out this new war against Japan together. We have suffered together and we shall conquer together. But the men of Bordeaux, the men of Vichy they would do nothing like this. They lay prostrate at the foot of the conqueror. They fawned upon him.

  What have they got out of it?

  This fragment of France which was left to them is just as powerless, just as hungry as, and even more miserable, because more divided, than the occupied regions themselves. Hitler plays from day to day . . . with these tormented men.4

  There was still a huge debate raging in Washington over sources of new revenues for the national emergency. In the month of December alone, the war effort had cost nearly $2.2 billion dollars.5

  War Bonds, stamps, and the current tax structure wouldn’t suffice, according to many of the bureaucrats responsible for having opinions on such matters. Funding for the war was already consuming some 23 percent of the national income, but it would shortly rocket up from there.6 Henry Morgenthau, Secretary of the Treasury, hired a new tax aide, Randolph Paul, who had some interesting notions on tax policy. “Prime obstacle to an effective tax structure . . . is the fact that taxpayers (at least in peacetime) have an insufficient ‘sense of debt to society and little intelligent interest in the continuation of the conditions which enable satisfactory living.’”7 Paul did not stop there. He made fun of companies for wanting to keep “surplus accumulations.” Expanding, he continued that “the primary function of consumption taxes should be to control production, not raise revenue.” Paul had helped Congress write the “Excess Profits Tax” which the government slapped on businesses in 1940 which the rate of earnings—weighted—of “not more than 10%.”8