Learning About the Fifth Army Mobile Radio Station in Italy

March 8, 2012 Leave a Comment

In the course of researching one of my earlier posts, I discovered the online scrapbook of the 5th Army Mobile Radio Station. Babe makes several references in his letters to signing off so he can listen to the news or listen to the radio. Perhaps this is what he was hearing when he put aside his pen and paper.

The website was created by Jim Carstensen in tribute to his father Vern Carstensen, a first lieutenant in the U.S. Army “assigned to head up the 5th Army Mobile Radio Station in Italy.” He drew from his father’s actual scrapbook of newspaper clippings, signed photographs from the stars of the day and notes.

Jim writes on the scrapbook that the station “was created during World War II to boost morale amongst the troops.  Music, news from home, live concerts and variety shows were produced and broadcast from a mobile platform.”

The YouTube video connected to this post is a 1944 newsreel feature on the mobile radio station, noting that ”radio on wheels moves to where the entertainment is. And when a songwriter and a movie star make for the front, the mobile station follows right along.”

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The Heartbreaking Story of Edith Delaney, USO Tap Dancer

March 5, 2012 Leave a Comment

Picture from the The Naples Record, Naples, N.Y., March 29, 1944

Edith Delaney, USO dancer

Edith Delaney danced for the boys overseas. She was a tap dancer who performed with a three-member troupe that included actress/singer Ella Logan and accordionist Jerry Skelton. Delaney drew cheers and applause from the troops “when she finished her act by tossing out the red poppies she always [wore] in her hair,” according to this Wesleyan University honors thesis.

She was also a war widow — possibly among the first American war widows to visit her husband’s overseas grave.

Babe mentioned the threesome in his previous letter, noting that he’d seen “a pretty good show tonight put on by Ella Logan, Edith Delaney and Jerry Skelton. You will have read all about it by the time this letter reaches you.”

I wondered what he meant by that — “you will have read all about it” — but I went on, just planning to add links to the Wikipedia entry for each of them. As it turns out, only Ella Logan has one. And Ella Logan was a bit of a big deal in her day, a Scottish songstress, a lovely girl with a few Broadway shows and a performance with Frank Sinatra on her credits. She and Edith Delaney were good friends. Read more of this post

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Babe’s Recent Letter Notes the Allies’ Italy Invasion; He Follows Later

February 11, 2012 Leave a Comment

In the last of Babe’s letters transcribed on this site, he wrote on Sept. 10, 1943: ”Right now I’m listening to the news over my radio and he is telling us about the landings at Naples.”

Babe is writing about Operation Avalanche, the allied invasion of Italy, which came less than two months after the Italian king, Victor Emmanuel III, removed Benito Mussolini from power, according to this U.S. Army pamphlet on the Naples-Foggia campaigns.

In fact, that act occurred just four days after Babe arrived in Casablanca. His time in Northern Africa was presumably in preparation for his move into Italy with the 34th Infantry — though the 34th was not part of the initial invasion force, according to the army pamphlet.

The U.S. 34th Infantry Division, a North Dakota National Guard unit commanded by Maj. Gen. Charles Ryder, the U.S. 3d Infantry Division, commanded by Maj. Gen. Lucian Truscott, and the U.S. 1st Armored Division, commanded by Maj. Gen. Ernest N. Harmon, would come ashore through Naples, which (Fifth Army commander Gen. Mark) Clark believed would be in Allied hands by D plus 13, or 23 September.

According to the introduction to the army’s account of the invasion: Read more of this post

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Where Did Babe Fit Into the Mammoth Structure of the Military?

February 10, 2012 Leave a Comment

Antitank weapons (from World War II Infantry Anti-Tank Tactics, by Gordon L. Rottman)

Moving on, it will be helpful to know a little about how the army was structured during World War II. At this point, Babe has been assigned to the 34th Infantry Division, 168th Infantry Regiment. Shortly, he will be assigned to the Antitank Company within the 168th.

What does that mean?

According to About.com, Babe’s immediate community within the army would have consisted of anywhere from 62 to 190 soldiers. That’s the complement of an army company (Babe was in the antitank company).

Moving up the line, if I read the About.com article correctly, companies are assembled into brigades or regiments of between 3,000 to 5,000 soldiers (Babe was in the 168th Infantry Regiment). Three regiments make a division of between 10,000 and 15,000 soldiers (Babe was in the 34th Infantry Division).

Two to five divisions rolled up into a “corps” of 20,000 to 40,000 soldiers. Two or more corps combined to form an army of 50,000 or more soldiers. Babe was part of the Fifth Army (and I have the arm patch to prove it).

The function of an “antitank company” is probably self-evident, but I was curious to know a little more. I found “US infantryman in World War II.: European theater of operations, 1944-45,” By Robert S. Rush, Elizabeth Sharp, Ian Palmer, from 2002. The book included this description of an “antitank company.” Read more of this post

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A Few Words about V-mail, a Precursor to Today’s Email

February 3, 2012 Leave a Comment

As I mentioned in the last post, Babe’s letter postmarked July 29, 1943, was his first to his parents on V-mail. I mentioned Dave Kent, editor of the Military Postal History Society Bulletin, in an earlier post. In my correspondence with him, he also mentioned V-mail.

“You might also run into an interesting World War II type of mail called ‘V-mail’ (as in ‘V for Victory’). V-mail letters were written on a special form and then photographed on microfilm. Only the film was sent back to the states, where it was developed and used to make a photographic copy of the original letter. These photograph letters were then mailed in a small envelope with a window in the front to show the address.”

The National Postal Museum website says a roll of the film contained about 1,700 messages weighed 5.5 ounces, compared to the 50 pounds a sack of the same mail would weigh.

About half the remaining letters from Babe will be on V-mail. The rest will be air mail.

The postal museum says that in its day, V-mail “played the same role 60 years ago that email is playing today in keeping lines of communication open between loved ones.” The museum’s web page on the subject of V-mail describes its origins:

Later to become “V-Mail” when adopted by the United States, the Airgraph Service was first developed by the British Post Office in response to the Italians closing of the Suez Canal and the Mediterranean Sea to Allied forces. Seaborne traffic was rerouted around the Cape of Good Hope. This 12,000 mile detour could mean delays of anywhere between three and six months for mail destined for British soldiers stationed in the Middle East and the Far East. Alternatives to the route around the Cape were considered, eventually settling on transport by aircraft-however, space in any aircraft was extremely limited. Microphotography was deemed the best solution to the problem of space.

The article says V-mail was in use by the U.S. military from June 15, 1942, until April 1, 1945, a little more than a month before Babe was killed. The postal museum said the first large-scale overseas V-mail processing center was opened right where Babe was located, in Casablanca, on April 15, 1943, about three months before he got there.

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