They rode trains, laughed at Sad Sack cartoons, listened to Tokyo Rose and Axis Sally, ate Spam and smoked Luckies from boxes of K rations.
They stormed ashore at Normandy, North Africa and Iwo Jima; lived in foxholes; fought in the snow and cold in the Battle of the Bulge; and served at previously unheard of places like Pearl Harbor that would become known to every American.
They are World War II veterans, who are now dying at the rate of 1,068 every day, according to the latest figures from the Department of Veterans Affairs. As their numbers diminish, their personal accounts and reflections of World War II are being lost with them. Bob Morrill, membership director of the American Legion in Maine, said Maine loses 1,500 World War II veterans every year.
Jim Fiedler, national assistant director of internal affairs and membership for the American Legion in Indianapolis, Ind., recently recruited veterans in Westbrook for the Stephen W. Manchester Post 62. He signed up 24 vets for Post 62. Of those, two were World War II veterans.
Fiedler said World War II vets are focusing on taking care of their spouses or need special help themselves. It’s tough to recruit World War II vets for the Legion, and the majority of Legion members nationally are now Vietnam veterans.
Locally, World War II veterans still account for a significant portion of service organizations. Bob Barton of Post 62 said about half of the 200 members at that post are from World War II. But Barton said they lost six of them last year.
Dave Martin, commander of Westbrook Memorial Post 197 in Westbrook, said at least 65 of their 471 legion members are from World War II. Post 197 also lost a half a dozen last year.
George Gerrish, commander of Gorham Memorial Post 10879 of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, said that organization also has many members who served in World War II.
A part of what Tom Brokaw called “The Greatest Generation,” World War II veterans served in a very different war from the ones that have been fought in modern times.
“It was supposed to be the war to end all wars,” Buteau said. “It wasn’t,” said Roland Buteau, a Westbrook resident who served in the Merchant Marines during World War II.
‘Spamland’
In World War II, it was difficult for GIs to stay in touch with loved ones at home. Service men and women didn’t have cell phones or computers. Regular mail was the only link to home for most deployed overseas.
Harry Perry, 80, of Westbrook served in Europe with the Air Force. Perry recalled it taking two weeks or more to receive a letter sent from home. He said homebound mail from those on duty was censored.
Perry said they were allowed to tell family that they were serving only “somewhere” in France, for example. “They’d black it out,” he said about censors who read anything the military didn’t want disclosed.
Perry volunteered for the draft in 1943. Living in a Quonset hut in England and a tent in France, he stayed in touch with news and sports from home by reading “Stars and Stripes” newspaper.
And Spam wasn’t an Internet term in those days. It was dinner for most GIs. “We had so much Spam they called England Spamland,” said Perry.
The soldiers got Spam with their K rations. Ray Reitze, 84, of Buxton said a box of K rations included Spam along with crackers, cheese, chocolate bars and cigarettes – usually Lucky Strikes or Camels. “I swapped mine for something to eat,” Reitze said about the smokes.
Reitze, who was captured in North Africa and was a prisoner of war for 26 months, said Red Cross packages contained Spam. But while a POW, he received only two Red Cross packages.
Aboard the troop transport Edmund B. Alexander, Buteau, now 79, said food was excellent aboard his ship. But many foods for Americans on the home front were in short supply.
“We had everything the citizens of the country didn’t have,” Buteau said about duty on his ship. “Sugar, butter, meat and potatoes.”
Rosie the Riveter vs. Axis Sally
World War II touched everyone’s life. Joyce MacDowell of Gorham, who had a brother in the Seabees, which was the construction arm of the Navy, said even margarine and shortening for baking bread was rationed. “You had tickets,” she said about food rationing booklets needed to purchase certain foods.
Even gasoline, a much-needed commodity to fuel the war effort, was rationed here. Pete Blanchette, 80, of Westbrook served with the Merchant Marines aboard liberty ships and tankers, delivering cargo overseas. He recalled arriving in Portland in 1943 aboard a tanker laden with gasoline.
“I couldn’t even get a stamp for gas for my car in Westbrook,” Blanchette said.
The home folk saw footage of the war on newsreels at the movies. Without TV in those days, radio was big. “Everybody’s ear was glued to the radio,” said Paul LeConte of Westbrook.
They listened to radio commentators like Edward R. Murrow, Walter Winchell and Gabreil Heater, and each had a familiar greeting. For Murrow, it was “This is London…”; Heater: “Ah, there’s good news tonight”; and Winchell: “Good evening Mr. and Mrs. North American and all the ships at sea.”
Overseas, the troops in Europe heard Axis Sally, broadcasting from Berlin, Germany. She tried to demoralize the troops, Buteau recalled. The woman who did the voice of Axis Sally, who was a native of Portland, was found guilty of treason and imprisoned after the war.
In the Pacific theater, it was Tokyo Rose. With his crippled cruiser being patched up on a Pacific island, Leo Couture of Westbrook heard Rose’s radio broadcast. “Tokyo Rose said they were coming after us. And they were going to bomb us out of the dry dock,” Couture said.
Everyone at home contributed to the war effort in some way whether volunteering for the Red Cross or welding. With millions of men serving in the military, women stepped forward to work in factories and shipyards. The fictional Rosie the Riveter became their symbol.
With parental permission, some kids dropped out of school to volunteer for military duty. Fiedler said the youngest World War II veteran today would be about 79.
Some volunteered to help out at home as wardens or observers. There were blackouts. Homes were outfitted with curtains that prevented light from escaping, and local wardens enforced the blackouts.
Ramona Joyce, media relations manager for the American Legion in Washington, D.C., said 16.1 million Americans wore uniforms in World War II, and their numbers have diminished to 3.5 million. She said 291,557 died in battles in World War II while another 113,842 died during the war from causes other than combat.
“Don’t forget. It’s been 60 years,” Couture said.
Fiedler said the Legion is available to help veterans and their families. “A lot are in VA nursing homes and hospitals,” Fiedler said. “Time takes its toll.”
Bob Morrill, on the left, of the Department of Maine, and Jim Fiedler of the American Legion in Indianapolis, Ind., recently visited Westbrook. Morrill said Maine is losing 1,500 World War II veterans a year.
Westbrook’s Leo Couture, World War II veteran, is one of the members of the rapidly shrinking generation known as the “Greatest Generation.”
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