F l «• ■■ si/a c. a Produced by the North (duroliri Spriny20013 • C; documents learingwouse APR 1 o 2008 “"fis\ [ Tar Heel Junior Historian North Carolina History for Students Spring 2008 Volume 47, Number 2 On the cover: Marine Gunnery Sergeant Maynard P- Daniels Jr., of Wanchese, on duty in the south¬ west Pacific. Daniels, age twenty-six, won a state Golden Gloves boxing title as a Wake Forest College student before turning pro. He enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves in 1936 and was Introduction: World 1 called to active duty in late 1940. At right: Staff Sergeant John W. Moffitt, of War II Touched Lives Greensboro, in the nose of a B-26 Marauder plane. in Every Community The twenty-two-year-old bombardier had recently by Dr. Annette Ayers llL scuffled with Nazi fighters over Germany, where the Ninth Army Air Force successfully attacked a railway bridge on a German supply route. Images North Carolina’s Wartime courtesy of the North Carolina Museum of History. Blimps over Elizabeth City Miracle: Defending by Stephen D. Chalker 5 the Nation State of North Carolina 25 by Dr. John S. Duvall Michael F. Easley, Governor Beverly E. Perdue, Lieutenant Governor Enemies and Friends: POWs in the Tar Heel State Courage above and Department of Cultural Resources 26 by Dr. Robert D. Billinger Jr. Lisbeth C. Evans, Secretary beyond the Call of Duty: Staci T. Meyer, Chief Deputy Secretary 9 Tar Heels in World War II by Lieutenant Colonel Hospital Cars Rode Office of Archives and History Jeffrey J. Crow, Deputy Secretary Sion H. Harrington III 29 the Rails by Larry K. Neal Jr. Division of State History Museums North Carolina Museum of History Rendezvous with History: Kenneth B. Howard, Director Thomas W. Ferebee and Help from the Home Front: Heyward H. McKinney Jr., Chief Operations Officer 12 the Enola Gay Women’s Clubs Contribute R. Jackson Marshall IH, Associate Director 30 William J. McCrea, Associate Director by Tom Belton to the Cause by Jettnifer Biser Education Section B. J. Davis, Section Chief Women Step Up Charlotte Sullivan, Curator of to Serve From Hep Cats to Full Outreach Programs 15 by Hermann J. Trojanowski Birds: Slang of the 1940s Michelle L. Carr, Curator of Internal Programs 33 by Michelle L. Carr Tar Heel Junior Historian Association Activities Jessica Humphries, Program Coordinator Wilmington Helps Weld Courtney Armstrong, Subscription Coordinator 18 an Allied Victory Tar Heel Junior Historian 34 by Ralph Scott Doris McLean Bates, Editor in Chief Posters Help Win Lisa Coston Hall, Editor/Designer the War at Home Tom Belton and Sion H. Harrington III, 20 One More Glance: World by Sandy Webbere Conceptual Editors 37 War II and North Carolina Tar Heel Junior Historian When World War II Association Advisory Board Was Fought off North Annette Ayers, Mary1 Bonnett, Fay Gore, Vince 22 Visit thu North Carolina Museum of Historr Greene, Lisa Coston Hall, Jim Hartsell, Jessica Carolina’s Beaches Humpfiries, Jackson Marshall, Leslie Rivers, by Kevin P. Duffus 'Carbffmn5 A t0 AmtS: °avid Marshafl and Charlotte Sullivan Everybody's War: North Carol ‘ n arid War II; and "Showboat": The USS Do you need to contact the THJH editor? . North Carolina. Send an e-mail to [email protected]. MS^zr°^storyorg to ieam m THE PURPOSE of Tar Heel Junior Historian magazine (ISSN 0496-8913) is to present the tiistory of North Carolina to the students of this state through a well- balanced selection of scholarly articles, photographs, and illustrations It is published two times per year for the Tar Heel Junior Historian Association by the North Carolina Museum of History, Raleigh, North Carolina 27699-4650. Copies are provided free to association advisers. Members receive other benefits, as well Individual and library subscriptions may be purchased at the rate of $8.00 per year. © 2008, North Carolina Museum of History. PHOTOGRAPHS: North Carolina Museum of History photography is by Eric N. Blevins and D. Kent Thompson. EDITORIAL POLICY: Tar Heel Junior Historian solicits manuscripts from expert scholars for each issue. Articles are selected for publication by the editor in consultation with the conceptual editor and other experts. The editor reserves the right to make changes in articles accepted for publication but will consult the author should substantive questions arise. Published articles do not necessarily rep¬ resent the views of the North Carolina Museum of History, the Department of Cultural Resources, or any other state agency. The text of this journal is available on magnetic recording tape from the State Library, Serv ices to the Blind and Physically Handicapped Branch. For information, call 1-888-388-2460. NINE THOUSAND copies of this public document were printed at an approximate cost of $5,765.00, or $0.64 a copy. INTRODUCTION WORLD WAR H TOUCHED LIVESIN by Dr. Annette Ayers* VH hroughout my childhood, I was until after World War II, so light came from EWERY r \ blessed with storytellers in my kerosene lamps. Women had to wash clothes IVfamily I listened to my grand¬ at outside iron kettles, draw up water by parents, parents, aunts, and hand from wells, and can vegetables in hot uncles talk about the events that kitchens with wood-burning stoves. The had impacted their lives and those of our many Methodist, Baptist, and Quaker neighbors, our community, and our state. I churches, and the schools at Shoals and realized at an early age that I developed my Pinnacle, formed the centers of the community. love of and appreciation for history by listen¬ Families in the area—like those across ing to the fascinating stories of my paternal North Carolina and the nation—were still COMMUNITY grandmother and my mother, who shared recovering from the devastating economic experiences and hardships effects of the Great Depression of the 1930s. suffered by our family during They opposed being drawn into a war in the Civil War. My mother had Europe. Men in Shoals, such as my grand¬ been well-acquainted with her father Johnie Ayers, had fought in the bloody paternal grandfather, a battles in France's Argonne Forest during Confederate soldier, and her World War I (1917-1918), and had been maternal great-grandmother, exposed to the new weapon of mustard gas. a Confederate widow who They had no desire to see the United States lost her husband during the engaged in a second world war. They were Civil War while she was concerned when the government passed the pregnant with her only child. first peacetime conscription, or draft, law in ae federal government As I studied history in America's history in 1939, and the first men reduced posters like this one elementary school, I quickly rortly after Japan's December 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor, realized that the facts in our lawaii. That attack led to many uick enlistments in America s textbooks were not isolated rmed services; on December 8, happenings. They were he U.S. Navy office in Raleigh signed up 78 enlistees. Image experiences shared by people :ourtesy of the North Carolina struggling to survive the Museum of History. daily demands of life, its celebrations, and its hardships, as well as life¬ changing national and international events. While the clouds of war erupted over cen¬ tral and western Europe in the late 1930s, my family lived a normal life in the Surry County community of Shoals, at the foot of beautiful Pilot Mountain. Seasonal chores governed life in this subsistence-farming community. Families planted corn, wheat, sugarcane, the Men from across North Carolina—serving in the coast guard, marines, and navy—gather on the deck of a coast guard ship shortly before landing operations on the Japanese island cash crop of tobacco, and vegetable gardens, of Okinawa. The men are identified as (front row, left to right) Pharmacist's Mate J. A. and raised chickens, hogs, and cows, largely Hudson, of Vass; Gunnery Sergeant T. E. Leonard, of Jamestown; Platoon Sergeant Nolan Thomas, of Jamestown; Corporal L. E. Kilfoil, of Greensboro; Private First Class J. B. to meet their own needs. They cut wood in Garrison, of Badin; and Carpenter's Mate Richard S. Tillett, of Elizabeth City; (back row, left the spring and fall to heat the houses, fuel the to right) Platoon Sergeant T. P. Parson, of Lenoir; Private First Class G. C. Brande, of Reidsville; Corporal L. K. Littleton, of Badin; Sergeant H. A. Ross, of Morganton; Private cooking stoves, and cure the tobacco in the Paul T. Mauney, of Stanley; Pharmacist's Mate Robert O. Blauvelt, of Wilson, and log barns. Electricity did not arrive in Shoals Boatswain's Mate First Class Jerry N. Buchanan, of New Bern. Image courtesy of the North Carolina Museum of History. *Dr. Annette Ayers is a teacher coach/curriculum facilitator at Southeastern Stokes Middle School and THJH, Spring 2008 an adjunct professor at Surry Community College. A member of the Tar Heel junior Historian 1 Association Advisory Board, she is a retired history teacher and served as the director of education and programs at the Mount Airy Museum of Regional History from August 2004 through August 2007. from our .V FAST FACTS - community North. Carolina’s population during World War II: were drafted approximately 3.6 million Number of Tar Heels who served in the military dur¬ into military ing the war: 362,000 (more than 7.000 women) service in 1940. North Carolinians killed: More than 8.000 Tar Heels This group tar died in World War H. in combat or from other caus¬ included my es. In comparison, the state lost more than 40.000 Students from Coltrane School in Cabarrus County collect soldiers in the Civil War; 2,375 in World War I; 2.965 scrap rubber, copper, iron, and brass in 1943 for the war uncle, Jim in the Korean War; and 1.573 in the Vietnam War.