Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Bombs and Babies A War Bride's Diary by Peter J. Cooper Robert Armstrong (actor) Robert Armstrong (November 20, 1890 – April 20, 1973) was an American film actor remembered for his role as Carl Denham in the 1933 version of King Kong by RKO Pictures. He uttered the famous exit quote, "'T'was beauty killed the beast," [1] at the film's end. Contents. Early years [ edit | edit source ] Born Robert William Armstrong [note 1] [2] [3] [4] [5] in Saginaw, Michigan, lived in Bay City, Michigan until about 1902 and moved to Seattle, Washington. He attended the University of Washington, where he studied law, [5] and became a member of Delta Tau Delta International Fraternity. [6] Armstrong gave up his studies to manage his uncle's touring companies. Career [ edit | edit source ] In his spare time, Armstrong wrote plays, which eventually led to him appearing in one of them when it was produced. Armstrong served in the United States Army in World War I, and upon his return home after the war, Armstrong discovered his uncle had died while he was away. In 1926, he went to London and appeared for a season on the British stage. Armstrong's silver screen career began in 1927 when he appeared in Pathé's silent drama The Main Event . [7] He appeared in 127 films between 1927 and 1964; very prolific in the late 1920s and early 1930s, he made nine movies in 1928 alone. He is best known for his role as director Carl Denham in King Kong . Months later, he starred as Carl Denham again in the sequel, Son of Kong , released the same year. He resembled King Kong producer and adventurer Merian C. Cooper, and Cooper used him in several films as more or less a version of himself. The Most Dangerous Game was filmed at night on the same jungle sets as King Kong , which was shot during the day, with Armstrong and Fay Wray simultaneously starring in both pictures. In 1937, Armstrong starred in With Words and Music (also referred to as The Girl Said No ), released by Grand National Films Inc. He also worked throughout the 1930s and 1940s for many film studios. Prior to World War II, in 1940, Universal Pictures released Enemy Agent , about countering a Nazi spy ring. In the film, Armstrong co-starred with Helen Vinson, Richard Cromwell and Jack La Rue. In 1942, he was reteamed with Cromwell in Baby Face Morgan, a notable B movie for PRC (Producers Releasing Corporation). Later in that decade, Armstrong played another Carl Denham-like leading character role as "Max O'Hara" in 1949's Mighty Joe Young. This film was another stop-motion animation giant gorilla fantasy, made by the same King Kong team of Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack. In the 1950s, he appeared as Sheriff Andy Anderson on Rod Cameron's syndicated western-themed television series, State Trooper . Armstrong made four guest appearances on Perry Mason during its nine-year run on CBS: in 1961 he played the title character and murder victim Captain Bancroft in "The Case of the Malicious Mariner"; in 1962 he played defendant Jimmy West in "The Case of the Playboy Pugilist"; and in 1964 he played murderer Phil Jenks in "The Case of the Accosted Accountant." Marriages [ edit | edit source ] (August 1920 - April 17, 1925; divorced) Ethel Virah Smith (June 12, 1926 - July 27, 1931; divorced) Gladys Dubois (January 10, 1936 - December 31, 1939; divorced) [8] Claire Louise Frisbie (January 1, 1940 - April 20, 1973; his death) [8] Death [ edit | edit source ] Armstrong died of cancer in Santa Monica, California. He and King Kong' s co-producer, Merian C. Cooper, died within sixteen hours of each other. [9] Sleeping with the enemy: The British women who fell for German PoWs. With each step they took, hand in hand along the bomb-ravaged streets of Southampton, the sight of June Tull and her boyfriend incited insults and fury. "Aren't our boys good enough for you?" yelled one woman. Another ran up to June and punched her. Others spat in her face. How could she, they asked, fraternise with the enemy when their own fathers, husbands and sons had been killed by the Germans? For 18-year-old June's boyfriend was German prisoner of war Heinz Fellbrich, 25, a fact which was advertised wherever they went by the PoW's brown uniform with orange felt patches he had to wear at all times. "There was a lot of hostility towards us," recalls June, now 79. "I could understand it because people had lost loved ones in the war, but all that mattered to me was that I loved Heinz. "However, it wasn't easy. We tried to go to quiet places when we were together so people wouldn't see us. "My father Frank was all right about it, but my mother was against the relationship. She worried about what people would think." Especially when four months into the courtship - which began at the end of January 1947 - June, who was by this time sleeping with the enemy having written a "Dear John" letter dumping her Royal Marine boyfriend, became pregnant. "I was scared stiff," says June. "Falling pregnant outside marriage was bad enough - but with a German PoW! Scroll down for more. "I dread to think what would have happened if Heinz hadn't wanted to marry me." Three months pregnant, June married Heinz on August 14, 1947, at the Civic Centre in Southampton - much to her mother Winifred's chagrin. June wore a blue suit borrowed from a friend, and other German PoWs had made Heinz a brown suit without the orange patches. June was the first British woman to marry a German PoW following Clement Attlee's postwar government's decision to lift the ban on fraternisation and marriage - an event so controversial it made newspaper headlines. At the reception at the Labour Hall, there was a German Oompah band - made up of other PoWs - and guests ate a simple buffet prepared the night before by June and a girlfriend, after her mother refused to help. When they emerged, they were greeted by the pop of flashbulbs from newspaper photographers. At 10pm sharp, Heinz was back behind the barbed wire at the PoW camp - having been given permission to marry by the camp commandant - and June begged him not to slip out to meet her later, which would be punished by solitary confinement. Their "wedding night" took place the following day at June's home, when Heinz was allowed to visit his new wife. He was released from the PoW camp one week before their eldest son Peter was born. This week, June and Heinz celebrated their diamond wedding anniversary with 70 family members and friends at the Methodist Hall in Eastleigh, Hampshire, and today will fly to Hamburg to celebrate again with Heinz's German family. They have six children - four boys and two girls - 12 grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren, and say they are as in love today as the first moment they caught sight of each other back in 1947. Theirs is a remarkable love story, especially when set against the intense hostility and bitterness towards the British women who fell in love with German PoWs. "After our wedding we received two sackloads of hate mail. "I didn't read it all because I knew what people would say. But there was one lovely letter which said: "You can't choose who you fall in love with, just be happy," says June. "I refused to let it bother me and I'm glad of that. We have been incredibly happy. "I don't regret falling in love with Heinz, although for a long time we felt very isolated." Heinz adds: "The British people were much harder on June than they were on me, but once they got to know me, the fact I was German became irrelevant. "Of course I was sorry for the suffering of the people who'd lost loved ones or their homes, but the German people had suffered, too. It is the nature of war. "Since falling in love with June, I have never once felt homesick for Germany. "This is my home. I like the people, the country and being here. We have been very lucky." It was in late 1939 that the first prisoners of war arrived in Britain and were held in two camps. Their numbers remained small as the Government was reluctant to accept PoWs while the threat of Nazi invasion was imminent - but by the end of the war there were more than 600 camps. Each camp was given a number and was either a disused building, such as a factory, or was made up of specially constructed corrugated iron buildings known as Nissen huts. More than 400,000 German PoWs were still being held in Britain in 1946, the year after World War II ended, with Attlee's government refusing to repatriate the Germans until well after the war was over. During 1946, up to one-fifth of all farm work in Britain was being done by unpaid German PoWs, and they were also employed on road works and building sites. When the ban on fraternisation was lifted just before Christmas 1946, many British people chose to put the war behind them and welcomed PoWs into their homes. By the end of 1947, around 250,000 German PoWs had been returned home. The last were repatriated in 1949, but approximately 24,000 decided to stay in Britain - either because they'd met a British girl or because their home towns were now in Russian-held territory and they feared another spell of imprisonment in Soviet hands. Some British women fared better than others, who were disowned by their families. Perhaps it was because June had not lost her home or any relatives that she did not hold Heinz's nationality against him. The daughter of bus driver Frank Tull and the eldest of five children, June was working in a bottling factory when she first met Heinz shortly after the ban on fraternisation was lifted. The fact that she and her family had to spend almost every night in an air raid shelter during the Blitz had no bearing on her feelings when she spotted the tall, handsome German. "A couple of my girlfriends were seeing German PoWs," says June, "and one day I cycled to the camp with them. "While they were chatting over the fence to their boyfriends, I saw Heinz and said to my friend Amy: 'He's a bit of all right.' "She told her boyfriend, who brought Heinz over. He was incredibly handsome and tall with wavy hair. "He could hardly speak any English, but there was a spark between us." Heinz adds: "She was a lovely looking girl. She still is." Prisoners of war were allowed out of the camp during the day but had to be back by dusk. However, Heinz and his friends would dig a ditch under the barbed wire and crawl out at night to meet their sweethearts. "At first we kept it secret. I had a boyfriend who was stationed in Chatham, in Kent, with the Royal Marines," says June. "We would go for walks and hold hands and we fell in love. When I plucked up the courage to tell my parents, my father said: 'Bring him home for lunch then,' so I did. My father made him feel very welcome, although my mother wasn't so happy." Heinz, the eldest of nine children and the son of a farmer, had grown up in an East Prussian village near the Russian border and volunteered aged 20, believing Hitler had been "good for the German people". A paratrooper with the Luftwaffe, he'd almost lost a leg in 1942 when a soldier next to him stood on a landmine and was killed. He spent a year in hospital before returning to the front line. He gave himself up to Allied troops in Alsace, France, in 1945 when efforts to flee via the River Rhine using oil drums failed. He was shipped to Boston and imprisoned in Pennsylvania but was sent to Britain a year later, ending up in Southampton. After he was released from the PoW camp, Heinz, June and their baby son lived with her parents for six months until they moved out to one of the prefabs on the common which had been vacated after the American troops went home. They then moved into a cottage, on the farm where Heinz had found work and in 1960 to a council house in Eastleigh, where they live to this day. Heinz found great success erecting Dutch barns at farms all over the country. "After a while the anti-German sentiment died down a bit," June says. Heinz adds: "I have been very happy here. I have nothing bad to say about the British." Although proud of his roots, Heinz - like many German soldiers who initially thought emerging stories about the Holocaust were British propaganda - was later horrified by the atrocities perpetrated by the Nazis. June met Heinz's family for the first time in 1957, as for years Heinz had no idea where they were after fleeing East Prussia and only found them in Hamburg through the international Red Cross. They welcomed his British bride. It had been a hard road, but ultimately - once the war was over - the British generally were remarkably accepting and forgiving of the German PoWs who settled here. Margaret Stratton, now aged 93, shocked her community when she married German PoW Peter Roth, five years her junior, on May 22, 1948 in Peterborough. Hundreds of people lined the streets - more out of curiosity and disbelief than anything else. "They couldn't believe she had married a German," recalls Peter, now aged 88. "But I struck lucky when I fell in love with Margaret. People accepted me, not because I was German, but because I was Margaret Stratton's husband." Margaret adds: "No one ever said anything to me, but I'm sure people talked about me behind my back. "After the wedding, I went to the local paper and paid them to print our marriage picture as I wanted everyone to know I didn't care what they thought." Margaret was the only child of a gardener and groom, who worked for the wealthiest farmer in the area. When he died, the Strattons moved in with his widow, and Margaret's mother Annie became her housekeeper. A talented sportswoman, swimmer, artist, toy maker, actress and dancer who'd raised money for the war effort by performing concerts, Margaret - whose father died when she was 16 - had decided not to marry as she had "such a wonderful life", even though many young men were besotted with her. It was in 1945 that Peter Roth, an uneducated soldier from the village of Erbach, near Frankfurt, was sent to work near the farm where she lived after being captured in Normandy in 1944. Margaret recalls: "When I first saw Peter, I said to my girlfriend: 'I know he's German, but he has the most lovely face.' There was just something about him." Peter was equally struck and that evening he stripped his camp hut's garden of every flower - six snowdrops - and presented them to Margaret the next day. In return, she gave him a cigarette and a piece of cake and so began a highly dangerous romance. "The war was not yet over and fraternising between local women and German PoWs was forbidden. "Heaven knows what would have happened to us if we'd been found out," says Peter. "In many ways Margaret saved my life. I remember her saying: 'I don't want to know anything about your past or what you've done. All I know is that I love you and that you are mine now. That's all that matters.' As Christmas 1945 approached, Margaret wanted Peter to spend Christmas Day at her home with her and her mother Annie, who'd already met him and instantly liked him. Although the war was over, prisoners were not yet allowed to visit private homes. Peter's camp was 13 miles away, so Margaret paid local taxi driver Douglas Fiddieng 13 shillings to bring him to the farmhouse where they lived on Christmas Day. As it turned out, the local police had been tipped off, but Margaret was so well loved in the community they decided to turn a blind eye. Margaret says: "The police used to ask Peter to translate letters for them and years after we married the police sergeant told us he knew all about Peter visiting our house. He should have arrested us." "The sergeant told Peter: 'I could not harm Margaret. Her only sin was falling in love.' We were lucky. "I don't regret marrying Peter. We've been very happy and next year celebrate our diamond anniversary." Scroll down for more. They have one daughter, Anita, 57, two grandchildren and a great granddaughter. But not everyone was happy at the time. Peter says: "When I went back to Germany in 1949, an old schoolfriend came up to me after church and said: 'I shall never forgive you for marrying a British woman. 'At the very least you should have married one of the German women now left on the shelf.' I simply replied: "Go back to 1939 - if I'd asked you to marry me you would have turned up your nose, so what has changed?"' After the war, Peter worked on a farm for a while, then in the parcel depot on the railways. Today, he is the full-time carer for his wife, who is very frail. They have a lifetime of happy memories. "When our grandson was five he saw a war programme on the television and asked me: 'Granddad, who were the goodies in the war?' "I told him I would write down my life story and then he could decide for himself when he was older," Peter says. "The British like to think they are always 'the goodies'. "There is no doubt that the Nazis and the SS committed many atrocities, but I didn't fight for Hitler, I fought for Germany, my homeland, which had been treated so badly after World War I. Bombs and Babies: A War Bride's Diary by Peter J. Cooper. MILITARY BOOKS, DVD's & CD-R's COVERING WORLD WAR 2 IN THE SOUTH WEST PACIFIC AREA. I am particularly interested in researching events of a military nature, that occurred within Australia during WWII. If you would like your book, DVD or CD-R advertised on this home pag e send me an e-mail at:- From Up Over To Down Under: And Back USB containing the Photographic Collection of S/Sgt Jack Heyn Photographer with the 3rd Bomb Group during WW2. Bombs and Babies: A War Bride's Diary by Peter J. Cooper. Updates about Olive Tree Genealogy website and other FREE genealogy records. Bringing you tutorials, genealogy book and app reviews, genealogy news, genealogy specials and more. Helping you find your family tree and ancestors. March 25, 2021. Who Was Your First Canadian or American Born Ancestor? My first Canadian ancestor was Leonard-Tremi (Jonas) Le Roy baptised 1674 in what is now Quebec. My first Ontario born ancestor was Levi Peer who was born 1807 in what was then Upper Canada. My first born American ancestor was Styntje Jans Snediker born 1641 in New Amsterdam (now New York City) Caveat: I've omitted my Mohawk ancestor Ots-Toch (wife of Cornelis Van Slyke) because I have no idea of her ancestry going back in time but it certainly was hundreds of years before Styntje. My husband has no American ancestry. His first born Canadian ancestor was Ellen Montgomery born in 1822 in Quebec. Johannes Alexander Allen Butler, son of his black ancestor, was a close second being born in 1824 in York County Ontario. Who was your first North American ancestor? 9 comments: Both my parents were first generation Canadian. I have no Canadian ancestors, although I have Canadian relatives from Loyalists who left from New England before, during, and after the American Revolution. My earliest born American ancestor appears to be Archer Farley, son of Thomas Farley, Gentleman, and wife Jane (possibly Moleneaux or Sefton?), born in 1626 or 27, in Archer's Hope, Jamestown, Virginia. A daughter, Ann, was born to Thomas and Jane while on the voyage to Virginia, so she might be the earliest, depending on how we define the term. Thomas served a few terms in the Virginia House of Burgesses. Thomas was from Worcester, Worcestershire, and was a son of Roger Farley, Gentleman, Merchant, and his wife, either Isobel Phumpfries or Jane Evans. Roger's will is not clear on this point. It is also possible that a Richard Braseur, in Virginia by 1616, may be an ancestor and one of his children is the earliest European ancestor born in North America. My ancestor Benois Brasseur, lived in the same area of Lower Norfolk, Virginia, before moving to Maryland, where he received a Letter of Denization from Lord Baltimore. I also have native ancestry through the Chowanoak tribe of North Carolina. MY first Canadian born relation was Ann Nevers b.6 jan Mauderville, NB. My first Canadian relation was Ann Nevers b.6 jan 1770. Hélène Desportes, born Quebec about 1620. I have been busy identifying my Immigrant ancestors and should easily be able to identify the first generation American or Canadian. I am intrigued by your spreadsheet on this blog. The ideal of having the names on an easy accessible single sheet would be helpful but, I don't see any of your surnames listed on subsequent generations. i.e. if your father was a Smith, then your GG would be a Smith. Can you explain how you arranged your spreadsheet? I enjoy checking in and getting your wonderful tips. Jane Nicola Mathis. Hi Jane - thanks for your kind comments! The way I did my spreadsheet was actually pretty simple - I didn't want to repeat surnames, so basically I omitted the paternal surname on the next generation back. For example, my great-grandfather was a Vollick. So Vollick goes in the GGparents section. The next generation for GGGparents would be his father (Vollick) and mother (Burkholder) So I don't put Vollick in a cell but I do put Burkholder. The only time I put the father's name would be when I went further back (not show on this cropped image) when I entered Golding as a surname for an illegitimate ancestor - but her father was a Norris so his name was put in a cell for the next generation. Is there a template for your spread sheet? I don’t have a template. Can you follow the instructions I wrote out for Jane, above? I’ll try to find some time to work one up but no guarantees. The Battle of the Ancre Heights. The available material online regarding the 18th Battalion’s involvement is, in a word, sketchy. The War Diary makes a totally oblique reference to the battle: Duty Nobly Done relates: “The prospects for this attack did not look good and Major-General Turner tried to have General Gough cancel it…While for the most part the attack failed, meeting strong resisteance and being driven back, the 18th and 20th Battalions were able to advance 400 metres on the right flank of the corps’ front and did a new trench to link up with the British 4th Army on its right at Destremont Farm.” Antal, Sandy, and Kevin R. Shackleton. Duty Nobly Done: The Official History of the Essex and Kent Scottish Regiment. Windsor, ON: Walkerville Pub., 2006. pg.216. Nicholson (Chapter 6, page 182) relates: Zero hour was 3:15 on the afternoon of 1 October, and as the Canadians waited in drizzling rain in their advanced positions many were hit by our own shells falling short all along the line. The 8th Brigade attacked obliquely across the Grandcourt road with two battalions of the Canadian Mounted Rifles – the 4th on the left and the 5th on the right. It was the responsibility of one company of the 4th C.M.R. to establish a block in Regina Trench on the extreme left in order to seal off interference from the west That the enemy had been missed by our barrage was evident in the hail of machine-gun bullets which met the C.M.Rs. the moment they mounted the parapet. As had been feared, the uncut German wire proved a formidable obstacle. One company was practically wiped out in no man’s land. Part of another reached its objective, but was there overpowered and perished to the last man. The left forward company of the 5th C.M.R. reached Regina Trench and succeeded in establishing blocks, only to be driven out early next morning by repeated counter-attacks. The other assaulting company was held up by the enemy wire and the blistering machine-gun fire; all but fifteen were either killed or taken prisoner. The 5th Brigade, attacking on a 1200-yard front which included the two barriers of Kenora Trench and the main Regina position, fared little better. With his strength seriously depleted by earlier battles, Brig.-Gen. A.H. Macdonell was compelled to use three battalions in the assault (from right to left the 22nd, the 25th and the 24th Battalions) and to place the 26th Battalion in support of the 22nd. This left him as brigade reserve only part of the 6th Brigade’s decimated 27th Battalion, which had a company detailed to support each of the 24th and 25th Battalions. The French Canadians had an advance of nearly half a mile to their objective – the portion of Regina Trench between the East and West Miraumont roads. Attacking in three waves, each of eighty men extended at five yards’ interval, they had advanced a quarter of a mile when they ran into an intense German artillery barrage and heavy rifle and machine-gun fire. Then came the bitter realization that the enemy’s wire entanglements were virtually unharmed. “From this moment,” records a regimental account, “the attack failed.” Less than fifty men reached Regina Trench, and these could not be reinforced either from support battalion or brigade. After a sharp fight with bayonet and bomb, all survivors were forced to withdraw to their original trenches. In the centre the 25th Battalion was charged with capturing “at all costs” the greater part of Kenora Trench and the corresponding section of Regina Trench beyond. “To do this”, reported the CO. later, “I had 200 all ranks and 12 M.Gs., counting the Brigade M.Gs.” He ordered his two leading waves to push on past Kenora Trench directly to the final objective. Enemy fire cut them down, however, and only thirty reached the wire in front of Regina Trench. Finding what protection they might in shell-holes and hastily dug ditches, they waited out the daylight under steady machine-gun fire. Then they fell back to Kenora, which a following company had secured to within 140 yards of the junction with the main position. Before the day ended more than half the attacking force had become casualties. It was the same bitter story of defeat on the Brigade left, where the 24th Battalion’s objective was some 300 yards of Regina Trench, including the important junction with Kenora. One company gained a footing on the final objective, but with its flank exposed by the 8th Brigade’s failure on the left, it was soon annihilated by strong parties of Marines bombing eastward along the trench. The only bit of success came at the junction of Kenora and Regina Trenches, where men of the 24th Battalion managed to establish and maintain a double block fifty yards wide which prevented the Germans from penetrating the newly won sector of Kenora. Meanwhile north-east of Courcelette the 4th Brigade, adjusting the front line, had advanced some 400 yards under spasmodic machine-gun fire and dug in level with the Fourth Army’s left flank. Early on 2 October Brig.-Gen. Macdonell handed over to the 6th Brigade. The 5th Brigade had gone into the line on 27 September with a trench strength of 1717 all ranks. It came out five days later with 773. Bad weather prevented further large-scale operations on either army’s front for another week. General Gough left it to General Byng to select his own date for taking Regina Trench, provided this was done and the Canadian Corps in position to attack Pys on 11 October in the opening stages of the proposed three-army offensive. In the meantime Sir Julian handed his left brigade sector over to the 2nd Corps, and on the right the 1st Canadian Division relieved General Turner’s battle-worn formations. Preparations for a renewed effort went steadily forward. Working under fire, and further hampered by rain and mud, the Canadians connected advanced posts to form a new jumping-off line which in places came within 300 yards of Regina Trench. The artillery bombarded the German trenches and wire, but though the wire was cut in many places during the day, by night the enemy would fill the gaps with loose concertina. The objectives given to the Corps were somewhat to the east of those of 1 October. They included nearly two miles of Regina Trench from a point 500 yards west of the Kenora junction, and at its eastern extremity the “Quadrilateral” formed by the intersection of a double row of trenches opposite the Fourth Army’s left flank with the dual trench system of the old German Third or Le Sars Position.72. General Haig assessed the efforts of the Canadians thus: Monday 2 October: After lunch I motored to Contay (HQ Canadians) and saw General Byng. He was disappointed that the Canadians had failed to hold the trench which they gained yesterday, and also to occupy another piece of trench which they attacked. I think the cause was that in the hope of saving lives they attacked in too weak numbers. They encountered a brigade of the German Marine Corps recently arrived from Ostend, and had not the numbers to overcome them in a hand-to-hand struggle. They (the Canadians) have been very extravagant in expending ammu¬nition! This points rather to nervousness and low morale in those companies which are frequently calling for a ‘barrage’ without good cause. Byng hopes for good results when his 4th Division arrives. The 1st, 2nd and 3rd Canadian Divisions have suffered heavily, and no sufficient drafts have yet joined them. Sir Sam Hughes’ wants the glory of having a Canadian Army in the field, and is forming a 5th division with the reinforcements… Casualties since 25 September (estimated, the actual casualties are usually less): Officers: 552 Other Ranks: 18,473 Total: 19,025 This must be considered small judging by the results gained, the number of divisions engaged and the wide area over which fighting is now taking place.