Studying the war in the Pacific with The National WWII Museum.
Members of the inaugural class of the Museum’s WWII Summer Teacher Institute—Team Pacific—are in Hawaii this week to complete their year of participation in the program. These 30 middle school and high school teachers from around the country came to the Museum in summer 2016 to study World War II in the Pacific with historian and author Richard B. Frank. Each was provided a Museum-created curriculum guide in exchange for a commitment to share its content and the lessons they’d learned with teachers in their hometown. So far, those lessons have been shared with more than 1,000 teachers. The Institute’s second class—Team Europe—will assemble in New Orleans in a few days to study World War II in Europe with Donald L. Miller, PhD, then reconvene next summer for a week of study in Normandy, France.
Team Pacific is sending daily dispatches about their experiences in Hawaii. Here’s a Day One report from Angel Ledbetter, a high school teacher from North Carolina and member of the Summer Teacher Institute inaugural class:
As a history teacher, my goal is to help my students understand the reality of the past. Starting the day at Iolani Palace and Aliiolani Hale, standing where Queen Liliuokalani was imprisoned after her overthrow, and learning about the effects of martial law on the islands during World War II, provided me with insights that will help me do just that.
Coming face-to-face with some of the ugliest chapters in our history—including our role in the dissolution of the Hawaiian monarchy and curtailment of constitutional liberties—takes a commitment to honoring the past that runs throughout Hawaiian culture. The loss of the kingdom (and subsequently the erosion of the native culture) and the racial tension that divided the island during World War II could have broken these islands. And yet, they didn’t.
Instead, as the day progressed we learned just how resilient and proud the Hawaiian people are. We learned lessons about sacrifice and duty at Kualoa Ranch, where more than 600 acres of land was given to the US federal government to serve as a critical airfield during World War II. The tour was sprinkled with tidbits about famous movies filmed there, providing a further glimpse into the magic of the islands.
Coupled with an amazing lunch discussion with a tour guide filled with passion for preserving and promoting Hawaiian language and history, the day left me with no doubt that the Hawaiian spirit is stronger, prouder, and more welcoming than I could have imagined.
Visit ww2classroom.org to see WWII Summer Teacher Institute curriculum guide content.
Each month the Museum features a standout classroom participating in Get in the Scrap!. Get in the Scrap! is a national service learning project about recycling and energy conservation inspired by the scrapping efforts of students during World War II. Each featured class does stellar work to make a difference in their school, home, community and even the planet!
For June, we’re showcasing students from Bucher Elementary School in Lancaster, PA, who are using Get in the Scrap! in their math class. The students and their teacher, Mr. Homan, sat down to answer a few questions for us about their work with Get in the Scrap!
The Scraptastics from Bucher Elementary show off their wattle bottle piggy banks. Oink!
Team Name: The Scraptastics
Number of Get in the Scrap! points thus far: 100
How has Get in the Scrap! been a good fit for your curriculum? Please explain:
“It went along smoothly with our math class. We were able to do some math problems with getinthescrap and discuss recycling and conservation with the students to finish out the year. For example, we had a good discussion about how long the students take showers. We looked up how many liters are used per minute, and then figured out how much water they use in a normal shower. They were surprised!”
What has been your favorite activity? Why?
“The students really loved making the water bottle piggy banks!” Blogger’s note: This is a favorite activity of many participating classrooms. Be creative, reuse materials, and save your change!
This is just one of the many amazing groups participating in the Get in the Scrap! national service learning project. June marks the beginning of summer, so we want to congratulate all students and teachers for their hard work throughout the entire school year. Check out all of their efforts by following the #getinthescrap hashtag on Twitter. Get in the Scrap! will return next fall. Stay tuned for an official launch date!
Post by Chrissy Gregg, Virtual Classroom Coordinator
Sometimes when I read stories from the homefront during the war I try to imagine what it must have been like. The months right after the attack on Pearl Harbor are compelling. I wrote earlier about the Battle of Los Angeles.
On June 21, 1942 Civil-War era Fort Stevens, near the mouth of the Columbia River in Oregon, was shelled by Japanese forces. The Japanese submarine I-25, with a crew of 97, and armed with a 14 cm deck gun and carrying a seaplane, opened fire. Fort Stevens commander ordered an immediate blackout, and held all fire. This prevented the submarine from accurately targeting the base. Of the seventeen shots, the only damage was to some telephone poles near the base–the remainder landed on a baseball field or a nearby wetland. Just past the battery of Fort Stevens was the northern Kaiser shipyard, which was at that time turning out a Liberty Ship each week.
Nearby training planes called in an A-29 bomber, but the submarine submerged untouched, having dodged the bombs.
This attack on continental US military base–the only one by Axis forces in WWII–led to fear of a West Coast invasion. With contemporary sinkings of passenger and freight ships off the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts, it caused fear to mount, and support for the war effort to grow.
The Japanese submarine I-25 was one of the I-15 class submarines produced for the war. It weighed in at 2,600 tons, was 350 ft long, and carried a reconnaissance plane. The plane was carried in a hangar below the deck disassembled. Quickly assembled it could carry 2 men and land on the sea. Subs of the I-15 class could travel 27 mph on the surface, and 9 mph submerged, with total range of 16,000 miles before it needed refueling. The I-25 was just off the shore of Oahu during the Pearl Harbor attack, after which it patrolled the waters off the US coast near the mouth of the Columbia River.
The night before the attack on Fort Stevens, the I-25 torpedoed and damaged a Canadian freighter loaded with cargo for England off the coast of Washington. To get up the river past minefields the next day, the crew followed fishing vessels.
On a later mission, I-25 launched its seaplane from off the coast of California, near the Oregon border. The plane flew inland into southern Oregon, and dropped incendiary bombs over forests in an attempt to cause wildfires. Recent rain and quick work by forest service personnel contained the fire quickly. In the process of putting out the fire, they recovered bomb fragments that identified the source of the fire.
I-25 was sunk off the coast of New Hebrides by the USS Ellet on September 3, 1943.
This is a picture of the I-25's seaplane with the pilot.
This is a map of where the I-25's plane dropped incendiary bombs later.
This is a photo of personnel from Fort Stevens examining craters from the shells fired on it.
This is a photo of the I-26, which was very similar to the 1-25.
All images are from Wikimedia Commons.
Posted by Rob Wallace, STEM Education Coordinator at The National WWII Museum
On Saturday May 13th, 40 teams from Louisiana and Alabama gathered to compete and share their project designs in The Monuments Men–the theme for this year’s robotics challenge.
The robot competition involved students programming their Lego Mindstorms robots to complete 11 tasks. These tasks represented the efforts of the Monuments Men and others in Europe dedicated to saving the cultural heritage of Europe. For example, robots rescued paintings from boxcars, moved the Mona Lisa and a Nike statue from the Louvre, and cleared and posted sentries on damaged monuments.
Teams also designed bridges to carry their robots. This represented the effort to rebuild the bridges of Florence. As the German forces retreated they destroyed the bridges to slow the advancing Allies.
Awards are given annually for the best competitors in the robot competition, and for robot design, and project. In addition, judges pick a Grand Champion. The Grand Champion may or may not win at any of the individual events, but embodies the spirit of the challenge. This year’s Grand Champion team won, in addition to the usual trophy, copies of The Monuments Men, signed by author Robert Edsel. We thank Mr. Edsel for this generous contribution.
Grand Champion
St Michaels of Crowley, LA
Competition
1st place-Tie between SJ Green Charter School of New Orleans and St Pius of Lafayette
2nd place-St Theresa of Gonzales, LA
3rd place-JLT Imaginations of Prairieville, LA
Design
1st place-Our Lady of Fatima of Lafayette, LA
2nd place-Kenner Discovery Health Sciences Academy of Kenner, LA
3rd place-St Theresa of Gonzales, LA
Project
1st place-Girls Scouts of Gonzales, LA
2nd place-St George’s Episcopal of New Orleans, LA
3rd place-Metairie Park Country Day School of Metairie, LA
Next year’s theme will be The Pelican State Goes to War, in honor of the opening of our traveling exhibit of the same name. It will take place May 12th 2018, and registration will open in January.
Thanks to Chevron, who sponsors the event and sends volunteers, and to Fontainebleu High’s RoboDawgs, who volunteer as referrees and table setters.
Posted by Rob Wallace, STEM Education Coordinator at The National WWII Museum
Each month the Museum will feature a standout classroom participating in Get in the Scrap!. Get in the Scrap! is a national service learning project about recycling and energy conservation, inspired by the scrapping efforts of students during World War II. Each featured class does stellar work to make a difference in their school, home, community and even the planet!
For May, we’re featuring students from Sovereign Avenue School in Atlantic City, New Jersey, who are using Get in the Scrap! in every discipline. The students and their teacher, Ms. Williams, sat down to answer a few questions for us about their work with Get in the Scrap!
The Dolphins from Sovereign Avenue School in New Jersey show of their water bottle piggy banks.
Team Name: The Dolphins
Number of Get in the Scrap! points thus far: 89
How has Get in the Scrap! been a good fit for your curriculum? Please explain:
“I have incorporated ideas from this program into Reading, Writing, Science, Social Studies, and Math. The students have learned parts of speech from Scrap Libs, learned about alternative energy sources (and researching and writing a brochure), and even explored their artistic sides by creating piggy banks with recycled water bottles and art scraps.”
What has been your favorite activity? Why?
“When I asked my students about their favorite activity, they were evenly split between the recycled piggy banks and the Scrap Libs. They all talked about the fun they had working with others, and enjoying the opportunity to be creative.”
This is just one of the many amazing classrooms participating in the Get in the Scrap! national service learning project. You can learn more and sign up your classroom today at getinthescrap.org!
Post by Chrissy Gregg, Virtual Classroom Coordinator
On the morning of May 19, 1942, the Heredia was steaming from Guatemala to New Orleans. Just as it reached the mouth of the Mississippi River with 1,500 tons of bananas and coffee, it was intercepted by German U-boat 506 and hit with three torpedoes. The explosions after the hits destroyed four of the ship’s emergency vessels, and sunk it in three minutes. Sixty two people were on board the ship—36 died and 26 survived. Two lifeboats were launched, and several other people were rescued by shrimp trawlers in the area.
The Heredia, owned by United Fruit, was the second ship sunk by U-boats in the Gulf of Mexico. On May 4, the Norlindo, which was carrying only ballast, was sunk much farther south in the Gulf. From early 1942 into 1943, about 20 U-boats patrolled the Gulf of Mexico, looking especially for oil tankers carrying oil from Louisiana and Texas. In all, the U-boats sent 56 vessels to the bottom of the Gulf. Only one U-boat was sunk by US ships.
The wreck of U-166 lies near the mouth of the Mississippi, sent there by depth charges from PC-566. This patrol boat was accompanying the Robert E. Lee, a passenger ship that was transporting the survivors of other U-boat attacks back to New Orleans. On July 30, 1942, the Robert E. Lee was attacked and sunk by U-166, killing 25 of the 430 on board. PC-566 couldn’t save the ship, but it got vengeance.
Almost a mile of water sits over the remains of U-166, which was discovered during exploration for the ill-fated Deepwater Horizon oil well in 2001. In 2014, a National Geographic expedition led by Robert Ballard sent remotely operated vessels to map and photograph the wreckage.
In 1943, Allied forces achieved advances in radar that shifted the balance of naval warfare, and the Axis and its U-boats never could match them. Casualties from—and tonnage lost to—U-boats decreased dramatically from 1943 on.
From a report of the Minerals Management Service on WWII era shipwrecks in the Gulf of Mexico.
Front page of the Times Picayune, reporting the May 19th of 1942 attack.
A photo of a family riding as passengers on the Heredia when it was sunk. From the Times-Picayune.
Posted by Rob Wallace, STEM Education Coordinator at The National WWII Museum
Home Front Friday is a regular series that highlights the can do spirit on the Home Front during World War II and illustrates how that spirit is still alive today!
WWII poster, 1941-1945. Image courtesy of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Duke Ellington. Count Basie. Cab Calloway. Ella Fitzgerald. Louis Armstrong. Glenn Miller. These are just a few of the infamous jazz musicians from the WWII era, who helped keep the Home Front spirit high with their music.
April is nationally recognized as Jazz Appreciation Month, and to get in the spirit, the blog post this Friday will acknowledge the contributions of jazz to WWII. During the war, music was needed more than ever to bring joy in a dark time to people on the Home Front and soldiers at war. Read on to find out how jazz artists rose to the occasion to make the music happen in difficult times and kept the Home Front spirit burning bright.
The music industry was actually undergoing a war of its own during WWII. In 1942, two of the most prominent musician unions went on strike against all four recording companies in the U.S.. The strike then caused a shortage of music needed for troop morale. Yet, Lieutenant G. Robert Vincent had a solution to the problem. After approval of the U.S. government, he brokered a deal between the unions, recording companies, and the U.S. government. By agreeing to not distribute any records for commercial use, Vincent was able to get the recording companies to agree to record albums for the troops to listen to while at war. More amazingly, he also convinced top-name musicians in the business to record for the albums despite the strike they were involved in. What did these records end up looking like though?
Lt. G. Robert Vincent. Image courtesy of the Stanford University Library.
Vincent’s efforts resulted in records now known as “V-Discs”, the V standing for Victory. See below some images of V-Discs that were saved due to some soldiers’ craftiness and ability to smuggle the records back home in spite of the U.S. government’s efforts to destroy the records. The government used several means to confiscate the records to keep their agreement with the recording companies. The production plants were forced to destroy the masters of the records, the Provost Marshall confiscated records from returning soldiers, and the FBI even stepped in if necessary to prosecute anyone who tried to commercialize the records.
Duke Ellington and his Orchestra V-Disc. Image courtesy of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
V-Disc featuring Count Basie. Image courtesy of Stanford University Library.
If you would like to hear some of the great music recorded for the V-Discs, many songs have been compiled on the Internet Archive website. Here’s a video of Duke Ellington performing for a little sample:
For some ways you can experience jazz in a similar experience to the troops or in a modern setting or just learn more about jazz music in general:
Lieutenant Colonel Jimmy Doolittle was first to take off from the Hornet.
April 18, 2017, marks the 75th anniversary of the Doolittle Raid. Below is an essay by Keith Huxen, PhD, the Museum’s senior director of research and history, that frames the importance of the daring raid to the Allied cause in World War II. The essay appeared in the spring 2017 issue of V-Mail, the Museum’s quarterly newsletter for Members. Visit the links below the essay to explore more about the Doolittle Raid via the Museum’s Digital Collections. Learn more about the benefits of Museum membership here.
In December 1941, Americans were reeling after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and military onslaught across Asia and the Pacific. Emotionally, the nation was in shock, and a deep, consuming anger quickly set in as the people came to comprehend the enormity of the damage in Hawaii. Americans resolved to fight, and thirsted for revenge. However, despite their newfound determination, Americans would find that they would have to travel through a long, dark valley of war.
The emotions of the time were perhaps best encapsulated in the experience of USMC Captain Henry T. Elrod, who flew with VMF-211 to Wake Island only days before the Japanese attacked. Fighting valiantly and repeatedly against the odds in the following days, Elrod distinguished himself on several occasions, once conducting a solo attack against 22 enemy planes and downing two Zeroes, and on another occasion sinking the Japanese destroyer Kisaragi from his fighter aircraft with small-caliber bombs. After all American aircraft were inoperable, Elrod organized beach defenses to meet the enemy. It was during combat with invading Japanese forces on the beach that Elrod was killed on December 23, 1941. Wake Island surrendered that day.
For his heroism, Elrod would be posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor, but his personal trial was symbolic of the desperate situation the Allies faced as 1942 dawned. On Christmas Day 1941, Hong Kong was taken. The Japanese overwhelmed Australian forces on Rabaul, a key base, in late January. In February, the United Kingdom was stunned as Singapore surrendered, and then the Japanese bombed ports in Australia. In March, the Dutch East Indies, with its vital supplies of oil, rubber, and tin, fell to the Japanese.
The biggest American domino in the chain was conquered next. The Japanese had attacked the Philippines as part of their sweeping attacks on December 7–8, 1941. Now, after five months of fighting, Filipino and American troops on the Bataan peninsula surrendered on April 9. A small group of stout American and Filipino forces continued to resist from the island of Corregidor in Manila Bay. Unbeknownst to the American public at the time, however, the captured troops were then subjected to the brutal Bataan Death March.
At last, the first thin ray of light pierced the dark valley of continuous defeat. On April 18, 1942, American air forces under the command of Lieutenant Colonel James Doolittle conducted a surprise raid against Japan. The raid was daringly launched with stripped-down B-25 bombers launched from carriers too far away for the crews to safely return. The bombing damage done in Tokyo and other sites was actually insignificant, but the jolt of finally striking back at the enemy, coupled with the courage of Doolittle’s aviators embarking upon a one-way mission to China (three captured Raiders were eventually executed), spurred a massive psychological lift for Americans weary of bad news.
Doolittle’s Raiders provided a flicker of hope for the future, but the valley of war still had dark pathways ahead. On May 6, 1942, Corregidor fell to the Japanese, sealing Allied defeat in the Philippines for the time being (guerrilla groups would continue to fight on throughout the war).
With many battleships sunk in Pearl Harbor, the US Navy was forced to rely upon submarines and aircraft carriers in a new naval warfare. Beginning the day following Corregidor’s fall, on May 7–8, 1942, the US Navy and Imperial Japanese Navy fought the Battle of Coral Sea. It was indecisive in that both sides scored against each other’s all-important assets—the United States sank the Japanese light carrier Shoho but lost its own carrier Lexington—in the first battle in naval history in which the fleets did not sight each other and combat was conducted solely through the air.
Halfway through 1942, the United States was still without a significant victory on the battlefield, and Americans were wondering how long this situation could be endured. Our enemies were growing stronger every day. They could not know it at the time, but the terrain of the dark valley of war was about to take a dramatically different shape when US forces next engaged the enemy off a small island in the Pacific, a place called Midway.
Links:
Watch eyewitness accounts of the Doolittle Raid from the Museum’s collection of oral histories here.
Watch a panel discussion about the raid from the Museum’s 2011 International Conference on World War II here.
A multimedia journey into the post-Pearl Harbor darkness, with videos, photos, and Museum artifacts, is here.
This past Saturday, April 8, over 200 middle and high school students from across Louisiana visited The National WWII Museum to compete and take part in the annual Louisiana National History Day State Contest. National History Day is a national student research contest in which students, working as either individuals or in groups, create projects relating to an annual theme which are evaluated and critiqued at school and regional level contests. This year’s contest theme was “Taking A Stand In History,” with students completing projects on figures ranging from Susan B. Anthony to Whitney Houston.
Having already advanced from one of five regional contests in Monroe, Baton Rouge, Shreveport, or New Orleans, these students and their projects represented the best student work Louisiana had to offer. Competition was fierce and exciting throughout the day with over 120 projects in 18 different categories seeking an opportunity to advance to the National History Day National Contest in Washington, DC. The judges deliberated throughout the day and ultimately selected 68 middle and high school students to represent Louisiana at the National Contest the week of June 11–15, 2017.
Also awarded were three full scholarships for the Museum’sNormandy Academy Student Travel Program, a 12-day journey that allows students to follow in the footsteps of the Greatest Generation across the beaches and battlefields of northern France.
The National WWII Museum is proud to serve as the state sponsor for National History Day in Louisiana and we are expecting great things from this year’s student delegation. Congratulations to all the winners and to all the students and teachers who participated!
This post by Collin Makamson, Student Programs Coordinator @ The National WWII Museum
Home Front Friday is a regular series that highlights the can do spirit on the Home Front during World War II and illustrates how that spirit is still alive today!
WASP pilots. Photo courtesy of National Public Radio website.
In light of how March was Women’s History Month and how March 8th was the recent celebration of International Women’s Day, the history of women supporting the war effort during WWII is particularly relevant. The role women played in WWII was a significant part of the American Home Front, which this blog highlights. Today’s topic will focus on the efforts of the WASP unit made up of civilian women for the original purpose of ferrying newly built air crafts to flight schools around the U.S. Yet, these women are now acknowledged as official veterans of WWII and for the often dangerous missions they undertook to help on the Home Front.
WASPs, otherwise known as Women Airforce Service Pilots, was first organized as a squadron in the summer of 1943. The squadron was actually the result of a merging of two separate women pilot programs within the U.S. that were already in place as a response to the U.S. entering the war. The WAFS, Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron, commanded by Nancy Harkness Love combined with the WFTD, Women’s Flying Training Detachment, which was led by Jacqueline Cochran by August of 1943. By the end of WWII, over 1,000 women were trained as pilots for WASP.
Nancy Harkness Love. Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress online collections.
Nancy Harkness Love. Photo courtesy of World War II Database website.
Jacqueline Cochran. Photo courtesy of World War II Database website.
Jacqueline Cochran with an F-51 “Mustang” airplane. Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress online collections.
Some of the duties of the brave women who served as WASPs included transporting equipment and personnel vital to military operations and the dangerous job of flight testing repaired aircrafts before they were sent to men in combat.
One testimonial by Margaret Phelan Taylor, who served as a WASP, describes the time she was transporting a plane suffering from technical issues due to faulty parts burning out. Taylor did not have an adequate parachute fitted for a woman though and had to decide whether to jump and take her chances with the parachute or try to continue flying and hope she made it to her destination. She ended up completing the flight despite the smoking cockpit.
Margaret Phelan Taylor, WASP pilot. Photo courtesy of National Public Radio website.
To learn more about the experiences of actual WASPs, check out this oral recording of Geraldine Nyman’s time as a WASP found in the digital collections at the National WWII Museum. Her account can be found at this link.
However, despite the danger these women faced in serving their country and their contributions to the military during the war, WASP was only designated a civil service program, and its pilots, were seen as civilians rather than veterans until 1977, when they were recognized as veterans finally. Prior to their having veteran privileges, WASPs could not receive veteran burials. Not even the thirty-eight women who died during service were able to have veteran honors for their funerals. Furthermore, these women and their families were not rewarded with benefits normally awarded to those who served.
In 2009, President Obama signed the bill for WASPs to be awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest honor a civilian can receive from Congress. The award ceremony took place in March 2010 and about 200 former WASPs attended the event.
President Obama signing the bill for WASPs to be awarded the Congressional Gold Medal. Photo courtesy of U.S. Army website.
Deanie Parrish, former WASP pilot, accepting her Congressional Gold Medal. Photo courtesy of National Public Radio website.
To honor these women and those like them during not just Women’s History month but throughout the whole year, here’s a few suggestions:
Educate yourself about critical women in history, women important to you locally, and women in your family
Consume art by women and support them. Films, literature, art pieces…
Volunteer for an organization dedicated to helping women
Shadow a woman for a day
Change your profile picture on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter to a notable woman in history or your life
Show your support for an organization or business run by a woman
Google what modern inventions we have to thank women for. Coffee filters for your cup of joe, wifi, and dishwashers are just some.
Posted by Savannah Bamburg, Education Intern and Lauren Handley, Assistant Director of Education for Public Programs at The National WWII Museum.
