The Women of World War II Mobile

When it comes to studying the impact American women had in World War many historians look solely at the numbers. Historians look at the number of women who joined the work force, the number of planes, ships, bullets, parachutes, bandages, and any other necessity these women produced that made Allied victory possible.  Yet, these women who took up new jobs in fields they never imagined, had an impact on history that goes beyond Allied production and victory. These women, who stayed behind to support the war effort by joining the work force, also witnessed the transformation of America, specifically the transformation of small towns that became centers for war production. Such a case can be made for the town of Mobile, Alabama.

Like so many American towns, Mobile went from a small, sleepy American city to a booming war production hub seemingly overnight. Before World War II began the work force in Mobile was around 17,000 men and few women. By 1943 Brookley Air Field would employ that many civilians by the end of the War and local ship building industries would employ over 30,000 workers by 1944. Before World War II women’s occupations were limited to administrative or teaching jobs where the average salary was around $800 a year. With the onset of war came a demand for ships, planes, artillery, and endless demands for support supplies. These goods required the skilled labor of welders and mechanics. At Huntersville or Redstone Arsenals women found jobs on assembly lines that paid around $1,400 annually. Shipyards in Mobile also hired laborers, paying $3,600 annually. These jobs provided unimaginable salaries and the chance for many to move to a new city and start a new life.

One such woman was Emma Bell Petcher. After graduating high school Petcher wanted a chance to put her love of mechanics to the test. Petcher breezed through the mechanics tests and secured a job working on airplanes. Petcher is just one example of women moving to take advantage of defense jobs in America. These women saw not only the value of their work and impact, but the American economy transform from the depths of the Great Depression to the vibrant booming economy of World War II. The economic boom would continue in the 1950’s with the War’s ed. It was due to the help of the six million women who entered the workforce that this economic boom was possible.

With workers came families. This caused the population of Mobile to more then double during the War from 110,805 in 1940 to 201,369 in 1944. With the great influx of workers came a housing shortage unseen in Mobile’s history. People were living in tents in vacant lots. Boarding houses would have four men per room or rent beds to multiple men and women with differing shifts. Oftentimes both men and women in the same family would take up a defense job, leaving childcare a much-needed commodity in Mobile. Thus, women ushered in and witnessed the evolution of day care in America. Day care centers were viewed as patriotic, promoting a safe place for loving mothers to leave their children as they went off and produced items needed to win the War. Women who manned and operated day care centers were viewed as protectors of liberty and praised for providing a service that allowed women to help win the War. Day care was not a practice forgotten after the War. Women would continue to use and work at day care centers after the War and into the later part of the twentieth century showing how the War gave women the tools needed to pursue both career and family.

The women of Mobile during World War II also witnessed many domestic events and policies that would help shape the remainder of the 20^th Century. Mobile’s location in the Deep South made Mobile subject to Jim Crow laws. These racial regulations kept many black American citizens from taking advantage of defense jobs in the early days of war production. However, on June 25, 1941 President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 8802, banning racial discrimination in the defense industry. This was the first step toward equal opportunity employment in America, and women of all races, in Mobile witnessed the unrest and success this order brought. After the order was issued many small fights broke out in shipyards and factories in Mobile. Governor Chauncey Sparks called out 150 state guards to keep the peace, this created a precedent of having to use police and state troops to keep the peace as integration began and established itself in the defense industry. Segregated workspaces brought a peace and successful routine to the workforce in Mobile. However, Americans such as Thurgood Marshall and A. Philip Randolph were pushing to make the Fair Employment Practice Committee a permanent fixture in the Federal Government. It was the women of America, who stayed behind to serve and work who witnessed these milestone moments that would reshape America in the 1950s and 1960s.

The women of World War II Mobile gave their all to help American men win victory across the globe. The hundreds of thousands of hours spent in factories and shipyards gave the Allies and edge the Axis powers simply could not match. Yet, the women of Mobile also witnessed several key events and practices put into place during World War II that would shape the remainder of the twentieth century. Advancements in training, work assignments, childcare, and civil rights gave women new platforms to stand on after the War ended. These issues would also go on to be displayed on the national stage in the post-modern era. While it is important to remember and note the millions of supplies American women built and assembled to help the Allies win the war, it is equally important to note the transformation they witnessed and played a role in during World War II. 

-Olivia

African American Women in the Army Nurse Corps during World War II

Hello, Again!

This week, we are featuring another blog by another one of our spring interns, Meika. She is a senior at Hollins University in Roanoke, Virginia and is double majoring in history and political science with aspirations to earn an M.A. in Public History and then work in history museums, historic sites, or historical societies. She’s a long-time enthusiast of World War II and we are excited to have her on board this spring! I hope you enjoy her blog on the African American women who served in the Army Nurse Corps during World War II.

-Maggie

__________________________________________________________________________

Black nurses landing in Scotland, 1944. 

African American women were not immune to the United States’ public call to arms after America entered World War II in 1941. Women who lived in a racially segregated and discriminatory country were willing and eager to join the Allied fight against tyranny and oppression in Europe. American white women are remembered for their heroic services during World War II as WACs, WAVES, nurses, factory workers, planters of Victory Gardens, and bandage rollers.  Stories of their service are well known and constantly perpetuated during elementary school lessons of Rosie the Riveter. However, the story of black women who also served their country during World War II are less well known. One of the ways through which American black women contributed during the war was through their participation in the Army Nurse Corps.

Due to the racial segregation and discrimination in the United States, black women found it difficult to join the ranks of the would-be 60,000 women in the Army Nurse Corps (ANC) during World War II.  Even though the candidates had the same training and education as most of the white women who were admitted, government quotas placed limits on the number of black women who were allowed to join the ANC in 1941. In subsequent years due to the influence of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, quotas for black nurses to join the Army Nurse Corps began to loosen up and completely abolish the quota system in 1944.

A black nurse treating a German P.O.W. in England, 1944.

Though their numbers were small in comparison to the 60,000 white nurses, the less than 600 black nurses eventually admitted to the ANC were happy to finally be able to serve their country. Despite their segregation, discrimination, and occasionally rudimentary jobs assigned to them, black nurses in the Army Nurse Corps were able to see a bit of the world during their service. Though black nurses were largely restricted to serving only in hospitals and aid stations occupied by black military men, a demand for medical care brought black nurses to England, Burma, Africa, and such faraway places such as Liberia and Australia, and other locations in the Pacific. Other nurses remained in or returned to the United States to work in convalescent, general, and station hospitals.

In addition to serving the black troops, black nurses were also provided medical care for German prisoners of war in England and in as obscure places as Arizona in the United States. Due to labor shortages in the United States, the government made use of a free source of labor: German prisoners of war, and thus transported them from Europe to work on farms or other labor sites.

The work given and sacrifice made by black nurses during World War II not only achieved progress for black nurses in the form of increased federal funding and recognition, but they also inspired a new generation of nurses. Following the eradication of the quota system in 1944, over 2,000 young black women enrolled in the Cadet Nurse Corps program and other nursing schools. The 600 African American nurses in the Army Nurse Corps deserve to become part of the narrative of American women who served during World War II and I hope that further research can be conducted and further recognition duly awarded.

-Meika

For  further reading on the topic, check out “The Army Nurse Corps Introduction.” Army History. http://www.history.army.mil/books/wwii/72-14/72-14.HTM

Real Life Rosie the Riveters: Women on the Homefront in WWII

Hello Again, Friends!

Today, I want to continue celebrating Women’s History Month by sharing about Rosie the Riveters. And yes, Riveters being plural is intentional. Not only were there numerous renditions of Rosie the Riveter as seen in this fantastic video, but there were millions of real-life “Rosies” throughout the nation who answered the call to service on the Homefront.

 

Three “Rosies” posing for a picture before
work. The ladies are identified as Virdie
Gordon Reyes, Retha Maxine Warner, and
Ruth Gordon Davis. The Gordon sisters
were from Elkton, VA, but moved to
Baltimore during the war.

As the men went off to fight in World War II, there was a tremendous need for women to step up in their absence. Women, like those pictured in this photograph to the left from our archives, went to work in the factories that shifted from domestic to wartime production to supply the troops and ensure victory for the Allied nations against Nazi Germany and Japan.

In order to encourage women to fight, the U.S. government began a propaganda campaign starring “Rosie the Riveter” aimed at recruiting female workers for the munitions industry. Rosie the Riveter quickly became arguably the most iconic image of working women during the war.

Between 1940 and 1945, the female percentage of the U.S. workforce increased from 27 percent to nearly 37 percent, and by 1945 nearly one out of every four married women worked outside the home. Bedford, VA was no exception. Many of the female family members of the Bedford Boys worked in local factories that produced supplies for their boys. The Belding Hemingway textile mill where Verona Draper, sister of Frank Draper, Jr., and Bettie Wilkes, wife of John Wilkes, worked to make rayon thread that was used for the manufacturing of parachutes. Frank Draper’s mother worked at the Rubatex factory where they produced insulation for aircrafts and submarines and hoses for gas masks. There was also Hampton Looms that produced material for military uniforms and coats. Women in Bedford also contributed to the war effort in their free time by going to the Bedford County Library to roll bandages. On June 6^th, they rolled 9,000 bandages in addition to the 68,300 they rolled in May.

Hampton Looms today in Bedford, VA

Over the past few years as the WWII generation passes on, the importance of honoring our nation's "Rosies" has garnered national attention-- even that of the White House. These women's service and support of the war were critical in winning the war, as well as integrating women into the workforce in the years following World War II.

Until Next Time,

Maggie

Women in World War II: Their Role in Code Breaking

Hello, Friends!

With Women’s History Month upon us, it would be a shame if we didn’t talk about the role of women in World War II. While a lot of people know about Rosie the Riveter and the push for women to work in the factories during the war, not as many recognize the role of women in other vital areas on the warfront, especially through intelligence gathering. Here’s a blog on the women who helped shorten the war through codebreaking by Ches.

________________________________________________________

Many believe that the role of women during World War Two was limited to work at home in the factories and abroad in clerical tasks. However, this doesn’t fully encompass what women did during the war. They weren’t just holding down the homefront ensuring that the economy would still function while their men were at war. They also weren’t just secretaries or nurses acting as support staff for the soldiers. Some women actually served critical roles in the code-breaking offices of the Allied nations.

It was through the work at Bletchley Park that the Allies cracked
the German's enigma code and helped hasten the end of the war.
Pictured is a plug board of an enigma machine.

From the breaking of the Enigma code to helping start the age of modern computing, women were vital in the code-breaking process. In the British code-breaking headquarters at Bletchley Park, Buckinghamshire, England, many women not only served as clerical support staff, but also assisted their male counterparts in actively fighting the Germans and Japanese by seeking to crack their cyphers. The women in this organization joined a military auxiliary branch, similar to the WAVES of the United States, called the Women’s Royal Naval Service, or the WRNs (called the Wrens by the British). These Wrens worked tirelessly to shorten the war for their Allies and countrymen. Certain historians estimate that of the more than 10,000 people working at Bletchley Park, two-thirds of them were women. Despite their often tedious tasks and monotonous work, these women were the keys to breaking the German and Japanese codes.

During the 1940s, British culture still dictated that men and women could not work in exceptionally close proximity—like they would need to be in order to crack the codes. As such, women were housed in separate bunkhouses and worked in separate rooms and buildings, although they had male supervisors. For many women at Bletchley Park, the work was tedious with 12 hour shifts listening to a radio operator transmit Morse code messages back and forth. They were each assigned certain operators and came to “know” their enemy counterpart very well.

Poster from the hit movie, "The Imitation
Game," based on Alan Turing and the
enigma machine

These women were chosen through often unconventional methods to crack the codes. One method was to send out a crossword puzzle to the local newspapers. People who solved it within a certain time were asked to report to an office where they swore an oath of secrecy before being told what they were about to do. After being trained in cyphers and codes and sent to Bletchley Park, women who were able to pass a test were given encrypted transmissions from the Japanese and German radio operators and asked to decrypt them.

There are a few exceptionally successful women from this group. These women worked with Alan Turing on the Enigma machine that some scholars estimate shortened the war by over two years. One of these women, Joan Clark, was featured in the recent Hollywood hit, “The Imitation Game,” as she was briefly Turing’s fiancée. Margaret Rock, Mavis Levey, and Ruth Briggs also worked with Clark in the cyphers office. These women were in a sense the predecessors to the modern computer assisting the men who designed the Enigma machine and the Colossus machine, one of the world’s first electronic computers.

The Wrens and civilian codebreakers are often overlooked because of their vow of silence, which was enforced for decades. It wasn’t until just a few years ago that the British government declassified all of its code-breaking files from the Second World War and their achievements could be known—including the involvement of women.

Recently discovered picture of Wrens at Bletchley Park

More women continue to step forward as the veil of secrecy has been lifted from their past. Recently, a secret, forgotten photograph hidden away in a dresser drawer was discovered of Wrens at Bletchley Park. These Wrens worked on the Colossus C watch at Bletchley Park, as well as working the Bombe machines, both of which took up entire rooms.Even though their names are not commonly known and their stories even less so, it is vital that we as students of the past remember them and their service- both to their own country and to the Allies as a whole.

-Ches

74th Anniversary of Pearl Harbor

This week, we are featuring a blog from Ches Bono, one of our Visitor Services staff members, about Pearl Harbor since today is the 74^th Anniversary of the attack. I’ll be back next week with a blog on a 1940’s do-it-yourself Christmas tree.

-Maggie

             

Early in the morning of December 7, 1941, the Japanese Imperial Army attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. During the attack, over 2,400 Americans died, and over 1,100 were injured. Of the eight battleships in the harbor, four were sunk and the rest significantly damaged. 188 aircraft were destroyed, three cruisers were sunk or destroyed, as well as three destroyers, an anti-aircraft training ship, and one minelayer. This surprise attack was meant to cripple the Pacific Fleet and deter the United States from entering World War Two. However, the attack woke a sleeping giant instead.

Jeanette Rankin, Congresswoman from Montana
(1916-1918 and 1940-1941)

On December 8, President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked Congress for a declaration of war against

Japan. It was passed almost unanimously. The only dissenting vote came from Jeannette Rankin, the first woman elected to Congress, famously said, “As a woman I can’t go to war, and I refuse to send anyone else.” Ironically, she was in Congress for the declarations of war in World War I and World War II. Almost immediately after the declaration of war, Germany, Japan’s ally and fellow Axis Power, declared war on the United States. With one swift attack, the United States entered World War II.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt during
a fireside chat

Throughout the Great Depression and the war, President Franklin D. Roosevelt communicated with the nation through his fireside chats over the radio. In his address to the nation after the attack, he declared that it was “a date which will live in infamy.” Americans all over the country were shocked and saddened by the sudden loss of life from such an attack. In Bedford, as in other communities across the country, the townspeople were preparing for the holiday season and enjoying their normal Sunday activities when they found out. Families were heading off to church and gathering afterwards

for a meal. When word came, families across the county worried for those in the Pacific, but they also worried for themselves since many of the young men in the county had enlisted in the National Guard in order to make ends meet during the Depression. For many of these young men, a dollar a day for the work that they did with the National Guard was a fortune, especially during such a harsh economic downturn. When Congress declared war on December 8, these young men were now in the military for the long haul of the war, whether they liked it or not. For many, however, the desire to serve their country outweighed the fear of war.

Although the United States participated in the war prior to the attack through the Lend-Lease Act, this declaration of war caused the economy to shift from a peacetime one to a wartime one, with rationing and production increasing across the nation. Although the United States did not see intense action for a few years, men were still called away from home for training leaving the factories and farms largely unattended. The women of the United States answered the call, and joined the ranks of factory workers and providers for their family, aiding in the victory effort.

On this solemn anniversary, we remember those who lost their lives on December 7, 1941 and all who participated in the war. Each December, the National D-Day Memorial remembers the 4,413 men who lost their lives on D-Day during our Flames of Memory Illumination Event with 4,413 luminaries placed around the Memorial. The event takes place December 11-13 from 6 pm to 9 pm on these evenings, and the cost is free for all, although donations are appreciated. We hope to see you all there!

-Ches