Traveling Tuesday: New Mexico and WWII

Traveling Tuesday: New Mexico During WWII

Most students of WWII know that New Mexico was home to the famous (infamous?) Manhattan Project, the government project centered around developing nuclear weapons. However, the forty-seventh state made other contributions to the war effort.

With nearly 50,000 men in the armed forces, New Mexico had both the highest volunteer rate and the highest casualty rate of the forty-eight states that were then in the Union. In addition, hundreds of men from the New Mexico National Guard were in the Philippines at Clark Field and Fort Stotsenburg manning anti-aircraft guns when the area was bombed by the Japanese only ten hours after the attack at Pearl Harbor.

Many of the famed Navajo code-talkers came from New Mexico. Philip Johnston, a WWI veteran who was fluent in the Navajo language, helped recruit the “original twenty-nine,” as they were called, who developed the code that was modified as the war progressed. About 540 Navajos served in the Marine Corps, of whom 400 served as code-talkers.

New Mexico was home to nearly sixty military installations from Airbases and Gunnery Ranges to Army Hospitals and Camps. The most prominent airbase was Kirtland Field in Albuquerque. Originally an advanced flight school for Air Corps pilot, the base was converted to a major base used to train B-24 crewmen, B-29 pilots, A-11 pilots, glider pilots, mechanics, navigators, and other air personnel.

Like many western and southwestern states, New Mexico was home to internment camps, mostly holding individuals of Japanese descent. Unfortunately, there was a shooting death in 1942 at Camp Lordsburg and a riot at Camp Santa Fe in 1945 that marred the otherwise peaceful existence within the camps. There were also POW camps in the state that imprisoned German and Italian soldiers. An escape from Camp Stanton occurred in November 1942, but the four prisoners were quickly caught and returned.

Have you ever visited the beautiful state of New Mexico?

Traveling Tuesday: Life in Germany

Traveling Tuesday: 

Life In Germany During the World Wars

I am an avid reader of fiction written during or about WWII. Initially, it was difficult to find many novels set during that time. Then several newscasters published books about “The Greatest Generation,” and it suddenly became a popular era about which to write. Oral history projects popped up as universities and museums sought to capture the stories of men and women who lived during the war.

It is often said that the winners are the ones who write the history books. I think there is a lot of validity in that statement. Whether it’s something as casual as sports or as serious as war, no one wants to hear from the losers. I don’t think an interview has ever been done with the guy who came in last during an Olympic race!

My novella Love’s Harvest is about a German man who was injured by mustard gas during WWI. In addition, I am in the outline stages of a novel in which the protagonist goes into German occupied territory during WWII. Therefore, I needed to research what life was like during the world wars.

Youtube has been a great tool for me to find interviews about nearly every topic. I also discovered a website devoted to the German homefront during WWII.

The most often asked interview question of Germans is “How could Germans have not known about the death camps?” One man’s answer: “The word used to describe what was happening to the Jews was ‘relocation.’ Where were they? People simply didn’t ask, because ‘relocation’ had an ominous ring, and they were scared to find out. When the Allies began seriously bombing Germany, Germans forgot about the Jews altogether.”

The same question could be posed to Americans: “How could Americans not have known about the Japanese ‘internment’ camps?”

Something to think about.