Traveling Tuesday: Travel During WWII

Traveling Tuesday: Travel During WWII 

Photo: Pixabay/
Rene Rauschenberger

Until March 2020, when that-which-shall-not-be-named occurred, most people traveled without a second thought. For the most part, airfare and gasoline were affordable, so folks took regular vacations to visit family or simply get away, perhaps going somewhere they’d never been or return to a favorite location. Then lockdown happened, and travel came to a screeching halt. Now allowed with certain mandates and policies attached, trips are no longer the easy excursions they once were. 

Perhaps this has given us some appreciation for travel (and the severe shortage thereof) during World War II. 

Passenger air service continued during the war, but was primarily used for the war effort: either troop transport or civilian travel on defense industry business. The commercial airlines were pressed into military service, so they only way you could travel by air was to receive permission by the military or federal government. The naval situation was much the same with oceanic travel only done by the military (to say nothing of the danger of taking a ship across enemy-filled waters.) 

Photo: Pixabay/
Siggy Nowak

Train travel was available to civilians, but crowded with military personnel who took priority, so it was often difficult to get a seat. There was large-scale migration to industrial centers as people took jobs in the defense industry, and many women followed their husbands to military camp. 

Travel by car was limited by gasoline rationing, so people carpooled or took public transportation (buses or local trains) which again were severely overcrowded. However, drivers who used their cars for work deemed essential for the war effort were classified differently and received additional stamps. Others were limited as follows: 

• Class A: Three gallons per week 
• Class B (factory workers, traveling salesmen): Eight gallons per week 
• Class C (essential war workers, police, doctors, letter carriers) 
• Class D: Motorcycles 
• Class T: Truckers 
• Class X: Politicians and other “important people”

Photo: Pixabay/Cindy Jones

Coupled with the long hours that people worked (often six days a week doing defense work) they generally limited vacation and long-distance travel. In an interesting aside, major league baseball was incredibly popular, and a special letter from President Roosevelt, known as the “Green Light Letter,” approved continuation of the sport, but a directive from the Office of Defense Transportation ordered that all spring training take place north of the Potomac River and east of the Mississippi River to cut down on travel. 

Do you still take travel for granted or has that changed? 

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Spies & Sweethearts

She wants to do her part. He’s just trying to stay out of the stockade. Will two agents deep behind enemy lines find capture… or love? 

1942. Emily Strealer is tired of being told what she can’t do. Wanting to prove herself to her older sisters and do her part for the war effort, the high school French teacher joins the OSS and trains to become a covert operative. And when she completes her training, she finds herself parachuting into occupied France with her instructor to send radio signals to the Resistance. 

Major Gerard Lucas has always been a rogue. Transferring to the so-called “Office of Dirty Tricks” to escape a court-martial, he poses as a husband to one of his trainees on a dangerous secret mission. But when their cover is blown after only three weeks, he has to flee with the young schoolteacher to avoid Nazi arrest. 

Running for their lives, Emily clings to her mentor’s military experience during the harrowing three-hundred-mile trek to neutral Switzerland. And while Gerard can’t bear the thought of his partner falling into German hands, their forged papers might not be enough to get them over the border. Can the fugitive pair receive God’s grace to elude the SS and discover the future He intended?

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Traveling Tuesday: The Orient Express

Traveling Tuesday: The Orient Express 

 

Photo: WikiImages

For over 125 years, the Orient Express traveled the length of continental Europe into western Asia. Founded in 1883 by the Belgian company Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits (CIWL) at a time when traveling was still dangerous and uncomfortable, the Orient Express was the epitome of luxury. The original endpoints were Paris and Istanbul, and the route has changed many times over the years. CIWL expanded its trains, travel agencies, and hotels all over Europe, Asia, and North Africa, but the Orient Express remains their most famous. 

 

The first menu served onboard is reported to have been oysters, soup with Italian pasta, turbot with green sauce, chicken a la chasseur, fillet of beef with chateau potatoes, chaud-froid (literally hot-cold, but a sauce) of game animals, lettuce, chocolate pudding, and a buffet of desserts. 

 

On June 5, 1883, the first “Express d’Orient” left Paris for Vienna, with Vienna being the terminus until

October of that year. The original route began in Paris to Giurgiu in Romania via Munich and Vienna. At Giurgiu, passengers were ferried across the Danube to Ruse, Bulgaria where they boarded another train to Varna, completing their journey to Constantinople (renamed Istanbul around 1930) also by ferry. By 1885 another route began that reached Constantinople via rail. Varna became the eastern terminus in 1889. 

 

World War I caused the company to suspend Orient Expresses services until 1918 after the conflict ended. In 1919, the opening of the Simplon Tunnel allowed another route to be added that went through Milan, Venice, and Trieste. Interestingly, a clause was included in the Treaty of Saint-Germain that required Austria to allow the train. 

 

During the 1930s, the Orient Express was at its most popular and had three services running: the Simplon Orient Express, the Arlberg Orient Express, and the original Orient Express. It was at this time that the train acquired its reputation for opulence and richness. Patrons included royalty, nobles, diplomats, business people, as well as more well-to-do members of the middle class. By this time sleeping cars had been added. 

 

Photo: WikiImages

Service was disrupted again during WWII and did not resume until 1945. The closure of the border between Yugoslavia and the Kingdom of Greece prevented the resumption of the Athens leg of the journey. The border reopened in 1951, but the Bulgarian-Turkish border closed during this period. 

 

By 1962, the original Orient Express and the Arlberg Orient Express stopped running. The Simplon Orient express ran daily cars from Paris to Belgrade, but only when to Istanbul and Athens twice each week. In 1971, CIWL stopped running carriages itself, instead selling or leasing them to various national railway companies. On May 19, 1977, the last Paris—Istanbul train made its run. 

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Happy book birthday, Under Ground 

 

It’s been six months since Ruth Brown followed clues to England and discovered the identity of her sister’s killer. War continues to rage as Ruth reports on food shortages, the black market, the evacuation of London’s children, and the bravery of the British people. When a bombing raid destroys her home and unearths a twenty-year-old skeleton in the cellar, her reporter’s senses tingle in anticipation of solving another mystery. Unfortunately, the by-the-book detective inspector assigned to the case is not interested in her theories. As Ruth investigates the case on her own, she butts heads with the handsome policeman. Will she get to the bottom of the story before the killer strikes again? 

 

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Traveling Tuesday: Train Travel

Traveling Tuesday: Train Travel 

 

Until the completion of the first transcontinental railroad here in the U.S., travelers used wagons and stagecoach to travel long distances. The roads were only rough dirt paths that sometimes ended abruptly or included dangerous water crossings. In addition, pioneers had to worry about keeping themselves and their livestock (especially the oxen that pulled the wagon) alive. 

 

Time was another important factor in wagon journeys. It was imperative that settlers reach their destinations before winter. Depending on terrain, weather, and the travelers’ health, covered wagons could traverse eight to twenty miles per day, taking up to six months to get where they were going. 

Needless to say, people flocked to the railroad which stretched nearly 2,000 miles between Iowa, Nebraska, and California. Travel time was reduced to a mere four days, but the experience differed widely between first and third class. 

 

At the price of $134.50 (today’s equivalent: $2,700), first-class featured beautifully appointed cars with plush velvet seats that converted into sleeping berths. Steam heat, gilt-framed mirrors, fresh linens, and

porters added to the ambiance. For an extra four dollars per day, travelers could get first-class dining onboard with meals of antelope, trout, berries, and champagne. As one passenger said, “the ride was not only tolerable but comfortable, and not only comfortable, but a perpetual delight. At the end of our journey, we found ourselves not only wholly free from fatigue, but completely rehabilitated in body and spirits.” 

 

For those or unable to pay the exorbitant cost of first-class, third class was available for only $40—less than half the price. However, at this rate, there were no luxuries. The cars were fitted with rows of narrow wooden benches. These coach cars were also shunted aside to make way for express trains, which meant a longer journey for those passengers, perhaps ten or more days. However, few complained. After all, ten days sitting on a hard bench was more tolerable than walking for six months alongside a wagon. Second-class was little better with upholstered seats rather than benches. 

 

Unfortunately, racism also road the rail. In 1879, Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson came to the United States and took the train from New York to California to see the woman he would eventually marry. He noted that there was an entire car for Chinese passengers. African-Americans weren’t treated much better. 

 

Train travel could also be dangerous. Many miles of track encroached on Native American lands. When possible the tribes would destroy the rails and do whatever they could to disrupt operations. In addition, the weather could impact the trip, such as the weeks-long snowstorm that struck Wyoming in 1872. 

 

Then there were train robberies. 

The first occurred on October 6, 1866, when the Reno brothers boarded a passenger train near Seymour, Indiana. Wearing masks and toting guns, they emptied a safe and tossed another out the window before making their escape. The Pinkerton Detective Agency caught the criminals, but this incident set off a long and deadly era of train robberies in the U.S. 

 

Railroad travel continued well into the 20th century, reaching their peak length of trackage in 1916 with over a quarter-million miles of tracks. 

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A brand-new widow, she’s doesn’t need another man in her life. He’s not looking for a wife. But when danger thrusts them together, will they change their minds...and hearts? 

 

Hannah Lauman’s husband has been murdered, but rather than grief, she feels...relief. She decides to remain in Georgia to work their gold claim, but a series of incidents makes it clear someone wants her gone...dead or alive. Is a chance at being a woman of means and independence worth risking her life?

 

Jess Vogel never breaks a promise, so when he receives a letter from a former platoon mate about being in danger, he drops everything to help his old friend. Unfortunately, he arrives just in time for the funeral. Can he convince the man’s widow he’s there for her protection not for her money? 

 

Gold Rush Bride: Hannah is the first book in the exciting new series Gold Rush Brides. Steeped in romance, intrigue, and history, the story will keep you turning pages long into the night.

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