Category Archives: World War 2

Canadian Red Cross Packing Plant, 1943

1943OctManitobaCallingThe Canadian women shown here are volunteers packing prisoner of war Red Cross food parcels on their way to Canadian POWs, primarily in Germany and Italy.

The photo appeared in the October 1943 issue of Manitoba Calling, the magazine and program guide of CKY Winnipeg.  It shows the Red Cross packing plant in Winnipeg, the largest of five in Canada. The plant was staffed five days a week by volunteers and turned out food parcels at a rate of 4400 per day. The plant was described as businesslike, with two long conveyor belts. As the parcels moved down the line, a woman placed a food product in the same spot in each box. Items were picked for their nutritive values, and included chocolate, raisins, tinned butter, and corned beef. An acknowledgement card was included in each parcel, which were signed by prisoners and returned by mail to the Canadian Red Cross as proof of delivery.

From Canada, the parcels went by sea to Lisbon. From there, they were taken by Red Cross ships to Marseilles and then by train to Geneva to the warehouses of the International Red Cross. From there, they were distributed within the enemy countries.

The magazine noted that many of the volunteers were related to prisoners, 900 of whom were Manitoba boys.



1943 Cable Reel

1943OctPM

In 1943, teen girls went for the boys on the Audio-Visual crew, as shown by this illustration from the October 1943 issue of Popular Mechanics.  (Note the book bag at her feet, ready to be carried home by one or both of the helpful lads.)

The two shown here are running wire to an extension speaker using the large diameter reel shown in the magazine. Not only are they impressing the girl with their knowledge and skill, but they’re being patriotic by being careful with wartime strategic materials, since storing the cable on such a reel made it last longer than if simply hung on a nail or small diameter peg.

1943OctPM1The boys probably made the reel in wood shop where they showed their skill, since the magazine noted that the unusual design, shown here, “provides an interesting sawing problem for students.”



Bringing the Car Radio Inside

1943SepPM2With the family car out of service for the duration, the September 1943 issue of Popular Mechanics offers this suggestion for putting the radio and battery to work by bringing the radio into the house.

Here, the set is mounted on a small shelf, with a speaker mounted above it. The six-volt car battery is in a carrier on the floor underneath, connected to an optional trickle charger. The antenna is mounted on a bracket on the wall. The ground wire is run to a metal plate which could be placed under a carpet or, on the ground floor, to a piece of sheet metal placed under the floor joists.

The magazine points out that the car radio probably provided good reception. If the project looks familiar, we previously carried a similar one for mounting the radio inside, and another for putting the radio on a bicycle.



Another Flashlight Saves the Day

1943SepPMSeventy five years ago this month, the September 1938 issue of Popular Mechanics carried this Eveready ad with another harrowing tale with a happy ending, thanks to a flashlight with fresh batteries.

The ad recounts the tale of Mr. & Mrs. James Sponston of Cheshire, England. Night after night, the couple would hear the German bombers headed toward Liverpool. But one night, as they were preparing to retire for the evening, the elderly couple heard the sirens begin to shriek.

Mr. Spronston grabbed his flashlight, and they hurried downstairs to black out the windows. Then one explosion, and then another, shook the house. The house was half demolished, and the stunned occupants were thrown to the floor. Fortunately, Mr. Spronston remembered the faithful flashlight in his hand and began waving it. Two passing air wardens saw it and quickly directed the rescue.

Since the story was from England, there was no claim that Eveready batteries were involved. But still, American readers were encouraged to make sure their flashlights were loaded with fresh Eveready batteries. The ad cautioned, however, that you shouldn’t blame your dealer if you can’t get genuine Eveready batteries. The Army, Navy, and Lend-Lease had priority, and only a few were left for civilians. To conserve critical war materials, readers were cautioned to use the flashlight normally as little as possible. In particular, it advised making a habit of flashing it intermittently rather than continuously.



Courtney’s Radio Service, Stratford, Conn., 1943

 

1943SepRadioRetailingShown on the cover of Radio Retailing Today 75 years ago this month, September 1943, is Mrs. Wallace Courtney, the wife of the owner of Courtney’s Radio Service in Stratford, Conn. When a representative of the magazine entered the shop, he was greeted by Mrs. Courtney, who was busily engaged in her work of servicing radios. When the reporter asked about the set she was working on, she reported that the rectifier was intermittently glowing red hot. After some poking around, she found a high voltage lead with frayed insulation that had been shorting out against the chasis.

1943Aug30BC2Mr. Courtney was working in a war plant installing radios in airplanes, and left the shop in the able hands of his wife, who juggled the business with caring for the couple’s twelve-year-old son, who was said to be earning good marks. It was her quiet, pleasant voice that answered the phone when customers called. She wasn’t able to make service calls, but when customers brought in a set, she would get it repaired as fast as humanly possible.

According to the magazine, Mrs. Courtney was “typical of a lot of American wives and mothers, who without any fuss or furore, have stepped calmly into their men’s places for the duration in whatever capacities the jobs may call for.” She ran the shop during the day, and in the evening helped her husband work out any repair problems in whatever hours he could spare.



NBC Radio, Canton Island Eclipse Coverage, 1937

1938Sep5LifeThis picture appeared in an RCA advertisement in Life magazine 80 years ago today, September 5, 1938. It shows NBC engineers Marvyn Adams and W.R. Brown along with NBC announcer George Hicks broadcasting live from Canton Island (sometimes spelled Kanton) in the South Pacific.

1937 Eclipse from Canton Island. Wikipedia image.

They were on the island as part of a joint expedition by the U.S. Navy and the  National Geographic Society for the solar eclipse of June 8, 1937.  The NBC eclipse coverage was transmitted from this “ultra-high frequency transmitter” to the USS Avocet anchored at the island, and from there to the RCA station at Point Reyes, California, where it went by wire to the NBC Blue Network.

According to the ad, the island would possibly “play an important role in transpacific air transport service,” a prophecy which proved true, as the island served as a stop for PanAm’s Pacific Clipper service to New Zealand, which ran from 1940 until the war, and then again from 1946.

The Navy-National Geographic expedition, in addition to observing the eclipse, placed a monument on the island to bolster the U.S. claim to sovereignty over the island. This was disputed by the British, who also had a ship anchored for the eclipse. Reportedly, the British ship, the HMS Wellington, fired a shot across the bow of the USS Avocet, which reciprocated. The two commanders called a truce pending further instructions from their command, and the two parties observed the eclipse together.

During the war, the U.S. Navy built a 6230 foot airstrip on the island, which was defended by as many as 1200 combat forces, but was never attacked by Japan.  The island now forms part of the Republic of Kiribati.  As of 2010, it had a population of 24.

The island was most recently in the news that year after a yacht stopped en route from Honolulu to Fiji and discovered that the islanders were desperately short of food, an expected supply ship never having arrived.  The islanders had been living on fish and coconuts for several months, and the yacht owner used his satellite phone to contact the U.K. Coast Guard, which contacted the U.S. Coast Guard to arrange relief supplies.



1943 200,000 Volt Capacitor

1943Aug23BCThis a 2500 pF (2.5 nF) 200,000 volt capacitor, as shown 75 years ago today in the August 23, 1943, issue of Broadcasting.

The part was manufactured by Federal Telephone & Radio Corp., and the magazine notes that it was constructed without strategic aluminum. The twelve plates were hollow, 3-1/3 inches thick, made of 16 gauge sheet steel welded together at the sides.

According to the magazine, the part was used in the company’s high-powered transmitter laboratories as a “phantom antenna capacitor,” which presumably means that it was part of a very large dummy load.

The same picture also appears in the May 1944 issue of Popular Science,



A Curious 1943 Romance Story

1943AugRadioMirror11943Aug16MilJournalThis curious but touching story appeared in the Milwaukee Journal 75 years ago today, Aug. 16, 1943.  Undoubtedly, there’s an interesting backstory. Since no names are given, perhaps we’ll never know.  But somebody probably knows.


Girl, 14, Held on Visit Here

Parents Ask Action

A 14 year old Brooklyn (N.Y.) girl who, unannounced, came to Milwaukee to visit the parents of her soldier boy friend, was taken in hand by detectives shortly after her arrival Sunday. Her parents had notified Milwaukee police of her withdrawal of $900 from the family bank account and the Milwaukee address at which she might be found.

Detectives Le Roy Gittins and Edward Mochalski got to the home of the soldiers’ [sic] parents while the girl was still unpacking.

1943AugRadioMirror3She told them she met the Milwaukee soldier in New York several weeks ago. She said he promised to take her to meet his parents, but that she had decided she did not want to wait until the war was over to meet them.

Of the $900 she had withdrawn from the bank she had $486 left. The rest had been spent for train fare and a trunk full of new clothes. She is being held at the detention home pending arrival of her parents.

Of course, this article raises a whole flock of unanswered questions.  Did the soldier know how old she was?  What did the soldier’s parents think when she showed up on their Milwaukee doorstep followed closely by the detectives?  What did he think when he heard the story and when she got back to New York?

Shortly after the war, she turned 18. Perhaps they lived happily ever after.   If you happen to have a 89-year-old relative who told the story of her wartime teen journey from Brooklyn to Milwaukee, we’d love to hear from you.

The photos are not actually photos of the couple, but are illustrations of a story in the August 1943 issue of Radio Mirror.



Kate Smith’s Wartime Egg Recipes

1943AugRadioMirrorWith wartime rationing of meat and even cheese, the humble egg was quickly becoming an important source of protein, and as Kate Smith‘s column in the August 1943 issue of Radio Mirror proclaims, it was no longer just for breakfast.

1943AugRadioMirror2Always helpful, she provided a number of recipes to make the egg the main course.  I haven’t tried it (yet), but my favorite is the one reproduced here, for Peanut Butter Creamed Eggs.  If you don’t know how to make white sauce, the Food Network comes to the rescue with the recipe.  For the budget conscious victory gardener, serving it with a dandelion green salad is especially good.

Update:  I decided to give it a try, and for an austere wartime meal, it wasn’t bad.  It was very filling.  I made the full recipe, and after eating a late lunch, I had about half left over.  I was out of butter, but margarine seemed to work OK for the white sauce.  I’m not sure if the peanut butter added much to the flavor.  I think it would have been just as good with the white sauce and just salt and pepper.

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Wartime Tube Shortages

1943JulyRadioRetailingToday2Wartime parts shortages in 1943 meant that radio repairmen had to improvise to make do with what was available, and magazines were full of tips to allow substitutions.

The diagram shown here was sent in to the July 1943 issue of Radio Retailing Today by radio serviceman M.G. Goldberg of 142 E. 4th St., St. Paul, Minn.

Goldberg noted that tubes for the standard “All American Five” circuit were hard to find, but equivalent six volt tubes were still available, and that 6 volt filament transformers were also fairly easy to come by in most areas. So one solution to the problem was to replace the series-string tubes with 6 volt equivalents, as shown here. This particular version meant that the tube sockets could be kept as-is, other than rewiring the filaments. The article also suggested other possible substitute tubes, although other substitutions would require rewiring the sockets.