Community’s stories enrich WWII memories
Just days ago, we commemorated the 79th anniversary of the United States’ entry into World War II, following the surprise attack at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Dec. 8 address to a joint session of Congress, asking for a declaration of war against Japan, was quickly approved by every member with the exception of a “no” vote by Montana congresswoman Jeannette Rankin. The president signed the resolution later that same day, and the United States was officially at war.
Days later, on Dec. 11, 1941, Nazi Germany declared war against the United States, alleging what Adolf Hitler categorized as a “series of provocations” by the United States. Following his speech, the German foreign minister, Joachim von Ribbentrop, delivered the formal declaration to the U.S. government. Congress declared war on Germany later that day.
Historians would later learn that President Roosevelt, justified in asking for the declaration of war against Japan, had worried that U.S. citizens, having not felt the same level of threat about German aggression in Europe, would want to limit the war efforts. German’s declaration of war against the United States provided the impetus for the United States to join Great Britain and the Allies in their fight, and what had begun in the Pacific suddenly became a true global conflict. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill would later admit, in his epic history of World War II, that the U.S. entry into the war provided him with the first good night’s sleep in two years, noting it as the “sleep of the saved.”
With the U.S. entry into the war, Chattanooga and Hamilton County men and women overwhelmingly responded to their nation’s call and enlisted.
During the last year, Chattanooga and Hamilton County veterans’ groups have come together to recognize a number of living World War II veterans, recognizing not only their service to their nation but their continued commitment to the American ideals.
John Joseph “Jay” McFalls served in the U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers in the Pacific Theater building and repairing runways, often under fire, in the intense fighting with Japanese troops. Ralph Painter, who served from February 1941 until September 1945 and who recently turned 99, remembers with vivid descriptions being aboard the first tank to hit Utah Beach and the weeks he spent pushing toward Germany during the Battle of the Bulge.
George Wisner, also 99, served as an U.S. Army aircraft mechanic in Brazil during World War II, a reminder that our troops were stationed around the world to support combat missions. Wisner returned home following the war, attended seminary and returned to Brazil, where he remained on the mission field, preaching and establishing churches, until age 88 when he retired and returned again to Chattanooga.
Earl “Bo” Cline, 100, then a second lieutenant in the
U.S. Army Air Corps, is Chattanooga’s only surviving World War II former prisoner of war (POW) and often shares the story of his group’s mission to attack a German village, unaccompanied by an escort. Two days before Christmas, Dec. 23, 1944, Cline’s plane was hit, and he was the last one out, diving from the plane with his rosary in one hand and his parachute in the other. He recalls the silence of the freefall and his almost immediate capture by German troops. In a story similar to McFalls, Painter and Wisner, Cline credits his faith and the comradeship of those serving alongside him with his survival.
The community also recalls the 660-plus local residents who died.
One story among the many is that of Daniel H. Brown Jr., born in 1921 near Ringgold, Georgia, and an Ooltewah resident at the time of his enlistment on May 16, 1942. Brown completed his basic training at Camp Forrest near Tullahoma, Tennessee, and was described in his military file as 5 feet, 9 inches tall and “quite slender,” weighing 132 pounds, when he shipped out for Europe. Brown died in the SS Leopoldville troopship disaster on Christmas Eve 1944. In addition to his name on the Hamilton County monument, he is memorialized with a tombstone in the American Cemetery in Normandy, France, even though his body was never recovered. The French group, Les Fleurs de la Memoire, has adopted his gravesite and monthly provides flowers in recognition of his service.
As the holidays approach and Wreaths Across Chattanooga, through individual and community donations, places wreaths on graves at the Chattanooga National Cemetery, we are reminded that our community’s stories add to the richness of our heritage.