On June 4, 1940 after the British completed the “Miracle of Dunkirk,” Prime Minister Winston Churchill addressed the British Parliament. The evacuation of 338,226 allied troops from France via over 800 vessels including Royal Navy destroyers, merchant marine boats, fishing boats, pleasure crafts and lifeboats was really a military disaster.
According to the website - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_shall_fight_on_the_beaches - Winston Churchill said in his famous speech: “We shall fight on the seas and oceans.” In this speech, Churchill had to describe a great military disaster, and warn of a possible invasion attempt by Nazi Germany, without casting doubt on eventual victory. He also had to prepare his domestic audience for France's falling out of the war without in any way releasing France to do so, and wished to reiterate a policy and an aim unchanged – despite the intervening events – from his speech of 13 May, in which he had declared the goal of "victory, however long and hard the road may be".
On June 14, 1940 German forces entered Paris. The next day France surrendered to Germany. Charles DeGaulle, leader of the French Resistance, told the French on the BBC to defy the Nazi occupiers. On June 22, 1940 France officially surrendered to the Nazis. Northern France was occupied by the Nazis and Southern France was established as Vichy France which collaborated with Germany. Adolf Hitler visited notable sites in Paris on June 23, 1940 - these included Napoleon's Tomb and the Eiffel Tower.
Hitler also ordered the destruction of a monument to a WWI French war hero and, more importantly to me, he ordered that the monument to Edith Cavell also be destroyed. Edith Cavell was a British nurse who had started a nursing school in Brussels. During WWI she helped Allied soldiers escape German occupied Brussels - she helped injured German soldiers as well. She was eventually caught by the Germans and executed by a German firing squad. There are several biographies written about her. She was a true heroine.
June 16, 1940: The back of the above picture says Bob Comeau. Is he wearing a uniform? Is that a gas station in the background? The name seems familiar but maybe that is just from seeing it over the years. I couldn't find any information in Watertown about Bob Comeau. The closest I came was a WWII draft registration for a Robert Francis Comeau. His original address, 34 Channing Street in Newton, was crossed out and replace with 56 Richardson Street, Newton. 2 phone numbers were listed. This Robert Comeau was 20 years old - he was born in Lynn on March 30, 1920. The person who would always know his address was Mrs. Joseph Latty, 559 Western Ave, Lynn. His employer was Security Mills, Newtonville Avenue, Newtonville, Mass. Robert Comeau signed the form.
Page 2 of the WWII draft registration reported that Robert Comeau was white, 6' 1", 156 lbs with blue eyes, brown hair and a light complexion. The local board seemed to be Newton City Hall, but there was no date. Well, the height seemed to be correct - in the picture he seemed to tower over my mother.
These next three pictures were taken on June 28. Below is Eddie Storer - my mother wrote the date and his name on the back of the picture. Unfortunately she did not write down where it was taken.
I couldn't find any census records in www.ancestry.com for a Storer family in Watertown in the 1930s or 1940s. But I did find 2 Edward Storers living in Newton in 1940. I dug back through the censuses, military records, street directories for both of them. If either of these young men are the Eddie Storer in the above pictures, I think it is Edward Harold Storer whose family lived on California Street in Newton. Let me show you what I found - let's start with the 1930 census.
Page 2 of his draft registration reported that Eddie was white, 5'6" and 160 lbs. He had blue eyes, brown hair, and a ruddy complexion. He also had a tattoo on both arms - did he get them while in the Navy? I can't make out the Registrar for local board 76 San Francisco, but Eddie registered February 4, 1944 at 821 Market St, San Francisco.
In July 1940 my mother was in Millbrook, New Jersey with her friend Madeline Vaughan. I don't know why she was there or how they arrived there. I googled Millbrook and all the information was about today's original and re-created community of the 1800s. Millbrook was started in 1832 when a farmer built a grist mill on a stream along the new Columbia-Walpak turnpike.The village grew but declined after the Civil War. The National Park Service took over the area around 1970 - they recreated the gristmill - kept some of the original buildings and built new ones. Today's Millbrook represents a late 19th century rural community rather than an authentic restoration of the original Millbrook. I couldn't find any information about the 1940s when my mother and Madeline were there. So I messaged the Millbrook Village Society Facebook group asking for information about the 1940s. Someone replied and said that some buildings were rented for the summer in the 1940s. I had mentioned my mother's pictures including the one with a golf club - he replied that I had him stumped as Millbrook is no where near a golf club. He also said that currently all the buildings are closed and there are no scheduled events due to Covid, but I could visit the grounds anytime. My brother Johnny said he is interested in a road trip to Millbrook anyway!
The website - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I%27ll_Never_Smile_Again - reports that "The most successful and best-known million selling single version of the song was recorded by Tommy Dorsey and His Orchestra, with vocals provided by Frank Sinatra and The Pied Pipers ... This version was number one on Billboard's first "National List of Best Selling Retail Records"—the first official national music chart—on July 27, 1940, staying at the top spot for 12 weeks until October 12, 1940. The tune was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1982.
The picture below is my mother with Marty Taylor taken August 26, 1940 at Revere Beach. The Massachusetts legislature took 3 miles of coast land in 1895 for Revere Beach Reservation. Charles Eliot designed the reservation for public use. He had trained under Frederick Law Olmstead who had designed Central Park in New York, the grounds of the US Capital in Washington, DC and, of course, the Emerald Necklace in Boston. A narrow gauge railroad brought beach goers from all over.
September 3, 1940 the United States gave Britain 50 destroyers, in return for Newfoundland base lease.
On September 7, 1940 one of the major events in 1940 occurred - it was the beginning of the Nazi Blitz. The German Luftwaffe bombed London for the first of 57 consecutive nights as the Nazis prepared to invade. Several days later, September 13, Buckingham Palace was hit by five German bombs. King George VI and Queen Elizabeth remained at Buckingham Palace - Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret had been evacuated to Windsor Castle. Queen Elizabeth reportedly commented after the bombing of the Palace "I am glad we have been bombed. Now we can look the East End in the eye.
September 16, 1940 President Roosevelt signed the Selective Service and Training Act into law - with Europe involved in war, the President wanted to strengthen the US military who were nowhere near prepared if the US should enter the war. It was the first peacetime draft in the US. All men between 21 and 45 had to register. ... this put another million men in Army uniforms.
September 27, 1940 Germany, Italy and Japan sign a 10 year formal alliance called the Axis.
October 15, 1940 The Great Dictator by Charlie Chaplin premiered in London amid German air raids. The website - https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2019/10/satirzing-hitler-charlie-chaplin-great-dictator - states that "The Great Dictator is a classic for a reason. It's startling in its depictions of violence, which stand out less for their outright brutality than for how memorably they depict the Nazis’ betrayal of everyday humanity. And it's renowned as well as for its resourceful and original humor, which combines Chaplin at his most incisive and balletic with raucous displays of verbal wit."
Charlie Chaplin had been mobbed by German fans in 1931. But in 1934 the Nazi volume The Jews Are Looking At You referred to him as "a disgusting Jewish acrobat." Chaplin wasn’t Jewish." He did help hundreds of Jews escape the Nazis. There are several good websites that discuss the importance of this film and provide the final speech. I wasn't aware of the importance of this film and was fascinated by it.
October 12, 1940 marked the deadline for Jews in Warsaw to move into the Warsaw Ghetto. The Germans had moved into Warsaw after the invasion of Poland and established a ghetto. Warsaw had been a major center of Jewish culture - the Jewish population in Warsaw was the largest in Europe and was second only to New York. The Ghetto was surrounded by a 10 foot wall with barbed wire on top of it. Over 400, 000 Jews were forced to live in desperate circumstances in an area of 1.3 miles. According to the website - https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/warsaw, over 83,000 Jews died of starvation and disease in the ghetto. In July 1942 Germans began mass deportations of the Jews from the Ghetto to the "Treblinka Killing center. They killed approximately 35, 000 Jews inside the ghetto" during the deportations. In January 1943, some of the remaining 70,000+ Jews in the Ghetto resisted the Germans. The struggle ended May 16, 1943 after the SS and police deported 49,000 surviving Jews to forced labor camps or to Trblinka - 7,000 died resisting or in hiding during the uprising. The photo below is from the website - https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/pa1088240.
Years ago I read the powerful 1961 book Mila 18 by Leon Uris about the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. I had loved Trinity by the same author - it was a family saga set in the north of Ireland. After reading Trinity, I wanted to read more works by Leon Uris. Mila 18 might have been the next one I read. I have always been interested in the Jewish religion because I have always been interested in history and because Jesus was a Jew so it was his religion. Both historical novels were emotional journeys.
December 16: Joe Louis won against Al McCoy for heavyweight boxing title in the Boston Garden. We saw previously that Joe Louis had beaten German Max Schmeling in a rematch in 1938 - Schmeling was seen by Adolf Hitler as a representative of the Aryan race - he must have been infuriated when Scheming lost.
December 29: In one of the last 1940 events, over 10,000 bombs were dropped on London, including the first incendiary bombs, in the worst German air raid of the Blitz. It became known as the Second Fire of London. Miraculously, St Paul's Cathedral survived - Winston Churchill gave orders to save the Cathedral at all costs - it became a symbol of British resolve.
According to Human Rights Watch, "Incendiary weapons are among the cruelest weapons used in contemporary armed conflict. These weapons, which produce heat and fire through the chemical reaction of a flammable substance, cause excruciating burns and destroy homes and other civilian structures."
I took this picture of St Paul's on a trip to London and Oxford with two of my sisters, Patty and Jody. I wish I had thought to get a picture of the monument to the firefighters who gave their lives during WWII and who helped protect St Paul's - there on the left.
Below is the "Blitz Heroes with Grimy Faces" monument outside St Paul's Cathedral.
I'm not sure when this picture was taken except that it was 1940. The back said Fred Meers and his dog.
Frederick Warren Mears lived at 22 Webster St. in Haverhill, Massachusetts but this is crossed off and replace with 85 Withington Road, Newtonville, Mass. Mailing address was "Pinemear" - Newton Junction, NH. Fred was 21 years old - was born June 23, 1920 in Haverhill, Mass. He is a student. The person who will always know his address is Emma L Mears (mother) of 22 Webster - Haverhill. Fred's employer is Wesleyan Univ. Middletown - Ct. Rather odd isn't it? A student living in Newtonville, Ma but his employer is in Connecticut?
The upper left corner of the form notes that Fred was discharged from Active Duty 4-18-46
Page 2 of the draft registration reports that Fred is white, 5'9" and 160 lbs. He has brown eyes and brown hair - he also has light brown complexion. Registration was July 1, 1941 at Local Board #75 in Haverhill.
