World War II Love Stories Read online

Roy’s engraved pen and pencil set, which he gave to Pill as an engagement present since there were no jewelry shops on Tinian.

  HIROSHIMA & NAGASAKI

  Colonel Paul W. Tibbets entered the history books on August 6, 1945, when he flew the Enola Gay (named after his mother) to Hiroshima and dropped the bomb known as “Little Boy.” It was the first time an atomic bomb had been unleashed on the world; Tibbets described the cloud that arose as “boiling up, mushrooming, terrible, and incredibly tall,” but that doesn’t begin to describe the horror on the ground. Approximately 70,000 people (mostly civilians) were killed that day alone, while another140,000 would die in the months and years afterward from the effects of radiation. Still, Emperor Hirohito procrastinated over the terms of Japan’s surrender, so on August 9th, the US Government felt it necessary to send a second mission to drop a similar bomb on Nagasaki. This killed between 60,000 and 80,000 people, roughly half of them on the first day. President Truman claimed that the use of atomic bombs prevented the loss of a further half a million US lives by bringing the war to a rapid end, but the ethical debate continues.

  The mushroom cloud above Nagasaki on August 8, 1945, rose more than 60,000 feet into the air.

  “It is impossible to put into words the destruction caused by that one small powerful bomb.”

  Roy wrote that he would be arriving back in the US on December 2nd, and gave her the address at which she should write to him. She sent a letter immediately and carried on writing, but nothing arrived in return. At first she thought there must be some difficulty with the transport of mail to Japan; then she worried he might have had an accident. When both her birthday and Christmas Day came and went without a word, she became seriously alarmed. Still, she continued to write to the address she had been given until, on January 11, 1946, she received a letter with a California postmark. She ripped it open and her heart broke as she read the words. It was a curt note from Roy’s mother telling her that on December 20th, he had married his fiancée, Irene, and asking that she stop writing to him. Pill was utterly devastated.

  A few days later, she received a letter from Roy himself, which was postmarked December 3rd, but had obviously been delayed in the mail. He wrote of his arrival back in the States, where he found that his mother and Irene had already arranged the wedding, that everything had been booked, and that he felt he had no choice but to go through with it. “Admittedly, I am going into a marriage without love,” he went on, before insisting she was better off being rid of him since he didn’t know his own mind.

  One of Roy’s letters to Pill once she was in Japan. He wrote twice a day before his return to the States.

  Pill in 1951, after getting engaged to Cecil Webb, who would be the father of her two children.

  Pill didn’t reply. She carried on with her work and when her military service finished, she went home and took up work as a private nurse. She didn’t blame Roy; she knew him as a man of honor, who wouldn’t have wanted to hurt anyone if he could have avoided it, but the abrupt ending of their relationship took her some time to get over. In 1949, she married a man called Leonard Klein, who tragically died three months later of Hodgkin’s Disease. In 1951, she married again, this time to Cecil Webb, with whom she had two children.

  Roy continued to work for the Air Force until 1958, then taught electrical and computer engineering at Wayne State University, his old alma mater. He and Irene had four children and stayed together until his death in 1994.

  There were many whirlwind romances like Roy and Pill’s; the intensity of war led to quick attachments and relationships flowered. No matter how short-lived, they are not diminished for having blazed brightly, but only briefly, before being snuffed out by the realities of ordinary life back home.

  A

  Aboriginal Australians 1

  all-black/African-American units 1, 2, 3

  Anderson, William & Kathleen 1

  Andrews Sisters, the 1

  Armstrong, Louis 1, 2

  Aubrac, Raymond & Lucie 1

  Auschwitz 1, 2, 3

  Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) 1, 2, 3

  B

  B-29s 1, 2

  Bader, Douglas 1, 2

  Bancroft, Mary 1

  Barbie, Klaus 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

  Barron, Clarence 1

  Bate, Vera 1

  black market 1, 2

  Bletchley Park 1, 2

  Blitz, the 1, 2, 3

  Blitzkrieg 1

  Bloch, Denise 1

  Boyington, Pappy 1, 2

  Braun, Wernher von 1

  Brauny, Erhard 1

  Britain, Battle of 1, 2

  Brooke, General Sir Alan 1

  Buchenwald 1

  Bulge, Battle of the 1

  C

  Capel, Arthur “Boy” 1

  Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) 1

  Chamberlain, Neville 1, 2, 3, 4

  Chanel, Coco 1

  Churchill, Winston 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

  codes and code breakers 1, 2

  Cold War 1

  Colditz 1, 2

  escape attempts 1, 2

  collaborators 1, 2, 3

  computer art 1

  concentration camps 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

  Cooper, Tommy 1

  D

  D-Day landings 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11

  Dachau 1

  de Gaulle, Charles 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

  Denman, Pill 1

  Dincklage, Hans von 1

  Dora-Mittelbau 1, 2

  Dulles, Allen 1

  Dunkirk evacuation 1, 2, 3

  E

  Early, Major Charity Adams 1

  Eisenhower, David 1

  Eisenhower, Dwight D. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

  Eisenhower, John S.D. 1, 2

  Eisenhower, Mamie 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

  El Alamein, Battle of 1, 2, 3

  Enigma code breakers 1, 2

  entertaining the troops 1, 2

  F

  First Nation Canadians 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

  flying “the hump” 1, 2

  Franco, Francisco 1

  Frank, Hans 1

  Free French forces 1, 2

  G

  Gardelegen massacre 1, 2

  Gelenne, Elly 1, 2, 3

  "Germany First” policy 1

  Gisevius, Hans Bernd 1, 2

  Goebbels, Josef 1, 2, 3

  Goring, Hermann 1, 2, 3, 4

  Grable, Betty 1

  Guadalcanal 1, 2

  Guitry, Sacha 1

  H

  Haedrich, Marcel 1

  Hall, Virginia 1

  Henry, Desmond Paul and Louisa 1

  Hiroshima 1, 2, 3, 4

  Hitler, Adolph 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

  assassination plot 1

  final days 1, 2

  Ho Chi Minh 1

  Hollande, François 1

  Hope, Bob 1

  Howerd, Frankie 1

  I

  indigenous peoples 1

  J

  Jung, Carl 1

  K

  Kennedy, John F. 1, 2, 3, 4

  Kindertransport 1

  Klarsfeld, Beate 1

  Kolbe, Fritz 1

  Kristallnacht 1, 2

  L

  Lifar, Serge 1

  Lowry, L.S. 1

  Luxembourg, Rosa 1

  Lynn, Vera 1

  M

  Mathausen 1

  medals 1, 2

  Miller, Merle 1

  Molotov, Vyacheslav 1

  Monte Cassino 1

  Montgomery, General Bernard 1, 2, 3, 4

  Moore, Bill & Norma Kay 1

  Moulin, Jean 1, 2, 3, 4

  Mulberries 1, 2

  Mussolini, Benito 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

  N

  Nagasaki 1, 2

  Nash, Hedley & Dorrit 1

  Native Americans 1, 2

  Neave, Airey 1

  New Zealand 1, 2

  Normandy landings see D-Day landings

  North Africa 1
, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

  El Alamein 1, 2, 3

  Norwalk, Bob & Rosie 1

  nuclear weapons 1, 2, 3

  Nuremberg Trials 1, 2

  O

  Office of Strategic Services (OSS) 1, 2

  P

  Pacific, war in 1, 2, 3

  Patton, General 1, 2, 3

  Paul, Charley & Jean 1

  Pearl Harbour 1, 2, 3, 4

  Pétain, Marshall 1, 2

  Phony War 1

  Piaf, Edith 1

  Poland 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

  prisoners-of-war 1, 2, 3

  R

  racial segregation 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

  rationing 1, 2

  Ravensbrück 1

  Red Ball Express 1, 2

  Red Cross 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

  Resistance, the 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

  Ribbentrop, Joachim von 1, 2, 3

  Rolfe, Lilian 1

  Rommel, General Erwin 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

  Roosevelt, Franklin D. 1, 2

  S

  Sachsenhausen 1

  Sansom, Odette 1

  Sather, Roy 1

  Schellenberg, Walter 1, 2, 3

  Schillinger, Hans 1

  Schulze-Gaevernitz, Gero von 1

  Sicily 1, 2, 3, 4

  Skarbek, Krystyna 1

  Special Operations Executive (SOE) 1, 2

  Stalingrad, Battle of 1

  Stauffenberg, Claus von 1

  Stern Gang 1

  Summersby, Kay 1

  Szabo, Étienne & Violette 1

  T

  Thiele, Gerhard 1

  Truman, Harry 1, 2

  Turing, Alan 1

  Turner, Hudson & Betty 1

  V

  V-l/V-2 rockets 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

  Vichy government 1, 2

  W

  Wake, Nancy 1

  war brides 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

  war crimes trials 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

  Williams, Roger & Rosemarie 1

  Windsor, Duke and Duchess of 1

  Wolff, Karl 1

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Warm thanks to Colin Salter, who helped to track down some of the stories, to Luisa Stucchi for her wonderful BBC Radio 4 documentary about war brides, and to Melynda Jarratt, who has been unfailingly generous with her time and contacts. I recommend her books Captured Hearts and War Brides, and her website www.canadianwarbrides.com for everything to do with the Canadian war bride experience.

  I'm also extremely grateful to the individual family members who helped me to research the stories:

  Anderson: Stuart and Antony Anderson gave me lengthy interviews and supplied lots of wonderful pictures. Many thanks to them.

  Denman: Pauline Webb chatted to me on the phone about her wartime romance, and I was also able to read her diaries from the time in her book Letters from Tinian 1945. Thanks also to her daughter Debra Rogers for helping me to make contact.

  Henry: I am indebted to Elaine O'Hanrahan for all her meticulous help in compiling her parents' story.

  Moore: thanks to Christopher Paul Moore for answering my questions about his parents. I recommend his excellent book Fighting for America for everything to do with the experience of being black in the military. Thanks also to Nancy Lipscomb and Kim Yancy for helping me to make contact with him.

  Nash: Deby Nash kindly talked me through her parents' lives and answered all my follow-up queries, while Melynda Jarratt introduced us and sent photographs.

  Norwalk: thanks to Tom and Martha Norwalk for talking to me; I highly recommend their mother's book Dearest Ones about her experiences in wartime England.

  Paul: thanks to Stewart Paul, Lindsay Paul, Cindy Gaffney, Mary Balfour and my namesake Gill Paul for all their help. It was great to meet Lindsay and Gill when they came to London.

  Turner: thanks to Don Moore and his website www.donmooreswartales.com for bringing the story to my attention, and to Elizabeth Skelton, daughter of Hudson and Betty, for filling out the details.

  Williams: Julia Williams' blog about her mother-in-law www.storiesfromagedmil.blogspot.co.uk was my starting point, and I'm grateful to her for all the additional information and pictures she supplied.

  Big thanks to the amazing team at Ivy Press, especially Sophie Collins, Jacqui Sayers and Katie Greenwood.

  And thanks as always to Karel Bata for putting up with me.

  PICTURE CREDITS

  Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand: 1, 2.

  Courtesy of Antony Anderson: 1, 2.

  Bridgeman Art Library/Bibliotheque des Arts Decoratifs, Paris, France: 1.

  Bundesarchiv/Bild 101III-Alber-178-04A/Alber, Kurt: 1; Bild 146-1970-083-42: 1; Bild 183-S69279: 1. CC-BY-SA.

  Corbis: 1, 2; Bettmann: 1, 2, 3, 4; DK Limited: 1; DPA: 1; Ira Nowinski: 1.

  Courtesy of Pauline Denman: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.

  Getty Images/Denver Post: 1; Gamma-Rapho: 1, 2; Hulton Archive: 1, 2, 3, 4 (main), 5; Keystone: 1, 2; MPI: 1; New York Daily News: 1; Picture Post: 1, 2; Popperfoto: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7; SSPL: 1, 2; Time Life Pictures: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7; Roger-Viollet: 1.

  iStockphoto/Senorcampesino: 1.

  From the collection of Melynda Jarratt, www.CanadianWarBrides.com: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.

  Library and Archives Canada: 1, 2.

  Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, world map.

  Courtesy of Christopher Moore: 1, 2, 3, 4.

  Courtesy of Deby Nash: 1, 2.

  The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26.

  Courtesy of Tom Norwalk: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

  Courtesy of Elaine O’Hanrahan: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.

  Courtesy of Lyndsey Paul, Cindy Gaffney and Tammy Schloemer: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.

  Provincial Archives of New Brunswick: 1, 2, 3; Carleton and York Veterans Association, MC1325/MS4/90: 1.

  Rama: 1.

  Rex Features/Anthony Wallace/Associated Newspapers: 1; Collect/Evening News: 1; Everett Collection: 1; LAPI: 1; Morris Raymond/Sipa: 1; Roger-Viollet: 1, 2; Sipa Press: 1, 2, 3.

  Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University: 1, 2.

  Shutterstock/AKaiser: 1; Zvonimir Atletic: 1; R Carner: 1; Jacqui Martin: 1; Neftali: 1; Sylvana Rega: 1.

  Courtesy of Eiizabeth Skelton: 1, 2, 3.

  Swiss Federal Archives/CHBAR#E4320B#1990/266#1551*, Bd. 1, Az. C.16-01373 P, von Dincklage Hans, 1896, 1939-1958: 1, 2.

  Courtesy of Tania Szabo, www.violetteszabo.org: 1, 2.

  Topfoto: 1, 2, 3; Roger-Viollet: 1, 2.

  Courtesy of the University of Texas Libraries, The University of Texas: 1.

  U.S. Air Force: 1.

  Courtesy of Julia Williams: 1, 2, 3.

  Every effort has been made to acknowledge the pictures used in this publication. We apologize if there are any unintentional omissions.

  For William Boag Paul, the uncle I never met, who was one of the last men out of Dunkirk; and his son Jim, who is one of the nicest men I know.

  First published in the UK in 2014 by

  Ivy Press

  210 High Street

  Lewes

  East Sussex BN7 2NS

  United Kingdom

  www.ivypress.co.uk

  Copyright © Ivy Press Limited 2014

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage-andretrieval system, without written permission from the copyright holder.

  British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

  A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

  Print ISBN: 978-1-78240-086-8

  ePub ISBN: 978-1-78240-125-4

  Mobi ISBN: 978-1-78240-126-1

  Ivy Press

  This book was conceived, designed and produced by Ivy Press

  Creative Director P
eter Bridgewater

  Publisher Susan Kelly

  Art Director Wayne Blades

  Senior Editors Jacqui Sayers & Jayne Ansell

  Designer Andrew Milne

  Picture Researcher Katie Greenwood

  Cover images: Getty Images/Keystone; Getty Images/Popperfoto;

  Getty Images/Narvikk; Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

  Color origination by Ivy Press Reprographics

  Distributed worldwide (except North America) by

  Thames & Hudson Ltd., 181A High Holborn, London WC1V 7QX,

  United Kingdom

  10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1