A famous photograph was taken of Saipan, which popularly is now claimed to be of Greek immigrant Angelo S. Klonis, was taken on this day, on Saipan.
Or, maybe not.
First the Klonis claim, which was not advanced by Konis during his lifetime.
Painted Bricks: Evangelo's, Santa Fe New Mexico
Painted Bricks: Evangelo's, Santa Fe New Mexico:
We also posted this on our blog Some Gave All.Tavern sign for Evangelo's in Santa Fe, New Mexico, featuring the famous Life Magazine cover photograph of Angelo Klonis, the founder of the tavern. The late Mr. Klonis was a soldier during World War Two when this photograph of him ws taking by Life photographer Eugene Smith. Konis, a Greek immigrant, opened this bar in his adopted home town in the late 1960s, at which time his identify as the soldier photographed by Smith was not widely known.
There's some interesting things going on in this scene, that are worth at least noting. For one thing, we have an iconic photograph of a U.S. soldier in World War Two, which is often mistaken for a photograph of a Marine given the helmet cover, appearing on the sign for a cocktail lounge in 2014. Sort of unusual, but the fact that it was owned by the soldier depicted explains that.
Note also, however, the dove with the olive branch, the symbol of peace. Interesting really. Perhaps a reflection of the views of the founder, who was a Greek immigrant who located himself in Santa Fe, went to war and then came back to his adopted home town.
All on a building that is in the local adobe style, which not all of the buildings in downtown Santa Fe actually were when built.
I don't know what all we can take away from this, but it sends some interesting messages, intentional or not, to the careful observer.
It's an interesting story, which I took at face value at the time. I no longer do.
The problem is, it is supposedly known that Klonis, who didn't talk about his military service during his lifetime hardly at all, and who returned to Greece for a long period of time after the war, and came back during the 1960s, was supposedly also on Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944. Advocates for this photograph being Klonis maintain that he must have been part of a secret Army unit, probably part of the OSS.
Hmmm . . . that doesn't pass the smell test, quite frankly. Getting a soldier from Normandy to Saipan in just a few days would have been a monumental effort in 1944. It wouldn't be easy now. And while Saipan was an important strategic objective, it was just that. There's nothing that was so wildly consequential in Saipan that the War Department would have needed to transfer enlisted men from one front to another. Moreover, the Army had specialized troops, Rangers, in the Pacific already.
I don't believe it.
Originally, the figure in the photo was identified as Marine Thomas Ellis Underwood. The Klonis claim didn't come until many years later.
And I'm not the only one who doesn't believe it.
First of all, the guy in that photograph is a Marine, not a soldier. The article explains this in detail, but the helmet cover alone makes that clear. And there's quite a bit more.
More than anything, however, transferring a soldier from France to Saipan in 44? No way.
The Klonis story, however, has really had legs, and It's expanded out to include all sorts of elements, including that Klonis had joined the Army then asked to switch to the Marines, but upon learning of the German murder of his family in Greece, he asked to fight in Europe. Frankly, while the service did allow some switching around inside the service, for example from infantryman to paratrooper, the giant endeavor of the Second World War meant that regular enlisted men were sent where the service put them, not where they wanted to go as a special request. Moreover, as noted, getting anyone from Europe to the Pacific in just a few days simply wasn't going to happen, and it simply wouldn't be needed.
As a final note, the photograph is probably not only Klonis, but Underwood, but it was likely actually taken in July, in spite of being attributed to this day.
The British took Cheux and Rauray and established a bridgehead across the Odon.
Fighting continued in Cherbourg even though the city had been surrendered.
The Red Army took Vitebsk and Petrozavodsk. German 9th Army Commander Gen. Hans Jordan was relieved.
The Veterans' Preference Act was enacted, requiring the Federal Government to give preference to returning war veterans for employment.
Milan Hodža, 66, Prime Minister of Czechoslovakia from 1935 to 1938, died in exile in the United States.
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