Statement from Bishop David Zubik on the passing of Franco Harris

Statement from Bishop David Zubik on the passing of Franco Harris: Franco Harris brought more than football championships to the Pittsburgh region. While winning games, he brought our city together across all ethnic and racial lines, as people of every heritage waved green, white and red flags for “Franco’s Italian Army.”

Wednesday, December 9, 1942. Australians take Gona, Patch takes over on Guadalcanal.

"Packages for prisoners of war and internees. Americans taken prisoners of war or interned by Germany and Italy regularly receive standard American Red Cross food packages, shown here stacked like bricks in the International Red Cross warehouse at Geneva, Switzerland. U.S. prisoners of war receive one package a week as soon as the Red Cross is notified of their capture and location. Internees receive one package every two weeks. As of December 9, 1942, Germany and Italy had reported 243 American prisoners of war and 1512 interned civilians. Each package weighs eleven pounds and contains evaporated milk, biscuits, cheese, cocoa, sardines, pork, beef, chocolate bars, sugar, coffee, powered orange concentrate, prunes, cigarettes and smoking tobacco."  Library of Congress.

Australian forces captured Gona.

Sarah Sundin notes this milestone:

Today in World War II History—December 9, 1942: US Marines under Lt. Gen. Alexander Vandegrift turn over operations on Guadalcanal to US Army under Maj. Gen. Alexander Patch.

Guadalcanal in the popular imagination is a Marine Corps battle, but the Army fought there too and, as noted, overall command of the battle was put in charge of an Army general in this later stage.  Indeed, Patch had just arrived with the Americal Division to relieve the 1st Marine Division, which was severely depleted by malaria this point.  The Americal Division itself would be severely depleted within a month and relieved by the 25th Infantry Division.

Patch.

Patch fits into that category of senior U.S. commanders who served well in the war, but who physically showed the strain.  He'd been ill prior to Guadalcanal, and serving there depleted his health further.  He was 52 years old at the time, but he'd die at 55 of pneumonia, a diseases he'd just recovered from, somewhat, prior to deploying to Guadalcanal.  His death came in November, 1945.

"Answering call for volunteer nurses aides. Part of the class of senior volunteer nurses aides of Freedmen's Hospital, Washington, D.C. They received their caps and pins on December 9, 1942, in the first class to graduate from this hospital. First row, left to right: Mr. Gertrude Stone, assistant captain, Mrs. Lynwood Cundiff, Miss Doris Stevenson, Mrs. Arthur Randall, Mrs. Martin Beleno, Mrs. Robert Ming; Second row: Mrs. George M. Johnson, captain, Miss Susie Freeman, Miss Florence Grant and Mrs. Louis Lucas."  Library of Congress.

Dick Butkus, legendary American football player, was born.

Fr. Aloysius Liguda drowned with nine other prisoners at Dachau.

Saturday, November 18, 1922. Tragedies near and far.

It was Saturday on this date in 1922, and the Saturday Evening Post went to press with a female golfer, an odd choice for a time of year that's nearly winter in much of the country.

The Naval Academy formed up its midshipmen for a portrait.

United States Naval Academy Midshipmen, November 18, 1922.

On the same day, Greek residents of Gallipoli were being evacuated by sea, their city and region going over to a Turkish government that was not welcoming to Greeks, and which had entered into a treaty of population exchange with Greece.

Greeks being evacuated from Gallipoli.

While a huge tragedy was unfolding in Turkey, a smaller tragedy struck closer to home.

I know the Bolton Creek Road well, but I know of know oilfields on it, although I can think of a fwe abandoned wells.  Bear Creek enters the North Platte near where Bolton Creek does, but I don't know of any place that the Bolton Creek Road crosses it.  Having said that, there is a good modern bridge across Bear Creek, which is normally dry, on an improved road which just recently was the subject of controversy when the current owners of that ranch, the Martons, attempted to sell it to the Federal Government only to encounter the objection of the State.  Hopefully that will be worked out soon.

Anyhow, that would seem to be the probable location of this accident.

Georgetown and Bucknell played a football game.

Georgetown v. Bucknell football game.

Saturday, October 28, 1922. King Victor Emmanuel summons Mussolini.

The Saturday Evening Post went with a jester theme for its Halloween 1922 ediition, the Country Gentleman went with a jest.

King Victor Emmanuel III, Italy's king, refused a request from Prime Minister Luigi Facta to declare martial law to address the Fascist March on Rome.  The Italian army advised the king that it was fearful troops would disobey any order to fire on the Fascists, and therefore the request should be denied.

With this, the Italian government effectively surrendered to Fascism.  The King invited Mussolini to come to Rome to discuss the political situation with him.

KYW broadcast the first national radio transmission of a football game. The game was between Princeton and the University of Chicago.

Antrim Castle in Northern Ireland caught fire during a grand ball and was destroyed.  Suspicion existed that the castle fire may have been the work of the Irish Republican Army, but no charges were ever brought against anyone and no insurance claim was ever paid out.

Out of Sync. The Hail Mary makes a surprising appearance in advertising.

How you can tell you are: 1) out of sync with the culture, and 2) Catholic.  I thought this Coca-Cola tweet was about real Hail Mary's, the prayer.

Go big or go home, that’s what game day is all about! Here’s to giving every game and watch party your all. #CocaCola

coca-cola.com

Savor Every Moment

Coca-Cola was referring, of course, to the long desperate forward pass in football which has been irreverently nicknamed after the prayer.  I don't watch football (it's titanically boring), and it took me a minute to realize what this was referring to.

The Hail Mary is, of course, the ancient Christian prayer petitioning Mary for assistance.  Its basic text is:

Hail, Mary, full of grace,

the Lord is with thee.

Blessed art thou amongst women

and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

Holy Mary, Mother of God,

pray for us sinners,

now and at the hour of our death. 

Amen.

I actually learned it in the post Vatican II American Church as:

Hail, Mary, full of grace,

the Lord is with you.

Blessed are you amongst women

and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

Holy Mary, Mother of God,

pray for us sinners,

now and at the hour of our death. 

Amen.

The formulation of the prayer is a little lost to history, but it seems to have come about gradually.  Some of it's text, of course, comes right from the New Testament.  References to early forms of the prayer appear in the mid 11th Century through the 13th.  It rose in the Latin Rite and therefore, the early versions took shape in Latin, which of course was also the language of the Latin Rite up until the 1960s.

In Latin, it's the Ave Maria, the text of which is:

Ave Maria, gratia plena

Dominus tecum

benedicta tu in mulieri­bus, 

et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Jesus.

Sancta Maria mater Dei,

ora pro nobis peccatoribus, 

nunc et in hora mortis nostrae. 

Amen.

Contrary to what some seem to think, it has an Eastern Rite expression as well, and therefore also an Orthodox one.  The Eastern version is not used as extensively as the Latin Rite version, but isn't infrequently used.  Its text is:

Θεοτόκε Παρθένε, χαῖρε,κεχαριτωμένη Μαρία, ὁ Κύριος μετὰ σοῦ. εὐλογημένη σὺ ἐν γυναιξί, καὶ εὐλογημένος ὁ καρπὸς τῆς κοιλίας σου, ὅτι Σωτῆρα ἔτεκες τῶν ψυχῶν ἡμῶν.

Translating from the Greek is a little dangerous, as terms can be translated straight across and lose their meaning, but using that sort of translation, this translates to:

God-bearing Virgin (Theotokos), rejoice, grace-filled Mary, the Lord with thee. Praised thou among women, and praised the fruit of thy womb, because it was the Saviour of our souls that thou borest.

The Slavonic version, used in some of the Eastern Rite churches, is:

Богородице дѣво радѹйсѧ

ѡбрадованнаѧ Марїе

Господь съ тобою

благословена ты въ женахъ,

и благословенъ плодъ чрева твоегѡ,

Якѡ родила еси Христа Спаса,

Избавителѧ дѹшамъ нашимъ.

The prayer not only has crossed certain lines following the Great Schism, but it's done the same in regard to the Reformation, being used in the Lutheran churches and in the Anglican Communion.

All of which goes to show something, and among the things shown by Coca-Cola's use is that somebody at Coca-Cola is as clueless on certain things as I am.

Ugh. . .

it's football season.

The season of the most boring sport ever devised.

Sunday, August 12, 1922. The news.

Quite the news day, really.

The Herald started off with the harrowing news of trains marooned in the Southwest, due to ongoing labor problems.

 

We're reminded by the page below that there was once an elected position of "County Surveyor". This has obviously gone by the wayside, which raises the question of what other elective offices are really obsolete as elective offices today.

Rules were changing for football.

And airplane rides were for the offering.

I'd forgotten there was once a town called "Teapot".

The Herald wanted to keep the Union Pacific brand off of the range.  

Recently, of course, the state had an opportunity to buy the checkerboard from the UP's successor in interest and blew it.

A Colorado newspaper was happy with something Governor Carey had done, but what it was, I really don't know.

A restaurant was holding a contest for a name.

Charles Winter was running for office.  His son, who lived to nearly be 100, worked in my office building nearly up to that very age.

The train situation, we'd note, wasn't only in the Herald.

Saturday, June 23, 1922. Portents.

The Saturday Evening Post hit the stands with an enduringly popular Leyendecker illustration.

Judge, which had recently combined with Leslie's, made fun of the cost of a dinner date.

Walther Rathenau, German Foreign Minster, was assassinated by right wing German nationalist.  Germany's march towards Nazism was commencing.

On the same day Hitler began serving his prison sentence.

The American Professional Football Association voted to change its name to the National Football League.

The English Ladies Football Association hold its only championship.

Japan announced it would withdraw its occupation forces from Siberia, save for Sakhalin Island, by the end of October.

Friday., May 12, 1972. Dallas Cowboys Play Flag Football At Braniff Airline's "Battle Of The Bands"

Life magazine came out with its cover emblazoned with "Vietnam Retreat", which featured an ARVN soldier carrying a badly wounded comrade. The story had to deal with ARVN setbacks fighting the 1972 NVA Easter Offensive, which had commenced in March. This had caused the US to ramp up air efforts in a campaign known as Operation Linebacker.  The ARVN would ultimately prevail, with the NVA taking large casualties, leading to the illusion in some quarters that the ARVN was capable of fighting without heavy US support.

I would have enjoyed knowing it was Friday and that I had the next two days off from grade school.  As it was May, and we were fishing by this point, we probably would have had fried trout for dinner.

Commanders?

 

Well, I guess they couldn't be the Washington Football Team forever.

Monday, January 2, 1922. Soviet Communists Document Their Murderous Regime, Well Wishers Visit the White House, First Black Quarterback At The Rose Bowl, Ronnie the Bren Girl Born.

The Communist government of Russia (it was not yet the Soviet Union), published data that 1,766,118 people had been executed since the October Revolution.

This in the charming "real" Communist regime of Vladimir Lenin, not Stalin.

Added to that, of course, would be starvation victims and casualties of the Civil War.

In the United States, the President received well-wishers.

This was a longstanding tradition. The White House received official visitors but then also received whoever lined up to greet the President, emphasizing that the country was a republic.

The fact that this is now unthinkable speaks very poorly of us and how things have developed.

The participating included many notables, as for example Prince and Princess Rabesco, about whom I know nothing.

Admiral Balfour was one of the visitors that  year.

And officials of the US Government were expected to put in an appearance.

The 1922 Rose Bowl was played at Tournament Park, the last one to be played at that location.  UC Berkeley played Washington & Jefferson College in a game that had no scores and ended in a tie, the only one to have ever ended with no score and in a tie.

Charlie West was the quarterback for Washington & Jefferson, the first black quarterback to play in the came.

Football was mostly a college sport at that time, and it interestingly integrated well in advance of baseball.  West, in fact, was signed to play professional football in 1924, but decided to go to Harvard Medical School instead, and he became a physician. 

He was also an Olympic quality athlete, but injuries precluded his participating in the 1924 Olympics in the track and field category.

The Dixie Classic was played on the same day.

Why on a Monday? 

Well, January 1 was on a Sunday, which was very seriously observed. 

The fact that we don't observe it as much, and in that fashion, also speaks poorly of us today.

Veronica Foster, Canada's' answer to Rosie the Riveter in the form of Ronnie the Bren Girl, was born.  After the war, she'd go on to be a professional singer.

Thursday, January 1, 1942. Birth of the United Nations, an Automobile Manufacturing Hiatus.

President Roosevelt had declared New Year's Day, 1942, a National Day of Prayer.  He and Winston Churchill attended church together.

It was otherwise a working day for both men, on a day that's traditionally a holiday.

Boy Scouts with United Nations poster in 1943.

On that day, the Arcadia Conference produced the Declaration of the United Nations.

Signing of the declaration.

It stated:

A JOINT DECLARATION BY THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, THE UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN AND NORTHERN IRELAND, THE UNION OF SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLICS, CHINA, AUSTRALIA, BELGIUM, CANADA, COSTA RICA, CUBA, CZECHOSLOVAKIA, DOMICAN REPUBLIC, EL SALVADOR, GREECE, GUATELMALA, HAITI, HONDURAS, INDIA, LUXEMBOURG, NETHERLANDS, NEW ZEALAND, NICARAGUA, NORWAY, PANAMA, POLAND, SOUTH AFRICA, YUGOSLAVIA
The Governments signatory hereto,
Having subscribed to a common program of purposes and principles embodied in the Joint Declaration of the President of the United States of America and the Prime Minister of Great Britain dated August 14, 1941, known as the Atlantic Charter,
Being convinced that complete victory over their enemies is essential to defend life, liberty, independence and religious freedom, and to preserve human rights and justice in their own lands as well as in other lands, and that they are now engaged in a common struggle against savage and brutal forces seeking to subjugate the world,
Declare:
(1) Each Government pledges itself to employ its full resources, military or economic, against those members of the Tripartite Pact and its adherents with which such government is at war.
(2) Each Government pledges itself to cooperate with the Governments signatory hereto and not to make a separate armistice or peace with the enemies.
The foregoing declaration may be adhered to by other nations which are, or which may be, rendering material assistance and contributions in the struggle for victory over Hitlerism.

More nations would join in the document, which was effectively the creation of the United Nations, as the war went on.

While the UN has had a rocky history since World War Two, its origin was remarkable and does suggest that most of the world's nations can unite for a crisis.

On the same day, a significant event happened in terms of the US war effort and life on the home front, as discussed here on our companion blog Today In Wyoming's History: January 1. New Year's Day:

1942 The U.S. Office of Production Management prohibited sales of new cars and trucks to civilians.

The reason was simple enough, the war industry had gone over to war manufacturing, and not just of vehicles, but armaments and other war materials as well.

There actually are 1942 model vehicles, as they came out in 1941.  Detroit actually had produced about 1,000,000 combined 1942 models before this day, about 1/4 of the number of vehicles they produced as 1941 models.  Production of civilian automobiles would not resume, however, until the summer of 1945, and the 1946 models were actually the 1942 models.

The cessation of civilian vehicles, while predictable, did catch people off guard.  In truth, vehicles made prior to the late 20th Century really didn't last very long, something that is hard for people today to really appreciate.  For this reason, vehicles that were even a decade, or less, old at the time, were in fact old.  The cessation of production meant that for many Americans who had just come out of the Great Depression the needed to replace a vehicle was converted into a need to keep an old one running.

Interestingly civilian manufacturers at the same time worried that their conversion into war industries would mean that they'd be forgotten and lose market share following the war.  This was true of manufacturers in every sector, not just the automobile sector.

Manufactureers took different approches in the war, with some simply seeking to recall brand loyalty or even inspire longing.

But providing examples of what they were building was also extremely common.

The very late 1940s had seen an evolution in car design, with vehicles becoming more rounded.  The war itself, however, would introduce all the major manufacturers to off-road vehicles in a new way, something that impacted various manufacturers in different ways, and which is something that they didn't at first quite know what to do with in terms of their post-war production.  Indeed, Willys, as late as 1943, was still emphasizing that post-war it would be making cars again.

Ultimately two manufacturers, Dodge and Willys, would come to embrace their wartime vehicles, with Willys not only realizing that its post-war future was with the Jeep, but with it also seeking to capitalize on that during the war itself.

Indeed, Willys would start advertising for civilian sales of the Jeep before it could make civilian sales, emphasizing its off-road capabilities, although often in ways that didn't really match what would become its post-war market.  At first, for example, it was often shown pulling a plow.

It would also, however, feature such items as a letter from a girl asking for Jeep advertisement illustrations.

It might be noted, interestingly enough, German manufacturers, perhaps with the same concerns, also advertised in German journals during the war.

Their advertisements tended to be very martial, not too surprisingly.

In terms of illustrated magazines, Vogue magazine declared it a "New Year, New Vistas, New Fashions".

That would be true in all sorts of ways. . . save for civilian automobiles.

The usual football bowl games were played, although the Rose Bowl was played in Durham, North Carolina, out of a fear that the Japanese would attack.

Closer to Home.

Again, I don't know for sure what my parents would have done on this day, but for Catholics it the Solemnity of Mary, a Holy Day of Obligation.  If they hadn't gone to Mass the night prior, in their respective localities, they would have today.

My father, living in Scotsbluff, Nebraska at the time, may very well have gone duck and goose hunting with his father later in the day.  At any rate, he and they probably would have listened to one of the football games that were broadcast on the radio.

Sunday, December 21, 1941. The Long Short Days.

Today is the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere.  It'd be another long day for the United States and the British Commonwealth, however.

The Japanese landed troops at Lingayen Gulf and Lamon Bay in the Philippines.

Wake Island was heavily bombed.

The Kingdom of Thailand entered into a formal alliance with the Empire of Japan.

Off of Portugal the Battle of Convey HG-76 raged as German U-boats and Allied ships sought to amke progress and destroy each other.  Meanwhile, a British Swordfish torpedo bomber sank the German U-451 off of Morocco, from which only one crew member survived.

The Red Army and the German Army begin a week of close quarter fighting in Kaluga.

German and Romanian units commenced murdering Jews in the Bogdanovka concentration camp.  In two weeks they would kill 30,000 individuals.

Winston Churchill sent birthday wishes, late, to Stalin, whose actual birthday was December 18. The note states:

I send you sincere good wishes for your birthday and hope that future anniversaries will enable you to bring to Russia victory, peace and safety after so much storm.

As noted in Today In Wyoming's History: December 21:

1941  $5,077 collected in Sheridan Wyoming war relief drive. Attribution.  Wyoming State Historical Society.

The Chicago Bears beat the New York Giants in the NFL Championship.

Peetie Wheatstraw, whose real name was William Bunch, died when a car he was a passenger in was hit by a train. At the height of his popularity, the bluesman was 39 years old.

The Man Born To Be King, a BBC dramatization of the life of Jesus, premiered on the British Broadcasting Corporation Home Service.

The Home Service started airing in 1922, and was later replaced as Radio 4.

Monday, December 15, 1941. The filmed murder of Lativan Jews at Liepāja

War photographer Robert Capa with a 16mm movie camera, something we don't associate him with. 8mm film was literally 16mm cut in half for economy.

Mass murder of over 2,731 Jews at Liepāja Lativa was commenced by Einsatzgruppen, assisted by Lativan militia.  It would run for two days.  

The event was filmed by Kriegsmarine Sergeant Reinhard Wiener with his privately owned 8mm film camera.

Twenty-three communist party members were also murdered.

Amateur photography was a huge deal with Germans, and had been since cameras had become portable.  But movie film was another deal.  Sgt Wiener's film is accordingly unique. There is film of German authorities murdering Jews, but his was extensive and showed their full humiliation and abuse before being murdered.

The location itself was being used by the German Navy and many German Army soldiers were there.  The mood was festive by the Germans.

Things like this make it plain that by the early stages of Operation Barbarossa Germans knew what was going on and, while the recent meeting of German high officials emphasized their desire to complete the destruction of European Judaism, the program of mass extermination was fully in swing.  It was, moreover, already quite efficient.  And the attitude taken by the Germans was the plain acceptance of it. Authorities made no effort to stop it from being filmed here, and in other locations.  As film had to be processed commercially at home, it also meant that this was being done and was not being restrained.

So, in an event like this, regular German soldiers and sailors witnessed it, some filmed it, and some took their stories back home with them.  Others effectively published it by having what they recorded in film processed.

Things like this also make it plain that in much of Eastern Europe at least some percentage of the local population was willing to participate in Germany atrocities aimed at the Jews.

The Red Army retook Klin.

The following, from Today In World War Two History:

The American Federal of Labor adopted a policy of abstaining strikes in war industries for the duration of the war.

Universities started to go to three year courses of study for Bachelor degrees by full year courses of study.  This must have kicked in during the Spring, as the Christmas break was commencing.

The Soviet government returned to Moscow.  Stalin had never left.

Today in World War II History—December 15, 1941

The British Army encamped at Bir Halegh el Elba.

The British allowed 600 Japanese nationals to leave Singapore on a ship chartered by the Japanese government.

The Japanese attempted to land a reconnaissance party across the Lye Mun Channel at Hong Kong but were completely repulsed.  Japanese artillery strikes commenced.

Showing that yesterday's Coast Guard depth charge run wasn't as absurd as it might have sounded, a Japanese submarine shelled Kahului, Maui.  Another shelled Johnston Island, striking fuel at a seaplane base there.

The decision was made to hold this year's Rose Bowl at Durham, North Carolina.

All four American radio networks broadcast We Hold These Truths.

The radio program was in celebration of the anniversary of the Bill of Rights and had been planned prior to December 7.  An inquiry to the government on whether it should go forward brougth a reply that Franklin Roosevelt thought the program more important than ever.

Admiral Kimmel's illustration appeared on the cover of Time.  He'd already been relieved of his command in the Pacific.  Newsweek had a cover photo of a battleship noting that the "U.S. fleet's guns blaze", which wasn't true at the time.

A "Junior Miss" appeared on the cover of Life, which had obviously been laid out prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor.

A test air raid drill was held in New York City.