Wednesday, July 26, 2023
Monday, July 26, 1943. Martial law in Italy. Smog in LA.
Today in World War II History—July 26, 1943: 80 Years Ago—July 26, 1943: Martial law is declared in Italy; Marshal Pietro Badoglio forms a new cabinet free of fascists and bans the Fascist Party.
So notes Sarah Sundin on her blog.
George S. Patton was on the cover of Time magazine.
On the same day, American-born poet Ezra Pound was indicted for treason for making radio broadcasts from Italy for the Axis powers.
Indicted on the same day, for the same reason, were Robert H. Best, Fred W. Kaltenbach, Douglas Chandler, Edward Delaney, Constance Drexel, Jane Anderson, and Max Otto Koischwitz.
Los Angeles received its first big smog. Some residents of the city believed that it was under Japanese attack as a result.
Thursday, July 26, 1923. Harding visits Vancouver.
President Harding disembarked at Vancouver, becoming the first U.S. President to visit Canada. While there, he delivered this speech:
Citizens of Canada: I may as well confess to you at the outset a certain perplexity as to how I should address you. The truth of the matter is that this is the first time I have ever spoken as President in any country other than my own.
Indeed, so far as I can recall, I am, with the single exception of my immediate predecessor (Woodrow Wilson), the first President in office even to set foot on a politically-foreign soil. True, there is no definite inhibition upon one doing so, such as prevents any but a natural born citizen from becoming President, but an early prepossession soon developed into a tradition and for more than a hundred years held the effect of unwritten law. I am not prepared to say that the custom was not desirable, perhaps even needful, in the early days, when time was the chief requisite of travel. Assuredly, too, at present, the Chief Magistrate of a great Republic ought not to cultivate the habit or make a hobby of wandering over all the continents of the earth.
But exceptions are required to prove rules. And Canada is an exception, a most notable exception, from every viewpoint of the United States. You are not only our neighbour, but a very good neighbour, and we rejoice in your advancement.
I need not depict the points of similarity that make this attitude of the one toward the other irresistible. We think the same thoughts, live the same lives and cherish the same aspirations of service to each other in times of need. Thousands of your brave lads perished in gallant and generous action for the preservation of our Union.
Many of our young men followed Canadian colours to the battlefields of France before we entered the war and left their proportion of killed to share the graves of your intrepid sons. This statement is brought very intimately home to me, for one of the brave lads in my own newspaper office (Harding owned the Marion, Ohio Star) felt the call of service to the colours of the sons of Canada. He went to the front, and gave his life with your boys for the preservation of the American and Canadian concept of civilization.
When my mind reverts and my heart beats low to recollection of those faithful and noble companionships, I may not address you, to be sure, as “fellow citizens,” as I am accustomed to designate assemblages at home, but I may and do, with respect and pride, salute you as ”fellow men,” in mutual striving for common good.
What an object lesson of peace is shown today by our two countries to all the world! [Applause.] No grim-faced fortifications mark our frontiers, no huge battleships patrol our dividing waters, no stealthy spies lurk in our tranquil border hamlets. Only a scrap of paper, recording hardly more than a simple understanding, safeguards lives and properties on the Great Lakes, and only humble mile-posts mark the inviolable boundary line for thousands of miles through farm and forest.
Our protection is in our fraternity, our armor is our faith; the tie that binds more firmly year by year is ever-increasing acquaintance and comradeship through interchange of citizens; and the compact is not of perishable parchment, but of fair and honourable dealing which, God grant, shall continue for all time.
An interesting and significant symptom of our growing mutuality appears in the fact that the voluntary inter-change of residents to which I have referred, is wholly free from restrictions. Our National and industrial exigencies have made it necessary for us, greatly to our regret, to fix limits to immigration from foreign countries. But there is no quota for Canada. [Applause.] We gladly welcome all of your sturdy, steady stock who care to come, as a strengthening ingredient and influence. We none the less bid Godspeed and happy days to the thousands of our own folk, who are swarming constantly over your land and participating in its remarkable development.
Wherever in either of our countries any inhabitant of the one or the other can best serve the interests of himself and his family is the place for him to be. [Applause.] A further evidence of our increasing interdependence appears in the shifting of capital. Since the armistice, I am informed, approximately $2,500,000,000 has found its way from the United States into Canada for investment.
That is a huge sum of money, and I have no doubt is employed safely for us and helpfully for you. Most gratifying to you, moreover, should be the circumstance that one-half of that great sum has gone for purchase of your state and municipal bonds, — a tribute, indeed, to the scrupulous maintenance of your credit, to a degree equalled only by your mother country across the sea and your sister country across the hardly visible border.
These are simple facts which quickly resolve into history for guidance of mankind in the seeking of human happiness. “History, history!” ejaculated Lord Overton to his old friend, Lindsay, himself an historian; “what is the use of history? It only keeps people apart by reviving recollections of enmity.”
As we look forth today upon the nations of Europe, with their armed camps of nearly a million more men in 1923 than in 1913, we cannot deny the grain of truth in this observation. But not so here! A hundred years of tranquil relationships, throughout vicissitudes which elsewhere would have evoked armed conflict rather than arbitration, affords, truly declared James Bryce, “the finest example ever seen in history of an undefended frontier, whose very absence of armaments itself helped to prevent hostile demonstrations;” thus proving beyond question that “peace can always be kept, whatever be the grounds of controversy, between peoples that wish to keep it.”
There is a great and highly pertinent truth, my friends, in that simple assertion. It is public will, not public force, that makes for enduring peace. And is it not a gratifying circumstance that it has fallen to the lot of us North Americans, living amicably for more than a century, under different flags, to present the most striking example yet produced of that basic fact?
If only European countries would heed the lesson conveyed by Canada and the United States, they would strike at the root of their own continuing disagreements and, in their own prosperity, forget to inveigh constantly at ours.
Not that we would reproach them for resentment or envy, which after all is but a manifestation of human nature. Rather should we sympathize with their seeming inability to break the shackles of age-long methods, and rejoice in our own relative freedom from the stultifying effect of Old World customs and practices.
Our natural advantages are manifold and obvious. We are not palsied by the habits of a thousand years. We live in the power and glory of youth. Others derive justifiable satisfaction from contemplation of their resplendent pasts. We have relatively only our present to regard, and that, with eager eyes fixed chiefly and confidently upon our future.
Therein lies our best estate. We profit both mentally and materially from the fact that we have no “departed greatness” to recover, no “lost provinces” to regain, no new territory to covet, no ancient grudges to gnaw eternally at the heart of our National consciousness. Not only are we happily exempt from these handicaps of vengeance and prejudice, but we are animated correspondingly and most helpfully by our better knowledge, derived from longer experience, of the blessings of liberty.
These advantages we may not appreciate to the full at all times, but we know that we possess them, and the day is far distant when, if ever, we shall fail to cherish and defend them against any conceivable assault from without or from within our borders.
I find that, quite unconsciously, I am speaking of our two countries almost in the singular when perhaps I should be more painstaking to keep them where they belong, in the plural. But I feel no need to apologize. You understand as well as I that I speak in no political sense. The ancient bugaboo of the United States scheming to annex Canada disappeared from all our minds years and years ago. [Applause.] Heaven knows we have all we can manage now, and room enough to spare for another hundred millions, before approaching the intensive stage of existence of many European states.
And if I might be so bold as to offer a word of advice to you, it would be this: Do not encourage any enterprise looking to Canada’s annexation of the United States. [Laughter.] You are one of the most capable governing peoples in the world, but I entreat you, for your own sakes, to think twice before undertaking management of the territory which lies between the Great Lakes and the Rio Grande.
No, let us go our own gaits along parallel roads, you helping us and we helping you. So long as each country maintains its independence, and both recognize their interdependence, those paths cannot fail to be highways of progress and prosperity. Nationality continues to be a supreme factor in modern existence; make no mistake about that; but the day of the Chinese wall, inclosing a hermit nation, has passed forever. Even though space itself were not in process of annihilation by airplane, submarine, wireless and broadcasting, our very propinquity enjoins that most effective cooperation which comes only from clasping of hands in true faith and good fellowship.
It is in precisely that spirit, men and women of Canada, that I have stopped on my way home from a visit to our pioneers in Alaska to make a passing call upon my very good neighbor of the fascinating Iroquois name, ”Kanada,” to whom, glorious in her youth and strength and beauty, on behalf of my own beloved country, I stretch forth both my arms in the most cordial fraternal greeting, with gratefulness for your splendid welcome in my heart, and from my lips the whispered prayer of our famed Rip Van Winkle: “May you all live long and prosper!”
He gave the speech at Stanley Park, and attended a state dinner at 7:00. After that, he reembarked on the USS Henderson and must have remained hungry, as he dined on some crab while the ship steamed to Seattle and shortly thereafter became very ill.
High waters brought disaster near Shoshoni.
The Tribune also reported that the French had lifted the blockade of the Ruhr, and they updated the curious case of Father Grace, who apparently objected to prohibition to some extent. He had apparently forged an order for ten barrels of whiskey for the J. H. Mullen Home for the Aged in Arvada, Colorado. He was turned over by another Priest. Fr. Grace was the pastor at St. Anne's in Arvada, having been installed at the newly built church on July 4, 1920.
Catholic theology would hold that under some circumstances there's no obligation to comply with an unjust law and Fr. Mullen did not seem to be, at least at first, sorry for his act. Maybe there's more to this story than it might at first seem. This story isn't one that's easy to follow, however, so what became of him and what he later thought, we don't know.
Freaking out over options.
Office Hours: Beware the Cornel West factor
His third-party candidacy could give the presidency to Trump
Cornel West a threat to Biden?
Not hardly. You really have to be a paleo boomer to believe that. A West canidacy is going nowhere.
The political left is starting to really freak out about third party runs right now, fearing that they'll take votes away from Biden. The right is sitting on their hands on this, with Trump solidly in the lead, unfortunately, in the GOP. But if they start to build, Trump will turn his weird diction on them for the same reason.
All of which is part of the reason that the nation appears to be slated for an election between two ancient bad choices.
Tuesday, July 25, 2023
Packed cattle in high heat?
Yesterday I drove home from a remote location. It was a really hot day. All the cattle that I drove past were packed up in dense groups, crowded for the most part near fences, but at least all packed up. What was up with that?
Sunday, July 25, 1943. The surreal end of Mussolini's Premiership.
Having been voted out of office the night prior, Mussolini left the meeting of the Fascist Grand Council that had voted to remove him, he went to award prizes at a farm festival and carried on business as usual. The Fascist Grand Council reported its decision to King Victor Emmanuel III, who ordered Mussolini to report and asked him to resign. Mussolini asked for more time and was arrested.
Marshal Pietro Badoglio was appointed Premier.
On the same day in the same country, Ubaldo Pugnaloni won the Giro d'Italia.
The Navy commissioned the USS Harmon, a destroyer named after Leonard Roy Harmon, a mess attendant who had been killed at Guadalcanal saving a fellow shipmate. It was the first ship named after an African American in the U.S. Navy.
_underway,_circa_in_August_1943_(80-G-45162).jpg)
Harmon's citation reads:
The President of the United States of America takes pride in presenting the Navy Cross (Posthumously) to Mess Attendant First Class Leonard Roy Harmon, United States Navy, for extraordinary heroism and devotion to duty in action against the enemy while serving on board the Heavy Cruiser U.S.S. SAN FRANCISCO (CA-38), during action against enemy Japanese naval forces near Savo Island in the Solomon Islands on the night of on 12–13 November 1942. With persistent disregard of his own personal safety, Mess Attendant First Class Harmon rendered invaluable assistance in caring for the wounded and assisting them to a dressing station. In addition to displaying unusual loyalty in behalf of the injured Executive Officer, he deliberately exposed himself to hostile gunfire in order to protect a shipmate and, as a result of this courageous deed, was killed in action. His heroic spirit of self-sacrifice, maintained above and beyond the call of duty, was in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life for his country.
Wednesday, July 25, 1923. Flooding in Thermopolis.
Floods struck Thermopolis after having struck Natrona County only recently.
President Harding went fishing at the Campbell River in British Columbia.
Monday, July 24, 2023
Railhead: Rail Features. Thyra Thompson Building, Casper Wyoming
Railhead: Rail Features. Thyra Thompson Building, Casper Wyo...:
In putting the building in, and extending the Platte River Parkway through it, the State did a nice job of incorporating some rail features so that there's a memory of what the location had been.
Rail Features. Thyra Thompson Building, Casper Wyoming.
The State of Wyoming recently completed the construction of a massive new state office building, the Thyra Thompson Building, in Casper. All of the state's administrative bodies, except for the district and circuit courts, are housed there.
The building does house, however, the Chancery Court for the entire state, a new court that's only recently been established.
The building is built right over what had been the Great Northwest rail yard in Casper, which was still an active, although not too active, rail yard into my teens. I can't really recall when they abandoned the line, but it was abandoned.
They also put in some historical plaques, which are nice. The curved arch at this location, moreover, is the location of the old turntable. It was a small one, which I hate to admit that I crossed over when I was a teenager, a dangerous thing to do.
Saturday, July 24, 1943. The fall of Mussolini.
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Lesser coat of arms of the Kingdom of Italy.
The Italian Fascist Grand Council voted 19 to 7 to remove Mussolini from power and restore full authority to the crown.
Dino Grandi, who had been a hard line fascist, but who also had opposed anti-Semitism and who had been critical of the war, organized beforehand Mussolini's downfall. The Grand Council's statement following the decision read:
Grandi's Order of the Day
The Grand Council of Fascism,
meeting in these hours of utmost trial, turns all its thoughts to the heroic fighters in every corps who, side by side with the people of Sicily in whom shines the unequivocal faith of the Italian people, renewing the noble traditions of strenuous valor and the indomitable spirit of sacrifice of our glorious Armed Forces, having examined the internal and international situation and the war's political and military leadership,
proclaims
the sacred duty for all Italians to defend at all costs the homeland's unity, independence, and freedom, the fruits of sacrifice and the efforts of four generations from the Risorgimento to the present, the life and future of the Italian people;
affirms
the necessity of moral and material unity of all Italians in this serious and decisive hour for the nation's destiny;
declares
that to this end the immediate restoration of all state functions is necessary, assigning to the Crown, to the Grand Council, to the government, to the Parliament, and to the corporate groups the duties and responsibility established by our statutory and constitutional laws;
invites
the government to beseech His Majesty the king, to whom turns the loyal and trusting heart of the whole nation, to assume effective command of the Armed Forces of land, sea, and air for the honor and salvation of the homeland, under article 5 of the Constitution, the supreme initiative that our institutions assign to him, and which have always been throughout our nation's history the glorious heritage of our august House of Savoy.
Dino Grandi
While Mussolini seemed to accept the results at the time, he very quickly started acting as if they were not legally binding.
Mussolini had been in power for seventeen years, being the first of the fascist dictators to assume power. While Italy's defeat in the field brought his end about, his removal did not automatically take the Italians out of the war.
Grandi would flea to Spain after the complete fascist collapse in August, not returning to Italy until 1960. He died in 1988 at the age of 92.
Operation Gomorrah, the Royal Air Force and Royal Canadian Air Force bombing campaign on Hamburg, began. Window was deployed for the first time.
Tuesday, July 24, 1923. Natrona County Floods. The end of World War One?
Flooding was ravaging Natrona County, Wyoming.
The Treaty of Lausanne was signed in Switzerland. It was the last treaty relating to World War One.
The Hague Academy of International Law was inaugurated.
Sunday, July 23, 2023
Some collapses seem to arrive suddenly, but they really don't.
Others you can see coming a long ways off, and wonder why those enduring them didn't appreciate that. But then, maybe that's the way with all collapses, whether it be of a country, a business, or even of an individual's well-being.
Of course, the collapses you never see are the ones in which the early signs were appreciated. Countries that had no Fall of Saigon because they took action, let's say, in 1965, rather than 1975, when things were too late to reverse.
Still, all too many react the way that's depicted in Downfall, the epic movie of the last days of the Third Reich. That Germany was going to lose World War Two was obvious from the outside, at least as of the Battle of Stalingrad, but the Germans kept on. At the bitter end, a lot of people react to just like the scenes depicted in that film. Some keep on as if things are normal, or that they'll suddenly get batter. Others act with self-preservation and look for a way to get out of Berlin. Some party it up as things go down in collapse. Some try to salvage things right to the end. Some try to help those they know will be afflicted. Some try to extract as much for themselves out of the collapsing entity.
Anyhow, there are no sudden collapses, of anything. The seeds of collapse are planted like those of weeds, undetected and unknown, long before they choke out everything else. People just don't see them growing.
Monday, July 23, 1973. Old Faithful Inn added to the National Register of Historic Places.
Old Faithful Inn in 1909.
Today In Wyoming's History: July 23: 1923 1973 Old Faithful Inn was added to the National Register of Historic Places. Attribution: On This Day.President Nixon refused to turn over tape recordings to the Senate or special prosecutor.
Thursday, July 23, 1923. No gas for anything.
The early stages of the Battle of Belgorod began on the Eastern Front when the Wehrmacht's XI Army Corps returned to their prior fortified positions on both sides of the city
Brazil, having banned the use of gasoline powered automobiles the prior year, now did the same for motorcycles in order to conserve fuel.
Sarah Sundin, on her blog, notes:
Today in World War II History—July 23, 1943: First US naval air squadron to operate in Britain arrives for antisubmarine duty—squadron VP-63 with PBY Catalinas, nicknamed the “Mad Cats."
She also notes that Rommel assumed command of Army Group E in Greece to defend that territory from an anticipated Allied invasion.
Monday, July 23, 1923. Disasters. First ascent of Clyde Peak. French Foreign Legion failure. Squamish Nation, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw amalgamation. Sigsbee funeral.
I'm often amazed, particularly in regard to weather disasters, how often headlines from 1923 read like those from 2023.
That't not to draw a conclusion that I do not intend to suggest, I m'just noting it.
Clyde Peak, left, Blackfoot Mountain, right in 1925.
Norman Clyde became the first man to climb Clyde Peak in Glacier National Park.
Clyde Peak, now. By Owen Jones - File:Red Eagle Lake.jpg, CC BY-SA 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=109050999
A French Foreign Legion attack on the Moroccan town of Tagzhout Hill was unsuccessful.
The Labour Parties attempt to have the House of Commons call for an international conference was rejected by the Conservatives.
Canada's Squamish Nation, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw, were politically amalgamated and adopted a democratically elected council.
The funeral of Rear Admiral Sigsbee was held. He had been the commander of the USS Maine when it fatefully exploded in Havana.
Best Posts of the Week of July 16, 2023
Saturday, July 22, 2023
Thursday, July 22, 1943. Palermo falls to the Seventh Army. Greeks riot over Macedonia, US landings at Munda Point.
Patton's Seventh Army entered Palermo to an enormous celebration by the residents of the ancient city. Two captured Italian generals, in turn, claimed to be happy about the event because "the Sicilians were not human beings but animals" ("i Siciliani non erano esseri umani ma animali").
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Seventh Army staff aboard SS Monrovia, en route to Sicily, June/July 1943.
The Italian fascist government had held anti-Sicilian views due to Sicily's long peculiar history.
The island has been inhabited since ancient times and was a destination for Italic and Phoenician colonists as far back as 1200 BC, who displaced the already existing Sicilian population. Greek colonization commenced around 750 BC. In antiquity, it was contested by the Greeks and Carthaginians, both of whom conquered it at different times. The Romans conquered it and displaced the Carthaginians and declared that the island should be latinized, although its culture remained, at the time, Greek. With the fall of the Roman Empire, it fell to invading Germanic tribes, with the Vandals taking Palermo in 440. The Byzantine Empire then retook it, as the Eastern Roman Empire, and ruled it from the 550s to the 960s, during which time the Arabs began to attempt to take it. From the 820s through the 960s, it slowly fell to Muslim invaders.
The Normans arrived starting in 1038, around thirty years prior to their invasion of England, and began to take it from the Arabs. They formed a Norman kingdom that lasted until 1198, becoming part of the typical drama of European kingdoms at the time. The Normans imported European settlers to the island, which went from being 1/3d Greek speaking and 2/3s Arabic speaking to being latinized once again. It went back and forth to varying European households until 1860, when the Italians conquered it. It became part of the Kingdom of Italy in 1861.
During the fascist period the island was subject to unwelcome attention in part because Italians have never really regarded Sicilians as Italians, given their multi-ethnic heritage, and part because the strong local character of the island was unwelcome. Also, unwelcome was the fairly strong local Communist Party and the Sicilian Mafia. The fascist nearly crushed the Mafia during their period in power.
A general strike was called in Athens over Bulgarian intentions to annex Macedonia, which resulted in a massive protest in the city over the same thing.
The protests were successful in that they postponed the Bulgarian plans to the point that they were never carried out.
The SS executed all of the remaining 2,500 inmates of the Tarnopol concentration camp.
US infantry during the battle.
The Battle of Munda Point began on New Georgia. The object was the points' airfield, in what would become a hard fought campaign.
The U.S. Navy raided Kiska.
Sunday, July 22, 1923. Harding leaves Alaska, Big Train strikes out 3,000.
President Harding departed Sitka, Alaska, bound to a Canadian port on his Voyage of Understanding.
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Herbert Hoover was part of the Harding party. In Sitka, he stated:
We came to Alaska in the hope that by a better understanding of the problems of Alaska we might give better service from the Government to the people of Alaska; that by personal contact we would come to know you and we would come to know your vision of Alaska, your future and your ideals,” Herbert Hoover, Sitka Alaska, July 22, 1923.
The tanker SS Swiftstar exploded and sank after being hit by lightening. Only one of its 32 man crew survived.
Walter "Big Train" Johnson of the Washington Senators became the first Major League pitcher to record 3,000 career strikeouts. He'd ultimately record 3,508, a record that held until 1978.
Johnson was a great picture, and he may have had the fastest fast ball in baseball history. He died of a brain tumor in 1946 at age 59.
Bob Dole, long time Kansas Senator, war hero, and Presidential contender, was born in Russell, Kansas.
Future senator Daniel Inouye (left) with Dole, next to Inouye, playing cards at the Percy Jones Army Hospital in the mid-1940s.
Dole was badly wounded while serving in the 10th Mountain Division during World War Two.
Southern Rockies Nature Blog: Restoring Shortgrass Prairie for Native Plants and...
Southern Rockies Nature Blog: Restoring Shortgrass Prairie for Native Plants and...: Fendi Despres ( right ) and a prairie-restoration volunteers. (Photo: Fendi Despres via 5280 ). 5280 Magazine describes how the 1,100-acre...
Friday, July 21, 2023
Wednesday, July 21, 1943. Stormy Weather.
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By some accounts the classic film Stormy Weather was released on this date, and not the one we noted a couple of days ago.
It was in fact a day of stormy weather.
A terrible storm hit Indiana. As the National Weather Service notes:
The Great Wawasee Storm of 1943
The sun rose into a partly cloudy sky on the 21st day of July in 1943. The atmosphere was muggy...dew clung heavily to the blades of grass in people's green lawns. Stepping out into the morning haze it was easy to tell that this was going to be another hot, humid Indiana summer day...the fourteenth day in a row that the mercury would top 80 degrees...might even make it up to 90 if there was enough sunshine.
Though it had been a warm month, it was not unusually oppressive for July, especially when compared with the searing heat Midwesterners suffered through several years earlier. Also, a good deal of rain had fallen on northeast Indiana over the first half of the warm season. The Weather Bureau Airport Station in Fort Wayne reported one and a third inches of rain falling from the 6th to the 7th of July, and two more inches from the 16th to the 17th. That July would end up being the sixth wettest July on record, and although June had been dry, May 1943 was Fort Wayne's second wettest May on record. As a result, lawns were green and the corn was tall.
The Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette's small weather section that morning called for another warm day, as if anyone needed to be told, with "widely scattered thunderstorms in Ohio this evening". Many residents on the Indiana side of the border hoped a passing thundershower might cool off their day as well.
As morning melted into afternoon, the heat grew. Although skies were partially cloudy, the summer sun was allowed to send the mercury climbing, and by mid-afternoon thermometers in the area were giving readings in the middle and upper 80s. Farmers and city folks alike sought shelter from the beating sun. Restaurants had a brisk business selling iced tea and lemonade, served in tall glasses that one could place against his forehead and let the beads of water on the outside of the glass trickle coolly over his fingers. Squinting out the window into the glare, hopes for a refreshing thundershower diminished.
---
Sergeant Lloyd Burkholder was ready for a break. After 51 bombing missions over Europe and north Africa, the twenty-five-year-old was planning on getting every ounce of relaxation that he could out of his week's furlough. He was on his way from Europe to Salt Lake City, and had decided to spend the week between the two assignments at home in Indiana. He rented a cabin on Ideal Beach at Lake Wawasee, just down the road from his parents' Goshen home.
Lloyd shared the cabin with eleven other people, ranging in age from 9 to 32, although most of them were in their early to middle 20s. They had been having a great time on their summer vacation, spending many happy hours playing games on the beach and taking rides on Lake Wawasee.
Ray Reim, a twenty-seven year old resident of Goshen and one of Lloyd's guests, owned a 17-foot speedboat. He loved to tear across the lake in it, especially when crammed with as many of his friends as possible. Although there had been a few nighttime showers passing through the area that week, the days had all been sunny and warm, and the large group from the Ideal Beach cabin had been taking regular rides on the boat. Wednesday, the twenty-first of July, would be no different.
"Hey, are we going to go out on Wawasee today or not?" Lloyd directed at Ray.
"I dunno. Sounds good to me. Are any of you people ever gonna help me with gas money? Gas ain't free, you know!"
"Yeah, yeah. We'll draw up a collection at the end of the week. So you wanna get everybody together or what?"
"Sure. I heard we might see some storms this afternoon, but it sure looks okay out there to me."
"Oh please. Since when do the weathermen know what they're talking about? Look at that - it's already almost five o'clock and there's just a bunch of harmless fluffy white clouds floating around. If something was going to happen, it would have happened by now."
"Good point. Let's get everybody together."
It took Ray and Lloyd a solid forty-five minutes to assemble their friends. As they were corralling the people, the sun grew dimmer and eventually was blotted out entirely by the thickening overcast.
"Gosh, it looks like it's wanting to rain" cautioned Barbara Castetter. Barbara was one of the three grade school aged students in the group. She was shy, and tended to stick close to Betty Yoder, who was of the same age.
Betty replied "Oh, those aren't rain clouds. Rain clouds are down low and are real dark. Those clouds look too high up in the air."
"Okay. I just would hate to get stuck in the middle of the lake during a rainstorm. I just got over a fever and don't much feel like getting cold and wet."
In fact, a large thunderstorm had blown up over the southwest tip of Michigan as the friends at Wawasee were gathering. The storm's intensity increased rapidly, and when it crossed the border it was angrily rushing across the fields of far northern Indiana. At 6:05pm the storm's winds streamed into Elkhart, ripping trees from the ground and blowing down power lines throughout the city. The people of the town were plunged into darkness, with the exception of the brilliant lightning forking from the sky. A woman caught outside in the sudden storm was struck and knocked to the ground by lightning. A few miles southwest of town large stones of hail were beating down on the cornfields, causing a great loss to the farmers who had just that morning been working amidst the tall, green rows.
The fourteen people at Ideal Beach were talking loudly in their excitement to get out on the water, while Ray readied the boat. Robert Yoder, nine years old, had been watching the sky grow darker in the northwest. He was getting worried, but didn't want to look like a scared little kid to the others, so he kept his mouth shut. He shot a glance at Billie. Billie was the sweetest girl he had ever known. She was friendly, pretty, and always treated him like a regular one of the gang, even though he was eleven years her junior. He looked at Billie, watched her laugh and chatter with her girlfriends, and decided everything would be okay.
Eloise, Ray's wife and Lloyd's sister, had been helping Ray with the boat when she glanced up at the sky. "Gee, Ray. I hadn't noticed how dark it had gotten over there on the horizon. Maybe we shouldn't go out?"
"Where's the sky darkest?"
"Northwest."
"Around here strong storms come out of the southwest. If the northwest sky is the darkest, then it should miss us and go off to our north." Eloise hesitantly went back to her work on the boat.
By 6:10 the leading edge of the storm's winds had traveled the ten miles from Elkhart to Goshen in about ten minutes. Branches and phone lines were felled simultaneously in Goshen and in Middlebury, several miles to the northeast. The brunt of the storm's fury was gathering south of Goshen, where hail the size of hickory nuts was showering to earth. The oat fields were flattened by the wind and torrents as though a huge roller had moved over them. In New Paris, two smokestacks, eighty feet tall and weighing four tons each, were not able to withstand the force of the gusts as they roared into the town. Trees were being felled and hail was coming down in Millersburg and Benton in the eastern parts of Elkhart County, but the storm's worst anger was concentrating in southern sections of the county, and was screaming to the southeast.
"All right everybody, the boat's ready!" shouted Ray. "It's already a quarter after six -- let's get this ride in before it gets dark or that weather to our northwest decides to come down this way."
"It's already dark", thought Robert, but of course he didn't dare say anything.
The 14 people piled onto the boat and shoved off into the lake. The engine leapt to life and they began moving through the water. The air was oppressively humid and warm, and there was an odd, almost tinny odor to it. The sky to the west was working on turning from grey to black, while the southeastern horizon was still bright, giving the lake an odd shimmer as one side of the tiny waves reflected the light to the east and the other side absorbed the pall of the gathering storm clouds in the opposite direction.
At half past six Dorothy Beckerich, who was one of the two people from the next-door cabin and had come up from Indianapolis to spend a few days at the lake, said worriedly "Okay, it's starting to get green in the west. We've got to get back to shore. Come on, Ray, turn this tug around and let's get back to the beach."
Trees were being laid flat to the ground along routes 6 and 13 in the Syracuse area. Hail was stripping the corn stalks in the fields, reducing them to rubble.
Crashing thunder followed a dazzling streak of lightning. "That was really close!" shouted Lloyd. "Let's go! Let's go!"
"All right!" shouted Ray. "Let me turn 'er around!"
At 6:35pm the terrible gust of wind sped across the lake and slammed full force into the boat and its occupants. The people instinctively looked away from the direction of the wind and shielded their faces. As Ray was beginning to turn his boat around the waves on the lake began growing at an alarming rate. The boat was leaping and falling violently upon the waves, prompting the people to hold on as tightly as possible. The women's mouths were open but their screams of terror could barely be heard over the howling gale. Ray felt a pull at his shoulder. "Barbara's overboard!!" screamed Lloyd as close to Ray's ear as possible. Before Ray could respond, a wave six feet tall - the tallest ever seen on Lake Wawasee - crashed broadside into the boat, capsizing it and sending all of the remaining thirteen people into the lake's black turbulent waters.
In the South Shore Inn, a group of guests had gathered behind the large picture windows that viewed the lake. There was a general murmur of conversation: "...my goodness look at that!..." "...I've never seen such waves on Wawasee..." "...you can't even see a hundred feet through the rain..." "...I hope there's nobody on the water..."
Seventeen-year-old Rita Niesse had come up from Indianapolis for vacation, and was talking with sixteen-year-old Jacqueline Casey of Anderson. They had become quick friends over the previous few days, sharing a deep love of swimming. "Wow! Look at that wind! The trees are just about bent all the way over!" said Rita excitedly.
"Yeah - the windows are even starting to shake!" replied Jacqueline with large, stunned eyes.
A tree several feet from the window crashed to earth, narrowly missing the building. The onlookers near the window backed away nervously. "Yikes! That was close!" yelled Rita.
In the lake, behind the curtain of driving rain that prevented them from being seen by the inn guests, the fourteen friends were being pitched violently across the water from one wave to the next. Their bearings were lost, and it was extremely difficult to know which way was up, let alone which direction the nearest shore was. Rain and hail pummeled the lake and its occupants so completely that the demarcation between lake and air was barely detectable. As they gasped for air and struggled to keep the water out of their lungs, the boaters swam as best they could while the wind blew them along. Eventually several of the people managed to get a hold on a sailboat that had been anchored in the lake, while others were swept up onto the shore. Still others were lurching about in the water, getting beaten without mercy by the wind, waves, rain, and hail.
A loud crash startled the folks by the inn window. They looked out to see the terrible storm reach its peak intensity. Trees were being torn down left and right...parts of roofs were flying through the air...shingles were getting stripped from the roof of the inn...piers were collapsing and sending their boards on a quick flight across the property. All of this happened very suddenly and spectacularly, like the finale at a Fourth of July fireworks display.
After a few long minutes, the hail stopped and the winds and rain began to slacken. People started leaving the window, shaking their heads in amazement. Rita, captivated by the weather, and Jacqueline, too terrified by it to turn away, crept closer to the window and continued watching. Soon Rita said, "Hey - what's that out there across the lake? See? Way over there."
Jacqueline said "It looks like a sailboat anchored in the lake."
"Right, but what are those things on the side?"
"I dunno - nets I suppose."
"They can't be nets. It looks like they're - they're waving! They're people!" Without thinking, Rita ran out of the building into the pouring rain. Jacqueline fell in step right behind her.
They ran into the lake and began swimming as hard as they could, fighting the still falling rain and the waves that were yet in the process of calming down. After several minutes of intense work, they reached the sailboat and started helping people across the lake. Several trips had to be made in order to help everyone to safety on the shore outside the inn. About half-way through the rescue, a man in a boat reached the scene to assist the swimmers.
The group stumbled into the inn and fell about the floor. Guests ran for towels and began comforting the boaters. Some were sobbing, others were simply staring at the floor. Barbara, who had fallen out first but managed to stay afloat and reach the anchored sailboat, suddenly looked up and with terror in her eyes shouted "How many of us are here!??" The rest of the party looked up and counted. Eight. Again. Eight. Once more. Eight. Oh no...only eight. "Where are the others??" shrieked Barbara. "Where are they??"
Instantly several men ran out of the room, headed for their boats. The police and ambulance had been called and were on their way. A total of twenty rescue boats were launched onto the lake to search for the remaining six people who had been on Ray Reim's boat half an hour prior.
While the storm was terrorizing the people on and around Lake Wawasee, it was also busy leveling cornfields and ripping down trees and power poles in Topeka, Ligonier, and North Webster. Trees were torn completely out of the ground along route 13 from Syracuse to North Webster. By 7pm the storm had covered route 33 from Ligonier to Churubusco with trees, telephone wires, and hail. In Churubusco a tree fell on a car that was driving down one of the little town's streets. A barn north of Collins was blown down.
The tempest had spent a great deal of energy destroying property around Lake Wawasee, and, while still very powerful, was not quite the unwelcome terror in Noble and Whitley counties that it had been earlier. However, as it entered northwest Allen County shortly after 7pm, it had rested long enough and made the decision to attempt to return to its previous fury.
The storm created a swath of destruction from the northwest corner of the county to the north side of Fort Wayne. Hail and wind leveled cornfields. Corn that wasn't blown down by the terrific wind was stripped by the hail, reducing their height from three feet to twelve inches. Windows were blown out of farm houses and several barns were beaten to the ground. Hail the size of hens' eggs battered the Irene Byron Sanatorium near Wallen, breaking dozens of windows. Torrential rain flooded all roads in the north part of the county. The Weather Bureau Airport Station, at Smith Airport on the north side of Fort Wayne and less than a mile away from the large hail, reported 1.34 inches of rainfall between 7pm and 8pm. The road outside the weather office was washed away.
Around 8pm Dorothy Beckerich's body was discovered.
Dorothy was from Indianapolis and had just turned twenty-one. She had been having a great time with her friend Virginia Rush, with whom she shared a cabin on Ideal Beach. That afternoon Lloyd from the cabin next door had asked her and Virginia to go out on the lake in Ray's boat. They didn't have to think twice - a boat ride would be great. Three hours later Dorothy's water-soaked body washed up onto the beach, half a mile east of the South Shore Inn, not far from the remains of her twenty-year-old roommate, Virginia.
The storm raged on as it ripped down trees and power poles in Saint Joe, New Haven, and Monroeville. At Harlan the trees were stripped of their bark and leaves. A barn was blown across a road into a farmhouse. A hundred chickens and a cow were killed when another barn was demolished by the unrelenting gusts.
At 8:30pm the storms crossed the Ohio line. They produced two tornadoes. The first one struck southwest Paulding County between McGill and Tipton where it produced F2 damage to two barns. The second tornado dropped from the sky just northwest of Van Wert around 9pm and inflicted F2 damage to six barns. Nobody was killed or injured in either tornado.
The last of the six bodies at Lake Wawasee was found at 5:45 Friday morning, nearly thirty-six hours after the accident. Fortunately Robert Yoder, who had silently depended on her for support as the storm clouds gathered that Wednesday afternoon, was not present to watch the men pull Billie's lifeless body from the water, where she had drowned and been held seven feet below the surface by sunken debris.
Epilogue
On Wednesday, July 21, 1943, a terrible storm swept across northeast Indiana. Directly in the path of its untempered fury was Lake Wawasee, and a boat with fourteen friends out for an evening on the lake. The boat capsized in the tallest waves ever seen on the lake, spilling all fourteen people into the water. Eight of those people never forgot the terror they were put through that night.
Perished
Sergeant Lloyd Burkholder, age 25, of Goshen
Dean Yoder, age 21, of Elkhart
Lloyd Conklin, age 21, of Goshen
Dorothy Beckerich, age 21, of Indianapolis
Billie Binkley, age 20
Virginia Rush, age 20
Survived
Earl Markham, age 32, of Goshen
Ray Reim, age 27, of Goshen
Eloise Reim, age 24, of Goshen
Doris Radkey, age 22, of Goshen
Betty Radkey, age 20, of Goshen
Barbara Castetter, age 13, of Rome, New York
Betty Yoder, age 13, of Goshen
Robert Yoder, age 9, of Goshen
The survivors owed their lives to two teenage girls from central Indiana: Rita Niesse and Jacqueline Casey.
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| Click on the image for a map of the track of the storm |
References
Grazulis, Thomas, 1991: Significant Tornadoes, 1690-1991,
DOC,NOAA,NWS, 1943: Monthly Meteorological Summary for Fort Wayne, Indiana, National Climatic Data Center, Asheville, NC.
DOC,NOAA,NWS, 1943: Daily Maximum Temperature by Years, National Weather Service Office, South Bend, IN.
DOC,NOAA,NWS, 1943: Total Precipitation, National Weather Service Office, South Bend, IN.
Goshen News Democrat. July 22, 1943
Columbia City Post and Mail. July 22, 1943
Columbia City Post. July 23, 1943
Elkhart Truth. July 22, 1943
Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette. July 22, 1943
Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette. July 23, 1943
Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette. July 24, 1943
The Battle of Roosevelt Ridge which saw US and Australian forces pitted against the Imperial Japanese Army began on New Guinea.
Patton's Seventh Army took Castelvetrano, Santa Margherita, Corleone, Valledolmo, and Alimena, Sicily. This action cleared the western part of the island.
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