Lakes Region in WWII

[CrawfordCentury]

I'm a huge WWII buff and am wondering if you all have any interesting stories about our region during the war.

The drama of battle on the frontlines is interesting, but so are the stories of how the war affected home life at the time.

[Chickie]

I was in elementary school during WWII and the kids at our school were enlisted to gather scrap metal. We also gathered milkweed pods. I'm not absolutely certain, but think they were used in parachutes. There was a field near our home with an abundance of milkweeds, so we felt we had contributed our fair share to the war effort.

[BroadHopper]

The Navy was doing secret under water testing off Diamond Island.

Scott and Williams knitting machinery plant in lakeport switch production to making carbuerators for the war effort.

The engine in the Mt. Washington was taken out and used in the maritime navy.

[fatlazyless]

During the time of WW2, 1941-1945, New Hampshire was sometimes referred to as Cow Hampshire. Looking to help in the war effort, young US Senator Judd Gregg would tiptoe out to the cow pasture and paint all the black & white hereford cows with camoflage paint so's they could not be seen by German submarines just off the coast of Wolfeboro, NH.

[WinnDixie]

I was four when Pearl Harbor happened. Lived in a very small town (probably 600) a few miles up the road near the Connecticut River. A bit north of the Lakes Region, but the story is great...hope you'll let me tell it. Everyone was deadly serious about security after Pearl Harbor and we were very united. Everyone had their share to do. My mother...young at the time..shared "Outpost Duty" with one of her friends. It entailed being in a fire tower up on a hill, looking out for enemy planes. Not sure if they had pictures to go by, or what. In retrospect it wouldn't seem very likely that such planes would come over that particular area...but...still, the effort was made. Her friend's fondest part of this was to blow over a coke bottle(the old green glass ones), making that sound you get...kind of low and eery. It would attract all the cows who were pastured just below the tower, and they would cluster right at the foot of it. My mother was scared to death of them...to the delight of her friend. It would take a miracle to get my mother down from the tower. She was so spooked the friend had to walk her home, and it was dark. They had to go by the cemetery. One of those nights my father hid behind a stone and jumped out at them like a ghost. The screaming was noteworthy...bringing everybody out of their houses, thinking " Good grief, they ARE invading"!! In the end, it was one of the not too common lighter events of that time.

[camp guy]

The Wright Museum in Wolfeboro (I hope most of you have heard of it) is a museum dedicated to the homefront during WWII. Oh, sure, the Museum has some WWII military artifacts, and some military hardware, but the emphasis of the Museum is on activities of the homefront.

For a modest donation you can become a Family Member and enjoy many benefits. It is a wonderful educational attraction, and not just for visitors, but people who live up here all the time can enjoy their lecture series and a well-stocked gift shop.

Call (603) 569-1212 and speak with Mark Foynes, Executive Director, to get a better explanation of the whole program.

[ApS]

Originally Posted by CrawfordCentury

"...I'm a huge WWII buff and am wondering if you all have any interesting stories about our region during the war..."

1) Hikers in the Ossipee Mountain range during WWII would be startled in seeing a big radar truck perched on top of Bald Peak.

The new detection and ranging technology was attempting to accurately locate aircraft.

A Piper J-2 flew a repetitive pattern over Black Island—and Camp Winaukee—then back to Bald Peak. (Bald Knob on some maps). The truck simply drove to the site using "Castle in the Clouds" carriageways.

2) A British "Tarpon" torpedo-bomber (a US-made TBM) crashed on the ice in Wolfeboro Bay during the war.

The pilot was viewing the "bob houses" there but suddenly lost altitude and crashed, seriously injuring the crew. All were treated at Huggins Hospital.

After the wings were removed from the crashed plane, the Commander at the new His Majesty's Naval Air Station—Lewiston, Maine, drove a huge aircraft-recovery vehicle to return the aircraft for repairs. He made a special side trip to Huggins to thank the nurses for their help with the injured crewmen.

3) Short-field fighters, like the P-40, would have no difficulty in taking off or landing at any place with a 3500' straight section.

Redeploying Army Air Corps P-40 pilots would visit relatives in the Winnipesaukee area by landing their fighter aircraft on Parade Road!

(WW2 buff here, and a Wolfeboro Dad with full recall of WW2 stories all the way from Melvin Village to the battle for Rabaul, Papua New Guinea).

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The aircraft mentioned above in Lake Winnipesaukee's WW2 activities:

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The Piper, mentioned here previously to take this photo:


Grumman TBM/TBF (Wolfeboro ice crash) and is also the same aircraft shot down in Imperial waters with Lt. j.g. G. H. W. Bush parachuting from it—rescued by submarine.


Curtiss P-40 "AVG", (American volunteer group, fighting Imperial forces before Pearl Harbor).

[Rattlesnake Gal]

This is an excerpt from Farewell Old Mount Washington by Edward H. Blackstone describing what happened after the launching of the Mt. Washington II,
which was from Lakeport on August 12, 1940.

The 1940 season has been a very short one, which had not paid for very much of the new vessel's cost, and by 1941 with World War II going on in Europe, costs were rising, items like fuel oil and other needed supplies were restricted, and travel was limited. Therefore income was inadequate, and with the entry of the United States into the war there was no alternative for the new steamboat company except to go into bankruptcy, which it did in April 1942. After bankruptcy the steam engines were commandeered for war service by the U.S. Coast Guard and Mt. Washington II was laid up for the duration of the war. Captain Leander Lavallee died before the war was over, and with him died an era of Lake Winnipesaukee Steamboating.

It seems to me that we are very lucky that only the engines were commandeered. Wasn't our country melting down all the steel they could find for the war effort?

[BroadHopper]

I am told by me Dad there was an air base in or near Sandwich, NH. During the war, flying to this field was one way to get home in the Lakes Region.

[ApS]

Originally Posted by Rattlesnake Gal

"...This is an excerpt from Farewell Old Mount Washington by Edward H. Blackstone describing what happened after the launching of the Mt. Washington II,
which was from Lakeport on August 12, 1940...

"...with the entry of the United States into the war there was no alternative for the new steamboat company except to go into bankruptcy...After bankruptcy the steam engines were commandeered for war service...Captain Leander Lavallee died before the war was over, and with him died an era of Lake Winnipesaukee Steamboating.

Weren't the engines diesel—then replaced by Uncle Sam after the war?

(And being replaced once again with those taxpayers' million$—so eager to have bio-diesel?)

And a little factoid: Canada was fighting the war in Europe two years before the US entered the war!

Originally Posted by BroadHopper

I am told by me Dad there was an air base in or near Sandwich, NH. During the war, flying to this field was one way to get home in the Lakes Region.

Meanwhile, me Dad tells me there were no air bases in Sandwich.

A few grassy airstrips were around, though.

[WeirsBeachBoater]

[QUOTE=Acres per Second;100264]Weren't the engines diesel—then replaced by Uncle Sam after the war?

The engines that were taken for the war effort were from the Crescent III A steam Motor Yacht. They were purchased and installed in 1940. In 1946 They were replaced with the current Enterprise Diesels, which are now going to be replaced.

[weim2]

My mother tells the story of some German coins being left at our camp in a small cove in Alton during the winter when the dwelling was vacant during WWII. Some people were living in our camp she said. There was no plowed Woodlands Road and very few camps and certainly nobody there in the winter. All they left behind was some German coins.

[Rattlesnake Guy]

I seem to remember that the Belknap knitting mill was busy making warm socks for the GI's during the war. I mean, I remember hearing the tour guide saying so.

[CrawfordCentury]

Just came acrosst this little tid bit.

One of my favorite writers of the time period was columnist Ernie Pyle, whose pieces were read by millions each week. Most of his dispatches were from N.Africa and Europe. But as things came to a close in Europe, he shipped out to the Pacific. He would shortly thereafter be killed by a Japanese sniper.

Pyle joined a company of the First Marine Division, spending time with them without meeting any action. While there, he met Urban Vachon of Laconia.

Pyle wrote:

As our company was moving forward one day and I looked down the line of closely packed Marines I thought for a moment I was back in Italy.

There for sure was Bill MAULDIN’S cartoon character of GI Joe—the solemn, bearded dirty, drooping weary old man of the infantry.

This character was Pfc. Urban VACHON of French-Canadian extraction, who came from Laconia, N. H. He has a brother, William, fighting in Germany.

Urban is such a perfect ringer for [Bill] Mauldin’s soldier that I asked the regimental photographer to take a picture of him and it has been sent back to the States. Maybe you’ve seen it. If you have, you can prove to any dissenters that soldiers do too look like Mauldin makes them look.

Here's a pic. Pyle was dead on!

[Rattlesnake Guy]

Gal and I were watching the parade in Wolfborough a few years ago with our Friend McDude. We saw all the regular stuff that these parades have to offer. Kids throwing candy. Important folks in old cars. Floats from local groups. Our prized veterans marching with pride.

What really struck my wife and I was the manning of the military vehicles. They had staffed the numerous museum quality vehicles with young men / women in period uniforms. What was incredible was the age of the young boys and girls. By using young adults that were of the actual age of the war's participants, it brought home like never before how young the participants really were in many cases. I won't forget that sight.

[Tallyho]

Originally Posted by weim2

My mother tells the story of some German coins being left at our camp in a small cove in Alton during the winter when the dwelling was vacant during WWII. Some people were living in our camp she said. There was no plowed Woodlands Road and very few camps and certainly nobody there in the winter. All they left behind was some German coins.

There was a German POW camp in Stark, NH, late in WWII. It was converted from a Civillian Conservation Camp. There was only one escapee that I'm aware of, and he was caught in NY.