The Digger's Scrapbook Page 2

A Soldier with two Memorials

Harry's Cafe De Wheels, Sydney

The original Harry, Harry Edwards, operated his pie cart at Woolloomooloo for two years before joining the army. He returned to selling pies in 1945. Mr. Hannah, the third Harry's owner and another ex-serviceman, recalled the day in 1970 when he returned to Sydney aboard a troopship from Vietnam. "I had a pie from Harry's on my first night back". He bought the business in 1988. From http://members.optushome.com.au/steveatv1/DEFAULT.htm

WW1 American Recruiting Poster

The poster was designed in 1917 to encourage Polish-Americans to help the war effort by consuming some commodity goods that were in short supply.  

The poster dramatizes  the actions of two Polish officers who were great contributors to the American victory in the Revolutionary War, Thaddeus Kosciuszko and Count Casimir Pulaski.  

Both had found the cause of the American rebels irresistible and fought mightily to help them.  The poster features a painting of Thaddeus Kosciuszko.

It is here because Australia's highest peak, Mt.Kosciusko was named after him. 

The peak was named in 1840 by Polish-Australian explorer Paul Strzelecki for Tadeusz Kosciuszko (1746-1817), the Polish military hero who fought in both the American and Polish wars of independence.

La Societe des Quarante Hommes at Huit Chevaux is an independent fraternal organization of U. S. veterans, more commonly known as the Forty & Eight.

The Forty & Eight was formed in 1920 by American Legionnaires as an honor society and from its earliest days it has been committed to charitable aims.  Membership is by invitation for members of the American Legion who have shown exemplary service.  All Forty & Eight members are thus veterans of congressionally recognized wartime periods via their Legion membership. 

The Forty & Eight’s titles and symbols reflect its First World War origins.  American servicemen in France were transported to the battle front on narrow gauge French railroads (Chemin de Fer) inside boxcars (Voitures) that were half the size of American boxcars. (These were well known to Anzac soldiers). Each French boxcar was stenciled with a "40/8", denoting its capacity to hold either forty men or eight horses.  This ignominious and uncomfortable mode of transportation was familiar to all who traveled from the coast to the trenches; a common small misery among American soldiers who thereafter found "40/8" a lighthearted symbol of the deeper service, sacrifice and unspoken horrors of war that truly bind those who have borne the battle."

1946 Certificate from the King issued to school children to celebrate the victory in WW2.

Advertising for Johnnie Walker Whisky. JOHNNIE WALKER: "Well, how are you fellows from 'down under'?"
ANZAC: "Fine! We're helping to put the Empire where your non-refillable bottle ought to be.... JOHNNIE WALKER: "Where's that?" ANZAC: "On top"

Amazing Wartime Facts from WWII

1. The first German serviceman killed in the war was killed by the Japanese (China, 1937)
2. The first American serviceman killed was killed by the Russians (Finland 1940).
3. The highest ranking American killed was Lt. Gen. Lesley McNair, killed by the US Army Air Corps.
4. The youngest US serviceman was 12 year old Calvin Graham, USN. He was wounded in combat and given a Dishonorable Discharge for lying about his age. (His benefits were later restored by act of Congress).
5. At the time of Pearl Harbor, the top US Navy command was called CINCUS (pronounced “sink us”), the shoulder patch of the US Army’s 45th Infantry division was the Swastika, and Hitler’s private train was named "Amerika". All three were soon changed for PR purposes.
6. More US servicemen died in the Air Corps than the Marine Corps. While completing the required 30 missions, your chance of being killed was 71%. Not that bombers were helpless. A B-17 carried 4 tons of bombs and 1.5 tons of machine gun ammo. The US 8th Air Force shot down 6,098 fighter planes, 1 for every 12,700 shots fired.
7. Germany’s power grid was much more vulnerable than realized. One estimate is that if just 1% of the bombs dropped on German industry had instead been dropped on power plants, German industry would have collapsed.
8. Generally speaking, there was no such thing as an average fighter pilot. You were either an ace or a target. For instance, Japanese ace Hiroyoshi Nishizawa shot down over 80 planes. He died while a passenger on a cargo plane.
9. It was a common practice on fighter planes to load every 5th found with a tracer round to aid in aiming. That was a mistake. The tracers had different ballistics so (at long range) if your tracers were hitting the target, 80% of your rounds were missing. Worse yet, the tracers instantly told your enemy he was under fire and from which direction. Worst of all was the practice of loading a string of tracers at the end of the belt to tell you that you were out of ammo. That was definitely not something you wanted to tell the enemy. Units that stopped using tracers saw their success rate nearly double and their loss rate go down.
10. When allied armies reached the Rhine, the first thing men did was pee in it. This was pretty universal from the lowest private to Winston Churchill (who made a big show of it) and Gen. Patton (who had himself photographed in the act).
11. German Me-264 bombers were capable of bombing New York City but it wasn’t worth the effort.
12. A number of air crewmen died of farts. (Ascending to 20,000 ft. in an un-pressurized aircraft causes intestinal gas to expand 300%!)
13. The Russians destroyed over 500 German aircraft by ramming them in midair (they also sometimes cleared minefields by marching over them). "It takes a brave man not to be a hero in the Red Army". Joseph Stalin
14. The US Army had more ships than the US Navy.
15. The German Air Force had 22 infantry divisions, 2 armor divisions, and 11 paratroop divisions. None of them were capable of airborne operations. The German Army had paratroops who WERE capable of airborne operations.
16. When the US Army landed in North Africa, among the equipment brought ashore were 3 complete Coca Cola bottling plants.
17. Among the first "Germans" captured at Normandy were several Koreans. They had been forced to fight for the Japanese Army until they were captured by the Russians and forced to fight for the Russian Army until they were captured by the Germans and forced to fight for the German Army until they were capture by the US Army.
18. The Graf Spee never sank. The scuttling attempt failed and the ship was bought by the British. On board was Germany’s newest radar system.
19. One of Japan’s methods of destroying tanks was to bury a very large artillery shell with only the nose exposed. When a tank came near the enough a soldier would whack the shell with a hammer. "Lack of weapons is no excuse for defeat." – Lt. Gen. Mataguchi
20. Following a massive naval bombardment, 35,000 US and Canadian troops stormed ashore at Kiska. 21 troops were killed in the fire-fight. It would have been worse if there had been Japanese on the island.
21. The MISS ME was an unarmed Piper Cub. While spotting for US artillery her pilot saw a similar German plane doing the same thing. He dove on the German plane and he and his co-pilot fired their pistols damaging the German plane enough that it had to make a forced landing. Whereupon they landed and took the Germans prisoner. It is unknown where they put them since the MISS ME only had two seats.
22. Most members of the Waffen SS were not German.
23. The only nation that Germany declared was on was the USA.
24. During the Japanese attack on Hong Kong, British officers objected to Canadian infantrymen taking up positions in the officer’s mess. No enlisted men allowed!
25. Nuclear physicist Niels Bohr was rescued in the nick of time from German occupied Denmark. While Danish resistance fighters provided covering fire he ran out the back door of his home stopping momentarily to grab a beer bottle full of precious “heavy water”. He finally reached England still clutching the bottle, which contained beer. Perhaps some German drank the heavy water…

Contributed by Ronald Padavan, LTC, CAP MIWG Chief of Staff MSGT, USAF (Ret.) Past President Lodge 143, Fraternal Order of Police. As printed in, The Victory Division News.  No. 4. December, 2000.

Medallion from the USA awarded to a Life Insurance salesman who sold over $5,000 worth of Government War Savings stamps in 1918.