How did World War II impact the lives of people in south west Virginia

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How did World War II impact the lives of people
in south west Virginia
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• As early as 1939, the Roanoke chapterof the Red
  Cross announced plans to aid theBritish in the
  war. The Patrick Henry Hotelbuilding became the
  site of the British warrelief headquarters
  volunteers packaged uphospital bed sheets,
  operating and convalescentrobes, dresses. socks
  and mufflers.The American Commission for Defense
  ofBritish Homes set out to provide
  binoculars,guns and ammunition that could
  besent to England to supply civilians
  withequipment in case of a Nazi invasion.

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• Though the war was still a long way
• from home in 1940, as part of American defense
• preparations, the National Guard, including
• the Roanoke companies of the 246th Coast
• Artillery and the 116th Infantry, were
• inducted for one year of training.

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• Governor James Price established the Virginia
  Protective Force. By July 1941, Roanoke's 81st
  Virginia Protective Force sought to cover
  expenses by asking men in Roanoke who had been
  contributing 25 annually tomthe national guard
  companies to now do the same for the 8 1 st
  company fund. Such a gesture, Captain Leroy H.
  Smith explained in his letter to Mr. Irving Saks
  of S. Jefferson Street, would "exempt you from
  Jury duty."

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• War came on December 7, 1941 the Gilbert and
  Sullivan Society had just presented the "Mikado"
  on December 6. And Roanokers were looking forward
  to the opening of "Life With Father" starring
  Dorothy Gish. By Monday, armed guards were
  guarding the airfield and the recruiting stations
  were full.

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• The Norfolk Western Railroad transported
• both troops and equipment through
• Roanoke, which in turn added to Roanoke's
• position as a center for military matters in
• southwest Virginia.

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• Norfolk Western also laid on daily trains to
  run workers to the Radford Ordnance Works. The
  munitions plant had begun construction in
  September 1940 and produced its first powder on
  April 5, 1941. The Radford Plant wonfive Army and
  Navy E awards for excellence

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• The Virginia Bridge Company of Roanoke was also
  awarded the Army and Navy "E" pennant for its
  work in fabricating such items as structural
  steel for ships and landing bridges

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• The Viscose rayon plant, with dormitories for
  its workers, met large war orders for rayon, to
  be used for tire cords, self-sealing gasoline
  tanks, and many types of parachutes.

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• In Salem, the Comas Cigarette Machine Company
  and the Salem Foundry and Machine Company met
  orders for parts and casings for atomic bomb work
  at Oak Ridge, Tenn.

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• A labor shortage on area farms was alleviated
  with the use of German POWs, who were held at the
  Indiana Street garage in Salem and on Catawba
  Hill. The prisoners were paid 80 cents in coupons
  per day for their work which they exchanged for
  cigarettes or candy.

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• A great many of Roanoke's civilians donated
  untold hours volunteering in civilian defense
  initiatives. The Civilian Defense Executive
  Committee for Roanoke County had its first
  protective service blackout on April 28th, 1942
  in the next two years there would be 16 blackouts
  and two daylight alerts.

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• One of the most successful initiatives came with
  the salvage and conservation program. The War
  Productions Boards made appeals for materials to
  aid the war effort scrap metal. aluminum, tin
  cans. paper. hosiery and even fats were needed.
  According to the WPO, "a tablespoon of used
  cooking fat saved every day for a month will make
  enough glycerine for powder to fire tour 37mm
  anti aircraft shells."

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• Every Saturday, children in Roanoke turned in
  their weekly collection of fats to school
  authorities. A cannon at Elmwood park event went
  to the metal drive. On March 11th, 1942
  ten-year-old Billy Ratliff from Ironto wrote to
  the Cooperative Extension in B l a c k s b u r g
  explaining that he had heard one of their radio
  programs about scrap and he had lots of it. and
  "if you all care fer it, you send fer it."

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• Roanokers helped to finance the war effort by
  purchasing war bonds. The bonds sold for 18.75
  and could be redeemed after 10 years for 25. In
  July 1943. Mayor Walter Wood bought the first
  bond to launch a million-dollar war bond sale for
  the month. To gain publicity, he purchased the
  bond through the fifth-story window of the state
  and city bank from a member of the Jaycees who
  was on a fire truck ladder as bombers flew
  overhead. The goal was to buy three bombers for
  the war effort, to be named Roanoke, Vinton and
  Salem.

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• Rationing did produce shortages for many. Shoes,
  leather. rubber, gasoline, nylon, sugar, butter,
  oils and shortening, meats, canned goods,
  vegetables, liquor, and even coffee were all
  rationed.

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• You could buy only two pairs of shoes a year,
  the coffee ration was one cup per day, holders of
  "A gas ration books got three gallons per week,
  "B" books got nine gallons, while government
  officials, the clergy and "essential workers
  were entitled to unlimited gasoline. People
  nevertheless learned to manage with the system.
  One option to offset the shortage of food was the
  victory garden.

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• Bill Cook, a teenager in Roanoke during the war,
  remembers being handed a telegram by a man who
  came to the door. He knew something was wrong,
  and waited for his parents to come home. His
  brother, 1st Lt. Russell H. Cook, Jr. was the
  navigator on the last bomber lost by the allies
  in the European theater during WWII. Lt. Cook
  lost his life on May 7, 1945 on a mercy
  food-supply mission to Utrecht, Holland, one day
  before VE day was official.

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• Elizabeth Franklin Spoelma received good news
  about her husband John at the Jefferson Theater
  in late 1944. Before D-Day, she recalled how he
  wrote often, but after the invasion she received
  no mail from him. "I was frightened and
  apprehensive. I started going to the theater just
  to see news reels. I went to the Jefferson
  Theater and I remember watching landing craft
  crossing the English Channel . . . then suddenly
  there was John walking across the screen, holding
  the arm of a wounded German soldier." After the
  initial shock, she went to see the manager, who
  later gave her 10 frames from the film.

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• In Troutville. the family of Staff Sgt. Herbert
  Lawhorn had their minds put at ease when they
  were contacted by Sanford Lowe, an amateur radio
  operator from New York City. Lawhorn had been
  captured at the Battle of the Bulge. The family
  received a letter from Mr. Lowe. explaining that
  he had heard on Berlin short wave radio that
  Lawhorn was recently captured.. and he is now in
  a prison camp in Germany safe and well. Lowe
  hoped that this message would be a source of help
  to the family and he went on to say that this is
  my 15,139th notice forward by me from Tokoyo and
  Berlin.

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• Many people volunteered and participated in the
  war effort, while trying to continue with life as
  normal. This included going to see the famous Von
  Trapp Family singers (Sound of music) in February
  1942.

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• With the defeat of Japan in 1945, people filled
  the streets and 10,000 gathered at Victory
  Stadium on August 15th to celebrate.

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