18. Secret Military History

1943-0615, Quartermaster, the British Save Money.
During WW2, the British Army saved 20 pounds sterling, ($1,950-2022.) By not using reserve parachutes in airborne units. The soldiers were told it was, so they could carry more weight.

1943-0615, Military, US Troops the Highest Paid in WW2.
Enlisted troops averaged $1,200-2022 per month while officers earned $2,900-2022. Troops in most other nations were paid $275-2033 per month. The British referred to the American GIs as “oversexed, overpaid and over here.” the Americans called the British, “underpaid, undersexed and under Eisenhower.”

1943-0711, Accident, America’s Worst Friendly Fire Incident.
The US Navy mistook US cargo airplanes carrying paratroopers as enemy aircraft. 400 paratroopers and flight crew dead, 23 C-47 Skytrains shot down.

1943-0801, Aviation, St. Louis Mayor, Nine Others Killed in Glider Accident.
One of the worst tragedies in St. Louis history took place with the mayor and nine others plunging to their deaths in front of a large crowd at Lambert Field. The crash of a glider plane filled with dignitaries on Sunday August 1, 1943.
“Suddenly the right wing of the thing fell off,” recalled Marion Phelps, “and you could hear people in the crowd kind of go…’Ohhh’…wondering what in the world was happening. But I think they thought it was a stunt.”
A single bolt had failed, which caused a wing to shear off and sent the glider plummeting an estimated 2,000 feet to the ground in front of Phelps and thousands of other stunned onlookers.
“The most tragic event in St. Louis history,” Smith told KMOX News. “Of course, happening right on Lambert Field in the midst of a group of spectators was probably one of the most traumatic events that the city had seen.”
Ten people lost their lives that day: then-mayor William Dee Becker, Lambert Airport founder and president of Robertson aircraft (the company which built the glider) William Robertson, St. Louis Chamber of Commerce president Thomas Dysant, St. Louis County Chief Executive Henry Mueller, Max Doyne, Charles Cunningham, Harold Krueger, Lt. Col. Paul Hazelwood, CPT Milton Klugh (the pilot) and Pfc. J.M. Davis.

1943-1108, Military, the World’s Most Expensive Military Medal.
Costs $10,000,000-2022, the Soviet Order of Victory, created on November 8, 1943, for high-ranking officers of the Soviet Union. The award was made of a platinum star two inches across enameled in blue and red, studded with 135 diamonds.

1944-0305, Rape, First Rape of a US Female Soldier by Another US Soldier.
2LT Irene O. a US army nurse attended a dance at the officer’s club at Great Ashfield, England. She danced with 2LT Arthur Blevins Jr., a white officer.
After the dance they went outside. Blevins wanted sex. O refused. Blevens beat O and raped her. He was sentenced to 10-years in the brig.

1944-0615, Love, Dating and Marriage during WW2.
Once the United States joined World War II, the urge to get married among many young couples proved too compelling to resist. In 1942 alone, 1.8 million weddings took place, up 83 percent from 10 years before! And two-thirds of those brides were marrying men newly enlisted in the military. Some married to avoid draft, since men with dependents were deferred until 1942.
During the war, trying to find a "fella" for a first date was a tricky task, because so many had been drafted. It was then paramount for women to quickly obtain some sort of promise that the relationship would continue upon their fella's return. When that happened, "going steady" was solidified with a letterman jacket or class ring. Dating and marriage were viewed as two very separate entities, with marriage marking the graduation from youth into adulthood. After World War II, due in part to the fact that 250,000 men never came home, for the first time in the United States, women outnumbered men. In June 1945, NYT Magazine predicted 750,000 women who wanted to marry would have to live alone.
With quick marriages came rising divorce rates as well: Between 1940 and 1944, divorce rates rose from 16 per 100 marriages to 27 per 100 marriages with 1 in 6 marriages ending in divorce in 1940 to 1 in 4 marriages ending in divorce in 1946 (Mintz and Kellogg, 1988). Because men were marrying women they hardly knew before leaving for war, there was little time to build a relationship leading to infidelity on both accounts: men falling prey to prostitution and women abandoning their husbands for lovers they met in their husbands’ absences. If they managed to stay together until the end of the war, there was estrangement due to separation to deal with upon men returning. What’s more, women enjoyed their independence in their husbands’ absences, and some were unwilling to relinquish the freedom. The perception of divorce was changing with the generations also meaning it became more acceptable to separate from a spouse. For all these reasons and more, many of those quick marriages before the war also ended with the war.