Why the Ashtabula, Ohio Train Disaster of 1876 is Ranked 5th In U.S. History

 
By Donna Wichelman

Among America’s most horrific train accidents in history, the Ashtabula, Ohio, train disaster of December 29, 1876 ranks fifth. It was the worst of the nineteenth century.

Present-day Ashtabula Lift Bridge Over the Ashtabula River: ID 390769547 | Ashtabula Ohio © Ralf Broskvar | Dreamstime.com

The Ashtabula train disaster caught my attention when I was conducting research for Book Two in my Silver Singing Mine Series, Rhythms of the Heart, which comes out later this year. I wanted an event in my protagonist’s life that would compel her to leave Hudson, Ohio to live in the mining town of Georgetown, Colorado. In Chapter One, we discover that her husband and two children perished in the train disaster, which propels her to join her parents in Colorado.

What events occurred on the night of December 29, 1876 that caused ninety-two people of one hundred sixty passengers and crew to perish and sixty-four others to sustain critical injuries?

Hindsight is often twenty-twenty, as they say. But in the case of the Pacific Express making its way west from Buffalo, New York to Cleveland, Ohio, the men who designed and built the bridge over the Ashtabula River should have foreseen their errors in judgment. Apparently, they ignored them.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ashtabula_bridge.jpg

The Pacific Express consisted of two engines to drive eleven cars and a full complement of people. So, when a frightful driving snowstorm ensued that night, some might have had the impression that the tremendous amount of snow on the tracks affected the train’s approach to the one-hundred-fifty-seven-foot-long bridge.

However, as the train began to cross the bridge, the man driving it heard a tremendous crack. Fearing the train wouldn’t make it across the bridge, he picked up speed. Unfortunately, only the first engine made it safely to the other side. The second engine and all eleven cars plunged into the ravine. 

Drawing of the Ashtabula Train: Disaster: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ashtabula_Bridge_disaster.jpg

Initially, most of the people onboard survived the crash. But they were trapped in the twisted wood and metal. The oil lamps that had provided them with light now became a raging inferno as the snowstorm’s winds swirled around them.

Two prominent people were among the passengers who perished. Mary Roxana Birchard, the first cousin of Rutherford B. Hayes—the next president of the United States—should have received a $5000 inheritance from her deceased uncle in Sandusky, Ohio. She was an autograph collector and compiled an album of signatures from famous people, including her cousin, Rutherford B. Hayes, Oliver Wendell Holmes Senior, Herbert Hoover, and Daniel Webster. The album was at auction for between $2,000 - $3,000 in 2013. 

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:President_Rutherford_Hayes_1870_-_1880_Restored.jpg">Mathew Benjamin Brady</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Serving as governor of Ohio at the time of the train disaster, Hayes instigated the investigation of the cause of the accident. He wrote in his diary: "Our cousin Mary Birchard, of Fayetteville, Vermont, was lost in the fearful railroad accident at Ashtabula, Friday evening. We have learned none of the particulars as to her fate beyond the general facts of the catastrophe. The accident was the most dreadful that has ever occurred on any railroad in Ohio and has rarely been equaled in the number of victims and other circumstances of horror anywhere. Poor dear Mary! She was a kind-hearted, lovable woman."

The other well-known person onboard was composer and evangelist Philip Bliss. Repudiated to be the second most famous hymn writer in history, perhaps to surpass Fanny Crosby if he had lived long enough, he wrote hymns like Hallelujah, What a Saviour!, Jesus Loves Even Me, Almost Persuaded, and It Is Well with My Soul just to name a few. He survived the crash. But when he couldn’t find his wife, he returned to the train car to find her, and neither was seen afterward.

Philip Bliss: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ppblisscdv.jpg

The investigation ordered by Hayes used a coroner’s jury, which discovered several factors that caused the disaster. While the industry used almost exclusively wood in its construction of bridges during the early days because it was cheap and easy, wood had its issues. Over time, the industry began to use more steel and concrete. The Lakeshore and Michigan Southern Railway, under the leadership of Director Amasa Stone, constructed an iron truss bridge designed by Charles Collins across the river. But the design was flawed, and maintenance on the bridge was nonexistent. In addition, a deadly snowstorm with accumulated depths of twenty inches and fifty-four-mile-an-hour winds complicated matters. Altogether, given these factors, the passengers of the Pacific Express had little hope on that fateful night.

On the day Charles Collins testified before the jury, he went home and took his life. Two years later, Amasa Stone took his life.

Mausoleum of Charles Collins' Family: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashtabula_River_railroad_disaster 

Amasa Stone: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Amasa_Stone.jpg

In the late nineteenth century, train accidents were common. Many reasons contributed to this. Chief among them was financial. Railroad foreman felt pressure from the companies to rush workers to complete their projects, resulting in shoddy workmanship.

The other train disasters falling in order from fourth to first include: the Wellington Avalanche Train Wreck of 1910, the Malbone Street Wreck, the Great Train Wreck of 1918, and the Eden Train Wreck of 1904 in Pueblo, Colorado.

Weaving history and faith into stories of intrigue and redemption grew out of Donna's love of travel, history, and literature as a young adult while attending the United World College of the Atlantic--an international college in Wales, U.K. She enjoys developing plots that show how God's love abounds even in the profoundly difficult circumstances of our lives. Her stories reflect the hunger in all of us for love, belonging, and forgiveness.

Donna was a communications professional before writing full-time. Her short stories and articles have appeared in inspirational publications. She has two indie-published romantic suspense novels, Light Out of Darkness and Undaunted Valor, in her Waldensian Series. Her Gilded Age historical romance, A Song of Deliverance, released in December 2024.

Donna and her husband of forty years participate in ministry at their local church in Colorado. They love spending time with their grandchildren and bike, kayak, and travel whenever possible.

The "Ruptured Duck" During WWII

In May 1945, the war in Europe was finally over, followed by VJ Day (Victory in Japan) in August of that same year. The army now had the herculean task, as one source referred to the project, of getting soldiers home. Honorable Service lapel pins and fabric insignias were issued to honorably discharged veterans. The award was designed by Italian American Anthony de Francisci, who won the 1921 competition to design a new US silver dollar with his “peace dollar.”

The service lapel pins were gilt brass and to be worn on the left lapel of civilian clothing. The fabric emblem was to be sewn onto the right breast of the dress uniform as proof of discharge. The items were unofficially used as an identifier for railroad, bus, and other transportation companies to offer free or subsidized travel to servicemen.

Members of the armed forces were restricted from wearing civilian clothing unless otherwise ordered

to do so, as it made desertion more difficult. However, after the war, with clothing and fabric restricted and limited, military members were allowed to wear their uniform for up to ninety days after discharge.

The insignia, which is a diamond-shaped patch with an olive drab background, features an eagle with outstretched wings inside a circle. Unfortunately, the design seems to depict the eagle’s breast as bursting through the button as though it had ruptured. The moniker quickly took hold among the troops. And stuck.

In anticipation of the war’s end, US Army Chief of Staff, General George C. Marshall ordered the Special Planning Division (SPD) to create a system to determine which soldiers would occupy Germany (Category I), which soldiers would transfer to the Pacific Theater (Category II), those who would be reorganized and retrained before being reclassified Category I (Category III), and which fortunate soldiers would return home (Category IV).

A total of eighty-five points would warrant them a discharge. Under the system, points were tallied for every US soldier based on a formula that included one point for each month in service in the army, one point for each month in service overseas, five points for each campaign, etc.

In September 1944, the program was rolled out, and as soon as the ink was dry on Germany’s surrender (or perhaps before), soldiers began to calculate their totals. Time of service was computed from September 16, 1940. Despite perceptions by the troops and American public, soldiers were discharged quickly. Between September and December, the army had demobilized an average of 1.2 million soldiers a month, sending more than four million soldiers home by the end of the year. That same month, the number of points required to get home was lowered to fifty.

The point system was abolished in June 1946 in favor of simply discharging any soldier who had completed two years of service. Demobilization officially ended one year later, on June 30, 1947. The army had decreased from eight million soldiers in 1945 to 684,000 on July 1, 1947.

___________________

Spies & Sweethearts (Sisters in Service, Book 1)

She wants to do her part. He’s just trying to stay out of the stockade. Will two agents deep behind

enemy lines find capture… or love?

1942. Emily Strealer is tired of being told what she can’t do. Wanting to prove herself to her older sisters and do her part for the war effort, the high school French teacher joins the OSS and trains to become a covert operative. And when she completes her training, she finds herself parachuting into occupied France with her instructor to send radio signals to the Resistance.

Major Gerard Lucas has always been a rogue. Transferring to the so-called “Office of Dirty Tricks” to escape a court-martial, he poses as a husband to one of his trainees on a dangerous secret mission. But when their cover is blown after only three weeks, he has to flee with the young schoolteacher to avoid Nazi arrest.

Running for their lives, Emily clings to her mentor’s military experience during the harrowing three-hundred-mile trek to neutral Switzerland. And while Gerard can’t bear the thought of his partner falling into German hands, their forged papers might not be enough to get them over the border.

Can the fugitive pair receive God’s grace to elude the SS and discover the future He intended?

Purchase Link: https://books2read.com/u/m0Od9l

Linda Shenton Matchett writes happily-ever-after historical Christian fiction about second chances and women who overcome life’s challenges to be better versions of themselves.

Whether you choose her books set in the Old West or across the globe during WWII, you will be immersed in the past through rich detail. Follow the journeys of relatable characters whose faith is sorely tested, yet in the end, emerge triumphant. Be encouraged in your own faith-walk through stories of history and hope. Visit her at www.LindaShentonMatchett.com

Photos: Courtesy of the Wright Museum

Sweetheart Jewelry During WWII

The Great War or “The War to End All Wars,” sent young men across the globe to fight. In addition to letters, many of the soldiers sent keepsakes home to families and girlfriends. Dubbed “sweetheart jewelry,” the items were often handcrafted while in the trenches. Twenty years later, the world was again at war, and the custom of sending these pieces flourished. By this time, a large percentage of the items were machine-made and sold to US soldiers.

Despite the moniker, sweetheart jewelry wasn’t given to just girlfriends. Mothers and sisters also received items from sons and brothers. Brooches, pendants, and bracelets were the most popular pieces, but with many base metals being tightly rationed, the jewelry was manufactured with Bakelite (a resin), celluloid, wood, mother-of-pearl, shell, ivory, rhinestones, enamel, and sometimes wire. Because sterling silver wasn’t rationed, the metal became popular among jewelers. Rarer pieces were made with platinum, silver plate, brass, gold plate, gold-filled, and even solid gold.

There are three main reasons the jewelry was popular.

• First and perhaps foremost, it was fashionable. With rationing restricting the ability to purchase
  
  new clothes and accessories, sweetheart jewelry allowed an individual to “bling” up their old outfits.
• Second, sweetheart jewelry allowed individuals to display their patriotism. Many of the pieces featured military insignia and other icons related to a loved one’s branch of service, with the flag and the American eagle most often depicted. Uncle Sam’s top hat, bows mimicking ribbon of the stars and stripes, and the victory “V” were also favorite designs. Several of the costume jewelry manufacturers of the time, including Trifari and Coro, made patriotic-themed pieces. Unsurprisingly, red, white, and blue were the most often used colors in jewelry.
• Third, sweetheart jewelry was popular because it reflected a sense of service. Women proudly wore the pin version of a man-in-service flag, the blue star in the center on a white background with a red border, to indicate a son or husband in service. The service pins, more rarely, could have two or three stars, and rarer yet, could contain a gold star to indicate a death in service.

Economic hardships had gripped the country for nearly a decade. The price of jewelry and related items made of sterling silver could be somewhat expensive. Additionally, the government levied a luxury tax on jewelry, adding to the cost; however, sales didn’t seem to suffer. It was more important for the women who received these items to create a connection with their loved ones thousands of miles away.

_____________________

Spies & Sweethearts (Sisters in Service, Book 1)

She wants to do her part. He’s just trying to stay out of the stockade. Will two agents deep behind

enemy lines find capture… or love?

1942. Emily Strealer is tired of being told what she can’t do. Wanting to prove herself to her older sisters and do her part for the war effort, the high school French teacher joins the OSS and trains to become a covert operative. And when she completes her training, she finds herself parachuting into occupied France with her instructor to send radio signals to the Resistance.

Major Gerard Lucas has always been a rogue. Transferring to the so-called “Office of Dirty Tricks” to escape a court-martial, he poses as a husband to one of his trainees on a dangerous secret mission. But when their cover is blown after only three weeks, he has to flee with the young schoolteacher to avoid Nazi arrest.

Running for their lives, Emily clings to her mentor’s military experience during the harrowing three-hundred-mile trek to neutral Switzerland. And while Gerard can’t bear the thought of his partner falling into German hands, their forged papers might not be enough to get them over the border.

Can the fugitive pair receive God’s grace to elude the SS and discover the future He intended?

Purchase Link: https://books2read.com/u/m0Od9l

Linda Shenton Matchett writes happily-ever-after historical Christian fiction about second chances and women who overcome life’s challenges to be better versions of themselves.

Whether you choose her books set in the Old West or across the globe during WWII, you will be immersed in the past through rich detail. Follow the journeys of relatable characters whose faith is sorely tested, yet in the end, emerge triumphant. Be encouraged in your own faith-walk through stories of history and hope. Visit her at www.LindaShentonMatchett.com

Photos: Courtesy of the Wright Museum

POW Camps in America During WWII

In 1942, a quarter million German soldiers surrendered in North Africa. What was Britain supposed to do with them? Turning to their allies, authorities asked the Americans if they were able and willing to house the prisoners. Reluctant, because of concerns about Germans on US soil security and causing fear among the public, the American government initially agreed to take fifty thousand prisoners who were transported in liberty ships across the sea to New York City, Boston, and Norfolk where they were distributed to camps by train. Prisoners determined to be Nazis were separated from “regular” soldiers.

It didn’t take long for prisoner numbers to rise. First, to 60,000, then 100,000, and finally 160,000 by

September 1943. Eventually America would house more than 425,000 prisoners of war. Most of the prisoners were Germans, but there were also tens of thousands of Italians and Japanese who were held in over 700 camps.

Camps were generally located away from industrial or urban areas in states with mild climates to minimize construction and heating costs. Sites were selected near farms where POWs could be used to fill the labor void. It is thought that forty-six of the forty-eight US states had at least one POW camp.

Prisoners are always expected make escape attempts; however, fewer than 1 percent of all POWs in the US made the effort, less than the rate in the civilian prison system. Most attempts were unsuccessful. Perhaps the knowledge that the ability to make it across the Atlantic to Europe or south to Argentina, a country that had aligned itself with Germany, was slim. An incident that occurred on December 23, 1944 is somewhat amusing. Twenty-five German POWs escaped from Arizona’s Camp Papago Park by crawling through a tunnel. Their plan had been to travel by raft down a river. Unfortunately, when they arrived, they discovered a dry riverbed. They were caught in January 1945.

Prisoners were expected to go home immediately after the war; however, many continued to work through 1946 (a violation of the Geneva Convention’s requirement for “rapid repatriation”). It is uncertain how many POWs from US camps returned to reside in the US after the war.

_______________________

Spies & Sweethearts (Sisters in Service, Book 1)

She wants to do her part. He’s just trying to stay out of the stockade. Will two agents deep behind

enemy lines find capture… or love? 

1942. Emily Strealer is tired of being told what she can’t do. Wanting to prove herself to her older sisters and do her part for the war effort, the high school French teacher joins the OSS and trains to become a covert operative. And when she completes her training, she finds herself parachuting into occupied France with her instructor to send radio signals to the Resistance. 

Major Gerard Lucas has always been a rogue. Transferring to the so-called “Office of Dirty Tricks” to escape a court-martial, he poses as a husband to one of his trainees on a dangerous secret mission. But when their cover is blown after only three weeks, he has to flee with the young schoolteacher to avoid Nazi arrest. 

Running for their lives, Emily clings to her mentor’s military experience during the harrowing three-hundred-mile trek to neutral Switzerland. And while Gerard can’t bear the thought of his partner falling into German hands, their forged papers might not be enough to get them over the border.

 

 Can the fugitive pair receive God’s grace to elude the SS and discover the future He intended?

Purchase Link: https://books2read.com/u/m0Od9l

 

Linda Shenton Matchett writes happily-ever-after historical Christian fiction about second chances and women who overcome life’s challenges to be better versions of themselves.

Whether you choose her books set in the Old West or across the globe during WWII, you will be immersed in the past through rich detail. Follow the journeys of relatable characters whose faith is sorely tested, yet in the end, emerge triumphant. Be encouraged in your own faith-walk through stories of history and hope.

Visit her at www.LindaShentonMatchett.com

Photos courtesy of US Army.

Army-Navy E Award During WWII

More than 85,000 US manufacturing facilities were involved in war production during World War II. From small plants with a couple of dozen employees, to mammoth, multi-location corporations, companies across the nation either converted from consumer products to war matériel or expanded their already commercial organizations. The war industry paid well, and after the economic struggles of the Great Depression, employees were thrilled to be making high wages, but just as important to many was the feeling of patriotism from doing their part to support the war effort.

Patriotism was well and good, but in 1942, the US government decided to recognize the work done by businesses and their employees with the Army-Navy “E” Award. An earlier award, the Navy “E” award was created after President Theodore Roosevelt. By the end of World War I, the Army “A” Award and the Army-Navy Munitions Board “Star” award had been added, and the three separate awards continued until July 1942, when they were merged into a single service-wide award under the War Department.

Factors involved in determining award winners included:

• Overcoming production obstacles
• Avoidance of stoppages
• Maintenance of fair labor standards
• Training additional labor forces
• Effective Management
• Record on accidents, health sanitation, and plant protection
• Utilization of subcontracting facilities.

Facilities that maintained an outstanding performance record for six months after receiving an “E”

award were granted a Star award, indicated by a white star on the pennant. Additional stars could be earned by continued performance for subsequent six-month periods until the flag carried four stars, at which time the interval was increased to one year.

A total of 4,283 plants received the “E” award, approximately 5 percent of the companies involved in war production. The final awards were distributed in December 1945. However, one award was not made until after the war because of its association to the Manhattan Project. Word could not get out about the RCA plant in Bloomington, Indiana that produced the top-secret VT proximity fuze, a fuze that detonates an explosive device automatically when it approaches within a certain distance of its (military) target. In fact, the project was so secret, the employees making the fuzes were not told what the final products were or what they were used for. Reportedly, the employees referred to the project as “Madame X.”

Initially, the presentation of the “E” award was made with formal ceremonies that included printed invitations and programs. Some of the programs were “elaborate booklets filled with photographs praising the war production efforts of the firm.” Receptions and dinners were held at high-end hotels such as an event for the Manufacturers Machine and Tool Co. Inc. in November 1942 that took place in the grand ballroom of the Hotel Astor. The multicourse dinner with drink pairings was preceded by a cocktail hour.

Probably as a cost-reduction move as well as to minimize lost production, in 1943, the government standardized the ceremonies and limited them to a maximum of thirty minutes. The program ended on December 5, 1945.

______________

Love and Chocolate: A Second Chance Romance

She just needs a job. He wants a career. Is there room in their hearts for love?

Ilsa Krause and her siblings are stunned to discover their father left massive debt behind upon his death. To help pay off their creditors and save the farm, she takes a job at Beck’s Chocolates, the company her father despised and refused to supply with milk. Then she discovers her boss is Ernst Webber, her high school love who unceremoniously dumped her via letter from college. Could life get any more difficult?

A freshly-minted university diploma in his hand, Ernst Webber lands his dream job at Beck’s Chocolates. His plans to work his way up the ladder don’t include romantic entanglements, then Ilsa Krause walks back into his life resurrecting feelings he thought long dead. However, her animosity makes it clear she has no interest in giving him a second chance. Can he get her to change her mind? Does he want to?

Purchase link: https://books2read.com/u/mdQerZ

Linda Shenton Matchett writes happily-ever-after historical Christian fiction about second chances and women who overcome life’s challenges to be better versions of themselves.

Whether you choose her books set in the Old West or across the globe during WWII, you will be immersed in the past through rich detail. Follow the journeys of relatable characters whose faith is sorely tested, yet in the end, emerge triumphant. Be encouraged in your own faith-walk through stories of history and hope.

Photo Credits:

Manufacturing Worker: Pixabay/Janno Nivergall

All other photos property of the author

Air Raid Sirens During WWII

In ancient civilizations, drums were used for both music and to deliver messages, including reports about invading armies. As time passed, bells replaced drums. The Middle Ages saw a rise in the use of bells, especially in churches where they were used as an early warning system and general messaging. Several sources indicate that during the mid-1600s, men responding to fires in New York would ring a bell as they approached to alert nearby residents of the danger.

Then came 1799.

A rise in science occurred during the 18th century. Inventions were created, then other scientists offered improvements on those innovations. One such device was the siren. First invented by Scottish physicist John Robison in 1799, French engineer Charles Cagniard de la Tour enhanced and named the siren (most scholars say he took the name from Greek mythology). His siren used a bellows apparatus to force air through its rotor. The pitch could be raised or lowered by increasing or decreasing the speed of the rotor. For the first time, scientists could create tones of specific frequencies. At some point, it was realized sirens could be used to alert citizens of fires and tornadoes.

After World War II commenced, thousands of sirens were installed in cities across Europe to warn of

air raids. All other uses were prohibited. In England, the air raid wardens arranged for the sounding of sirens. Inhabitants were expected to take cover before the raid started. A second “all clear” siren indicated when it was safe to leave shelters.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, authorities on America’s West Coast realized that Japan’s military capabilities could result in an air strike to that part of the country, perhaps even farther inland. Fearing that chaos would ensue with the air raids, officials issued strict instructions about what to do and how to behave. Having anticipated America’s entry into the conflict at some level, President Roosevelt created the Office of Civilian Defense (OCD) in May 1941.

One of the more well-known branches of the OCD is that of the air raid wardens. Wardens oversaw the education of their assigned blocks and offered regular practice drills, which typically lasted for thirty minutes. When the siren sounded, wardens would spring to action, patrolling their streets to ensure no lights were visible. By 1943, nearly six million men and women had volunteered.

After the war, the sirens were used in the initial days of the Cold War, but since then, most have fallen silent, except those used to warn of impending tornadoes. It is unknown how many sirens still exist across the nation.

Do you live in an area that uses sirens?

__________________

Love and Chocolate: A Second Chance Romance

She just needs a job. He wants a career. Is there room in their hearts for love?

Ilsa Krause and her siblings are stunned to discover their father left massive debt behind upon his death. To help pay off their creditors and save the farm, she takes a job at Beck’s Chocolates, the company her father despised and refused to supply with milk. Then she discovers her boss is Ernst Webber, her high school love who unceremoniously dumped her via letter from college. Could life get any more difficult?

A freshly-minted university diploma in his hand, Ernst Webber lands his dream job at Beck’s Chocolates. His plans to work his way up the ladder don’t include romantic entanglements, then Ilsa Krause walks back into his life resurrecting feelings he thought long dead. However, her animosity makes it clear she has no interest in giving him a second chance. Can he get her to change her mind? Does he want to?

Purchase link: https://books2read.com/u/mdQerZ 

Linda Shenton Matchett writes happily-ever-after historical Christian fiction about second chances and women who overcome life’s challenges to be better versions of themselves. 

Whether you choose her books set in the Old West or across the globe during WWII, you will be immersed in the past through rich detail. Follow the journeys of relatable characters whose faith is sorely tested, yet in the end, emerge triumphant. Be encouraged in your own faith-walk through stories of history and hope.

Photo Credits:

Bell: Pixabay/TooMuchCoffeeMan

All others property of the author

Children's Toys During WWII

Toys are more than entertainment. Play and the use of toys are integral to children’s skill development such as analyzing and solving problems, getting along with others, figuring out how things work, using their imagination, and learning to develop new ideas. However, with the onset of World War II and the issuance of General Limitation Order L-81 by the War Production Board, toy manufacturers were prohibited from producing toys that contained more than 7 percent by weight of iron, steel, zinc, or rayon. Existing toys with content over that amount would cease being sold after June 30, 1942.

The Children’s Bureau of the Department of Labor published a pamphlet in 1942 titled Toys in

Wartime: Suggestions to Parents on Making Toys in Wartime. The publication explained how toys could be made for children of all ages, and recommendations included:

• Dolls made from spools
• Pull toys made from spools or “anything with a string attached”
• Easels made for drawing or painting from an old orange crate or box
• Homemade looms made from scrap wood
• Doll houses from repurposed orange crates
• “Walnut shells make boats that bob around in a pool. A toothpick fastened with wax from a candle and stuck through half piece of paper in two places makes the shell into a sailboat.”

As with many adult products, from waxed paper to calendars, the victory theme permeated children’s
toys. Battle scenes, military images, and patriotic motifs also appeared in jigsaw puzzles (popular due to being inexpensive and made from non-rationed materials), coloring books, and checkerboards. Comic books, chapter books, cartoons, films, and radio programs used war plotlines. Items such as tanks and jeeps, cannons, miniature soldiers, and military uniforms for boys and nurse outfits and nurse kits for girls were popular. Model-making, always popular, moved from cars to jeeps, military planes, and navy ships. Adolf Hitler also appeared in numerous children’s toys as an object of derision such as dartboards with his face as the bull’s-eye or push toys that punched Hitler in the face.

What toy from your childhood do you remember?

_______________

A Lesson in Love (part of The Strength of His Heart Charity Anthology):

He thinks he’s too old. She thinks she’s too young. Can these teachers learn that love defies all

boundaries?

Born and raised in London, Isobel Turvine knows nothing about farming, but after most of the students in her school evacuate during Operation Pied Piper, she’s left with little to do. Then her friend Margery talks her into joining the Women’s Land Army, and she finds herself working the land at a manor home in Yorkshire that’s been converted to a boys’ school. A teacher at heart, she is drawn to the lads, but the handsome yet stiff-necked headmaster wants her to stick to farming.

Left with an arm that barely works from the last “war to end all wars,” Gavin Emerson agrees to take on the job of headmaster when his school moves from London to Yorkshire, but he’s saddled with the quirky manor owner, bickering among his teachers, and a gaggle of Land Army girls who have turned the grounds into a farm. When the group’s blue-eyed, raven-haired leader nearly runs him down in a car, he admonishes her to stay in the fields, but they are thrown together at every turn. Can he trust her not to break his heart?

Purchase link: https://amzn.to/4f9iLKO

Linda Shenton Matchett writes happily-ever-after historical Christian fiction about second chances and women who overcome life’s challenges to be better versions of themselves.

Whether you choose her books set in the Old West or across the globe during WWII, you will be immersed in the past through rich detail. Follow the journeys of relatable characters whose faith is sorely tested, yet in the end, emerge triumphant. Be encouraged in your own faith-walk through stories of history and hope.

All photos/images property of the author.

Remember Pearl Harbor

More than two years had passed since the war began in Europe when the Japanese bombers arrived in the skies above Pearl Harbor at 7:48 AM local time. However, an hour earlier the Wickes-class destroyer USS Ward attacked and sank a midget submarine near the entrance of the harbor. The sub’s periscope had been spotted above the water by the minesweeper Condor which alerted the crew on the Ward. The sub’s unconscious pilot, Kazuo Sakamaki, would later surface and be taken prisoner, spending the remainder of the war as a POW. Unfortunately, the incident would fail to put the base on full alert.

Japan depended on supplies from the United States, namely oil, to support their naval forces, but the Tokyo government began to look elsewhere and targeted Southeast Asia which is rich in minerals and oil. America’s foreign policy in the Pacific centered on support for China against the aggression of Japan, thus creating potential conflict. On July 7, 1937, tensions exploded when gunfire was exchanged between Japanese units and the United Front of Chinese Nationalists at the Marco Polo Bridge near Beijing. The Second Sino-Japanese war had begun.

In response, the U.S. extended a loan to China in 1938. The following year, America terminated the 1911 Treaty of Commerce and Navigation with Japan. Twelve months later, export of materials “useful in war” to Japan were restricted. After Japan occupied Indochina and entered into an alliance with the Axis powers of Germany and Italy, the U.S. severed all commercial and financial relations with Japan, froze Japanese assets, and declared an embargo on shipments of petroleum and other war materials. Militarists in the Japanese government resented the U.S. aid to China, but negotiations between the two countries limped along.

Meanwhile, the argument between isolationists and interventionists continued about the war in Europe.

Isolationists believed the nation’s interests were best served by avoiding conflicts overseas and dealing with problems at home, especially those related to the Great Depression that continued to grip the U.S. Congress agreed and passed several neutrality acts designed to prevent future involvement in foreign wars by banning American citizens from trading with nations at war, loaning them money, or traveling on their ships.

In January, 1940, 88% of U.S. citizens opposed the idea of getting involved in Europe. However, September of that year 52% now felt America should risk war to help the British. By April 1941, the number had risen to 68%. Both ideologies became moot on December 7, 1941.

By the end of the attack, forty-two of the one-hundred-twenty-six planes on the ground were destroyed, forty-one were damaged, and forty-three remained fit for service. More than one-hundred-eighty aircraft were destroyed. Within thirty days of the attack, 134,000 Americans enlisted in the military.

A little-known fact is that the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor a second time on March 4, 1942. Operation K used two naval flying boats that could each carry one ton of bombs with a crew of ten. Nicknamed the flying porcupine each plan had five 20mm cannons and four machine guns. However, this time the invaders were seen on radar, and just after midnight fighters took to the air and patrolled the harbor. Cloudy skies reduced visibility, and one aircraft released its bombs over a remote hill and the other into the ocean.

Printed on matchbooks, war bonds, license plate toppers, signs, plates, handkerchiefs, games, playing cards, flags, posters, buttons, cardboard shields, envelopes, and more, “Remember Pearl Harbor” became a rallying cry.

**All photos courtesy of the author

______________________

War’s Unexpected Gift

Love and war don’t mix. Or do they?

Eager to do even more for the war effort, nurse Gwen Milford puts in for a transfer from a convalescent hospital outside of London to an evac hospital headed across Europe. Leap-frogging from one location to the next, nothing goes as expected from stolen supplies to overwhelming numbers of casualties. Then, there’s the handsome doctor who seems to be assigned to her every shift. As another Christmas approaches without the war’s end, can she find room in her heart for love?

Purchase Link: https://books2read.com/u/4jG2wl

Linda Shenton Matchett writes happily-ever-after historical Christian fiction about second chances and women who overcome life’s challenges to be better versions of themselves.

Whether you choose her books set in the Old West or across the globe during WWII, you will be immersed in the past through rich detail. Follow the journeys of relatable characters whose faith is sorely tested, yet in the end, emerge triumphant. Be encouraged in your own faith-walk through stories of history and hope. Visit her at http://www.LindaShentonMatchett.com