WW2 effects: Louisiana

Hello everyone, I hope my fellow Americans had a great Thanksgiving, as that was the reason for me not making a WW2 effects last week. So I'm going to do two this week to make up for it. Today's state in the spotlight, Louisiana.
WW2 effects: North Dakota
Louisiana Pre-WW2
Louisiana like many of her other sister southern states was mostly a rural, agricultural, and segregated state. The Great Depression hit the state hard, and swiftly. The states already struggling economy relied heavily on it's main exports, sugarcane, cotton, and rice. Industry had little part in the states economy, what little industry there was, focused on shipbuilding. Agriculture was in many ways the only component keeping the economy from totally collapsing in the 30's. Along with rough economic conditions, life for the middle and lower class (mostly African-Americans) was brutal. Jim Crow laws made it extremely difficult for black families to find a way to survive, and find employment. Louisiana historians estimate that of the 2.3 million Louisiana residents, 200,000 (about 9%) of them were unemployed, once again mostly blacks.

Louisiana WW2
Louisiana began ramping up for war before the country was physically involved. With the implementation of the peace time draft, military training centers were built in Rapides (Camp Livingston and Claiborne) and Vernon Parish (Camp Polk). Numerous training exercises happened in the state from 1940 to 1941 knows as the "Louisiana Maneuvers". Along with training centers, the USAAF built 9 bases both before and during the war. After the U.S officially got involved, the puny industrial complex of Louisiana was turned into a respectable and productive factory epicenter. New Orleans, Baton Rouge, and many other larger cities were the main industrial producers throughout the war. The State underwent a period of immense growth in the space of a few years, employing hundreds of thousands of workers. Many Major U.S Generals such as Ike, Patton, Omar Bradley, and others came to Louisiana at some point to oversee important training operations. Andrew Higgins, the man responsible for designing and making the Landing craft used at D-Day, mass produced the revolutionary design in New Orleans for 3 straight years. Agriculture remained a big part of the war effort, for Louisiana, it also gave about 14,000 German and Italian POW's lots of work to do in the rural parts of the state (Fritz....were not in Bavaria anymore!).

Louisiana Post-WW2
During the war 115,000 citizens of the Bayou state served, 2,458 of them, never returned. Louisiana underwent significant changes both during and immediately after the war. What was once a predominantly rural and agricultural state, was now 50% urban a 39.1% increase from 1940, and industry became a big part of the state economy for the first time.....well....ever. However, not all aspects of Louisiana life changed, segregation would be a major part of the states culture well into the 60's and poverty and unemployment still plagues the state to this day. But it is hard not to believe that Louisiana came out of the 40's a better and more prosperous state.

 

My dad told me that when he was a kid outside Kentwood in Tangipahoa Parish, lots of German POWs were employed in working the fields and along the roadways. While walking along the road to wherever he was going at the time (usually fishing or hunting) he'd see US Army 2 1/2 ton trucks going down the road, and all the men in the back were singing German songs. The trucks would stop, the men would pile out and go to work. He walked up to one of the guards who was holding a Tommy gun and asked who those men were. The guard just said "guten tag" and waved him off. Most of the POWs waved and bid guten tag as well as he strolled to the fishin hole. Not sure if the drivers were Germans or not.

 

That's pretty incredible! There is an older gentleman in my church who was about 8 or 9 when German and Italian prisoners of war came to Arizona. This older gentleman worked at a citrus patch with many of these POW's for months at a time. He learned a little bit of both languages to the discouragement of his mother and talked to a few in broken German and Italian. He said that they didn't seem like horrible Nazis the newsreels portrayed, his older sister even had a crush on one of the taller blonde German U-boat sailor who went by "U" as that was the only English letter he could pronounce because of U-boat. He even missed many of them when they were sent back to their homes in 45 and 46. It's the smaller stories like yours A-58, and this older gentleman's that I am most fond of!

 

And at Higgens Industries in New Orleans where many of the wooden boats for the USN were built, any and all who showed up looking for work was given a job. Black, white, female, Hispanic, no matter what ethno-genderic extraction they were from got hired, trained, put to work and got paid. All wages were equal, no segregated shifts, no Jim Crow reps, just Americans working together to make "Hitler Littler and to put the Mojo on Tojo". Not sure what they said about Mussolini, but he wasn't in the war very long. Andrew Jackson Higgins was a damnyankee you know.

 

Really? I didn't know that. I knew during the war companies were happy for just about anyone, but I didn't think they were all paid and treated the same, thanks A-58

 

I read a book about Andrew Jackson Higgins awhile back. He took a lot of flack from fellow captains of industry in New Orleans and south Louisiana over it, but being he was from up north somewhere, Iowa I think, he dealt with manpower (and womanpower) needs as he saw fit. He had a lot of government contracts to fill, and needed happy and motivated workers to pull it off. He had to constantly fill worker shortages (as did everyone else) due to many of his draft age men were called up frequently. He was able to secure exemptions for a few he deemed critical, but not all. A co-worker and good friend of mine's older uncle worked in Higgins office, was sort of a go-fer type until he got drafted. Said that Higgins was a raging alcoholic, and one of his daily morning jobs was to walk over to the nearby K & B Drugstore (now Rite Aid) to buy a bottle of whisky. Every day. I asked him why didn't he buy a case at a time to save money and effort. Said that Higgins only gave him enough money for one bottle at a time. Guess he would've poured more down his pie hole if he could have put his mitts on it. Makes sense I guess.

In addition to being a raging alcoholic, he was pretty innovative as well. One of his creations was an extra large tank landing craft, made to carry a Sherman and other vehicles or so. It was too big to be loaded on ships designed to carry the normal tank landing craft, so he came up with the idea to construct it, cut it in half length-ways, load it on the transport, and then re-assemble it in an operating base near the front (in the PTO only). His son was in charge of the forward base. Can't remember his name. Neat plan. Simple too.

 

I looked up a bit more about Higgins. He was from Nebraska, not Iowa. And the over-sized landing craft he built was the LCM.

And in case anyone wants to learn a little more about what we've been talking about, have at it.

Andrew Higgins - Wikipedia

Landing Craft Mechanized - Wikipedia

 

Here's another Louisiana WW2 story for y'all. Sometime in 1940 or early 41 the 82nd Division was activated at Camp Beauregard near Alexandria, Louisiana. After training began, it was re-designated the 82nd Infantry Division. Then later on in 41 when the Army made the decision to create an airborne corps, the 82nd Infantry Division was chosen. When the men heard the news of this latest military endeavor, about half of the men in the division went over the hill, wanting no part of being thrown out of a perfectly good airplane while in flight. Some yahoo forgot to mention the fact that going for airborne training was to be voluntary, not mandatory. Word about that was put out and just about all of them filtered back into camp after a week or so on the lam. Not sure about whether punishment was dealt out or not for the mass AWOLs.

The moral of the story; communication is the key to success.

 

Speaking about POW camps, I live in Auburn, Al and it shares a border with Opelika. When I arrived in 1974 the remnants of a German POW camp were still in existence. A guard tower, several barracks, some wire fencing and the gate. It was gradually being taken into an industrial park, or estate, for the Brits here, A number of the local townspeople remember it well and a small museum contains some artifacts., wood carvings, items made of metal to sell to the locals. They worked in a few local industries and on farms. many learned English, a few already spoke it. On Sunday they were allowed to go into town and could eat at restaurants, go to a movie, have ice creme, using the money they paid for work. Some were able to buy musical instruments, many other instruments were donated to them and they gave concerts, including Bach and Mozart as well as local music. It was not a happy carefree existence, they were POW;'s but the relationship with the area seemed remarkable good. I guess they could not get home so escape was pretty useless. Hamburg is a long way from Alabama. I( am sure there were moments of discord and difficulty but I never heard anyone mention one. Several people mentioned the POW's, all were German, remained polite and showed self and group discipline but were increasingly just friendly as well. I have no doubt that time has smoothed over many of these remembrances, it was not a rosy time. Local people were being wounded and killed in the war but overall it appears everyone tried to make the best of it and there seems to be a generally good feeling about the outcome. Still one must consider if a family had lost someone fighting in the war and encountered German soldiers eating in town and going to the movies there must have been flare-ups. Both local Hi-0schools and Auburn university taught classes at the camp.
Camp Opelika -- WWII POW camp
Camp Opelika - Wikipedia

Fast forward to about 1960. I am from Selma, Alabama, yes that Selma, and was home for the weekend. a group of us were eating out right before Christmas and a rather rustic place with a big roaring fireplace. About 15-16 then current young members of the current Luftwaffe were all eating at a table nearby. they were there in training at the local airbase, Craig Field. They sang, rather beautifully, Christmas carols and traditional German songs too much applause so they switched to English. A rare insight into customs and comradery to me. Never had a better evening. This one generation after the horrors of WW2 Afterward I felt both joy and sadness.. human beings are rather remarkable things. A generation earlier we would be killing each other.

Gaines

 

Thank you for sharing Gaines, human beings can be quite weird sometimes, but that kind of weird, getting along with bitter enemies, is a very reassuring thing.

 

I read in the book "Behind Enemy Lines", the protagonist Joe Beyerle was a paratrooper in the 101st Abn Div and was captured, escaped, and re-captured on D-Day, then wounded by a P-47 strafing and bombing the column he was in. He escaped several more times before successfully escaping in early 1945, finally making it to Soviet lines in Poland where he joined up with them. Anyway, he got wounded again and repatriated back to the US, and in a camp where he was recuperating and awaiting discharge, a fight broke out in the chow hall resulting in the death of several German SS POWs that were serving chow. All the GIs were repatriated POWs, and didn't take kindly to seeing SS men in the US, especially serving them chow.

 

Quite the series of events for Joe! Americans treated the SS pretty badly at times, but the Soviets usually just shot any SS men right then and there, or torture them later for fun.

 

Joe Beyerle made two jumps into France prior to D-Day for the OSS. He delivered US currency (paper money) and gold/silver coins to the Marquis for use in bribing guards, paying off snitches, buying whatever, etc. He was reported KIA to his folks. When he was repatriated via Moscow, the War Department contacted his family telling them that Joe was alive and well, and enroute home. And they wanted the purple heart back that was given to them when he was first reported KIA. No mention was made of the insurance money being paid or asked to be returned or not.



Great read.

Which reminds me of another story my dad told me. This one brings things back to Louisiana stuff here on the Louisiana thread. There was a man from the Kentwood area where my dad was from and lived during the war that was reported MIA and presumed dead on Bataan in 1942. The War Department paid his family the insurance for KIA then, about $10,000.00 I believe. They spent it on whatever, but in 1945 the soldier in question turned up alive in a POW camp in Japan. The Was Department contacted his family telling them that their son was alive (but not so well - being a POW of the Japanese since 1942 was sort of a rough life). They also asked to be reimbursed for the insurance money. Of course it was all gone, but they said that they'd be more than glad to pay it back if they could knowing their boy was coming home. Nothing more was made of it.

 

Wow, $10,000 in 1942 money is pretty serious. So did they ever pay it back as far as you are aware?

 

Other than them being asked to cough it up, my dad said that was all the War Department did. Just asked. $10K in 1942 converts to $151,330.67 in today's dollars.

 

Well I can almost guarantee you that today's government would do more than ask.....

 

I have no doubts there were conflicts in POW camps and particularly when they were allowed to visit the town , eat and go to movies, etc, when townpeople were losing loved ones as I wrote. I do think the Opelika Camp had good realtions in general. A good number of Loiisiana Cajuns obviously have French history but do not know if that ever surfaced having been there so long.. I am curious, was Camp Opelika unique in Sunday furloughs ? Need to read up on Louisiana and other states. My guess is that POW camp reguglations were uniform but local variations may have exisited.
Gaines

 

Never heard any first hand stories about Axis POWs on furloughs while in custody. Just the story I mentioned earlier about the work detail of German POWs being guarded by one of their own.

The Cajuns here in Louisiana have been removed from France for so long that there is little connection any longer. The big bucket list trip for them is to go and tour Nova Scotia, where their ancestors were kicked out by the Redcoats after France lost the French and the Indian War (The Seven Years War in Europe). The French spoken in Louisiana and what is spoken in Quebec and France is very different. Cajun French speakers can figure out what the real Frenchies are saying after awhile, and vice versa. Especially when drinking beer.

 

Just remembered another Louisiana story for the thread here. Although unsubstantiated, it is historical lore here in Louisiana. I've read about it and heard others tell about it, but nobody knows for sure if it's true or not. Also read that local historians put ads in papers (long before the internet was invented and widely used about 20 years ago) asking if anyone had real hard first hand knowledge of the story. Anyhoo, rumor had it that a German U-boat was sunk off the coast of Louisiana (the mouth of the Mississippi River was prime hunting grounds for them). Debris washed ashore from the wreck, and amongst the findings was fresh bread wrapped in wrappers of the Evangeline Maid Bread company based in Louisiana. Hmmmmmmmm....



The Evangeline Maid bread company is still in operation, and has been since 1919.

 

Slaves picking cotton in a Louisiana field sometime in the 1860's.....

Downtown Baton Rouge in the 40's

French Block in the 1940's

A Segregated Jim Crow bus station in New Orleans.......Did you see the intriguing article to the right?

106th Cavalry parking area in Camp Livingston...........

Ultimate Jeep 4-wheeling during the "Louisiana Maneuvers" in 1941.....

The Landing Craft, designed and tested by Louisiana native Andrew Higgins.........

German POW at Camp Polk being photographed.......

Beautiful Bayou.......

Does anyone else find this rather eerie?

Baton Rouge today.......

Bourbon Street New Orleans.....

Mardi Gras in New Orleans...........no comment.........

New Orleans Saints....the heart and soul of Louisiana Professional sports.....and a favorite player of mine.....Drew Brees (#9)