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The Grey Ghost

My aunt and three uncles served in World War II. Aunt Marge was a lieutenant and nurse who followed the 6 June 1944 invasion forces into Europe. Uncle Pete was an army sergeant serving in the Pacific Theater while Uncle Bill was the naval commander of a mine sweeping vessel in the Pacific. My mother’s only brother, Hal, enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Force in 1942. He was a young P-47 Thunderbolt fighter pilot in Europe and completed 97 missions. Hal’s missions were primarily over Italy and then Germany. His primary responsibilities included destroying enemy assets such as rail lines, depots, manufacturing, or any target deemed necessary for destruction.

P-47s of the 345th Fighter Squadron, 350th Fighter Group, 12th Air Force. Photo by anonymous (c. 1944). United States Army Air Forces. PD-U.S. government. Wikimedia Commons.
P-47s of the 345th Fighter Squadron, 350th Fighter Group, 12th Air Force. Photo by anonymous (c. 1944). United States Army Air Forces. PD-U.S. government. Wikimedia Commons.

By August 1945, Germany and Japan had surrendered. More than 12.0 million American service men and women spread across 55 theaters of war needed to get home. One of the many vessels used to return them to the United States was the ocean liner, RMS Queen Mary. Stripped of its luxury furnishings and non-essential items, the ship was painted grey in 1939 and used as a transport ship.

Uncle Hal and 810,000 U.S. military personnel returned to America aboard the Queen Mary otherwise known as “The Grey Ghost.”

My aunt and uncles along with millions more like them came home and went on to become known as “The Greatest Generation.”


REVOLUTIONARY PARIS – Volume One & Volume Two

These books are about Paris. They are about the places, buildings, sites, people, and streets that were important parts of the French Revolution. You are about to enter a journey into history beginning in 1789 at the village of Versailles with the procession of the Estates-General and ending on the Place de la Révolution with the execution of Maximilien Robespierre on 28 July 1794. This is your personal walking tour of the French Revolution as it occurred in Paris and Versailles.


Did You Know?

Did you know that an urban model for mixed-use residential, commercial, and parks is being developed? It is called the “15-minute city” and is based on one’s ability to get to the shops and parks within a 15-minute walk from your residence. Scholars at Massachusetts Institute of Technology are researching, quantifying, and measuring the “urban fabric” to see if this model can become a reality. As you may suspect, there are those who enthusiastically support an urban model like this while others bemoan the likely demise of the automobile.

The waterfall at Bois de Boulogne, one of the parks enlarged by Baron Haussmann. Photo by Charles Marville (c. 1858). PD-Author’s life plus 70 years or fewer. Wikimedia Commons.
The waterfall at Bois de Boulogne, one of the parks enlarged by Baron Haussmann. Photo by Charles Marville (c. 1858). PD-Author’s life plus 70 years or fewer. Wikimedia Commons.

For those of you who have traveled in Europe, you are undoubtedly familiar with a city that was transformed in the mid-19th-century into a “15-minute walking city.” It is Paris. Napoléon III’s primary instruction to Baron Haussmann was to ensure every citizen could reach a park within a 15-minute walk. Prior to the seventeen-year “destruction and reconstruction” of the city, only forty-eight acres of parks existed. After 1870, more than 5,000 acres of new or expanded parks and twenty-four new squares were being enjoyed by the Parisians. Napoléon III’s goal of a “15-minute walkable city” had been achieved.

Napoléon III handing over to Baron Haussmann the decree to annex neighboring Paris communes. Painting by Adolphe Yvon (c. 1865). Musée Carnavalet. PD-Author’s life plus 100 years or fewer. Wikimedia Commons.
Napoléon III handing over to Baron Haussmann the decree to annex neighboring Paris communes. Painting by Adolphe Yvon (c. 1865). Musée Carnavalet. PD-Author’s life plus 100 years or fewer. Wikimedia Commons.

So, why spend millions and millions of dollars on studies when we can see and experience a contemporary example of the “15-minute city”? It does work.

Our next blog will be an expanded reprint of Charles Marville and le Vieux Paris.

(Click here to read The Missing Emperor and here to read Paris Digs.)


Operation Magic Carpet 

By mid-1943, Gen. George C. Marshall (1880−1959), Army Chief of Staff, and others were sufficiently convinced Germany would ultimately be defeated. The general, a World War I veteran, was determined to avoid a similar demobilization debacle the army experienced in 1918-1919. However, twenty-five years later, he was faced with the same logistic issues but on a larger scale: how to get millions of service personnel back to the United States in a timely, orderly, and fair manner. He really couldn’t bring the men and women home until both Germany and Japan had surrendered. So, in July 1943, Gen. Marshall tasked the War Shipping Administration (WSA) to come up a plan for demobilization addressing which soldiers would remain in Germany, which soldiers would be sent to Japan to fight and finally, who would be the lucky ones to go home. The WSA was responsible for developing and coordinating the plan called “Operation Magic Carpet.” Read More The Grey Ghost

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British Mandate

One area I have always wanted to cover for you is the attitudes of western countries in the 1930s toward Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany. Separately, one of our readers suggested I write about the British Mandate (ergo the blog title) and its background leading up to and including World War II. So, I decided to combine both topics since they overlapped one another.

The history of the British Mandate, or “Mandate for Palestine” from its inception to modern-day is very interesting but very complex (and its legacy evokes passionate emotions). I’m quite certain that I have likely failed to meet the expectations of our reader who probably desired a greater in-depth examination of the Mandate and for that, I apologize.

Map of the original British Mandate territories. Map by anonymous (date unknown).
Map of the original British Mandate territories. Map by anonymous (date unknown).

This is my attempt to frame an abbreviated history (albeit a “bird’s eye view”) of the role Palestine played within the context of Jewish refugees seeking a place to escape the Nazis. It is also about the unfortunate stance many countries took (including the United States) in turning away Jewish refugees due to political reasons as well as widespread anti-Semitism sentiments of politicians and citizens.


Did You Know?

Did you know that Queen Elizabeth II’s profile faces right on every coin she’s featured on? The tradition is to reverse the profile with each succeeding reigning monarch. So, going back to Queen Victoria, her profile faces left while her son, Edward VII (r. 1901-1910), faces right. His son, George V (r. 1910-1936), looks to the left, but his second son, George VI (r. 1936-1952) also faces to the left. Did George VI (Queen Elizabeth II’s father) break tradition? Not really. It was George V’s eldest son, Edward VIII who chose to break tradition and during his short reign of eleven months (he abdicated in December 1936), the coins were minted with his profile facing left. After the abdication, George VI took the view that his brother’s profile should have been to the right and as such, opted to continue the tradition by facing left. His daughter carried on the tradition and her profile is to the right. Read More British Mandate