Soldiers and Sailors

  

The man in front is in his army uniform, and the man on the right is all navy.  At least that's what the bit of his collar, the only bit of clothing that can be seen, looks like. How about the man just behind the woman with the fur stole?  An all-military reunion?  Almost certainly from World War 2. 

Wings

 

He's wearing wings on his uniform, so he must be a member of the Army Air Corps.  But is he headed off to war or getting home, having survived combat missions over Europe?  Clearly from the World War 2 era. 

Cut Down

 

This slim photo has been cut down from a larger photo.   There is some writing on the back, but like the picture itself, some of it has been lost to the scissors.  "Dec. 20/4."  So, from the 1940s.  And, "Taken in Ge."  Perhaps Germany and a soldier on occupation duty.  Or, then again, maybe Georgia, though there isn't that much snow in Georgia. 

Camp Blanding

 

There's no name or date on this portrait, but because of the sepia style, I'm guessing it's from the World War 2 era.  Anytime I see a war era, any war, photo of a soldier, I always wonder if they came back.  And not just alive.  Did they come back physically and emotionally whole?  

It doesn't really read on the scan, but there's an embossed credit on the lower right corner.  "Portraits by White, CAMP BLANDING, FLORIDA."  Stamped on the back, "FROM WHITES PHOTO STUDIO MAIN P.X. CAMP BLANDING, FLA."  

There's a fair amount about the history of Camp Blanding online. I'm not going into a great deal of detail, but an overview.  Camp Blanding opened in 1939 as the main training center for the Florida National Guard.  During World War 2, Camp Blanding was used for the training of nine different infantry divisions, as well as one parachute division.  It was also a POW camp for captured German soldiers.  For a while, there were so many soldiers stationed at Camp Blanding that it was the fourth-largest city in the state, with over 10,000 buildings and 125 miles of paved roads.  I wasn't able to find anything about White's Photo Studio.  My best guess is that he was a professional studio photographer in nearby Starke, Florida.  

Before & During

 

Written on the back of the top image, "July / 41 Batavia, Ill."  So, four to five months before Pearl Harbor and the U.S. entry into World War 2.  Written on the bottom print, "Helen & My Ma taken in the Sunken Gardens just of the hill & the Hotel. August 1944."  Not long after D-Day.  

The Vogels of Artesia, New Mexico 3

  

The last of the Vogel collection, but this one is a bit different, and the reason why I bought these three postcards.  While the other two cards were from 1942, the first full year of America's involvement in World War 2, this one is from 1945, and while the postmark is a bit smudged, so I'm not sure of the month, 'TACOMA WASH. 8 PM, 1945."  It was probably from after VJ-Day.  Too, it wasn't from Ray Vogel, but "Pvt. Robert N. Stark,38709913, Co. B, 161st MTG., Ft. Lewis Washington" It also wasn't mailed to Dorothy Vogel but to "Mr & Mrs J. M. Vogel, Artesia New Mexico" Even though there is no post box or street address, it must have been delivered.  It's the message that's interesting, "Hello Vogels: Hows everybody?  We are all well maybe I should have said all wet. It rains 8 days a week here. Ha. Gay went fishing the other day where the water is real deep caught four fish too.  Will probably be down to all you folks in N.M when I get back from Japan. Nelson"  

So, occupation duty by the sound of it, which is why I think this card was sent after the Japanese surrender. Anyway, there are a lot of photos and cards from World War 2 out there, and I always wonder if the people depicted survived the war.  Was Nelson a friend of the Vogel family or was he a friend of Roy who didn't make it?  

Click on The Vogel Collection in labels to see all three posts. 

The Vogels of Artesia, New Mexico 2

   

Another hand franked postcard from "Pvt. Roy R. Vogel, 346th Air Base Sgdn., Municipal Air Port , Memphis, Tenn, Barrack 411 S."  Well, now we know Roy's middle initial and his barracks assignment.  Once again it's mailed to "Miss Dorothy Vogel, Artesia, New Mex, Box #632."  Spelled out a bit differently, but the same recipient. And the message, "Dear Dot, I received a letter from you and one from Jane a week or so ago so will send this on to both of you as I have so much waiting to do.  The pictures are just like the animals in the zoo.  It is the second largest in the world.  I am feeling all all right.  I will be closing for today.  Your cousin Roy."  Well, not too detailed, and I have my doubts that the Memphis Zoo was the second largest in the world, but how much can you get on a postcard, and how much honesty can you expect from a young private who was probably away from home for the first time in his life.

  The postmark is "MEMPHIS TENN, DEC 3, 8 PM DE SOTO STA. 1" The caption, "Scenes from the Memphis Zoo, one of the finest in the world."  Click on The Vogel Collection in labels to bring up the rest. 

The Vogels of Artesia, New Mexico 1

 

Time for another three-part collection, though I don't think I'm going to put them up in a row, so click on The Vogel Collection in labels to bring all three up.

So, all three of these postcards were mailed during World War 2 and all three were hand-franked.  Basically, during the war, U.S. military members could use the mail for free.  All they had to do was write free where the stamp should be and off it went.  This card was mailed by "Pvt. Roy Vogel, 346th Air Base Sgdn., Municipal Air Port, Memphis, Tenn."  It was mailed to "Miss Dorothy Vogel, Artesia, New Mexico, Box 632."   And the message, "Dear Dorothy, I received your letter this morn.  Was glad to hear from you. I had some pictures made the other day.  I will send one in a few days. I feel well at present.  Hope I can continue feeling that way.  Your cousin, Roy." 

So, presumably, Roy Vogel was in the Army Air Corp. (There was no separate Air Force during World War 2)  As a private, he wasn't training as a pilot, co-pilot, or navigator.  Perhaps he was training as a mechanic or as a gunner.  

There is a readable postmark, "MEMPHIS, TENN. NOV 3 4 PM 1942, DE SOTO STA."  The card's caption, "The Memphis Municipal Airport is one of the finest in America.  Made by Curteich, Chicago. 

Mystery Geography

 

This is another in the ongoing series (not really) of where the hell is this?  There's an army censor's stamp on the back of the print  "PASSED BY U S ARMY EXAMINER 20222"  My guess is this image is form the World War 2 era and is either a stateside base or something in occupied Europe.  

The Service Dance

Written on the back, "How do you like the back of my head.  How about that Crowd?  Nice heh!  All service personel."  Looks like the World War 2 era to me.  Mostly navy with the army thrown in. 

Wandering Around

I've got to admit, some of these titles I come up with are pretty meaningless.  So, I don't know what's going on here.  There's a large wooden mallet on the blanket in the lower center of picture.  A little big for a tent peg, but that's the only obvious use I can see.  The two men have their outdoors clothing on, while the two women are in skirts, that old, weird thing were women hiked dressed for a day on the boulevard.   There is a stamp on the back, "PASSED BY U S ARMY EXAMINER 20222"  Clearly from the World War 2 era.  But, sent from a states side military base or from the European occupation? 

In the Camps

Three Asian ladies, standing in the snow, looking none too happy.  I almost passed on buying this photo, then I turned it over and looked at the military censorship stamp.  I couldn't help but wonder if this snapshot was taken in one of the World War 2 Japanese interment camps.  Certainly places like Tule Lake in northern  California and Heart Mountain in Wyoming were more then cold enough for lots of snow.

The Bulgarian School Boy Album 20

Done.  The Bulgarian school boys (and girls) have come to an end.   As I noted in an earlier post, I bought this album from an eBay seller in Bulgaria who told me that these photos showed school uniforms.  With the passage of time, some of those school uniforms got traded in for military uniforms, but there was a war going on and more than likely the young men in this collection didn't have much choice in the matter.  Making out the dates on the backs of these images was pretty easy but I didn't do as well with the writing.  When I was growing up I was a paperboy.  Does that job even exist anymore?  Anyway, some of my customers were elderly Russians who had come to the United States, after the revolution, and worked in the local coal mines.  I picked up a bit of the language from them.  I can't remember much anymore, but I can still make out the Cyrillic alphabet.  I thought about spelling the words out phonetically and running them through Google translate, but when I realized that I had trouble deciphering the actual handwriting, I gave up, so if there are any native Bulgarian speakers who would like to help me out, I'd appreciate it.  Anyway,  Stara Zagora was easy, and I'm fairly certain that the girl on this page is named Ivanka, but that's as far as I'll go on this page.  I hope they all survived the war and the post war dictatorships. 

As usual, click on The Bulgarian School Boy Album in the labels section at the bottom of the post.  It's now possible to see the whole album, from front to back.

The Bulgarian School Boy Album 17

The top photo had exactly one thing on the back, "VII", too vague to scan.   It's the second photo that's more interesting to me.  1943, Bulgaria is in the war and ruled by a Fascist, right wing government allied with the Germans.  Still, people walk the streets and seem pretty happy.  At the beginning of the war, Bulgaria embraced neutrality, but they found themselves on an invasion route to Yugoslavian and Greece.  There was some fighting in Bulgaria, some of it involving a native resistance movement.  Sadly for the Bulgarians they were over run by the Soviets near the end of World War 2.  It's never a good thing to be between two warring factions.

Click on The Bulgarian School Boy Album in labels to see more from the collection.

The Bulgarian School Boy Album 14

The top photo really suggests some big questions.  Dated April 1944, it looks like Stara Zagora was spared the ravages of World War 2.  The city looks untouched and the two gentlemen in uniforms seem rather happy and self satisfied.  In April of 1944, Bulgaria was still an ally of Germany, but the Soviet army was just five months away from tossing out the Germans as well as the fascist  government.  Were these two young men  happy to be living in a Nazi state or were they looking forward to liberation, as short-lived as that turned out to be?  Of course, they may have been thinking about the two ladies in the second photo.  I almost didn't scan the back of the second photo, but I thought it might be a local way of  writing a date.  February 9, 1942, or perhaps September 2, 1942.  Then again it might be a notation that only the owner of this album could understand. 

Click on The Bulgarian School Boy Album in labels to see more.

The Bulgarian School Boy Album 8

When I start one of these albums, I don't take the whole thing apart before I start posting images.  I disassemble the collection as I go along and discover things as they come.  The top photo has something written on the back,  Three letters, possibly the initials of the young lady and a date, 1941. As can be seen, the second photo in the column has far more information on the back, including a 1944 date.  Rather than thinking of this album as being about students, perhaps I should have thought of it as a memory album of those who either survived or died in World War 2, Bulgaria.  In any case, The Bulgarian School Boy Album remains the common tag for this collection.

The Bulgarian School Boy Album 4

Bulgarian school boys hanging out with a professor, Bulgarian school boys goofing off in science class?  The second print has an actual confirm-able date.  Translated from the Bulgarian, "28 September 1942."  As mentioned in earlier posts, Bulgaria remained neutral until late 1941.  With the failing Italian invasion of Greece, Hitler decided to bail his allies out, and more or less forced a decision on the Bulgarian government.  The German army was going to march overland to Greece whether Bulgaria liked it or not, so capitulating to an ultimatum, Bulgaria joined the Axis powers.  There had been an unofficial fascist movement in the country, led by retired general Hristo Lukov and Tsar Boris III was  not unfriendly to the Nazi movement.  On the other hand, Bulgaria had one of the more active and widely supported resistance movements in Europe.  The Union of Bulgarian National Legions, the fascists,  and the anti-fascists were both popular with the young, so it's at least somewhat possible that the young students in these photos would choose opposite sides and end up fighting and killing each other in the war.  While Bulgaria did not join the German invasions of their neighbors, they did occupy parts of Yugoslavia and Greece, and when borders were adjusted after World War 2, Bulgaria ended up as the only Axis power to add territory.

Click on The Bulgarian School Boy Album n labels to see more.

A Military Confab

Even with my best magnifying glass I can't make out what's printed on the book underneath the desk.  I bought this photo here, in L.A., so I'm guessing those are American uniforms, from around the World War 2 era, though I have to admit that guess has as much to do with the hairdos.  But which branch of the military?  And what is that thing on the desk?  It has a key in it, is the wrong size and shape for a brief case. Is it some sort of code machine?   And yes, I blew up the picture and the woman on the left does have a bit of her finger in her nose.  Military secrets.

A Permant Party Man

I've ranted about this before, and at the risk of repeating myself too much, I hate it when antique dealers cut up photo albums and sell off the pictures individually. 

The permanent party man in this photo is wearing the shoulder patch of the United States Army Air Force,  organized in 1941 and disbanded in 1947 when it became part of the newly formed separate Air Force.  I may be wrong, of course, nevertheless, the background has a European feel to it, so I'm guessing that this image is from World War 2, and was taken at an American air base somewhere in Great Britain. As far as I know, all pilots, co-pilots, and navigators were officers.  Our Sargent could be  ground crew, or perhaps a gunner or bombardier.  I can only imagine how fascinating an album depicting life on a World War 2 army air base would have been.  Sadly, we won't know from this album.

The photo that was on the opposite side of this page fragment is gone, but the caption is still there.  "PEANUT RACE-LOOSER TAKES THE THREE BIGEST NOSES.  Well there's one thing we can know.  Who ever assembled this album wasn't a great speller.

Karsh of Ottawa

It's interesting to see what can be found on EBay.  I was just shuffling through old photographs when this image caught my eye.  It was, of course, a nice studio portrait, but what really drew me in was the printer's mark in the lower right hand corner.  "KARSH OTTAWA" refers to one of the most famous portraitists of the 20th century.

 Yousuf Karsh was born in 1908 in Turkey.  He was a survivor of the Armenian genocide.  In 1923, he arrived in Canada and was taken in by his uncle, a studio photographer who taught his nephew the trade.  In 1932, Karsh opened a studio in Ottawa, the capitol of Canada.  He would eventually land an important client.  Mackenzie King was the Prime Minister of Canada, and he not only sat for portraits of his own, but began arranging for Karsh to take portraits of visiting dignitaries.  In 1941 he took  a picture of Winston Churchill that would become the single most reproduced photographic portrait in history.  In 1945 Life magazine paid Karsh $100 for use of the Churchill portrait  on the cover.  After that, Karsh would receive a number of commissions from Life for other portraits of some of the most prominent people in the world.  Karsh died in 2002.

Take a look at the soldiers uniform and a patch can be seen identifying him as a member of the Dutch army.  The most obvious explanation is that he was in exile from the Nazi occupied Netherlands.  It was almost certainly taken after the Churchill portrait.