{"id":17736,"date":"2015-12-08T00:43:59","date_gmt":"2015-12-08T00:43:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rahs.org\/?p=17736"},"modified":"2015-12-08T00:43:59","modified_gmt":"2015-12-08T00:43:59","slug":"redlands-a-community-response-to-world-war-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rahs.org\/all\/redlands-a-community-response-to-world-war-ii\/","title":{"rendered":"Redlands: A Community Response to World War II"},"content":{"rendered":"

RAHS Vice President, Tom Atchley, Speaker
\nMonday, March 23, 2015 at 7:00 p.m.
\nAssembly Room, A.K. Smiley Public Library
\n125 W. Vine Street<\/p>\n

REDLANDS AREA HISTORICAL SOCIETY will \u00a0continue with the World War themes that began last month with the presentation by Dr. Ann Deegan and \u201cRedlands Faces in World War I.\u201d \u00a0Tom Atchley, vice president of the group, will present \u201cRedlands: A Community Response to World War II\u201d when the historical society meets Monday March 23 at 7:00 p.m. in the Assembly Room of A.K. Smiley Public Library.<\/p>\n

While researching the demise of the citrus industry, Atchley created an index file on World War II, the home front and what Redlands citizens did to support the war effort. \u00a0The Power Point presentation begins with a captured Japanese submarine used in the attack on Pearl Harbor that was photographed traveling through Redlands by the Mentone News<\/em> in January 1942. \u00a0Japanese subs fired on the Santa Barbara oil fields. The Montebello<\/em>, a Union oil tanker was sunk December 24th off the coast. \u00a0Redlands\u00a0became psychologically motivated after the Battle of Los Angeles on February 24, 1942.<\/p>\n

Quickly Redlanders organized the protection of the Big Bear Dam, an aircraft warning service, a total blackout of town, which included painting gold domes black on neighborhood homes and the round-up of \u201cenemy aliens\u201d in the community. \u00a0 A German spy was hunted down by the FBI. \u00a0A Redlander was part of the famous \u201cDoolittle Raid\u201d giving the community the first real hero of the war and hope. \u00a0Redlands homes were converted for war time housing to provide residences for civilian war workers at the San Bernardino Air Depot (Norton).<\/p>\n

The citrus industry boomed during the war as the \u00a0National War Production Board declared citrus production a national war priority. \u00a0The Bracero Program began. \u00a0Citrus fruit canning began with each G.I. K-ration box containing fruit juice.<\/p>\n

The community organized rubber drives, blood drives, bandage collections, book drives, iron and metal drives, Red Cross drives, paper collection and bond drives to pay for the war. \u00a0Redlands War Bond drives led the county for community support and set records throughout the war.<\/p>\n

Women took an active part in the war. \u00a0Boy Scouts, Redlands High, the City of Redlands, University of Redlands, Lion\u2019s Club, and Horticultural Society were a few of the organizations to support the war effort daily. \u00a0Redlands Cannery sent thousands of gallons of vegetables and fruit to the supply depot for shipment. \u00a0Gill Batteries were in the bombers, fighters, trucks and jeeps in the war. \u00a0Redlands Tent Company employed 120 men and women making tents for combat \u00a0soldiers. \u00a0Abe Gardner road mixers were used by the Seabees on isolated islands in the Pacific to build airstrips. Fletcher Lumber Mill built crates to ship armaments and construct GI tent frames. \u00a0The \u201cspider lady\u201d raised Black Widows to provide silk for cross hairs for bomb sites.<\/p>\n

The Redlands Daily<\/em> Facts<\/em> was commended by west coast commander, General John L. DeWitt, for outstanding civilian defense organization. \u00a0A Kiwanis Club Testimonial of \u00a0Appreciation was held for the Facts October 5, 1944.<\/p>\n

The newspaper ran pictorials of the war, the Ernie Pyle column, draft notices, letters from the front, citations for men and women, and daily reminders of community war drives. \u00a0Overall the community united as never before or since.<\/p>\n

Historical Society programs are free and open to the public and offer membership information and publications for sale.<\/p>\n

\"Red
Red Cross Gauze and Bandage Volunteers.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

<\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RAHS Vice President, Tom Atchley, Speaker Monday, March 23, 2015 at 7:00 p.m. Assembly Room, A.K. Smiley Public Library 125 W. Vine Street REDLANDS AREA HISTORICAL SOCIETY will \u00a0continue with the World War themes that began last month with the presentation by Dr. Ann Deegan and \u201cRedlands Faces in World War I.\u201d \u00a0Tom Atchley, vice […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17738,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,109],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rahs.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17736"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rahs.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rahs.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rahs.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rahs.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17736"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rahs.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17736\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rahs.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rahs.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rahs.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rahs.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}