James Anderson Collection
Photographs on this page were provided by Tim Anderson and the family of James Anderson
James Anderson (far right) with Signal Corps buddies stationed at Pine Camp, NY
Correspondence; 1944
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James Anderson wrote this letter on March 23, 1944. Son Tim provides explanation after the text of the letter. Family mentioned are pictured below.
Thursday Night
UNITED STATES ARMY AIR FORCES
Dear Mom,
Nope, the “Beeler Boys” haven’t got me yet. Just busy feudin’ and keeping my bite and shootin’ irons in battle condition. That piece of flak left the most beautiful shiner yet. It’s just now beginning to turn green and I look like an old cabbage head.
Was sure glad to get some news about the other boys from home in the service. Woodie Watkins will probably have more decorations than a Christmas tree when he gets back to the Lexington Theatre of Operations.
I’ve seen the insignia of my old outfit over here but have not met any of the signal gang yet. I hope to run onto some of them soon. If I could find out where they’re stationed I’d buzz them a time or two in this “Great Iron Bird.” I’d like to scare the pants off a certain Major I know. If Bob comes over here I’d also love to show him what a real airplane looks and flys like.
That package you mailed some time ago hasn’t gotten here yet and those pictures of my pin-up girl haven’t arrived either. I’d give anything in the world to be there to begin her education immediately. Hope Pa Miller can find the time to keep her in fighting trim. Geneva said he was there to give her her first lesson when she was a week old. I’ll trust him to keep her from getting spoiled.
If you can please send me some Dentyne gum and mixed candy, you know Baby Ruth, Clark’s and stuff like that. We’re only allowed one bar per week if they have it at the P.X. and some times they don’t even have it. They never have any with milk chocolate in it. It’s always plain chocolate of British manufacture. And send pictures of my four girl friends as often as possible.
Well goodnight for now.
Love,
Maurice
Explanation by son Tim Anderson: In Dad’s opening sentence to my grandmother, he references the ‘Beeler Boys.’ Odds are, you have no inkling of who the Beeler Boys were unless you grew up during the Great Depression or are a Jeopardy! champion. As a Jeopardy champion, your question, ‘Who are the Beeler Boys?’ would be the correct response to this answer:
‘A group of recurring tough guys occasionally referenced in the dialogue of Gene Ahern’s, Room and Board, a nationally syndicated comic strip carried by the Lexington-Herald during World War 2.’
Dad used the Beeler Boys reference and mimicked Ahern’s boastful exaggeration as a lead-in to comment on the flak wound he had just received. It could be argued that the boastfulness of many of Room and Board’s characters was the main feature responsible for this comic strip’s enormous popularity.
Regarding the flak wound, details of this are important to me since I’ve spent a lot of time trying to nail down the particulars of Dad’s military service. He was flying with Verne Dicke when he was wounded. I know this because Dicke mentioned the incident in his memoir. What I did not know was exactly when it happened. Mr. Dicke had flown five missions with Dad but he could not recall the specific mission of the incident. The postmark on the letter’s envelope of March 25, 1944, resolved that enigma and reveals the incident date to be March 18th, a mission to Munich. Although Dad flew two missions with Dicke prior to the postmark, they turned back early on their March 16 mission due to an oil leak in their #3 engine. This happened well before their bomb group encountered any flak barrages.
To provide context regarding Dad’s mention of his ‘pin-up girl,’ he was speaking of my oldest sister, Carol, who was born just six weeks prior. Geneva is his wife and Pa Miller is my grandmother’s father. Concerning his request to ‘send pictures often of his four girlfriends,’ I can only speculate. My best guess is that he was referring to the four closest women in his life at the time, all living under the same roof, Grandma, Aunt Wilma, Mom, and Carol.
Lastly, Dad’s comment that if his brother Bob ‘came over’ he’d show him a ‘real plane’ struck a real chord with me. It made me laugh because it sounded exactly like something that he would say. Of course Dad didn’t know it, but his brother was there, a mere 37 miles away, in Wendling, England, having arrived in the E.T.O. on March 19. Second, Dad knew Bob was assigned to fly in the B-24, while he flew the B-17. Uncle Bob would have had a pretty decent argument in an imagined sibling debate of the better plane because the B-24 Liberator was faster and carried a larger payload over a longer range. However, the B-17 was more stable in flight, and accounted for a significantly higher ratio of downed German fighters. It wasn’t nicknamed “The Flying Fortress” for nothing. The B-17 could also withstand more battle damage and its roomier fuselage made bailing out, quicker and less arduous. These last two advantages led toward a higher ratio of airmen making it back to their bases or surviving the ordeal of being shot down. Prophetically, that survivability statistic played out for the Anderson family since Dad made it home, while Bob did not.
Family
James’s grandparents: Nolan and Mable Ella Miller |
James’s parents: William and Mary Katherine Anderson |
Geneva Anderson with daughter Carol in the summer of 1944 |
Charles R. Anderson |
From left: Bob Anderson, Mathias Nolan “Pa” Miller, James Anderson
From left: James’s sister Wilma Anderson, daughter Carol and wife Geneva Anderson.
Them Beeler Boys…
published Aug. 9, 1939 |
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Photographs and information on this page were provided by Tim Anderson, Family of JM Anderson