Do you think interest in American Participation in WWI will increase?

[Sabrejet]

A similar government sponsored salvage drive was held in the UK during WW2. Pots, pans, iron railings and all manner of metal stuff were gathered up by ordinary citizens and donated to support the war effort. For example, aluminium pans were meant to assist in providing vital raw materials to build Spitfires. Post-war however, it became evident that this re-cycling campaign was really more to do with galvanizing (no pun intended) public support so that everyone on the homefront felt that they were "doing their bit" rather than simply providing a valuable source of raw materials. It was a case of "We're all in this together!"

[cutiger83]

 

I read about in one of the WW2 magazines about a year ago and have seen mention of it several times over the years. There was also a documentary on PBS a few years back that talked about all the stuff that got scrapped for nothing (civil war artillery, church bells, the span-am battleship USS Oregon), all for nothing as the purity of those metals couldn't be confirmed so none of it was actually used for defense purposes. All that history melted down, just to make people feel like they were doing something...

 

 

 

Not sure what you meant by the USS Oregon being scrapped for the scrap metal drive. It was determined that the ship should be scrapped which happens to many outdated ships. “Accordingly, she was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 2 November 1942 and sold on 7 December. On that day, one year after the attack on Pearl Harbor, a parade commemorating the ship marched through the streets of downtown Portland.” The final sale took place in 1956. There are pieces of the battleship at memorials in different places.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Oregon_%28BB-3%29

 

 

I still have not been able to find anything out about the Smithsonian doing anything for the scrap metal drive. While they MAY have donated some items, there is a HUGE difference between some items being donated and “the Smithsonian donated their entire WW1 tank collection for a WW2 scrap drive”.

 

In searching the internet, I found mention of two Civil War cannons that were offered for the scrap metal drive.

 

I found this on the PBS website regarding scrap metal drives in WWII. It mentions some cannon balls that were volunteered to be melted down.

 

https://www.pbs.org/thewar/detail_5406.htm

 

“Luverne, Minnesota had been founded by Civil War veterans, but now the town council volunteered to melt down the cannon balls that formed part of the memorial to the Union dead to make munitions for the new conflict.”

 

 

 

 

We also need to remember that WWII was a completely different time for not only our country but the entire world. We had just been thru a depression where people were used to having to recycle and reuse. As others have said, it is amazing anything from WWI survived. The citizens of countries such as the US and England were doing everything they could to assist in the war effort. As one of the people on the PBS interview above said:

 

"KATHARINE PHILLIPS: All of this we knew made ammunition, but we didn’t know how. But anything to help the boys."

[cutiger83]

I also find it interesting that this thread started to discuss interest in WWI has evolved into discussing WWII. :D

[Garandomatic]

I also find it interesting that this thread started to discuss interest in WWI has evolved into discussing WWII. :D

Got to be some kind of militaria collectors' paradox...

[kammo-man]

 

It made me wonder how anything from those WW1 collections survived into the WW1 era, especially once Germans were reviled again at the start of WW2...

Don't forget, the Smithsonian donated their entire WW1 tank collection for a WW2 scrap drive, a complete travesty for that institution.

 

 

Can you prove this ?

[cutiger83]

 

I read about in one of the WW2 magazines about a year ago and have seen mention of it several times over the years.

 

 

 

I found the article mentioned in a WWII magazine. It was in the “World War II” issue from July/August 2010 and was titled “Iron Will”. The article describes many different items that were donated to scrap drives. However, the Smithsonian is not mentioned anywhere in the article.

 

 

Here are some excerpts:

 

“The most pressing need from the beginning of the war was scrap metal. Salvaged iron and steel were essential to the open-hearth method of steel production. Only a five or six week supply was on hand when the Japanese struck Pearl Harbor – largely because the United States had sold to Japan a total of 200 million tons of scrap between 1935 and 1940. Furthermore, it was a need that Americans could readily perceive. Unlike paper and waste fat, for example, the relationship of metal to armaments seemed dramatically clear. They believed it when the government said 30,000 razor blades contained enough steel to make fifty .30 caliber machine guns, or that the iron in a shovel was sufficient to manufacture four hand grenades. The opportunity to make a measurable contribution to the war effort appealed deeply to Americans and they plunged into the search for scrap with such enthusiasm that they sometimes sacrificed objects of historical or artistic value – and later regretted their haste. “

 

Items such as cannons, monuments, even metalwork from a Manhattan hotel, The Ansonia, are mentioned. The USS Oregon is mentioned in the article. It states “In the fall of 1942, despite widespread protests, Roosevelt authorized its salvage while preserving for history another survivor of the Spanish-American War, the battleship Olympia. “ The Navy later ordered the scrapping to stop where it was sent to the Pacific for use as a munitions barge during the Battle of Guam.

 

These are the final two paragraphs in the article:

 

“But no one questioned the impact on civilian morale. Scrap collecting gave Americans on the home front the sense that they were an important part of the national effort which strengthened morale and support for the war. For young people who might have felt isolated at home, with their fathers fighting overseas and their mothers working in defense industries, participation in the scrap drives kept them out of trouble and encouraged a sense of common purpose.

 

James Covert was nine years old when the war started. His father was in the Navy and his brother in the Army Air Forces. But he recalled how the discipline on the home front kept him preoccupied. 'Saturdays and after school were always taken up with activities for the war effort- like scrap drives and collecting tin and tinfoil,' he said, 'The whole idea of saving and rationing was drilled into us, that our doing without was saving lives overseas.' What Americans gained by that spirit of sacrifice and patriotism far outweighed the objects they lost”.

 

Earlier in the article, it does mention “Efforts to replace what was collected for the drives continue today.” I thought this was pretty cool.

 

...Kat

[cutiger83]

I would now like to apologize to RC for this thread getting side-tracked to WWII. I hope it now gets back to talking about WWI.

 

....Kat