The FReeper Foxhole Profiles - The Cigarette Camps - US Army in Le Havre - September 26th, 2003

skylighters.org ^

[snippy_about_it]

Lord,

Keep our Troops forever in your care

Give them victory over the enemy...

Grant them a safe and swift return...

Bless those who mourn the lost.
.

FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer
for all those serving their country at this time.


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The Cigarette Camps

U.S. Army Camps in the Le Havre Area



After the Allies secured the French harbor of Le Havre (on the eastern side of the Bay of the Seine, opposite Cherbourg, as in the modern map view of Northern France below), the Americans began ringing the city with camps that served as staging areas for new troops arriving in the ETO. Most of the camps were located between Le Havre and Rouen. [They also constructed the so-called "City Camps" around the city of Reims; these camps served as assembly areas for units about to enter combat. And there were additional embarkation camps in Southern France, north of Marseilles, and, of course, Camp Tophat near Antwerp, Belgium.]



The wartime plan was for incoming units to first pass through staging camps on their way to the assembly areas, and then to the front. The staging-area camps were named after various brands of American cigarettes; the assembly area camps were named after American cities. The names of cigarettes and cities were chosen for two reasons: First, and primarily, for security. Referring to the camps without an indication of their geographical location went a long way to ensuring that the enemy would not know precisely where they were. Anybody eavesdropping or listening to radio traffic would think that cigarettes were being discussed or the camp was stateside, especially regarding the city camps.

Secondly, there was a subtle psychological reason, the premise being that troops heading into battle wouldn't mind staying at a place where cigarettes must be plentiful and troops about to depart for combat would be somehow comforted in places with familiar names of cities back home (Camp Atlanta, Camp Baltimore, Camp New York, and Camp Pittsburgh, among others). (I doubt if the GIs heading into Europe were taken in by any of that cigarette and city mumbo-jumbo!) By war's end, however, all of the cigarette and city camps were devoted to departees. Many processed liberated American POWs (Prisoners of War) and some even held German POWs for a while.



The city of Le Havre had fallen on September 12, 1944, but because of the persistence of the German defense and the ferocity of the Allied air assault, much of it was destroyed, including the world-class harbor facilities so coveted by the British and Americans. After sustaining heavy bombing throughout the war — between 130 and 150 air raids had been launched against the city — the town center was completely destroyed in the span of just four hours on 5/6 September 1944, in routine "carpet bombing" operations carried out by the Royal Air Force (RAF).



The necessity of liberating this great port on the north bank of the River Seine, in order to provide the necessary supplies for the Allied troops which were progressing north (Paris was liberated on 25 August), prompted General Montgomery to give the order for this large-scale attack, which made Le Havre the most severely damaged city in France. In the meantime, the Germans, in order to prevent the Allies from using the port, chose to destroy all of the port facilities before evacuating the city: 17 kilometers of quaysides were thus destroyed, leaving only one crane in working condition.



All in all, the war took the following toll: 5,000 people were killed, 12,500 buildings were destroyed, 80,000 people were left homeless; the population lost all tangible traces of its history. A few terrible words proved enough to express the feeling of the city's population in the face of this wasteland, which spread out over almost two kilometres, all the way to the sea front: "You could see as far as the sea!"



Considering that Cherbourg's harbor facilities were slowly being restored after being demolished by the Germans prior to surrendering the port, most of the Allies' men and materiel were being landed directly on the Normandy beaches and ferried inland, initially to be injected directly into combat and later to be sent to staging areas for placement.



The British had liberated the city, rested there for just a few days, and then continued their pursuit of the retreating Germans. The Americans arrived next, who desired to convert the harbor into a powerful logistical base from which to supply their armies with men and materiél. As they moved further and further from the Normandy beaches, Le Havre seemed ideally situated to feed the assault across Northern France.



The Americans, as they had done in Cherbourg, began to restore the harbor facilities, of which nearly 90% had been destroyed by the Germans, first by increasing the depth of the channel through which ships entered and then the general water level by prodigious dredging in the dock areas.



The XVIth Port Command also constructed dozens of ramps to facilitate the easy shuttling of personnel and supplies from ship to shore, since the city's beautiful quays were unusable by U.S. Quartermaster Corps standards since they were too high above the water. The Americans were practical and many physical changes were necessary to ease the transfer of supplies from ship to amphibious vehicles (such as LCAs and DUKWs) to the warehouses and storage areas where trucks (mostly operated under the auspices of the famous "Red Ball Express") would load up.



Just as the concept of "hards" (which resembled sloping car parks that led directly into the water) had transformed dozens of British harbors prior to D-Day (and expedited the ferrying of troops from shore to large landing ships via assault craft), Le Havre's waterfront suddenly saw the construction of similar ramps to speed the delivery of spare parts and spare GIs to the mainland.



The men who disembarked in the harbor were ferried immediately to the Cigarette Camps, the hastily erected conglomerations of tents and wooden huts that rose up in the forests and fields to the east and southeast of the city.



There was Camp Herbert Tareyton, located in the Forest of Montgeon within the city limits, with a capacity of 16,400 men.



Camp Wings, with a capacity of 2,250 men, was situated — somewhat appropriately — on the grounds of the Blaville Aerodrome.



At Sanvic, 2,000 men called Camp Home Run home;



at Gainneville, Camp Philip Morris held 35,000 men;



and at Etretat, Camp Pall Mall provided rather soggy billets for 7,700 men.



But these were not the largest, or even the busiest, camps. That distinction goes to the "Big Three" — Camp Lucky Strike, located between Cany and Saint-Valery (capacity 58,000); Camp Old Gold, at Ourville (capacity 35,000); and Camp Twenty Grand, at Duclair (capacity 20,000).



It is estimated that nearly three million American troops either entered or left Europe through Le Havre, which led to it becoming known as the "Gateway to America" in 1945-46.




In late 1944 these camps were rather primitive places, usually sprawling tent cities characterized by a sense of transience, with little if any conveniences. These "canvas" camps were at the mercy of the weather that was particular to Northern Europe in the Fall and Winter of 1944-45, and many U. S. veterans who spent time at any of them before the onset of the Battle of the Bulge and prior to being shuttled forward recall nothing but cold rain and colder mud, and, of course, snow. Trenchfoot ran rampant. So did the flu.


The camps, located in what the Army designated the "Red Horse" staging area, were, as noted, named for American cigarettes, which were fast becoming a universal currency in the ETO. Soon, GIs were cursing places called Camp Chesterfield and Camp Lucky Strike. And there was Camp Old Gold too, and Philip Morris, Pall Mall, Herbert Tareyton, Wings, Home Run, and Twenty Grand.



They'd cross the channel in some LST or an even tinier tub, perhaps an LCI, spend a few days in what must have seemed like a hell hole, and then entrain to the front in boxcars known as "40 and 8s" (so called for the French designation "40 hommes et 8 cheveaux," which means the boxcars had a capacity of 40 men or eight horses;)or in trucks. The camps were also known as "pneumonia holes," "repple-depples," or "Repo Depots" (denoting Replacement Depots, also spelled as Repo Depos). (WW II movie buffs will recall that the opening scenes of WIlliam Wellmann's Battleground evoke the atmosphere at these camps pretty accurately.)



The camp sites first had military designations like B-19 and in the fall and winter of 1944 were not more than snow-covered patches of France on top of which squad tents had been erected. The following account (culled and condensed from the experiences of many units that were there) of the changes they saw at Camp Lucky Strike between their arrival in open trucks in late 1944 and their departure the following spring shows how these camps evolved:



"New arrivals were cold, tired, and hungry, but there was work to be done before they could get some shut-eye. They had to assemble their own cots and set up stoves and pick up fuel and haul it back. (There was no room service!) The heat from the stoves barely heated the tents and seemed only effective at thawing the frozen dirt floors so by morning the cots had settled into a good four inches of mud. Soon gravel was available to put down and the men hauled it back in pails, steel helmets, and any other container that could be found. The paths leading through the rows of tents were also graveled and the situation was beginning to improve.

After a few months, most of the tents had wooden floors, doors, shelves, and cabinets. A softball diamond, as well as volleyball and basketball courts, had been constructed. Day room and theater tents had been set up. Soon resident units were printing their own newspapers. And the whole place was wired for electricity. Twenty-four hour passes were available to Le Havre, Rouen, Fecamp, and Yvetot. Since bathing facilities at camp were nonexistent, one of the first places visited by men on pass was the Red Cross shower room. Perhaps the next most popular spot was the Hotel Metropole in Rouen, where for a price just about anything could be obtained. It was also while on pass that most of the men had their first experiences with French wines, cognac, calvados, and benedictine."



"There was a sign at Lucky Strike, prominently displayed, that in no uncertain terms stated that 'personnel being processed through this camp were entitled to have one souvenir pistol in their possession, but only one. Anyone found to have more than one will be court marshaled and given a sentence of six months hard labor in the European Theater of Operations!' There were pyramidal tents pitched on platforms and outside each tent was a large hogshead full of water to be used in case of fire.

Before we had been in the camp more than an hour or so, these barrels were overflowing and by evening you could clearly see that they were half full of all sorts of side arms. If you'd ever been there, many GIs agree that you would have no desire to revisit the camp. Under the floor of the tents the rats grew to cat size and sounded as though they were wearing boots when they tramped around while the men were trying to sleep at night. Really nothing to do all day, don't remember being allowed to go into the city and time passed slowly waiting for a ship."


Happy U.S. veterans head for harbor of Le Havre, France, the first to be sent home and discharged under the Army's new point system. [Signal Corps photo dated May 25, 1945 (111-SC-207868].


The SS Maritime Victory at Le Havre prior to boarding after leaving Philip Morris, January 1946

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[snippy_about_it]

The Point System

At the core of the U.S. Army Demobilization Plan was the so-called 'Point System.' Points were awarded for years of service overseas, medals and other commendations received, campaign battle stars earned, as well as other factors. The magic point total for being sent home was 85. Many men had more points, and those that had the most were slated to be sent home first. Following is a pretty typical point-system computation table (though probably incomplete):

   At the core of the U.S. Army Demobilization Plan was the so-called 'Point System.' Points were awarded for years of service overseas, medals and other commendations received, campaign battle stars earned, as well as other factors. The magic point total for being sent home was 85. Many men had more points, and those that had the most were slated to be sent home first. Following is a pretty typical point-system computation table (though probably incomplete):

Number of months in the armed forces	1 point per month
Number of months overseas	1 point per month
Number of children	12 points per child
Number of battle stars earned by unit	5 points per star
Purple Heart winner	5 points per award
Soldier's Medal winner	5 points per award
Bronze Star winner	5 points per award
Presidential Unit Citation winner	5 points per award

GI were constantly badgering company clerks to get errors corrected and adjustments made to their point totals, which were recorded on their "Adjusted Service Rating Cards." Those men with the magic number of 85 points, or more, were to return to the United States, while those with fewer points were transferred out to make room for high point men from other organizations.

Those with 80 to 84 points were sent to other units in the ETO and some of those with even fewer points were sent home on furlough and then went on to retraining for duty in the Pacific. The latter were perhaps the most fortunate of all, since the war in the Pacific soon ended and many of them were discharged before the higher-point men in the ETO got home.


An Army band plays a farewell tune as a Victory Ship leaves Le Havre bound for the States.

Occupation troops also continued to arrive at Le Havre and spend a few days at a "cigarette camp" before receiving final orders throughout 1945, although by 1946, they were falling into disrepair and were becoming little more than the ramshackle collections of tents pitched in vast mudholes that they were two years before.



Today, little remains. Names of GIs carved into trees in the surrounding forests. Some scuffed tarmac. Perhaps a wooden structure or two absorbed into the French villages that have grown up around the original sites.

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Today's Educational Sources and suggestions for further reading:
www.skylighters.org

[snippy_about_it]

... Of Soldiers & Cigarettes


Hollywood bombshell Rita Hayworth, a favorite wartime pinup queen, wears a cigarette well in this sultry pose from the postwar smash hit Gilda.

Cigarettes were one of the few pleasures that an American GI could avail themselves of no matter where they were. Crouching in the bottom of a wet foxhole. Sitting in the belly of a C-47 waiting to jump into the darkness. Riding in the back of a deuce-and-a-half to God-knows-where. There was nothing more relaxing than a cigarette during moments of respite before the return of battle.

In 1941, U. S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt had made tobacco a protected crop. Cigarettes, though, were included in GI C-rations, and tobacco companies sent millions of free "butts" to GIs, mostly the popular brands; the people on the home front had to make do with off-brands like Rameses or Pacayunes. Tobacco consumption was so fierce during the war that a shortage developed.

By the end of the war, cigarette sales were at an all-time high. In 1942, the American Tobacco Co. (ATC) responded to the dye shortage by changing the Lucky Strike package from green to white. Its slogan: "Lucky Strike Green Has Gone to War." The ad campaign coincided with the U.S. invasion of North Africa. Sales increased by 38%. A year later, Lucky Strike's green/gold pack turned all-white, with a red bull's eye. The war effort needed titanium, contained in Lucky's green ink, and bronze, contained in the gold.

ATC took this opportunity to change the color of the pack – hated by women because it invariably clashed with their dresses – to white. By war's end, cigarettes had become a currency throughout the ETO's black markets (along with chocolate and nylon stockings).

Once France had been liberated, the U.S. Army established a series of camps just outside of the harbor city of Le Havre. Each was named after a popular American cigarette of the period, primarily for security reasons: Lucky Strike, Old Gold, Philip Morris, Twenty Grand, and Chesterfield, among others. In 1944-45, the camps were essentially depots for new arrivals bound for the front lines bordering the West Wall (the "Siegfried Line").

These replacements were desperately needed to bring the American divisions being bloodied in places like the Hürtgen Forest, the Saar, and, later, the Bulge. After V-E day, they were transformed into way stations for men returning home. Like the cigarettes they were named after, they were a pleasant diversion from war no matter how short-lived, though the men who spent time there going in either direction certainly cursed them at the time.

[snippy_about_it]

In their own words.



"We arrived in Lucky Strike early in January 1945. Mud, cold chow, and misery were the menu. One Sunday afternoon, soon after getting there, I was cutting something with my knife (a hunting knife I had purchased Stateside). It slipped and I cut my left thumb joint. It was bleeding, so I ran over to the medical tent they'd set up. A second lieutenant was on duty and he put two clamps on my cut. He began to sweat, so I asked him 'what's your problem?' 'You're my first patient,' he replied. I told him 'You'd better get used to it.'



We stayed at Lucky Strike for three or four days, then we marched out. On the way to the front we saw our first casualties. On April 15, 1945, we went crossed into Cologne, Germany in trucks, and then right outside of the city we got out. We marched for a while and put up for the night. The next morning we set out again and had not gone far when we saw a sign pointing back to Cologne (in German). It said "14 km." Right then we got pinned down by machine gun fire. I was shot right through the nose when I lifted my head to see where the gun was. (It was in the tower of a courthouse.) I jumped up to run to get to a house to take cover, but the gunner got me again. Through my right calf this time. So there was no more of that!

Earl L. Fort
97th Infantry Division, 387th Regiment
3rd Btn, I Co., 1st Plt., 2nd Sqd.
August 2001

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"I was a member of the 11th Armored Division, which was deactivated, and I ended up finally in the Ohio Division. My number — 59, I think — came up for return to the U.S. in early January 1946. I do not recall the name of the cigarette camp that I shipped through, but Herbert Tareyton sounds familiar. At any rate, when we got to the camp and were assigned our tents, we were told that we had one scuttle of coal and the only available coal was at the USO club. Anyone caught stealing coal would be pulled from his normal shipment and no promise of when there would be a ship.

We soon ran out of coal, and drew straws to see who would be the unlucky one. Yep, I got the short one, so I took the scuttle, sneaked into the woods, and, using my infantry training and experience, carefully and quietly worked my way around to the USO facility. I knew there was no cover for the last 50 yards. When I got to the edge of the woods, there was a line — I had to stand in line to steal that coal!"

James Powers
August 2001

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"I was assigned to Camp Pall Mall, in Etretat, France, from mid-May until mid-December 1945. I went overseas in early September 1944 with the 99th Infantry Division as a battalion I&R man. I was wounded on Dec. 19 when a "Bouncing Betty" mine blew up under me as I was trying to clear a path for my men to get out. I spent four months in a hospital in Bristol, England, and was returning to my unit when the war ended in Europe.

I was assigned to the the 16th Major Port, Le Havre, France, and then to Pall Mall. Pall Mall started out very small and our primary duty was to process our men who had been POWs. I was given a new MOS, 604, Clerk Typist, simply because I could type, and was given the job of Personnel Chief although I was only a PFC. Our cadre, to begin with, numbered in the twenties, but grew rapidly and when we closed Pall Mall in Dec. 1945 we numbered something over 300. It was an unusual organization — no T/O or T/E, no military protocol — we did our job well and headquarters left us alone.

That suited us fine, since 95% of the personnel were ex-combat veterans and many had been wounded, like myself. All we wanted was to do our job and wait for our points to come up so we could come home and be discharged. Pall Mall was the most pleasant of all my assignments in the service. Etretat was a small seaside resort with good weather and friendly natives. I would give Pall Mall a Five-Star rating!

William M. "Mac" Goldfinch, Jr.
99th Infantry Division
August 2001

[snippy_about_it]

[snippy_about_it]

.......FALL IN to the FReeper Foxhole!

.......Good Friday Morning Everyone!


If you would like added to our ping list let us know.

[E.G.C.]

And a very pleasant good morning to you Snippy and everyone at the Freeper Foxhole.

My, oh my!!!! Everyone is sure busy freepin' today(LOL):-D

[The Mayor]

cigarette camp ? talk about politically incorrect!
I wonder what they would have said about todays climate?

Ahhhh, never mind, have a donut

[snippy_about_it]

Good morning EGC, yippee it's Friday!!

[snippy_about_it]

Good morning Mayor.

PC is something we certainly aren't in the Foxhole. LOL.

Donuts, coffee and a smoke. TGIF!

[Colonel_Flagg]

Good morning, all!

I've had four hours of sleep and am ready to face the day. Or something like that. Hope you are well :)

[snippy_about_it]

Good Morning Colonel.

I know what only 4 hours sleep is like. Lots of coffee will be required today!

Be careful out there. ;)

[manna]

Present!

[snippy_about_it]

Good morning manna.

[HiJinx]

cigarette camp ? talk about politically incorrect!
I wonder what they would have said about todays climate?

Interesting, that. Some things never change...thoughts run to the desert camps our boys and girls set up in Kuwait. Camp New York, Camp Pennsylvania, etc.

I had assumed that the names were simply a way to honor the victims of terror on 9/11, not even beginning to realize we had done all this before.

[w_over_w]

Morning Glory Snip & Sam~

Interesting post . . . it reads GOOD! . . . lika a (clap clap) cigarette should!

[Valin]

On this Day In history


Birthdates which occurred on September 26:
1729 Moses Mendelssohn philosopher/critic/Bible translator
1774 John Chapman [Johnny Appleseed], frontier nurseryman
1820 Isvar Chandra Vidyasagar father of Bengali prose (Exile of Sita)
1876 Edith Abbott dean U of Chic Social Sciences
1888 T.S. Eliot St Louis poet/dramatist/critic (Waste Land-Nobel 1948)
1889 Martin Heidegger Germany, Existentialist (Being & Time)
1891 Charles Munch Strasbourg Alsatian conductor (French Legion D'Honeur)
1895 Fay Holden Birmingham England, actress (Mother-Andy Hardy films)
1897 Pope Paul VI 262nd Roman Catholic pope (1963-78)
1898 George Gershwin [Jacob Gershvin] Bkln NY, composer (Rhapsody in Blue)
1901 Donald Cook Portland Ore, actor (Too Young To Go Steady)
1902 Albert Anastasia head of Murder Inc
1907 Ralph Michael London England, actor (Quest, Doctor in the House)
1914 Jack LaLanne exercise mogul
1919 Barbara Britton Long Beach, Calif, actress (Young & Willing)
1925 Bobby Shantz baseball player (1952 AL MVP)
1925 Marty Robbins Glendale Az, singer (Devil Woman, I Walk Alone)
1926 Julie London Santa Rosa Calif, actress (Nurse McCall-Emergency)
1927 Patrick O'Neal Ocala Fla, actor (Kaz, Alvarez Kelly, King Rat)
1930 Fritz Wunderlich Kusel Germany, tenor (Stuttgart 1955-58)
1930 Philip Bosco Jersey City, actor (Trading Places)
1932 Clifton C Williams Jr Mobile Alabama, Major USMC/astronaut
1932 Joyce Jameson Chicago Ill, comedienne (Spike Jones Show)
1933 Donna Douglas [Dot Smith], Pride La, actress (Beverly Hillbillies)
1942 Kent McCord LA Calif, actor (Officer Jim Reed-Adam 12)
1945 Brian Ferry England, rocker (Roxy Music-Let's Stick Together)
1946 Mary Beth Hurt Iowa, actress (Garp, Change of Seasons)
1947 Graham Faulkner London, actor (Brother Sun Sister Moon)
1947 Lynn Anderson ND, country singer (I Never Promised you a Rose Garden)
1947 Richard Roth US, 400m swim medley (Olympic-gold-1964)
1948 Olivia Newton-John Cambridge England, singer (I Honestly Love You, Physical)
1948 Vladimir Remek 1st Czechoslovakian space traveler (in Soyuz 28)
1952 James Keane Buffalo NY, actor (Willis Bell-Paper Chase)
1956 Linda Hamilton Salisbury Md, actress (Catherine-Beauty & the Beast)
1962 Melissa Sue Anderson Cal, actress (Little House on the Prairie)
1962 Tracey Thorn rocker (Everything But the Girls)
1963 Lysette Anthony London, actress (Angelique-Dark Shadows, Switch)
1964 Ty Miller Granada Hills Calif, actor (The Kid-The Young Riders)
1967 Martha Nix Orange County Calif, actress (Serena-Waltons)
1972 Shann Stockman [Slim], Phila Pa, rapper (Boyz II Men)

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Deaths which occurred on September 26:
1342 John I, ruler of Poland, dies
1820 Daniel Boone frontiersman, dies in Missouri at 85
1904 Lafcadio Hearn multinational author, dies
1917 Edgar H G Degas, French painter (ballerina), dies
1937 Bessie Smith singer, dies of injuries sustained in car crash
1952 George Santayana, US philosopher/poet (Last Puritan), dies at 88
1959 PM Solomon Bandaranaike of Ceylon (Sri Lanka) assassinated
1964 Calvin Thomas actor (Judge Hunter-One Man's Family), dies at 79
1972 Charles Correll actor (Calvin and the Colonel), dies at 82
1973 Anna Magnani actress, dies at 64
1990 Alberto Moravia Italian writer (Woman in Red), dies at 82
2000 Actor Richard Mulligan died at age 67.

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Reported: MISSING in ACTION

1966 BALLARD ARTHUR T. SPARTANBURG SC.
[03/04/73 RELEASED BY DRV, ALIVE IN 2000
1966 MOSBURG HENRY L. PUTNAM OK.
1966 PHILLIPS MARVIN F. GRUETLI TN.
1967 GEIST STEPHEN J. SILVER SPRINGS MD.
1967 HUDDLESTON LYNN R. RALLS TX.
1967 MOE HAROLD JOHN EAU CLAIRE WI.
1968 OLSON BARRY A. ALBERT LEA MN.
1972 WALSH JAMES P. WINSTED CN.
[02/12/73 RELEASED BY PRG, ALIVE IN 99]

POW / MIA Data & Bios supplied by
the P.O.W. NETWORK. Skidmore, MO. USA.

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On this day...
1396 Sultan Bajezid I beheads several hundred crusaders
1580 Elizabethan seaman Francis Drake returned to Plymouth, England, in the Golden Hind, becoming the first British navigator to have circumnavigated the planet, returns to England with Spanish treasure
1655 Peter Stuyvesant recaptures Dutch Ft Casimir from Swedish in Delaware
1687 Parthenon destroyed in war between Turks & Venetians
1777 British troops occupy Philadelphia during the American Revolution
1789 Jefferson appointed 1st Sec of State; John Jay 1st chief justice; Samuel Osgood 1st Postmaster & Edmund J Randolph 1st Attorney Genl
1824 Kapiolani defies Pele (Hawaiian volcano goddess) & lives
1826 The Persian cavalry is routed by the Russians at the Battle of Ganja in the Russian Caucasus.
1829 Scotland Yard, the official British criminal investigation organization, is formed.
1835 The opera "Lucia di Lammermoor" is produced (Naples)
1864 General Nathan Bedford Forrest and his men assault a Federal garrison near Pulaski, Tennessee
1890 US stops minting $1 & $3 gold coin & 3 piece
1892 1st public appearance of John Philip Sousa's band (NJ)
1896 John Philip Sousa led band's 1st performance (Plainfield, NJ)
1906 Pitts Lefty Leifield no-hits Phillies, 8-0 in 6 inning game
1907 New Zealand becomes a dominion
1908 Ed Ruelbach shuts-out Dodgers in a doubleheader
1914 Federal Trade Commission formed to regulate interstate commerce
1918 Meuse-Argonne offensive against Germany began during WW I
1918 German Ace Ernst Udet shoots down two Allied planes, bringing his total for the war up to 62
1925 Italian sub "Sebastiano Veniero" lost off Sicily with 54 dead
1926 Shortest double header, Yanks lose 6-1 in 72 minutes & lose again 6-2 in 55 minutes to the Browns. Yanks had already clinched pennant
1934 British liner Queen Mary is launched
1947 Happy Chandler announces Ford & Gillette to sponsor World Series
1948 Boston Braves win 1st NL championship since 1914
1950 Because of forest fire in Br Columbia, blue moon appears in England
1950 UN troops in Korean War recaptured South Korean capital of Seoul
1952 Yanks clinch pennant #19
1954 Typhoon strikes Kakodate Bay Japan, killing over 1,600
1955 NY Stock Exchange worst price decline since 1929
1957 Musical "West Side Story," opens on Broadway
1958 Columbia (US) beats Sceptre (England) in 18th America's Cup
1959 SF Giants Sam Jones 2nd no-hitter, beats St Louis Cards, 4-0
1960 1st of 4 TV debates Nixon & Kennedy took place (Chicago)
1960 Longest speech in UN history (4 hrs, 29 mins, by Fidel Castro)
1961 Nineteen-year-old Bob Dylan makes his New York singing debut at Gerde's Folk City.
1961 Roger Maris hits HR #60 off Jack Fisher, tying Babe Ruth's record
1962 1st to steal 100 bases in a season (Maury Wills goes on to 104)
1962 TV comedy series "The Beverly Hillbillies" premiers on CBS
1962 Yemen Arab Republic proclaimed (National Day)
1966 "Staten Island," 1st icebreaker to enter SF bay
1968 Hawaii Five-O debuts as an hourly program on CBS
1968 St Louis Cards' Bob Gibson's 13th shutout, ends with 1.12 ERA
1969 Beatles release "Abbey Road" album
1972 American Museum of Immigration dedicated
1973 Concorde flies from Washington DC to Paris in 3h33m
1973 Wilt Chamberlain signs with ABA San Diego Conquistadors
1975 Phillies & NY Mets play a doubleheader that ends at 3:15 AM
1976 Phillies clinch their 1st NL East Division title
1977 Sir Freddie Laker begins cut-rate "Skytrain" service, London to NY
1978 RR clerks go on strike, halting more than 2/3s of rail service
1979 1984 summer LA Olympic coverage sold to ABC for $225 million
1980 Cuban govt closes Mariel Harbor ending "freedom flotilla"
1980 Soyuz 38 returns to Earth
1981 Houston Astro Nolan Ryan 5th no-hitter beats LA Dodgers, 5-0
1983 Ali Haji-Sheikh kicks NY Giant record 56 yard field goal
1983 Australia II wins America's Cup yacht race (1st non-US winner)
1983 Cosmonauts Titov & Strekalov are saved from exploding Soyuz T-10
1983 St Louis Card Bob Forsch 2nd no-hitter beats Montreal Expos, 3-0
1984 5,251 turn out to see the Phillies play the NY Mets at Shea Stadium
1984 Britain & China initial agreement return Hong Kong to China in 1997
1984 Pres Reagan vetoes sanctions against South Africa
1986 Antonin Scalia becomes a Supreme Court Justice
1986 William Rehnquist becomes Chief Justice of the Supreme Court
1986 Bobby (Patrick Duffy) returns to Dallas, his death is attributed to his wife Pam's bad dream (erases all of last season)
1988 Canada`s Ben Johnson stripped of his 100-m gold failing drug test
1988 NYC's Rockefeller Center declared a national landmark
1988 Polish communist party picks propaganda chief Rakowski as new PM
1988 US space shuttle STS-26 launched
1990 Motion Picture Assn of America creates new NC-17 rating
1991 2 year experimental Biosphere 2 in Oracle Arizona begins
1996 Richard Allen Davis, the killer of 12-year-old Polly Klaas, was formally sentenced to death in San Jose, Calif.

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Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"

New Zealand : Dominion Day
Sri Lanka : Bandaranaike Day (1959)
Yemen Arab Rep, Yemen Peo Dem Rep : Revolution Day (1962)
US : Gold Star Mother's Day (Last Sunday in September) (Sunday)
US : Good Neighbor Day (4th Sunday in September) (Sunday)
US : Press Sunday (Sunday)
US : American Indian Day (4th Friday in September) (1916) (Friday)
Khmer Republic : Ceremony of the Dead
National Dog Week (Day 6)
Religious Freedom Week (Day 6)
Roller Skating Week (Day 6)
Sea Cadet Month
Self Improvement Month

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Religious Observances
RC : Memorial of SS Cosmas & Damian, martyrs, patrons of MDs (opt)
Ang : Commemoration of Lancelot Andrewes, bishop of Winchester

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Religious History
1774 Birth of pioneer environmentalist Jonathan Chapman (Johnny Appleseed). Distributing apple seeds and religious tracts from the Alleghenies to the Ohio Valley, Chapman's theology was strongly reminiscent of Swedenborgianism, which taught an empathy with the natural world.
1814 With over 1,000 delegates from 17 churches, the Flint River Association was established -- the first official Baptist organization of its kind in the history of Alabama.
1835 The Suwanee Association was formed, in Florida. Comprised of eight member churches, it was the first official Baptist organization in Florida history.
1897 Birth of Giovanni Battista Montini. He was ordained in 1920, named a cardinal in 1958, and in June 1963 chosen successor to John XXIII as Pope Paul VI. His 15 years as pontiff saw a widening application of the decisions first made at the Vatican II Ecumenical Council (1962-65).
1990 In Russia, the Supreme Soviet ended decades of religious repression with a new declaration, forbidding government interference in religious activities and giving citizens the right to study religion in homes and private schools.

Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.

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Thought for the day :
"God wisely designed the human body so that we can neither pat our own backs nor kick ourselves too easily."

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You might be from Wisconsin if...
you were unaware there is a legal drinking age

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Murphys Law of the day...(Anthony's Law of Force)
Don't force it, get a larger hammer.

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It's a little known fact that...
Animal gestation periods: the shortest is the American opossum, which bears its young 12 to 13 days after conception; the longest is the Asiatic elephant, taking 608 days, or just over 20 months.

[SAMWolf]

Good Morning Snippy.

Great job on the thread today. I had heard of the Cigarette Camps but never knew the story behind them. Fascinating story and probably little known except by those who were there. Thanks for researching and covering this topic.

I remember the camp scene in "Battleground" (A great movie).

My favorite picture:

[SAMWolf]

Morning E.G.C. Another gorgeous day here.

[SAMWolf]

cigarette camp ? talk about politically incorrect!

Morning Mayor, that's what I thought when I was reading the thread. LOL! Any chance we can get free cigarettes with the coffee and donuts?

[SAMWolf]

Morning Colonel_Flagg.

4 Hours? Darksheares coffee?