Voices at Whisper Bend (16 page)

On April 28, 1942, the day Charlotte's story opens, President Franklin D. Roosevelt spoke to the nation in one of his frequent radio talks, called “fireside chats.” He admitted the war was going badly for the United States, and he asked ordinary Americans at home to sacrifice for victory, just as their fighting men were doing overseas. Like Charlotte, adults and children everywhere quickly found new ways to pitch in and help their country win the war.

The president's message had special meaning in steel-producing towns. To win the war, America needed ships and weapons—which required steel, and lots of it. During the war, western Pennsylvania river towns blazed night and day. Smoke and soot from tall chimneys filled the skies, slag heaps smoldered, tugs and barges clogged the rivers. Mills like the Edgar Thomson added new furnaces so they could pour endless tons of steel. In fact, the Pittsburgh area, including Braddock, poured nearly 30 percent of all the steel used by America and her allies during World War II. This amazing effort earned the area a new name—
Victory Valley
.

All over the country, schools, scout troops, and church groups held scrap drives, collecting metal to be recycled. They gathered items made of aluminum, tin, copper, iron, and steel, sorted them, and sent them to factories to be melted down. Eventually, so much metal was turned into war supplies that there wasn't even enough to make diaper pins! People also collected and recycled paper, rubber, and even lard, which was used in making artillery shells and grenades.

Americans pitched in to be sure their soldiers and allies also got the tons of food, clothing, and other supplies they needed. Families planted backyard “Victory gardens” so more farm products could go to soldiers. Schools in farm areas closed in spring and fall so students could help plant and harvest crops. And everyone saved money to buy war bonds and stamps to help the government pay for all the needed supplies.

The United States shipped so many goods overseas that serious shortages occurred at home. Sugar, fruit, meat, rubber, metal, paper, clothing, leather, and gasoline all grew scarce. The government began
rationing
, or limiting, how much of these products each family could buy. Imagine having to make one pair of shoes last a whole year, or saving sugar coupons for weeks to bake holiday cookies!

With so many men overseas, workers were in short supply, too. Women like Charlotte's mother, who had worked at home caring for their families, took factory jobs. They traded dresses for overalls and made steel, ships, bombs, bullets, and thousands of airplanes. Their work was vital to America's war effort. And 350,000 women joined the military, handling noncombat jobs such as nursing, office work, packing parachutes, and testing new airplanes, so that men could fight.

As Americans at home did their part for the war, a sense of unity and shared purpose took hold across the country. People grew strong and determined. But they were often afraid, too. Air-raid drills frightened many children. As sirens blared, people in homes and schools darkened their windows and hid in basements, practicing what to do if warplanes attacked. Children in industrial areas knew that their towns were likely bombing targets if German warplanes crossed the Atlantic.

Radios and newspapers reported battles lost, islands overrun, and ships sunk. Movie theaters ran vivid newsreels before every featured film. Up on the movie screen, children saw battle scenes, German soldiers, and Japanese warplanes. Such images were especially chilling to people with loved ones fighting in the war.

When America first entered the war, only young single men, like Charlotte's brother Jim, were called into service. Soldiers agreed to serve as long as the war lasted, plus six months. Young men like Jim ended up serving four or five long years—from 1941 until the war ended in 1945, or even longer.

Mothers hung a blue star in the window for each son in service, as Charlotte's mother did. If a son was killed, a gold star replaced the blue one. Some families had more than one gold star before the war was over.

Eventually, married men and fathers also had to serve in the military. Only men with medical problems, extreme family hardships, or jobs vital to the war—like the work Charlotte's father did—were
deferred
, or excused, from service.

When a man served in the war, his family did not know where he was or how much danger he was facing. The government
censored
all letters to and from servicemen, cutting out words that might tell enemy spies about troop movements or war production. Letters between soldiers and their families show the heartbreak and sadness these separations caused, and also the bravery of women at home, who wrote strong, encouraging letters to their men overseas. One such woman signed each letter “all my love, all my life.”

Millions of American men and women served in the war. Many did not return—400,000 Americans died in World War II, and nearly 17 million people died across the world.

In the steel towns of Pennsylvania, as in the rest of the country, World War II required patriotism and sacrifice. Americans turned all their efforts to victory, believing with President Roosevelt that freedom must be preserved, whatever the cost.

G
EOGRAPHICAL
N
OTE

There really is a Whisper Bend on the Monongahela River, but for purposes of this story, the cove has been moved several miles downstream to the town of Braddock, and a lock and dam have been moved upstream.

About the Author

Katherine Ayres writes fiction and nonfiction for all ages and teaches writing to graduate students at Chatham University. She lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Stockbridge, Massachusetts, and when not writing or teaching, she loves to walk, hike, kayak, spend time with kids, knit, and keep watching for bears. Visit her at
www.katherineayres.com
.

All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Text Copyright 2007, 2009 by Katherine Ayres

Map Illustrations by Dahl Taylor

Line Art by Greg Dearth

Cover design by Amanda DeRosa

ISBN: 978-1-4976-4662-9

This edition published in 2014 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.

345 Hudson Street

New York, NY 10014

www.openroadmedia.com

MYSTERIES THROUGH HISTORY

FROM OPEN ROAD MEDIA