Christmas of 1941 disrupted by outbreak of World War II

Thanks to the Core Sound Waterfowl Museum & Heritage Center on Harkers Island, a gathering place in Down East section of Carteret County, N.C., for preserving collections of “Christmas Memories” that were published from 1990-92. 

The stories were submitted by readers of The Mailboat, a much-loved publication dedicated to the heritage and culture of Down East. Now, the museum is endeavoring to introduce new generations of readers to these treasured holiday traditions that bind together the county’s communities, rural neighborhoods and seaside, fishing villages.

 

The late Alida A. Willis of Harkers Island commented that the Christmas of 1941 was like no other for the people of Carteret County, because World War II was being fought right off the North Carolina coastline in the Atlantic Ocean. 

Alida began her essay with events leading up to Dec. 7, 1941, and the Japanese attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. 

“In Carteret County change had been slow, almost imperceptible, until world events began to loosen the paralyzing grip of the Great Depression of the 1930s,” Alida wrote. 

“In gradually increasing numbers, fishermen had put aside their nets and skiffs and snappers to take up jobs with steady wages now available in a nation gearing up for war. With others from across the county, they helped to build the giant military bases at Camp Davis, at Camp Lejeune and at Cunningham Field (later named Air Station Cherry Point).”

 

“There were few doubts that war was coming,” she wrote. “But for many, life continued much as it always had in this small, relatively isolated community. Until that December at Pearl Harbor.” 

“Notes made from contemporary issues of The Beaufort News tell the story of those pivotal days when an old familiar order was ending, and an unknown world was pushing in on the tides of war,” Alida said. 

“In October 1941, M.T. Gaskill and his crew from Stacy made a record catch of 145,000 pounds of spots, netting them more than $3,000.” 

Alida reported that the A&P Store was advertising its 8 O’Clock Coffee for 19 cents a pound, bread for 8 cents a loaf, four bars of Lux soap for 24 cents and cabbage for 4 cents a pound.

 

“Marines were arriving at the Onslow base of Camp Lejeune, and the first colors were raised at Montford Point. In Morehead City, Navy landing boats were under construction at the Bell-Wallace shipyards. (The business had been formed by John F. Bell and was later purchased by Charles S. Wallace.) 

“And in a move affecting thousands of persons on the North Carolina coast, the U.S. Coast Guard was transferred to the U.S. Navy.” (President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s announcement was significant, because the United States was not yet at war, but more and more American ships were nevertheless becoming war casualties while attempting to provide necessary supplies to Great Britain and the Allies.)

 

In December 1941, the News had reported that a USO Council was formed in Carteret County…and then came the big story.

 

Alida wrote: “WAR” was the 3-inch headline above the masthead in the Dec. 11 issue of the News. The front page carried a photo story of a Beaufort boy at Hickam Field (the Army Air Corps station in Hawaii): ‘Sergeant Harry Tyler, son of Mr. and Mrs. C. P. Tyler of Beaufort, cabled his parents today that he is safe. Young Tyler is an aerial photographer and bombardier aboard a Boeing Bomber.’” 

The same issue of the newspaper listed the names of 15 local men in the Pacific war zone as well. 

Yet, there was still local news to cover. The newspaper also ran an article about Capt. Kelly Willis, master of the Harkers Island mailboat, who had shot and killed a seagoing bear about halfway between Beaufort and Harkers Island near Shep’s Shoal. 

Another article written by Aycock Brown told about North Carolina’s smallest school – in the Village of Portsmouth that served four pupils. 

Navy sailor Edwin Bonner McCabe was reported to be the first Carteret County casualty of World War II. He was serving aboard the U.S.S. Oklahoma in Pearl Harbor. His parents were William Z. McCabe and Annie Virginia Teasley McCabe. Edwin’s grave marker is in the Wildwood Community Cemetery.

 

Alida said that in the same issue of the local paper, “little Jimmy Modlin’s letter to Santa Claus was published. The 6-year old Beaufort boy declared he had been a good boy, that he liked very much going to school every day, and would Santa please bring him a pair of gloves, a wagon, a Lone Ranger gun with caps and a coat. And, “PS – Please remember my brother who is in the Army.” 

* * * *

 “On that Christmas Eve in 1941,” Alida wrote, “all the county lay dark and watchful inside the line of fragile barrier islands of the Outer Banks…Portsmouth Island, to the east, deserted save for the few families at Portsmouth village and the Coast Guard Station there… and to the south, Shackleford Banks – once a whaling community of some 500 people – long deserted, barren, silent….” 

“But across the inlet at Fort Macon, a small band trudged in silence up a rough, dark hillside – a local choir to sing for troops garrisoned inside the fort. As the traditional old carols rang out into the cold, still darkness, a pinpoint of light appeared across the empty moat, then another, and another. One by one, the soldiers of the 244th Coast Artillery had come to stand atop the worn parapet, their presence betrayed only by the glowing tips of cigarettes.” 

“Descendants of the old Cape Bankers had come to offer comfort and cheer to these strangers who, like the county’s own, stood in peril and far from home that Christmas Eve.” 

“While westward, along Bogue Banks, the Salter Pathers stoically waited – and watched – and stayed their place. Further west, a lone Coast Guard Station kept vigil at Bogue Inlet. 

“And in Beaufort, safe inside the barrier, little Jimmy Modlin dreamed the Christmas dreams of children everywhere.” 

Alida A. Willis’s Carteret County Christmas story of 1941 is a treasure to be passed along from generation to generation.

 

Just FYI: On July 13, 1944, The Beaufort News ran a front-page article about Staff. Sgt. Harry S. Tyler being awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross Medal with two oak leaf clusters for heroism and meritorious service in the air. The ceremony was conducted in Wilmington, N.C.