War’s end recalled by servicemen and families

This year is the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II. As Americans observe Veterans Day and Canadians mark Remembrance Day on November 11, some servicemen and family members shared their recollections of V-E Day, V-J Day or how the conflict had affected them.

David Francis of Pleasant Point was serving with the U.S. Army in Saipan when he heard that Japan had surrendered. "We were a big task force, taking over island after island," he recalls. "When we [learned] that Japan had given up, everybody was crying. These big men had tears in their eyes."

A staff sergeant at the end of the war, Francis had been involved in communications, which included transmitting by Morse code and blinkers. "I sent dots-and-dashes all over the world. It was a very important job, but I was glad to get out of that."

"They got us on a troop ship and we landed in Seattle, Washington," says Francis of his subsequent actions. "There were 21 of us, and I had the highest rating, so I had to keep track of their service records. They got to go celebrate, but I didn't dare to leave those records."

Francis was discharged on what was then known as Armistice Day, November 11, 1945, in Seattle. His older brother, Sabbatis, had served in the infantry in Europe, and both siblings returned home "in one piece."

"We both survived," notes Francis, who comes from a family of 10 children. "My parents worried about us. They both died within four years of us coming home. I think they were waiting for us to come back."

Sisters remember
Sisters Geraldine "Gerry" Kinney and Beatrice "Beadie" Cummings of Eastport remember the end of World War II, not for any particular celebration but for the fact that all of their Kierstead siblings returned home safely. Five out of six of their brothers were in the armed services. "Our oldest brother tried to enlist, but there was some problem with his legs and he didn't pass," recalls Kinney. Brother Phil was captured and incarcerated in a German prisoner-of-war camp for 15 months, and youngest brother David was shot in the elbow during the Korean War.

"I remember the day Phil came home," says Cummings. "I drove out by the toll bridge to wait for him."

Both sisters, like many Maine women, worked in the South Portland shipyards for a while. "We worked in the 'inner bottom,'" recalls Gerry. "I guess we put asbestos in. It wasn't hard work, and we had a lot of fun."

Newlyweds separated by war
John and Helen Sullivan of Eastport were still newlyweds, but in 1946 she was in Massachusetts and he was in France and Germany. "He was in a tent in Nuremberg on V-E Day," recalls Helen of her husband. "He was wondering 'Why didn't they quit before now?'"

The Sullivans were married in November of 1944, and six weeks later John was headed to Europe where he would spend the next year-and-a-half. "I changed my job," recalls Helen. "I was working in Boston, helping to test aptitudes for adults and children. I didn't think I was helping the war effort, so I quit and went to work for Goodrich, making de-icers and boots. I felt that everybody had to do something."

"The day I really remember is D-Day. That was impressive," she adds. "You knew [V-E and V-J Days] were coming. It didn't mean that the guys would be coming home right away."

Campobello soldier hospitalized
Theodore Mallock, 83, was in a British hospital recovering from wounds when the war ended in the summer of 1946. The Campobello man had joined the Army and was serving in France when he was struck by shrapnel and "was in the hospital for quite awhile."

"There ain't much to talk about. I did so much squawking before, and it felt so good, I didn't say anything about it," jokes Mallock about the injuries which left him with a metal plate in his head.

He was luckier than some of his comrades, however. "One thing I'll never forget is two different nights when two of us were on patrol. We weren't out very long when a sniper got [his fellow soldier] right between the eyes. That happened twice!"

After he received his wounds, Mallock recalls that he was hospitalized "for a long while in France" before being transferred to England. "I stayed there 'til a ship came to take me home."

Atom bomb is dropped
I feel the atomic bomb saved my life." Rowland French of Eastport was a 25-year-old doctor with the 5th Marine Division in the summer of 1945. Recovered from wounds that he had received in the invasion of Iwo Jima, he found himself on Hawaii doing maneuvers with the Pioneer Battalion. "We were on transports, and we practiced going down cargo nets to LCVPs, small landing craft. Then we'd circle around a few times and go to shore. They started with small groups, then bigger and bigger until they had the whole division of [20,000 servicemen]."

"We'd been told that we were bound to invade Japan. We were the diversionary force. Then we were told Japan had been bombed," he recalls. "I don't remember how people reacted. They should have been excited, I guess."

After peace was declared, he was sent to the Japanese seaport of Sasebo, located near Nagasaki on the southern island of Kyushu. "I think we may have been the first U.S. troops to land on Kyushu," he recalls. "We were ready for combat, but Sasebo had been flattened by firebombs and the population had fled into the hills."

He ended up serving a year on Kyushu, working in a small hospital at a former Japanese Army barracks.

Although he was wounded in the war, Dr. French still considers himself lucky that his diversionary force did not attack Japan in the summer of 1945. "They showed us the preparations the Japanese had made. We would have been wiped out."