Ralph Holliman at War....Part IV
by Glenn N. Holliman
Below, Ralph Holliman right with an Army buddy, unidentified, at the Bournemouth, England air base.
The Army instructed Ralph in the Army Functional File System (his nephew, Glenn, learned the same system 25 years later) in Sacramento, California. By October 1943, he has in a wretchedly crowded troop ship, the Dorthea Dix, sailing from Newark, New Jersey to the Firth of Clyde, Scotland.
Below, Christmas 1943 Ralph sent a V-Mail Christmas card to the his parents in Irondale, Alabama. V Mail was a micro-photographed single sheet of paper that allowed a soldier to send home a note. Vital shipping space was saved with the reduced paper size. Ralph was not allowed to tell his family where he was stationed in the United Kingdom. All mail was censored by the military.
For 11 months, he lived in England at Bournemouth and Oxford. As a clerk for the 326 Ferry Squadron, 9th Air Force, he filed flight plans. On June 6, 1944, he noticed a sudden increase in air traffic; three months later he was in France, following his brother, Melton, an Army medic who had arrived at a French-based hospital receiving station in July 1944. On his destroyer, his other brother, Bishop had been passing through the Straits of Gibraltar on D-Day.
Right, Melton Holliman, arrived in England in May of 1944, and by July was in France where he served until disabled in November of that year.
One can only imagine the thoughts and prayers of their mother, Pearl Holliman, that year 1944. Except for son Euhal, who was excused from the draft due to age and being the father of four children, her sons were in the European Theater and she knew not where.
Next, the War ends and a career begins....
No comments:
Post a Comment