How a World War Changed an Alabama Family, Part 20

by Glenn N. Holliman

The Destroyer...the Weapon to Defeat the U-Boat and a Chance Meeting of a future Wife!

Until the spring of 1943, the German submarine was the greatest threat of Nazi tyranny to deny United States supplies and troops bound for African and European battlefields.  Hundreds of allied ships were torpedoed in the Atlantic.  Uncle Sam's chief weapon to defeat this undersea armada was the destroyer, a  speedy, heavily armed, pint-sized vessel especially built to escort convoys and drop depth charges on the enemy.

In August 1942, H. Bishop Holliman of Irondale, Alabama, was assigned to the USS Butler, 643, built and launched at the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Navy Yard.   This sleek, brand-new, state of the art ship was commissioned on 15 August 1942.  Radio seaman Holliman and 206 other sailors went aboard to make this ship their home and to prepare it for the North Atlantic.

Left, in February 1942, ship yard builders worked over time to construct the Butler.



 
Below, a painting of this Gleaves class ship, over 2,000 tons loaded.  She had four 5 inch guns, depth charges, machine guns and two torpedo tubes.  She was in the invasion of Sicily, numerous conveys and finally took battle wounds in the Pacific.  Ironically at age 3, in 1945, with the War won, she was stricken from the Navy inventory and in 1948 was broken up for scrap. 

It took several months to prepare the Butler for its first shakedown cruise. In the meantime, sailors had time for weekend passes. For a young man from Alabama, the northeast with its big cities of Philadelphia and New York were exciting and historic places to visit and enjoy. 

 In one weekend trip to Manhattan, Bishop took in a NBC radio show, the Army-Navy Hour at Rockefeller Center studios. He was selected from from the audience to participate in a singing performance and managed to warble a tune. For this he won a Ronson cigarette lighter. He mailed it to his brother, Melton Holliman, a smoker. 

Left, this 1942 photograph of two sailors jumping for joy on their skates at the ice rink at Rockefeller Center captured the mood of many service men who were able to experience the sights and sounds of New York City. Millions of young Americans were seeing parts of their country for the first time. 

This movement of people had vast consequences for many, including my father who decided one weekend, September 12th, to visit Irondale buddy, Charles Pugh, then a serviceman,  stationed at Atlantic City, New Jersey. 

Bishop Holliman never met up with Charles that weekend but he did chance to meet a 19 year old from Philadelphia, a girl recently relocated north with her family from Bristol, Tennessee.  That teenager's name was Geraldine Stansbery, a young lady who later became this writer's mother in 1946.  Ah, the fortunes of war!

Right, Gerry in 1942 at her Philadelphia home.  Born and raised in East Tennessee, when her brother-in-law Vance Sherwood, who was married to Louise Stansbery, took a transportation job in Pennsylvania, Gerry and her mother, Mayme Osborne Stansbery moved with them.  Mayme's marriage to Charles S. Stansbery had ended in 1933.

Bishop and Gerry's marriage took place June 26, 1945 in Philadelphia, a war time romance with lasting consequences, especially for this writer and my two sisters.


Next More Stories from an Alabama Family....

 Have questions about Holliman family history? You are invited to join the Hollyman Email List at Hollyman-Subscribe@yahoogroups.com and the Hollyman Family Facebook Page located on Facebook at "Hollyman Family". Post your questions and perhaps one of the dozens Holyman cousins on the list will have an answer. For more information contact Tina Peddie at desabla1@yahoo.com, the list and Facebook manager for Hollyman (and all our various spellings!).

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