Glen's World War II Site
Welcome To Glen's World War II Site
I like trivia, and not-so-common facts. This is one reason why I started this site. I want to share interesting, generally not well known facts about World War II. I am also, as you might guess, a fanatic about World War II.
For several years, as a volunteer chaplain, I enjoyed going to nursing homes to have a "church" service; but they were often not ordinary services. I would bring my World War II object lessons and spend some time helping the senior residents relive some of the memories of the war. This warms their hearts and prepares them to more readily hear the Word of God. I also enjoy asking the veterans what branch of service they were in, and where they served. The vets open their hearts and appreciate that a Baby Boomer (one who was born after the war) is interested in and appreciates their contribution and sacrifice in defending the freedoms we take for granted.
If you know of any World War II trivia tid-bit, this is the place to add it. Where ever you got the factoid, even if it was your own experience, please also document your source. If it is a book, please include the title, publisher, author and copywrite date. I will not list any pictures from a book unless it is considered in the public domain. The same is with any documentary film.
If you have any personal pictures that either you have taken, or are in the family, please scan them and e-mail them to me with a detailed description of the picture. If you mail any pictures to me, be sure they are copies and not the originals, unless you want to donate them to me with a note to that affect. I will assume that any pictures that are mailed to me are for me to keep, so be careful. Mail any pictures, etc. to: Glen Morris; 218 N. Woodlawn Ave.; Griffith, Indiana 46319.
Because of spam experts who send us unwanted e-mails, I have had to modify my e-mail address so the "bots" don't copy them.
My e-mail address is: Glen6490"at"yahoo.com. Replace the "at" with an @ symbol.
Be sure to leave out the quotation marks. Some day this will be a perfect world where everyone will be trusted; but we have not arrived yet, so we have to play these little games to fool the spammers.
Listing Site Updates
Although a work in progress, here is a brief history of what is going on. This is a part time hobby which does not get the full time attention a web site usually gets, so it is not as fancy and complete as others.
June 29, 2005. Began working on this site.
July 1, 2005. Uploaded and officially launched this site. STILL UNDER CONSTRUCTION and constrantly evolving.
September 24, 2005. Began adding more pages.
January 3, 2007. Doing some tweaking and updating. I know I did some updating in 2006 but forgot to list it.
September 30, 2007. After waking up after a long nap, I did a few updates.
April 16, 2008. Added a couple more pages.
Why I decided to build this site.
We in the Morris family are pack rats. In other words, we like to collect stuff. We like to go to rummage/garage/yard sales, resale stores, and antique shops. I like to buy almost new Florsheim shoes for two to six dollars, or a suit for less than ten dollars, and make people think I spend a lot of money on clothes! My wife buys Kasper (not Casper the Friendly Ghost) suits for less than ten dollars; sometimes they still have the original tags on them from the fancy downtown department store, like Carson, Pirie, Scott, on them which, originally, would have cost around two hundred dollars!
Several years ago, I paid a visit to a Salvation Army store in Gary, Indiana (now gone). I was fortunate to come across a World War II gunner's manual for a B-29 bomber. I paid only four dollars for it. In the manual are instructions on how to operate the remote control turret guns in the plane. This is one of the first introductions of the word computer to our society. This computer brain would be able to compensate wind speed and distance so the gunner could hit his target (usually a Japanese "Zero"). Although the B-29 Superfortress (or Superfort) was introduced in late 1944, less than a year before the war's end, it had a great impact on helping to end the war with Japan, especially the dropping of the two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
In the gunner's manual, I found some personal notes from one of the crew members, the names of other crew members, and have been able to track down and correspond with one of them. This crew member gave me some helpful information about the plane's missions in the China, Burma, India (CBI) theater of operations, and that she was finally retired as "war weary." This plane, I found out, was named Belle Ringer, tail number 42-63464.
In the manual was a CONFIDENTIAL memo from General Curtis LeMay, dated November 1944. Thus began my love affair with World War II.
Since then, I have amassed a large library of World War II documentary videos and books. I have also enjoyed meeting several veterans, some in nursing homes, at my church, or in public.
Any time I see a man who looks like he may be around 80 years old I ask him if he was in the war, and I try to strike up a conversation with them. I always thank them for risking their lives for our country and freedom.
Some vets proudly display their participation in the war by wearing caps or are wearing tee shirts with something on them which describes where they served.
Visitors of Site Enhancements
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Benjamin O. Davis, Jr.
Perhaps my favorite World War II hero, Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., trainer of the Tuskegee Airmen.
