Thinking About Ascension

The engineers were hot and thirsty. They had only the water they brought with them and were limited to a quart a day per man, as they worked 24-hours a day in 12-hour shifts. In this photo they look almost punchy. Young and fit: they got the job done. By the 90-day deadline. Naturally!

For those of you with fathers who served in the 38th Engineers, I wanted to write a short post today to let you know that I am presently working on a proposal for a book about the last year of World War II, in which my father served. But my project after that will be about the 38th Engineers on Ascension.

The last year of the war was full of all kinds of drama. But the building of Wideawake Field had its own unique and remarkable story. The two stories are fascinating, each in his own way.

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"New" Historic Photo of Wideawake's Construction

The engineers on Ascension Island, not long after they landed and began their work. My father is in the back row, sixth from photo right, wearing his envelope cap and laughing. Looks like he needs a shave.

Thanks to Michael Murray, the son of another World War II veteran whose father served with mine on Ascension, we have a new "Wideawake" photo for the record.

It was taken not long after the engineers landed and had begun to grapple with their task of building an impossible airfield in the middle of nowhere.

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How the Col. Got His Groove

William Ashley Chapman on Ascension Island in 1988.

I am working on an article about my father's unit on Ascension Island during World War II and I realize the one thing I haven't written much about here is that he returned to the island in 1988. He wanted to go back in 1982--for the fortieth anniversary of the completion of Wideawake Field--and started pestering anyone and everyone he could. He had to do that, because there were no civilian flights to Ascension in the 1980s.

He was a retired officer, a "full bird Colonel" as they say in the Army, so he could get people in the military to take his calls. But after a short chat any enlisted clerk could tell this old guy didn't have the one thing needed to get him there, i.e. pull. Ascension Island wasn't for tourists. It was a priority base. I think a flight there is unlikely. Sir.

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Special Delivery Sand

From Long Beach, Ascension Island, South Atlantic Ocean.

Today, I got a surprise package from a woman I know--but whom I've never met. She and I have emailed one another quite a bit since my father died.

She was stationed on Ascension Island serving with the USAF when Dad died--and with me here and she on Ascension, she helped me arrange to donate my father's World War II Ascension Island papers to the Island Heritage Society.

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When The Engineers Started Rockin' on Ascension Island

The "Wideawakes" of Ascension Island, photo from about 1943.

It has been seventy years ago this year that the 38th Engineers landed on Ascension Island, tasked with building a secret air base in just 90 days. They didn't have enough water. They weren't resupplied nor did they get mail for months. They worked around the clock in two twelve-hour shifts until some of them dropped from exhaustion.

And they made their deadline and helped the Allies win the war. My father talked about his assignment there a lot at the end of his life. But he never mentioned the dance band!

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Stamp to Honor Wideawake Field's 70th Anniversary

My father, Colonel William Ashley Chapman, on Ascension Island in the 1980s.

II've just had the nicest email from a fellow called Tim Underwood, who works for the company that produces the stamps for the Ascension Island Post Office--famous among philatelists around the world. 

Mr. Underwood let me know that Ascension Island will be honoring the 70th Anniversary of Wideawake Field with a new stamp cover and is at present awaiting Her Majesty's approval of the design. Now that is a wonderful thing.

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Ah, The Feel of Castile With Salt

(From my father's papers about his work as an Army engineer in the first half of World War II, now in the archives of the Ascension Island Heritage Society. )

Air crews flying through Ascension Island during World War II got special treatment: they got to use a little distilled water for washing up. Photo courtesy US Army Air Corps. 1943

by William Ashley Chapman

Living conditions for the base personnel and the air crews passing through were primitive. For the base personnel--two years in a flapping tent was a memorable experience.

Our desalination plant produced a limited supply of fresh water; enough for drinking, cooking, laundry, and vehicle radiators, but never enough for bathing.

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Ascension Archives

A very kind volunteer at the Ascension Island Heritage Society has now catalogued the two boxes of papers I sent her after my father's death. The boxes contained my father's letters, papers, lists of military men he served with, and drafts of articles about this strange island where he was stationed for two years during World War II.

I was thrilled to see that this part of the work was completed.  It means researchers in the years ahead will have a new resource about the part America played in the history of this British Overseas Territory.  And there is a bonus.

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"The Snake is Smoking": Unique World War II Slang

When I found paintings of Recife, Brazil, where my father went on leave from Ascension in 1942, in the  April 30, 1945 "Life's War Artists" edition of Life Magazine, I also learned a bit of historic Brazilian World War II slang.

Brazil was neutral until 1942. Up to that point, Brazil's president, Getulio Vargas, said "snakes would smoke" before Brazil got into the war.

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Brazil and Ascension Island

A satirical painting of wartime Recife, Brazil through the eyes of American artist Reginald Marsh. Marsh was part of the  World War II artists program. This is from the April 30, 1945 issue of Life Magazine.

I've discovered a writer in Brazil who is working on a book about the part his country and his native state Natal played in the Allied victory in World War II.  There is a real connection between Ascension Island and Brazil. That's why he contacted me.

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A Letter From Herb

One of my father's fellow officers--just as newly minted as he from an ROTC class of '41--was Herb Schiff, who became one of his best friends.  It was a friendship that lasted until my father's death in 2010.  Herb is, I believe, the last surviving officer of the 898th Engineers who remained on Ascension 1942-1944.  He isn't well and is in skilled nursing in Sarasota but he's on his way to age 92. I recently found this letter he wrote my father about their experiences. No date on the letter but it appears to have been sent before one of my father's trips back to Ascension. 1986? 1992? Something like that.

Lieutenants Schiff and Chapman on Ascension. The relentless sun of the equator turned them both brown.  My father said his lips grew swollen and cracked and you can see that in this photo.

"Dear Ash,
For stories about Ascension Island, you undoubtedly have the following--
Pilot to Tower: I'm coming in.
Tower: Where are you?!
Tower, in surprise: You've landed in the wrong direction!
Pilot: Sun was in my eyes.

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The Lid is Off! Letter From Ashley on Ascension

The 38th Engineers play baseball on Ascension Island, 1943.  That's my father, swinging for the "fence" on that desolate ball field.  American soldiers played baseball all over the world during WW II.  The Red Cross often supplied the gear.

Ascension Island
November 28, 1943

"Dear Mother & Dad,

The lid is off!  I can say where I am now and also I can describe the place.

We are in the heart of the "trade winds" which makes the climate so perfect.  If it weren't for the wind we would really swelter.  The eternal unvarying strong wind sometimes gets on our nerves but it is a boon anyhow.

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This Just In: "We Discover New American Air Base"

"Use of Ascension Island is Badly Kept Secret"
by
Peter Edson
Newspaper Enterprise Association
Washington Correspondent

December 30 1943

"Use of 34-square-mile Ascension Island as a U.S. air base at last can be talked about.  For more than a year, this tiny British island, 300 miles south of the equator in the middle of the South Atlantic Ocean, has been a stopping point for short-range fighter planes being ferried to Southern Europe and African fronts, and even to the Middle and Far East.

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The Story Behind the Story of A U.S. Base on British Ascension

For some time I've wondered about the treaty and/or legislative details that led to the construction of an American air base on Ascension Island, which is a British Overseas Territory.

From my reading of Winston Churchill's fascinating history of World War II--six volumes, but who knew the history better than he?--I've long suspected that the U.S. right to that stretch of clinker on that desert island must have come from one of the Lend/Lease or Destroyers for Bases deals cooked up between FDR and WSC in the lead-up to America's entry into the war.

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Birds on Ascension Island Were Comical, But Not to The Army

Air Force bomber takes off from Wideawake Field, 1943. Air Force photo.

The Birmingham News
"Birds on Ascension Island Were Comical, But Not to the Army"

Tuesday, February 4, 1947 (Page 11)

"Professor of physics at the University of Pennsylvania, Louis N. Ridenour served during the war on the staff of the radiation laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology."

by Louis N. Ridenour
NEW YORK, Feb. 4--(NANA)--"I have this story from a friend of mine who is a practicing ornithologist.  He was called in as a bird expert, at a time when the Army Air Forces found themselves at their wits' end--all on account of the habits of birds, and the love of a mother bird for her egg.

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"Soldier's Ode to Ascension"

I found this among my father's papers.  It is signed by Linn Garibaldi and notes that it is limited to 100 copies. (My father's is numbered 13.)

Soldier's Ode to Ascension©

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Can You Identify These Men?

I've had several requests from readers, asking if I have photos of any of their family members who served on Ascension during World War II.  I do have some photos of people I can't identify:  so here is a group to look through, and see if you can spot anyone you know.  (To enlarge the photos, just double click on them.)

   Above is a group from Ascension, the only one of which I can identify is my father, standing at photo left.

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A Letter From the Chaplain

Roy and Mary Chapman of Homewood, Alabama: my father's parents.  They appear to have some kind of a World War II booster sign on the front door and are posing with it.  "We have a son overseas" or "We support War Bonds."  It must have been something like that.

By August 1942, my grandparents in Alabama were concerned that they had not seen their son for seven months, mail service had only just begun to work with some regularity, and they still didn't know where he was.  When Lt. Chapman was asked to stay on at his secret location--Ascension Island--it appears that he asked the unit's chaplain to write his parents and assure them they shouldn't worry.

Office of the Chaplain
38th Engineers
APO #1257, C/O Postmaster
Miami, Florida

August 3, 1942

"Dear Mr. and Mrs. Chapman,
I am the Chaplain of the organization to which your son, Lt. Chapman, is assigned, and take pleasure in writing this letter.  He seems to be in the best of health and is quite cheerful in the performance of his duties.  He is one of Uncle Sam's reliable officers and is to be commended for his worthy service.  It has been a pleasure to know your son during the past few months.

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Time Magazine and Wideawake Field: January 1944

General George Marshall, Time's 

Man of the Year, January 3, 1944

Boobies on the Runway

Time Magazine

January 3, 1944

"If we don't hit Ascension

My wife gets a pension."

"So, sing U.S. flyers of the South Atlantic.

"This week the Army officially revealed why. Tiny (34 square miles) Ascension Island, 1,400 miles from the bulge of Brazil, is one of the vital links in the Air Transport Command's world-girldling chain of airfields. Ascension is the dot in the ocean that made it possible to fly Lightning (P-38) single-seated fighters across the South Atlantic to combat fields in North Africa and England.

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Christmas on Ascension: December 1944

Air Corps wings atop the Corps of Engineers castle insignia. This is a Christmas card sent home by my father from Ascension Island in (as indicated) December 1943.

Birmingham News
January 15, 1944
(page 12)

"Scribblers Take Note"

"CHRISTMAS AT ASCENSION ISLAND ... No doubt you've all read the story by John Gunther published in a recent monthly magazine describing the grand work done by the Army engineers and the air force on Ascension Island, one of our allies' most important possessions in the Atlantic, situated about halfway between Africa and Brazil.

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