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mercurygray · 3 months

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Friends, I have failed you all. I've seen a lot of posts over the last week with a lot of great biographical detail about many of the flyers and aircrew who've been name-dropped so far in Masters of the Air - and I haven't seen a single thing about the one name that is directly in the center of this blog's lane.

In Part 2, returning from their mission to Trondheim, Cleven and Egan walk into the Interrogation hut and Egan accepts a cup of coffee from a woman he thanks as Tatty. Later on, at the dance, James Douglass remarks that he will be 'coming in hot' on one of the American Red Cross women on the other side of the room, and one of his friends asks "General Spaatz's daughter? Or the other one?"

Katherine "Tatty" Spaatz was a member of the American Red Cross Clubmobile service and the daughter of General Carl "Tooey" Spaatz, who commanded the Eighth Air Force on its move to England. (General Spaatz later moved to overall command of the entire Army Air Forces in the Europe Theatre of Operations, or ETO. He is, as the kids say, rather important.)

But we're not talking about him here. We're talking about her.

Katherine was 22 years old when she arrived in Europe with the Red Cross. (One of her traveling companions that trip was Kathleen Kennedy, daughter of former U.S. Ambassador Joseph P Kennedy Sr., also coming to serve overseas with the ARC.)

The American Red Cross's mission in Europe had many facets during the Second World War - in addition to activities we might think of today, like collecting blood, providing disaster relief at home and running first aid seminars, they were responsible for collecting and distributing packages for Prisoners of War.

They also operated large canteens like the Rainbow Corner club, a recreational facility in London where soldiers on leave could get a room for the weekend, a bite to eat, and a number of other amenities. Smaller clubs called Donut Dugouts provided a space where a serviceman could always be assured of a cup of hot coffee, a donut, and a pretty girl to talk to, specially recruited for being friendly, fair, approachable, and specially trained to be the girl next door overseas. In addition to these more permanent installations, they also operated the Clubmobile service, a mobile version of their popular Dugouts that moved operations into retooled Green Line Bus Company buses to take donuts and a taste of home to the front line.

Tatty, as she was called, worked on the Clubmobile "North Dakota" along with Julia "Dooley" Townsend, Virginia "Ginny" Sherwood, and Dorothy "Mike" Myrick. Life Magazine did a full article on their clubmobile in February of 1943, which you can read online at the link. There is another lovely blog post with pictures here. She also worked for a time in a more permanent post at the USAAF base at Snetterton Heath, and was later sent to France. You can read a little bit more about her and see more pictures at her bio page at the American Air Museum in Britain website.

If you'd like more information about Tatty, Helen, and women like them, as well as the Clubmobile service, consider reading the following:

Slinging Doughnuts for the Boys by James H. Madison Battlestars & Doughnuts: World War II Clubmobile Experiences of Mary Metcalfe Rexford War through the Hole of a Donut, by Angela Petesch Goodnight, Irene (fiction) - Although this is a novel, it is based on Luis Alberto Urrea's mother's time as a Clubmobile worker and her personal papers.

#women in world war two #women in wartime #original girl gang #american red cross clubmobile service #katherine tatty spaatz #masters of the air #i cannot believe it took me a WHOLE DAMN WEEK

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textmastersoftheair · 7 days

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#james douglass #howard hamilton #hambone hamilton #frank murphy #helen #katherine spaatz #tatty spaatz #masters of the air #mastersoftheairedit #mota #motaedit #hbo war #texts from last night

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hbowar-bracket · 3 months

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Albert Blithe

Alex Penkala

Alice

Alton More

Anna

Anthony 'Manimal' Jacks

Antonio 'Poke' Espera

Antonio Garcia

Army Chaplain Teska

Baba Karamanlis

Bernard DeMarco

Bill 'Hoosier' Smith

Bill Leyden

Billy Taylor

Brad 'Iceman' Colbert

Burton Christenson

Capt. Andrew Haldane

Carwood Lipton

Charles (Chuck) Grant

Charles Bean Cruikshank

Charles K. Bailey

Col. Robert Sink

Cpt. Bryan Patterson

Cpt. Craig 'Encino Man' Schwetje

Cpt. Dave 'Captain America' McGraw

Curtis Biddick

Darrell (Shifty) Powers

David Solomon

David Webster

Denver (Bull) Randleman

Donald Hoobler

Dr. Sledge

Edward (Babe) Heffron

Elmo 'Gunny' Haney

Eric Kocher

Eugene Jackson

Eugene Roe

Eugene Sledge

Evan 'Q-Tip' Stafford

Evan 'Scribe' Wright

Everett Blakely

Father John Maloney

Floyd (Tab) Talbert

Frank Murphy

Frank Perconte

Frederick (Moose) Heyliger

Gabe Garza

Gale 'Buck' Cleven

George Luz

Glenn Graham

Gunnery Sgt. Mike 'Gunny' Wynn

Gunnery Sgt. Ray 'Casey Kasem' Griego

Hamm

Harry Crosby

Harry Welsh

Helen

Herbert Sobel

Howard 'Hambone' Hamilton

Jack Kidd

James (Mo) Alley

James Chaffin

James Douglass

James Gibson

James Miller

Jason Lilley

Jean Achten

Jeffrey 'Dirty Earl' Carisalez

John 'Bucky' Egan

John Basilone

John Christeson

John D. Brady

John Fredrick

John Janovec

John Julian

John Martin

Joseph 'Bubbles' Payne

Joseph Liebgott

Joseph Toye

Josh Ray Person

Katherine 'Tatty' Spaatz

Ken Lemmons

Lance Cpl. Harold James Trombley

Larry Shawn 'Pappy' Patrick

Leandro 'Shady B' Baptista

Lena Basilone

Lew 'Chuckler' Juergens

Lewis Nixon

Lt. Edward 'Hillbilly' Jones

Lt. Henry Jones

Lt. Nathaniel Fick

Lt. Thomas Peacock

Lynn (Buck) Compton

Maj. 'Red' Bowman

Maj. John Sixta

Mama Karamanlis

Manuel Rodriguez

Mary Frank Sledge

Meesh

Merriell 'Snafu' Shelton

Navy Hm2 Robert Timothy 'Doc' Bryan

Neil 'Chick' Harding

Norman Dike

Old Man on Bicycle

Patrick O'Keefe

Phyllis

R.V. Burgin

Ralph (Doc) Spina

Renee Lemaire

Richard Winters

Robert 'Rosie' Rosenthal

Robert 'Stormy' Becker

Robert (Popeye) Wynn

Robert Leckie

Rodolfo 'Rudy' Reyes

Ronald Speirs

Roy Claytor

Roy Cobb

Sammy

Sgt. Mallard

Sidney Phillips

Stella Karamanlis

Teren 'T' Holsey

Vera Keller

Walt Hasser

Walter (Smokey) Gordon

Warren (Skip) Muck

Wayne (Skinny) Sisk

Wilbur 'Runner' Conley

William Guarnere

William Hinton

William J. DeBlasio

William Quinn

Winifred 'Pappy' Lewis

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mastersoftheair · 3 years

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(again, thanks @carninator-blog)

i wanted to make this it's own seperate post, bc i am more than a little stoked at women having more of a role in this final hbo/apple tv/hanks and spielberg bromance ww2 collab.

harriet leitch will be playing katherine "tatty" spaatz, a member of the red cross clubmobile. while you can just read all you can on wikipedia, i'll just copy and paste the general summary here bc i am lazy and have no qualms against that:

"The American Red Cross Clubmobile Service was a mobile service club created during World War Two to provide servicemen with food, entertainment and "a connection home." The Clubmobile was conceived by Harvey D. Gibson, a prominent New York banker and American Red Cross Commissioner to Great Britain, as a way to reach servicemen in airfields, camps and other theaters of war. All of the services provided by the Clubmobile were free, although some Clubmobiles began charging for food after 1942. The original Clubmobiles operated from late 1942 until 1946, traveling all throughout Great Britain and Europe. Women who volunteered for the Clubmobiles were popularly referred to as "donut dollies," since one of their biggest tasks was making doughnuts for the servicemen."

"On the morning after a dance, a Red Cross Clubmobile—a converted single-decker London bus—would arrive to serve donuts and coffee. The “sinkers” were made from equipment in the truck’s combination kitchen-lounge, and they would be devoured by hungry boys living in a donut-deprived country.

The men most appreciated the work of the Red Cross girls who lived on the bases, and tried to be, in Andy Rooney’s words, “a sort of remote combination of Rita Hayworth-and-your-best-friend’s-big-sister.” They were the first to notify airmen of illnesses and deaths in their families, and they would surprise them with homemade cakes on their birthday. The Red Cross women were outside the door of the briefing room on every mission day, dressed in their stylish blue-gray uniforms and caps, serving coffee and donuts. They would be the last American women seen by many bomber boys." - Masters of the Air by Donald Miller

this is all to say that it'll be exciting to see this aspect of ww2, how women participated in the war effort! while they obviously wont be the central focus of the show, i'm looking forward to seeing them!

which brings me back to marjorie (who i have tagged as "marjorie no last name"). marjorie is very likely going to be involved with the arc (american red cross) clubmobile, as spaatz was. i'm leaning towards her being marjorie saunders magruder, who was one of the arc clubmobile workers and later married an 8th air force staff officer (he wasnt in the 100th, but it's close enough). there’s a whole list of the women here

(and if it turns out that’s the wrong marjorie- or if marjorie is entirely fictional- at least you learned something cool!)

read more about the arc clubmobile women here

#masters of the air #hbo war #history #tatty spaatz #marjorie no last name #american red cross #clubmobiles #cast #harriet leitch #also apologies for this being such a long post but in my defense i got excited

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mercurygray · 3 months

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Blind Dates Fest 2024 - Freda Torvaldsen, ARCS

A few days ago I asked for MOTA prompts, and @junojelli delivered:

A MOTA scene prompt for you: a new arrival is amongst the clubmobile ladies at the local pub one evening. Of course, it would only be right that they give her the lowdown on the men they can see in the bar, and the recent gossip on possible nocturnal escapades of course 😏

So! An extra Blind Date! You can learn more about @blind-dates-fest at their blog.

Fandom: Masters of the Air

It was only a matter of time before the subject came up.

“Can’t say I’ve ever met a Freda before.”

It was always like this, her first day in a new assignment, where you been, where you from, what do you do. And then inevitably someone would work around to the obvious. So... what’s a name like Torvaldsen doing with a name like Freda?

“And neither had my mother,” Freda said with a resigned smile, sitting down heavily and nodding thankfully to one of the other girls for the beer. “After my father and brother were both Peters I think she just wanted something interesting.” She shrugged. “She told me once she found the name in a short story in a woman’s magazine. Never got confused with another girl in class, though! Fred’s just fine, for every day use. It’ll get tossed in eventually, so we may as well start there.”

Fred was easy - approachable, even. A good way to start a conversation, a quick, easy joke to set everyone on the same level. Who’s on shift today, girls? Rose, Laura, and Fred. Wait, Fred? And she’d stick her head out from wherever she was hiding, and the boys would all have a laugh that Fred was really a twenty-six year old blonde from Madison, Wisconsin with a big smile, and not the paunchy driver from Brooklyn they all pictured when they heard the name. She didn’t mind the jokes, really - it made the whole job easier. So what’s your name, solider? You have a nickname, too? Where you from? The whole reason she was there, in three questions or less - to make the average G.I. feel at home, seen, valued and wanted.

“Where’d you say you were, before this?” Helen asked. At least, she thought it was Helen - or was it Ellen? Honestly, Tatty had run through the team of three pretty quickly this morning and she might have misheard. Tatty, of course, was easy to remember - Katherine Spaatz, with a last name the papers wouldn’t soon forget and a face that liked being photographed. Mary Boyle was the other, a sparkling-eyed Irish girl from Des Moines who looked like just the kind the fellows all liked to spin around a dance more than once. She couldn’t remember the name of the girl she was replacing, either - not that that mattered much. She was going home with the one non-communicable disease the Red Cross didn’t want to deal with - pregnant, Mary had mouthed across the table when they’d first met this morning, her fresh off the bus from London and Tatty skating artfully around the subject.

“Did a spell at the canteen in Washington, another couple months in London in a few different spots,” Freda offered. “I guess I’m a professional replacement at this point - which is either a compliment or a curse. You’ll have to tell me which.”

“Well, we’re happy to have you, for as long as we’ve got,” Tatty said with a nod. “Did they tell you what the work would be like? Working a base is different than canteen service.”

“The hours, for a start,” Mary said, rolling her eyes.

“If they’re running a mission, they’re up and at ‘em at 4:30 for a 5 am briefing, which means -”

“Service ready for 4:45,” Freda filled in, nodding along. “Means we’ll be starting about...three thirty, maybe, to have everything hot and ready?”

“Will that be a problem?” Tatty asked, her eyes dark and decisive across the table.

Freda shook her head. “Always was more of a morning person. How long are they usually out for?”

“Longer runs...six, seven, eight hours at a time? Tower will give us a ring when they’re expected back in, and then we rack up donuts and coffee in the interrogation hut. You’ll need to be sharp on that shift,” Tatty warned. “They don’t always come back looking pretty.”

“Doctor’s usually on hand to evaluate anyone who can walk. If they’re still standing he’ll turn ‘em loose on the interrogation team,” Mary explained. “Captain Brennan and her girls run that room - she’s nice, you’ll like her.”

“You’re not there to make small talk for that one - pass out coffee and get ‘em to their table as quick as you can. Each crew runs through the whole mission - what they saw, who they shot at, bombs dropped. The after-action report. Once they’re done, they’re free to leave, and so are we. We’ll do dishes and clean-up, and then get the coffee urns ready to drive ‘round to the crews. Can you drive?”

“Well enough for Wisconsin,” Freda offered with a shrug. “We had a Ford I could grind through.” She didn’t say anything about the last time someone had asked her if she knew how to drive, and how she’d nearly run over the campus mascot trying to muscle a Clubmobile into a turn.

“Sounds like you’ll be driving our Jeep, then. We’ve got one assigned to us.”

Freda nodded, trying to maintain serenity. Well, that’s all right. A Jeep’s not a remodeled London bus, and it sure as hell doesn’t drive like one.

“The planes are parked out on hardstands and the crew basically live out there while they’re working,” Tatty went on, “So we take coffee and sandwiches around once the planes come back in. They’re good guys out there - better than the flyboys, sometimes.”

“Now, Tatty, don’t go turning her head the wrong way,” Mary interjected, before Freda could ask what a hardstand was. “They’re all nice. Just take some getting used to.”

“Anyone I’ll need to watch out for?” Freda asked, glancing around the club, which was gradually beginning to fill for the evening - officers in their Class As, the gilt on their wings like sunshine, laughter like a river. The knucklehead who knocked up your friend, for instance?

Tatty made a gesture across the room towards the biggest group. “The tall one horsing around with the dartboard is John Egan - Major Egan, rather. Or Bucky, if you want nicknames. He’s mostly harmless, but he’ll flirt with anything. Just give as good as you get and you’ll be fine. Man next to him is Major Gale Cleven - also Buck - who you’ll wish was single and isn’t.”

“He’s got a girl back home in Wyoming,” Helen (Ellen?) put in, her smile a little wistful. “Ask him about her sometime.”

“Man with the permanent frown is Major William Veal - Bill, sometimes. He’s all business, you’ll never see him dance, so don’t ask. Tall fellow next to him with the lighter curly hair is Major Jack Kidd, also mostly business.”

Freda’s eyebrows went up. “Mostly?” Now there’s a word with a story.

It was Tatty’s turn to smile. “We think he might be sweet on Mary, when he lets himself.”

Mary rolled her eyes. “Only because the rest of you gang up on him!”

“Those are the squadron commanders, anyway - the other pilots and navigators and crews report to them. It’s a lot of names,” Tatty said, almost dismissive.

Notice how she didn’t say I’d learn them, Freda thought to herself. They’d told her that much in London, when she’d gotten her assignment. Don’t get too attached to your post, or the soldiers there. They can change or leave at any time. It’s a war, not a weekend.

“Ladies! And how are we all on this fine evening, eh?” Here it was - faces up. Freda found her smile and turned to see who it was - a young man with black hair and blue eyes and a smile just this side of mischievous. And this one is named Trouble, I’ll bet. First lieutenant with flying wings - a pilot. “You all over here plottin’ somethin’ we fellas need to be made aware of?”

“Just introducing the new girl around, Curt.” Tatty gestured to Freda, on the other side of the table, who raised a hand and nodded hello.

Trouble (Curt?) smiled a little wider, his hand on Tatty’s shoulder, leaning closer over the table. “Oh, the new girl, eh? And does the new girl have a name?

“New girl answers to Fred,” Freda said with a patient smile, trying not to smile too hard at the patently obvious big-city, big-spender feeling rolling off of the lieutenant in waves. New Yorkers. You could run them off a press like that. It was funny, sometimes, how much they tried not to be types - but she’d known far too many men like him. That was the trouble with canteen service - you saw so many they all started to look the same. “And she’s not looking for another drink, before the lieutenant starts asking.”

“Tough customer!” He laughed at that. “Curtis Biddick, at your service, Fred. Now, if any one of these jokers starts anything or gets fresh, you come find me, alright?” He pointed, for emphasis, and she took note of the knuckles of his hand, the shortness of his nails. “Gotta take care of our girls, you know, since you’re always taking care of us.”

“I’ll certainly keep it in mind, Lieutenant.”

Biddick waved the rank away like it was a fly he were swatting. “Now, none of this lieutenant crap, Fred. My friends call me Curt.” He fixed his eye on her and she smiled, and nodded - heard and acknowledged. Confident they had an understanding, he clapped Tatty’s shoulder again and stood up. “Tatty. Mary. Helen. Fred. Yous all have a good night, now.”

“Well, there you are, Fred. If Biddick likes you you’re set. He was serious about finding him, too - he’s the company boxing champion.”

“Of course he is,” Freda said with a smile, finally able to place where she’d seen hands like that before. And a total sweetheart underneath all of it, if I read him right.

And a soldier, something in her head reminded her. That’s the trouble with working a base - they won’t just be here for a night. You’ll have learn their names, and their girlfriends, see them day in and day out - until one day you don’t.

She took a deep breath and a sip of her beer, still glancing around the room, at the laughing men at the dartboard, the craps game, the piano, everyone alive and free and full of life. Maybe it had been a bad idea to start with names.

---

Eagle-eyed readers will notice that I have name-dropped several new characters in here; one of them, Marion, is my other Blind Date this year. You'll meet her on Saturday!

#i have written a thing #blind dates fest 2024 #freda torvaldsen #1940s girl gang #also i feel it is incumbent upon me to tell you she and curtis are not a thing #don't get your hopes up #masters of the air OC

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