What Comes Around Goes Around
No sooner had Edgar Whitehead mastered his job with the 48th Airborne with its three hundred Dakotas on hand readying for Operation Market Garden when he was summoned for a Short Course at the US Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
Edgar embarked for New York on the Queen Mary from Glasgow. The ship was filled with US troops returning home for one reason or another with a fair sprinkling of Canadians but few British.
The voyage was uneventful. On arrival they were led down the gangway by the Senior Officer, who was a full Colonel, over sixty, who was exceptionally smart. The US Lieutenant-Colonel, sent to meet them to ensure they were not troubled by Customs or Immigration was about thirty-four. He gave our Colonel a smart salute and then electrified them by saying, "Gee, Colonel, you must be a retread."
New York was in the throes of a heat wave. When they reached their economy-class hotel they found the accommodation was near the top of the building with a room temperature of over ninety degrees Fahrenheit. The porter who brought up their valises took one look at the rooms and said, "Gee, the management has no business to put you guys in here, you'll get heat stroke." They went out that evening and drank Scotch at prices far below London's at the Waldorf Astoria.
The next morning they went by train to Washington and the eight of them that were going on to Fort Leavenworth reported to the British Military Mission. There they were briefed about the right behavior when met with violent anti-British Americans; forbidden in any circumstances to talk to the American press, warned about differences in American Military customs and generally orientated for their new roles. After fingerprinting and issued with special US military passes there was no time left to see Washington.
It was a two day journey to Kansas. Edgar especially enjoyed rail travel. On the way he made friend's with an American businessman who invited him into his drawing room so Edgar could smoke his pipe. To his amazement he used the same brand of tobacco as Edgar and had consignments regularly shipped to him from Bristol! Pointing out of the window he said, "This tobacco is grown right here but only the British know how to process it so it's fit to smoke."
The Grand Hall at Union Station at St. Louis was impressive. But a long layover afforded the opportunity to take-up the businessman's insistent invitation to lunch on Grand Avenue to return the hospitality his son in the Navy had received in Sydney from an Australian businessman.
It was an auspicious introduction to American hospitality.
The historical novel Whitewashed Jacarandas and its sequel Full of Possibilities are both available on Amazon as paperbacks and eBooks.
These books are inspired by Diana's family's experiences in small town Southern Rhodesia after WWII.
Dr. Sunny Rubenstein and his Gentile wife, Mavourneen, along with various town characters lay bare the racial arrogance of the times, paternalistic idealism, Zionist fervor and anti-Semitism, the proper place of a wife, modernization versus hard-won ways of doing things, and treatment of endemic disease versus investment in public health. It's a roller coaster read.
References:
- Sir Edgar Whitehead's Unpublished Memoirs, Rhodes House, Bodleian Library, Oxford University, by permission.
- Photo Credit:
