March 27, 2008 – Addendum A

The GDHS guest speaker for the evening was Ron Botterbusch who gave a presentation on the civil defense during World War II.

Mr. Botterbusch stated the presentation he will give this evening has not been researched.  It is a period in 1942 and 1943 which he remembers events as a boy of 9 or 10 years of age.

He began at the beginning on Sunday, December 7, 1941.  Mr. Botterbusch and his family arrived home from church (shared a house with his father’s parents in York) and it was after lunch he said his grandmother called up the stairs to say the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor and we were at war.   It is difficult to describe this time to anyone who did not live through it – how people felt, how they reacted – no one knew what was going to happen, whether we would win the war, be defeated or taken over by another country. 

Civil defense was set up for air raid drills.  When the phone call came, the man next door was the supervisor who would go to Mr. Botterbusch’s house to let them know he received a call saying the amber alert was on.  This meant for Mr. Botterbusch’s father to get everything together (his whistle, helmet, gas mask).  When the red alert came through, it was his dad’s job to go out to stand in the intersection of Cleveland Avenue and Cottage Place to make sure that any traffic on the street had a reason to be out there.  The car headlights were all painted in except for a small rectangle in the middle.  Usually if there was any traffic on the street it has something to do with civil defense.  Houses were also checked to make sure you couldn’t see any light.   If anyone had lights on in their house, the blinds had to be down; no light was suppose to be seen, even along the sides of the blinds.   The reason for this blackout was because if there was an air raid, enemy bombers flying over would not see lights and therefore could not identify where the city was located. 

Mr. Botterbusch said there was an air raid drill at William Penn Senior High School.  They were notified that anyone who wanted to take part in the drill were to be at Penn Park at a certain time.   A lot of adults and kids showed up because they took this very seriously.  There was someone at Penn Park who fastened a tag to each person’s shirt which described what your injuries were and then you went into the high school to stay until someone came to rescue you.   This was an all-day affair; everyone in the school had their tags read to see what was wrong with them, some were carried out on stretchers to an ambulance.  This was a drill in case there ever was an air raid so people would know how to deal with it.

Mr. Botterbusch said school children were encouraged in different ways to take part in civil defense.  They had manuals in which they studied silhouettes of airplanes so they could indentify an enemy plane if it flew over.  They did not have to see the markings on the plane, but they were used to the silhouette and knew what it looked like – i.e., the shape of the wings on a Japanese airplane.  Children were encouraged to study these manuals and be able to identify the aircraft when they flew over. 

They also participated in scrap drives.  Tin cans were saved, silver chewing gum wrappers and when you cooked, the fat/pan drippings were saved to make soap.  The school children were given a half day off once for one of the scrap drives.   It was up to the students to go out and find any scrap they could and take it to the school playground.  If they found something that was too large to carry (like a bed spring), they would give a note to the teacher stating where the scrap was located so adults could go pick it up and bring it back to the playground to put on the pile.  Mr. Botterbusch said he remembers the scrap drive on this particular day resulted in a small mountain of scrap collected for the war effort.  Mr. Botterbusch said he was told at one time there was a Civil War cannon in the square in Dover.  It was eventually moved to the pump house at the bottom of the hill and during World War II, the cannon was given for scrap for the war effort.  Also the pendulum and weights for the clock in the tower were scrapped about the same time.

It was a very uncertain time.  People did not know what was going to happen. There were German submarines spotted off the coasts of New Jersey and Delaware.  There were watch towers on the beaches where they stand watch for enemy ships and submarines.  Years later Mr. Botterbusch said he remembers going to the beach and the watch towers were still there.     Everyone was involved with the civil defense – simulated air raids, practice drills.  Mr. Botterbusch believes there was a man at every intersection to make sure traffic on the road was there for official business.

News broadcasts were done over the radio since there was no television.  Several well-known broadcasters – Gabriel Heatter, H.V. Kaltenborn, Lowell Thomas, Walter Winchell – were on the radio during this time. 

Mr. Botterbusch talked about rationing.  Everything was rationed.  You could not buy a new car or appliances since these factories were all involved in the war.  Stamps were issued to purchase meat from the butcher, sugar and gasoline.  For the gasoline, there were stickers A, B, C, and D; and according to what you used your vehicle for you could get a little more gasoline, like using your car for work.  The stickers were affixed to the rear window of your vehicle and when you pulled into the gas station, you would get the amount allowed for the sticker and what you had stamps to buy.  Mr. Botterbusch said they were fortunate to have friends who were farmers and when they would butcher, his family would buy ¼ beef which his mother would can.  His family did OK on the meat and gasoline, too, since the farmers were allowed extra to run their farm equipment; so his parents would trade sugar stamps for gasoline stamps with the farmers since the farmers needed more sugar for canning their fruit and preserves. 

Mr. Botterbusch said this was a time when everyone was involved with the war.  We think about the war today which does not affect anyone very much except those who have family members serving in the military.  He feels the price of gasoline is tied directly to the war today.

Mr. Botterbusch concluded his presentation and opened it up for any questions from the membership.  Jo Ott asked if Mr. Botterbusch could talk about some of the people from Dover who served in the war.  He said he did not live in Dover during the war.  President Shermeyer said her father was drafted when she was very young.  He and Bob Maul had their post in the clock tower during blackouts.  There were always 2 homes who did not obey the blackouts and someone had to go out into the countryside to tell them to turn out their lights.  The blackouts were taken very seriously.  Mr. Maul just passed away on February 8.    President Shermeyer also recalled hearing Gabriel Heatter on the radio as a young girl and the kids knew not to say anything while his program was on the radio.   Harry Shermeyer recalled they collected milk weed pods and used the insides for life vests.  Randy Worley stated he has a ration book at home and Mr. Botterbusch said he has some red and blue tokens.  Randy said his father was on the Dover Civil Defense team and had a helmet and armband.  There were bomb shelters in downtown York in the square.  Grace Trimmer talked about a bomb shelter in North York.     President Shermeyer and Gayle Heagy talked about an Honor Roll monument on the square.  It listed the names of all Dover residents who went to war.  Gayle’s father took the name plates to the city to get painted and Butch Gentzler was in charge of having them made up.  President Shermeyer has a photo of her as a young girl standing in front of the monument and she has a list of the names from the Honor Roll which were in the Dover history book.  They have tried to find out what happened to it but no luck.  Grace Trimmer said she thought it was stored in Louise Stauffer’s barn at one time.