6 Reading the pages of the New York Times in 1939 and 1940, Gertrude saw hints of cultural changes coming to America. A young singer named Frank Sinatra made his debut. Animated motion pictures were a hit, with Walt Disney’s fulllength Pinocchio premiering in New York City, to be followed later that year by Fantasia. McDonald’s opened its first restaurant in San Bernardino, California. Bugs Bunny made his first appearance in “Wild Hare.”
While America was struggling to pull itself out of the Great Depression, war was about to ravage Europe, where trouble had been simmering for years. Gertrude could not have known that the conflicts brewing across the Atlantic Ocean would soon change the course of her life.
In Germany, Adolf Hitler rose to power through political intimidation and brutality. Many who openly opposed the policies of his Nazi Party were beaten or imprisoned; some were murdered. Becoming chancellor in 1934, Hitler claimed to represent a new Germany, one rising from the ashes of the 1918 German defeat in World War I. Hitler stabilized the German dollar, called the deutsche mark. (At one time the deutsche mark had become so inflated that it took a wheelbarrow load of bills to buy a loaf of bread.) He ordered the construction of superhighways, called autobahns. The economy became more robust as unemployed Germans found jobs. Factories began gearing up for a new war.
One of history’s most infamous dictators, Hitler was born in Austria in 1898. While serving a prison term for political agitation in 1923, he wrote a book called Mein Kampf, which translated means “my struggle.” In it he blamed Jewish people for most of Europe’s ills and spelled out his vision for a new Germany.
France and England had been weakened by the Great Depression and had no stomach for another war. Between them they had 8 million people killed or wounded in World War I. They expressed their concerns over Hitler’s aims but remained passive in the face of the dictator’s broken promises.
Hitler flouted the terms that the Treaty of Versailles imposed on Germany at the end of World War I, which was often called “the war to end all wars.” He defiantly took over areas of northern France and Czechoslovakia. Austria was absorbed into Germany and ceased to exist as a country.
Hitler also made a pact with Soviet Russia, which was led by the dictator Joseph Stalin. Together Soviet Russia and Germany invaded Poland in September 1939. England and France reluctantly came to Poland’s aid. World War II had been ignited and would rage for the next six years.
Germany quickly conquered Poland, Denmark, Norway, Holland, Belgium, and France. England refused to surrender and retreated to its home islands to rebuild its military.
Germany signed war treaties with Japan and Italy, forming what was called the Axis. They vowed to support one another. By 1940 the Axis seemed invincible.
Russia remained independent but had gained much eastern European land from its alliance with Germany.
Japan’s government was under the control of a militant faction. This small island nation needed coal, oil, and metals that they could only get from other countries. They took these countries by force. Beginning in 1931 they occupied large areas of China. Japan also occupied islands in the western Pacific called the Mariana Islands.
In the summer of 1941 Germany surprised the world and invaded Russia, its former ally, rolling up victory after victory against Stalin’s troops. By autumn of 1941 it appeared that only England and the United States stood between the Axis and their conquest of the world. But America was reluctant to enter the fray.
In the 1930s a majority of Americans thought the United States should avoid another European war. Over 320,000 American troops had been killed or wounded in France in World War I. It was enough. Congress and many American citizens largely regarded Hitler’s conquests as strictly a European problem. “America First” became a popular slogan, and prominent America Firsters included Charles A. Lindbergh, the American hero who in 1927 had flown solo across the Atlantic Ocean to land in Paris.
A few military planners and politicians were deeply concerned about America’s isolationism. They realized the airplane had made the world more vulnerable. They felt that a war in Europe might eventually involve America, whether the country liked it or not.
Amelia Mary Earhart was an American aviation pioneer and author who disappeared while flying over the Pacific in 1937. She was attempting an around-the-world flight with her navigator, Fred Noonan. They were flying a twin-engine Lockheed Vega.
In 1932 she became the first woman pilot to fly the Atlantic nonstop. Between 1930 and 1935, Amelia Earhart set seven women’s speed and distance records in a variety of aircraft. She made nonstop solo flights from Honolulu to Oakland, California, and from Mexico City to New York City. Earhart participated in long-distance air racing and competed with Jacqueline Cochran—who would later establish the WASPs—in the 1935 Bendix Trophy air race.
Her mysterious disappearance near the Pacific’s Howland Island is still controversial. The commonly accepted theory is that she simply ran out of gas and went into the sea. Others are not so sure. One possibility is that she landed on Gardner Island (now called Nikumaroro) and died before she could be rescued. One historian suggests she may have been executed by the Japanese after seeing military installations that had been forbidden by international treaties.
Some American pilots had fought alongside the English and French against the Germans during the First World War. These pilots were part of the US Army, called the Army Air Service. Some women pilots had volunteered to fight but had been turned down. In the 1930s several famous women, including Amelia Earhart and Eleanor Roosevelt, proposed that the US Army incorporate women into the pilot pool.
General Henry “Hap” Arnold was promoted to chief of the air force. It was a flimsy, underfunded service, with fewer than 2,000 aircraft in 1938. Germany had more than double that number. America trained only 300 pilots per year. In the late 1930s the idea of using women pilots had been proposed but was rejected by Arnold because of a lack of airplanes.
There was resistance to an expanded air force by a number of top-ranking generals who believed the military use of aircraft was a fad. Some of these generals still believed in fighting from horseback. Yet there was clear evidence suggesting that aircraft would play a major role in war. Germany showed its air strength to the world when in 1937 it bombed Guernica, a city in Spain, killing hundreds of civilians in the Spanish Civil War. The Japanese use of aircraft in its invasion of China and the devastating bombing of Nanking in 1937 were further proof that air power would be an integral part of future conflicts.
Gertrude was still working for her father at Smooth-On, and like most Americans the first thing she did upon arriving home in the evening was to turn on her radio and listen to the news. As she fixed macaroni and cheese (which she adored) or broiled a chop, she could feel England’s desperation through the voice of Edward R. Murrow, an American journalist broadcasting from London as the bombs fell.
When America entered World War II, it needed a lot of soldiers in a hurry, so an involuntary draft was instituted through a system called Selective Service. Men eligible for service were given physicals and were either rejected or deemed fit to fight. President Franklin D. Roosevelt convened a National Nutrition Conference in 1941 to see why 38.5 percent of all men called to serve were rejected. They discovered what welfare workers knew all along: the largest single factor was malnutrition, caused by the Great Depression of the 1930s.
In the autumn of 1940, Gertrude was aware that only the fighter pilots of England’s Royal Air Force (RAF) stood between Hitler and an invasion of the British Isles. Hitler’s air force, the Luftwaffe, was ordered to destroy the Royal Air Force. Prospects looked bleak for the RAF. Fighting fiercely, the English pilots held the Germans at bay, in spite of heavy losses.
Gertrude asked Henry Silver if he had family in Europe. The word was that the Jews were fleeing the Continent. But contrary to his last name (“Silver” or names with the prefix “Silver-” are common Jewish surnames), Henry was not Jewish. Even so, America had its own ugly streak of anti-Semitism, and kids had teased him in school and called him derogatory names.
Although Henry was still interested in a relationship with Gertrude, her romantic interest was soon firmly directed elsewhere. It was probably at a dance sometime in late 1940 or early 1941 that Gertrude met Stanley Michael (Mike) Kolendorski, the man she would love the rest of her short life.
Mike was a member of Eagle Squadron 71, composed of American pilots who volunteered to fly against the Germans for England. He had returned to the States for an unknown reason and was now waiting for a flight back to England. His destination was his air base at the village of Martlesham Heath, where he piloted a Hurricane, a swift single-engine fighter.
Gertrude and Mike likely found common ground in the fact that they were both from New Jersey. They must have fallen for each other quickly because they spent much of the next several days together. With a war on, romances were often accelerated. Military men had short leaves and would return to duty to face death. One- and two-week romances sometimes ended in proposals of marriage.
Did tearful kisses mark their good-bye as Mike boarded a train for New Hampshire and his flight back to England? Elizabeth was certain that an Eagle Squadron pilot was her sister’s “one and only” love, and it is likely the pair fueled their attachment with letters.
News of the war dominated headlines. Moviegoers watched bombs falling and cities in flame. The newsreels showed English fighter planes taking off to meet the Nazi attackers. Gertrude must have worried, for this was a critical time for her Eagle Squadron pilot.
England was bombed intensely for 57 consecutive nights. Eighty thousand Londoners were killed or wounded. A newspaper story estimated 300 English fighter pilots had met their deaths in combat since the war had begun. Called the Battle of Britain, it was the first time a battle was fought using only airplanes.
On the ground, Belgrade had fallen to the Germans, the ninth European capital to capitulate to Hitler. President Roosevelt, while still maintaining America’s neutrality, ordered the US Navy and Coast Guard to defend against Nazi submarines attacking ships off America’s East Coast. The fires of torpedoed ships were seen from the New Jersey coast.
There is no record of when Gertrude took her first airplane flight, but it is probable that it was with Mike Kolendorski, who rented a plane while he was in New York. After he left for England, she followed up with flying lessons.
Gertrude’s first flight must have been exhilarating and life changing, similar to WASP Jean’s Hascall Cole’s description of her first flight.
My first flight was a stunning introduction to a new world. Bounding along the grass runway, the Aeronca seemed ready to lift at a moment’s notice. My feet were on the rudders, one hand on the throttle, one on the stick, carefully following the movements of the instructor who was flying the dual controls from the front cockpit. Suddenly the plane roared into the air, banked to the left, and swept, gloriously, into the deep blue of a clear June sky. This was now my world, this incredibly wide, amazing beautiful new universe.
In May 1941 Gertrude received notification that Pilot Officer Stanley M. Kolendorski had been shot down by the Germans and was considered dead by the RAF. (Sometime later his body was recovered from the sea, and he was buried in Rockanje, Holland.) The news of Mike’s death plunged Gertrude into despair. For two weeks she stayed home from work. She later told her sister that she couldn’t stop crying, so she focused on learning to fly.
Six months later, on December 7, 1941, Gertrude listened to the news of the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor. Virtually every American found a radio and glued themselves to it on that fateful Sunday morning. The war had finally become personal, and America wasn’t ready. It turned to its women for help.
At the war’s beginning all military branches began utilizing women. This was something that First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt had been supporting in her My Day newspaper column, which was syndicated in many cities across the United States. The army had the Women’s Army Corps (WACs); the navy formed Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Services (WAVES); the marine corps had their Women’s Reserve; and the coast guard created SPARs from the service’s Latin motto, Semper Paratus—Always Ready. All were formed because of shortages of men.
War news monopolized conversation everywhere. There was speculation among female pilots that they might be called upon to fly for their country. Some women pilots got their licenses through Civilian Pilot Training Programs at universities. Many women fliers paid to learn at flight schools scattered across the country. A few women flew professionally, mostly as instructors.
In 1941, about 3,000 American women had pilot’s licenses, and many wanted to be of service. Two proposals were submitted to General Hap Arnold, one by Nancy Harkness Love and the other by Jacqueline Cochran. Both were expert pilots, but Cochran was almost a household name. She’d won the Bendix race and five Harmon trophies for her flying and had set many speed, distance, and altitude records. She owned a cosmetics company called Wings and promoted her products by flying around the country and giving interviews. Considered something of an aviation swashbuckler, Jacqueline Cochran had been born Bessie Pittman in 1906 in western Florida, where her handicapped father had sometimes earned 60 cents a day at a sawmill. To escape poverty, Bessie became a hairdresser, and while making her way to New York City, she changed her name to Jacqueline Cochran. Working at the cosmetics counter at Saks Fifth Avenue, she met and later married movie mogul and millionaire Floyd Odlum.
Jacqueline Cochran and Nancy Harkness Love were very different. Love was from a well-to-do family and had an Ivy League college education. While in college she got her pilot’s license and made money by renting planes and taking students for rides. She became known as “The Flying Freshman.” She and her husband, Robert M. Love, an air corps reserve major, built their own successful Boston-based aviation company, Inter City Aviation, for which Nancy was a pilot. She proposed to the army a small unit of experienced women pilots to ferry aircraft from factories to military bases. Each pilot would have at least 500 hours of flying time. These women already had licenses. Her proposal went to the Air Force Ferry Command.
It was approved, and the Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS) was formed under Love. She brought together 28 pilots who met her criteria. They underwent four weeks of specialized military training at New Castle Army Air Base in Delaware. The women learned to fly most of the aircraft in the army and were ready to immediately begin flying.
Unlike Love, Cochran wanted to train large numbers of women to handle all kinds of domestic military flights, thus releasing many more male pilots for combat. While Love’s group began ferrying, Cochran was given the go-ahead by General Arnold to organize her training program, the Women’s Airforce Service Pilots—the WASPs.
Using word of mouth and personal invitations, Cochran began recruiting. Gertrude was about to embark on her greatest adventure yet.