World War II ---- The Soldier in the Rear
Jim Page
The Jim Page Diary: It is well known that for every soldier in a combat role there must be five to ten in support roles. There may be trainers, cooks, clerks, medics and nurses, transportation, maintenance and repair, etc. Some may work in or near a combat zone and some will never hear a shot fired in anger. However, all these functions are necessary to maintain a fighting military.
The Jim Page scrapbooks, which can be found in the Wakeman Archives, give us a glimpse into the life of such a soldier. He was older, married and inducted late in the war. A devoted husband, he wrote almost every day and his remarkable wife saved everything he sent home in a scrapbook giving us a day-by-day account of his service, which is very unusual. The scrapbooks are also full of photographs and newspaper clippings including a wonderful collection of “sad sack” cartoons.
Jim was born in Pineville, Kentucky in 1914. Coming of age during the Great Depression, he moved to Detroit, met Miss Helen Martin from Hillsdale, Michigan, somewhat his senior, and the two were married in December 1939. The 1940 census finds them living in Toledo. His draft registration records however remained in Pineville, and in December 1943 he was ordered to report for his draft physical exam in Pineville at age 29. Perhaps Pineville was a small town and had run out of younger eligible draftees. By March 1944 he was off to basic training at Fort Knox. After basic they sent him to Sheppard Field, Texas to train for aircraft maintenance and repair then to T. Field at Madison, Wisconsin, attached to the 90th Depot Repair Squadron of the U.S. Army Air Force. This unit was sent to Bari, Italy, leaving the U.S. January 4, 1945 and arriving January 13. There he stayed for the rest of the war, working as a painter at the air base. He seems to usually have regular hours with much off duty time. His life is routine, boring and sometimes unpleasant. Besides writing his daily letters, he spends much time at the “club”, sees movies and U.S.O. shows and even gets time off to go to Rome and countryside tours. He sometimes mentions being sick from paint thinner fumes. He also talks of having German and Italian P.O.W.s to supervise. He sends money home and instructs is wife Helen to find and buy a farm, which she does. She is working in defense plants in Detroit, so apparently between them there is money to do that. In 1946 she is living at a rural route number near Swanton, Ohio. Eventually, well after war ended in the European Theatre, we find Jim in a unit going to Munich, Germany as occupation troops. His letters describing the move by motor convoy from Bari to Munich are detailed and interesting. At Munich his duties are much the same but he visits some of the German death camps and is near the Nazi war crimes trials. Finally Jim acquires enough points to be sent home, arriving in the U.S. sometime in May 1946 and discharged June 15, 1946, having spent about eight months in occupied Munich, Germany. Jim and Helen settled in on the farm Helen had purchased. In December of 1950 they adopted two children, James E. Page, Jr. and Patricia Ann Page. The family moved to 9874 South River Road (later 10020 South River) in December 1952, when Jim went to work for his brother-in-law Robert L. Martin, owner of the Waterville Hardware. He became owner of the store in April of 1956 and moved the business down the street to 15 N. Third Street after a fire destroyed the building. Jim Page owned the Waterville Hardware business until his death in 1979. Perhaps some of our readers remember Jim Page the hardware man.