Japanese troops invade the capital of Nationalist China, sweeping before them the feeble defenses thrown up by the forces of the Chinese nationalist army. On the banks of the Yangtze River, the U.S.S. Panay is moored. A river gunboat and part of the US Navy’s Asiatic Fleet, it is tasked with protecting American interests along the Yangtze.
When the Japanese invade Nanking, the Panay is commanded at once to evacuate the city and make steam for Shanghai. The order goes out for all American civilians in Nanking, and all staff working at the U.S. Embassy in Nanking to evacuate immediately, to go to the waterfront, board the Panay, and prepare to leave at once.
The U.S.S. Panay on the Yangtze River in China
December 12th, 1937; as the vessel prepares to depart, the Panay has on board five officers, 54 members of the crew, ten civilians, including newsreel cameramen and reporters, and four staff of the U.S. Embassy – Nanking. American flags are stretched across the vessel to mark it as a neutral ship. Before it can even make headway, the Panay is attacked by thirteen Japanese aircraft, bombing the ship and strafing the decks.
The crew man the lifeboats but the ship sinks so fast that everybody is forced into the water, to swim to the banks. Japanese aircraft strafe the water, shooting unarmed civilians and noncombatants. In total, five are killed, and 48 are wounded. The Japanese claimed that they did not spot the American flags, and paid compensation to the U.S. government for loss of the Panay and the deaths of those on board.
The sinking of the U.S.S. Panay near Nanking, China
The Panay was one of the last ships out of Nanking, and one of the last hopes for Chinese civilians attempting to flee the Japanese. On the 13th of December began the Rape of Nanking, which saw the deaths of 300,000 Chinese men, women, children, POWs, and any other foreign nationals still stuck in the city when the vessel sank.
During WWII, the famous piano-manufacturer, Steinway & Sons, was forced to give up its tons of seasoned timber for the American war-effort. The aged lumber was to be used to manufacture rifle-stocks, and lightweight glider-aircraft for use during large-scale allied troop-landings in Europe.
Once the war in Europe started going the way of the Allies, the army approached Steinway again and asked them to start building pianos once more – despite the fact that all their best timber-stocks had already been spent on the war-effort!
Victory Verticals being tuned
The army wanted Steinway to produce a lightweight piano which could be air-dropped into Europe so that soldiers, and liberated civilians, could have a cheap but cheerful way to entertain themselves, produce music, and raise morale!
The result was the army-green Steinway & Sons “Victory Vertical” upright piano.
Victory Vertical packed for shipping
Just over 2,400 Victory Verticals were manufactured, and shipped to Europe and either flown or trucked inland and air-dropped over liberated population-centers.
The piano had to be small enough to be packed easily aboard cargo-ships, light enough to be transported by air, robust enough to survive a parachute landing, and capable of being moved around easily by two or three men, since specialist moving-equipment was unlikely to be available where these pianos would end up.
While it does sound incredible, advertising materials and publicity documents published by Steinway during WWII attest to the fact that – yes, Victory Verticals really were airdropped from bombers during the war, where they were rescued by Allied troops and liberated civilians, and put to use.
American soldiers having a singalong around a Steinway Victory Vertical
Due to the small numbers produced, few Victory Verticals exist today, and they’re an almost forgotten chapter of Steinway…and world war…history.
Few of us are likely to forget the 2001 September 11 terrorist attacks, when two planes crashed into the Twin Towers in Manhattan and into the Pentagon. I was a 14-year-old schoolboy at the time, and I remember watching it unfolding live on television.
But how many of us have heard of what happened on September 16th? Not September 16th 2001…but September 16th, 1920.
This date commemorates one of the first big terrorist attacks in United States history, a criminal act which has since drifted off into the fog of history. In this posting, we’ll be looking at the first time that terror came to New York: The Wall Street Bombing of 1920.
What was the Wall Street Bombing?
The Wall Street Bombing was just one of several terrorist attacks which took place in the USA in the early 20th century. Until the Bath School Disaster of 1927, it was also the most deadly terrorist bombing in the United States at the time, and the first terrorist attack on New York soil.
In the early 1920s, the United States was enjoying the coming boom years of the Roaring Twenties, brought on by post-WWI prosperity. Nowhere was this prosperity more evident than on Wall Street, in Lower Manhattan, the center of the financial world. It was in this bustling nook of trade and commerce, that the attack happened, killing and injuring dozens of people during the midday rush, all in a matter of seconds.
What Happened during the Bombing?
These days, we’d probably call it an “improvised explosive device”, or to use the common parlance, a ‘car-bomb’; or more specifically, a ‘cart’ bomb. Just before noon on the morning of the 16th of September, 1920, a horse and cart, loaded with 100lbs of dynamite and 500lbs in sash-weights (those small, metal weights used to operate sash windows), pulled up outside No. 23 Wall Street, the J.P. Morgan Bank. A minute after midday the dynamite was detonated, destroying the cart, killing the horse, and sending hundreds of pounds of metal shrapnel flying through the crowded, lunchtime rush on Wall Street!
The bomb-blast could be felt right across the narrow thoroughfare. Its victims were mostly messengers, couriers, stenographers and stockbrokers, moving between their various places of work. The blast killed thirty-eight people and wounded over a hundred and forty other people! The exterior of the J.P. Morgan bank, which the cart was parked outside, was severely damaged by broken glass, chips of masonry and flying shrapnel.
Several other buildings on Wall Street were significantly damaged. Cars, trucks and other vehicles nearby were flipped over and smashed from the force of the exploding dynamite, as you can see in the photograph above. Within minutes, emergency services were on the scene to clear up the wreckage and treat the injured.
The injuries sustained in the blast were horrific. A stockbroker was decapitated by the flying debris, his headless body found in the street, a packet of work-papers and stocks still clutched in his hands. One man was blinded in the explosion and lost the use of his eyes. Dead bodies lay everywhere. Initially, the death-count was low, but the appalling injuries soon caused it to rise to the number of 38, which was the official number of deaths caused by the blast.
Some of the bodies of victims killed in the blast
The police were quick to respond to the explosion, and within minutes, they’d cordoned off the blast-area and had commandeered all operational motor-cars within the radius of the explosion, using them to transport the injured to hospital. One 17-year-old messenger-boy packed thirty people into one of these cars before driving it to safety.
The Aftermath of the Explosion
Terrified and furious New Yorkers were quick to condemn the blast that killed over three dozen people and horribly maimed and injured up to a hundred and forty or more of their friends, colleagues, family-members and just plain fellow New Yorkers. The BOI (that’s the Bureau of Investigation, the forerunner to the current FBI) immediately launched an investigation into the attack. Business-owners and the Board of Governors for the New York Stock Exchange were anxious to start trading again as soon as possible. The street was cleaned up overnight (literally) and trading resumed the next morning.
The front page of the New York Times, September 17th, 1920. The day after the bombing.
Investigators theorised that the bombers might have been communists or anarchists. Why else would they wish to attack America’s centre of wealth, business and finance? The noted newspaper, the Washington Post, declared the bombing an “act of war”.
While the BOI theorised about possible foreign terrorist groups, or the possibility of a group of Italian anarchists, the police started investigating the source of the horse and cart. Despite checking dozens of stables, they were unable to find out who had purchased, or perhaps stolen, the horse and cart which was used to transport the dynamite to Wall Street. While investigative authorities came up with many theories and leads, officially, at least – the case was never definitively solved.
Born in 1942, and dying in 1963, Wojtek (“Voy-Teck”) was the name given to a Syrian brown bear-cub discovered by Polish soldiers in Iran, who had been released from Soviet gulags after Germany invaded Russia in 1941. The soldiers of the Polish II Corps raised Wojtek as their unit mascot, but their commanding officer refused to let the troops have a bear – or any other animal – as a mascot! So instead, the troops pulled a fast one, and enlisted Wojtek as a private in their unit.
And thus began Private Wojtek’s career in the Polish Army.
Wojtek the Bear
Wojtek was a popular mascot, and he spent so much time with the soldiers that he started copying their every move. He learned how to drink coffee, drink beer, smoke, march, and even salute!
In their spare time, the soldiers would wrestle with Wojtek…which was no mean feat, because before long, Wojtek was 5’9″, and over 200lbs! As he grew more and more attached to the men, the soldiers assigned one of the men to be the bear’s personal minder.
Wojtek wrestling with a Polish soldier
During the Battle of Monte Cassino, Wojtek observed his fellow Poles carrying crates of artillery-shells to the front for their artillery officers to load into their guns and mortars. Like with everything else, Wojtek started copying this behaviour, too, and easily carried the 100lb crates of shells to the front line.
After WWII, Wojtek lived out his life in Edinburgh Zoo in Scotland, where he became a bit of a star with the locals, and with soldiers from his former unit, who would drop by to visit. As a result of his activity, the Polish 22nd Artillery Supply Company changed their unit badge to depict an image of Wojtek carrying an artillery shell.
White sandy beaches, beautiful food, tropical weather and endless sunshine. Just some of the tropes that come to mind when people think of the islands of Hawaii. In fact, Hawaii has been associated so much with tropical getaways, relaxing summer holidays, or a particular day in 1941, that most people have completely forgotten (or never learned) that long before any Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor – Hawaii used to be a country!
That’s right – its own country, with its own flag, own national anthem, own government, and even its own monarchy!
The Kingdom of Hawaii was proclaimed in 1795 when Kamehameha the Great, the first ruler of a united Hawaii, declared the official union of the islands!
Actually this isn’t true – not all of the islands were unified – but the ones which were not eventually decided by majority rule, to join the union anyway.
The Kingdom of Hawaii lasted for not quite a hundred years, from 1795 to 1893. In that time it had eight rulers. Seven kings, and one queen, all native-born Hawaiians. It was to be the last independent ruler of Hawaii – and the island nation’s first, last, and only queen regnant, who would have, arguably, the greatest impact upon Hawaiian culture and history.
King Kalakaua, the last King of Hawaii, and Queen Lili’uolakani’s older brother
Queen Lili’uokalani, who also went by the Christian name of Lydia – was born in Hawaii on the 2nd of September, 1838. Due to the early deaths of the previous monarchs, including that of her older brother, the popular King Kalakaua – who we can thank for bringing back the tradition of hula-dancing to Hawaii – Queen Lili’uokalani ascended the throne in 1891. Her time on the Hawaiian throne was brief, just two years before the monarchy was forcibly overthrown – but even before her short reign, Lili’uokalani was to have a big impact on Hawaii – largely thanks to her brother.
King Kalakaua was the first Hawaiian monarch to travel widely around the world. In his absence, his sister, then-Princess Lili’uokalani officially ruled Hawaii as Princess Regent. She was responsible for saving much of traditional Hawaiian culture.
She documented many traditional Hawaiian customs, dances, songs, and even pieces of music, which previously had only existed orally, passed from generation-to-generation without ever being written down. She helped to contain the spread of a smallpox epidemic among the Hawaiian islands, and, when she finally became queen upon the untimely death of her brother, she rewrote the Hawaiian constitution in an attempt to give more power to her native people.
Lili’uokalani – Queen of the Hawaiian Islands
But of all Queen Lili’uokalani’s lasting legacies, probably her most famous one of all – was a song.
Written in 1878, and supposedly inspired by the sight of two lovers bidding farewell to each other, then Princess Lili’uokalani penned a song which was to become the most famous piece of music ever written on Hawaiian soil. A song so famous that even now, over 140 years after its composition, just a few bars of its melody immediately conjours up images of coconuts, palm trees, white sandy beaches and tropical paradises.
A song called “Aloha Oe“. Also known as “Farewell to Thee“, after its English title.
Ever heard of it?
You might not know the title, but you’ll certainly know the tune. It’s been used in countless TV shows, films, short-cartoons and animated series, and has been a popular choice for recording-artists for well over 100 years. It’s been covered by everybody from Bing Crosby in the 1930s to Elvis Presley in the 1960s!
Queen Lili’uokalani’s original handwritten manuscript for the song – including all musical notation, and full lyrics in native Hawaiian, and English – are still held by the Hawaiian State Archives.
The song proved so popular and so famous that, when Queen Lili’uokalani died in 1917, the thousands of people who turned out to watch her funeral procession all sang “Aloha Oe” as her casket was borne past, as a tribute to their island nation’s last queen.
A recent discussion with some friends brought up this little historical tidbit, and it made me wonder how many people know…or don’t know…about this curious historical oddity.
Almost without exception, every pair of jeans, ever since they were invented in the 1870s by Levi Strauss, and almost every pair of slacks or chinos produced ever since, has featured a small pocket sewn into the right-front pocket. It’s not very big, and if you’re lucky, you’ll manage to get three or four fingers into it before it gets too tight to fit anything else in there!
But what is it?
A lot of people like to call this the “fifth pocket” and believe that it was an afterthought added to jeans by the L.Strauss company when they were designing their first pairs in the late 1800s. But actually, nothing could be further from the truth.
The mysterious inner pocket on the right side of a pair of jeans was an intentional add-on, and it was placed there from the very start to serve a very particular function – It’s a watch-pocket, for storing your pocketwatch!
The pocketwatch goes into the pocket, and the chain or fob clips to the nearest belt-loop for security.
The Mysterious Fifth Pocket
What, then, you might ask – is this mysterious “fifth pocket” that everybody keeps talking about? Does it even exist? If the watch-pocket or fob-pocket isn’t the fifth pocket, then which one is?
There is a fifth pocket, and it does exist. But it isn’t the little one on the right where your pocketwatch lives.
Nope – actually, it’s round the back! The “fifth pocket” mentioned so often in association with jeans refers to the rear hip-pocket, sewn on the left-hand side! Prior to 1901, Strauss jeans were not sold with this feature, and it was this pocket – and not the watch-pocket – which was sewn onto jeans later on as an afterthought, to balance out the number of pockets available for use.
The Function of the Fob Pocket
So if your friends ever ask you – what is the fifth pocket – you can tell them – it’s not the little pocket on the front – it’s the big one at the back! And that little pocket on the front isn’t for keys…condoms…pepper-spray…coins…or anything like that. It’s for your pocketwatch!
Sources:
Webpages about the function and history of their pockets, from the official Levi Strauss website:
