The US military dubbed it Operation Santa Claus. Their massive operation to bring home all the American soldiers, sailors and airmen who had fought against Hitler in the Second World War in time for Christmas 1945. But it was only part of an even larger effort to repatriate their troops from overseas, which they named Operation Magic Carpet.
A Heart Warming Christmas Story
It is a heart-warming story, which seem to me so appropriate for the festive season, that I decided to run it in my final blog of the year. I have been lecturing abroad for the past few months and hence neglected these blogs. However, for those interested in my work I have a whole range of interesting, insightful and at times deeply distressing stories from that period of history to recount in the New Year.
This Blog Was Sent In By A Fellow Modern History Buff
Unlike the majority of my blogs, which are based on my own research and writing, this one was sent to me by my friend, and fellow modern history buff, Robb Lamb from Las Vegas.
It’s a story which well illustrates the stoicism and cold-blooded courage that marked out these men and woman as belonging to the Great Generation.
I hope you find it as inspiring as I did and wish all my readers are very happy festive season and a successful and fulfilling 2020.
The Long Ride Home
In 1939, there were 334,000 servicemen and women, not counting the Coast Guard, in the United States.
By 1945, this number had risen to over 12 million, including the Coast Guard.
At the end of the war, over 8 million of these men and women were scattered overseas in Europe, the Pacific and Asia.
Shipping them out wasn’t a particular problem but getting them home was a massive logistical headache.
Army Chief of Staff General George C. Marshall had already established committees to address the issue in 1943.
After Hitler Fell the Fighting Continued in the Far East
When Germany fell in May 1945, the US. Navy was still busy fighting in the Pacific and couldn’t assist. So, the job of transporting 3 million men home fell to the Army and the Merchant Marine. Three hundred Victory and Liberty cargo ships were converted to troop transports for the task.
Cramming Them In – Shipping Them Out
On smaller ships like destroyers, capable of carrying perhaps 300 men, soldiers were told to hang their hammocks in whatever nook and cranny they could find.
Carriers were particularly useful, as their large open hangar decks could house 3,000 or more troops in relative comfort, with bunks, sometimes in stacks of five welded or bolted in place.
Bunks aboard the Army transport SS Pennant
Any and Every Sort of Vessel Was Brought into Service
The Navy wasn’t picky – cruisers, battleships, hospital ships, even LSTs (Landing Ship, Tank) were packed full of men yearning for home.
Two British ocean liners under American control, the RMS Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth, had already served as troop transports before and continued to do so during the operation, each was capable of carrying up to 15,000 people at a time, though their normal, peacetime capacity was less than 2,200.
Twenty-nine ships were dedicated to transporting war brides: women married to American soldiers during the war.
Troops performing a lifeboat drill on board the Queen Mary in December 1944.
The Japanese Surrender
The Japanese surrender in August 1945 came none too soon, but it put an extra burden on organizing the long road home, during what the military named Operation Magic Carpet.
The war in Asia had been expected to go well into 1946 and the Navy and the War Shipping Administration were hard-pressed to bring home all the soldiers who now had to get home earlier than anticipated.
The transports carrying them also had to collect numerous POWs from recently liberated Japanese camps, many of whom suffered from malnutrition and illness.
U.S. soldiers recently liberated from Japanese POW camps
Journeys Home Lasted from Days to Months
The time to get home depended a lot on the circumstances.
USS Lake Champlain, a brand-new Essex-class carrier that arrived too late for the war, could cross the Atlantic and take 3,300 troops home in a little under 4 days and 8 hours.
Meanwhile, troops going home from Australia or India would sometimes spend months on slower vessels.
Hangar of the USS Wasp during the operation
Storms At Sea Slowed Transports
Due to storms at sea and an overabundance of soldiers eligible for return home, however, Santa Claus was only able to return a fraction in time and still not quite home but at least to American soil.
The nation’s transportation network was overloaded, trains heading west from the East Coast were on average 6 hours behind schedule and trains heading east from the West Coast were twice that late.
The crowded flight deck of the USS Saratoga. This ship transported home a total of 29,204 servicemen – more than any other vessel.
Not Everyone Made It Home for Christmas
In the event the Christmas deadline proved untenable for all the troops.
The last 29 troop transports, carrying some 200,000 men from the China-India-Burma theatre, arrived home in 1946. An additional 127,000 soldiers still took until September to return home and finally lay down the burden of war.
The Kindness of Strangers
Newly discharged men, who found themselves stuck in separation centres, were met with an outpouring of love and friendliness from the locals. Townsfolk took in freshly arrived troops and invited them to Christmas dinner in their homes.
Others gave their train tickets to soldiers and still others organized quick parties at local train stations for men on layover.
A Los Angeles taxi driver took six soldiers all the way to Chicago; another drove a carload of men to Manhattan, the Bronx, Pittsburgh, Long Island, Buffalo and New Hampshire. Neither of the drivers would accept a fare beyond the cost of fuel.
These were gifts of emotional, physical and financial support which were remembered by veterans, and their families, for the rest of their lives
Overjoyed troops returning home on the battleship USS Texas