Springfield, VT residents have long believed their town was on Hitler's bombing list during WWII. This short film talks to three generations of residents about the myth and what it means to the town.
www.vermontpbs.org
Video: Dorothy Seim, civilian during World War II
85 year old woman recalls life during World War II when she was Dorothy Johnson, a volunteer air-spotter watching the skies of Springfield, Vermont for enemy aircraft.
springfieldvt.blogspot.com/2016/06
Many manufacturing towns were on Hitler's "list," although arial bombing was pretty unlikely. More likely Springfield would have been the target of saboteurs who arrived by submarine.
ReplyDeleteThis news blog would have been Rutland Vermont News if World War II had never happened! My father was born and raised in Rutland and had no intention of ever leaving Rutland but he got assigned guard duty by the military at J&L in Springfield. Anyone wanting to enter J&L had to show him a photo ID to be allowed in. Being a guard there sparked an interest in becoming a machinist. He learned how in his spare time from just a correspondence course but that was enough to land him a full time job there once the war was over.
ReplyDeleteNot too many are aware of how much Springfield owed its prosperity to Communism!
ReplyDeleteWhile the rest of the country was crawling on its hands and knees through the Depression, the USSR inaugurated a Five Year Plan for industrializing the country. To implement it, they needed lots of machine tools, and their people arrived in one of the world's premier industrial towns to buy them-- Springfield. Their orders made the Depression in Springfield look like some other country's problem.