World War Two

When Is a Spy Not a Spy? And How Do Spy Stories Start and Where Do They Lead?
Friday May 31, 1940
Vineyard Gazette

These are questions which have taken considerable of the Gazette staff’s time for the past week or so, and the result is not substantial.

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Editorial: Nothing About the War?
Friday May 31, 1940
Vineyard Gazette
Now and then a reader asks why the Gazette does not print anything about the war. Don’t we realize that this generation is witnessing one of the greatest ordeals the world has ever known, and that the tragedy on so vast a scale cannot fail to affect all our lives? How can we remain silent?
 
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Vineyard Boys Serving in Far Eastern Forces
Friday December 12, 1941
Vineyard Gazette
A tremor of mixed excitement and dread swept the Vineyard on Sunday when the first news of the Japanese attack on the Pacific islands became known through the radio broadcasts. Not for eighty years has this Island scene been duplicated, when the opening of the Civil War found Vineyard men at sea and in or near the war zone. The opening of this Far Eastern war likewise finds Vineyard men in or near the scene, not merely in ships of commerce, but in the armed forces of the country.
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Army Engineers Make Survey of Gay Head
Friday December 6, 1940
Vineyard Gazette
Although nothing official has been announced, it is learned on good authority that U.S. Army engineers have been making a survey of certain portions of Gay Head and Cuttyhunk within the past week, with a view to establishing suitable locations for fortifications should they be needed. The location favoried in Gay Head is the land lying between the lighthouse and the Vanderhoop estate, opposite the drive. This land is owned by the county, and is the site visited annually by thousands of people who go to Gay Head to see the cliffs.
 
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Will Be Remembered Long by All Mankind
Friday September 1, 1939
Vineyard Gazette
Vineyarders who turned on their radios this morning heard that Warsaw had been bombed, and that the incredible war of destruction seemed to have begun in Europe. On the Vineyard the northeast storm of the past few days was clearing, the sun coming through the morning clouds, and the air reviving with all the clarity and sweetness of early fall. Since Sept. 1, 1939, will be remembered long by all mankind, it is better for Vineyarders to be able to remember how the day dawned on the Island.
 
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Distant Blazes of War Engulfed Island
Friday July 30, 1999
Ethan Kelley

For the sheep grazing in pastures above Vineyard Sound, the patches of weathered canvas beating toward Holmes Hole were barely worth a glance away from meals of September grass. Farmers, townspeople and public officials, however, greeted the approach of some four dozen English-flagged vessels with a bit more alarm.

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Old Munitions Cleanup Under Way at Remote Cape Pogue
Monday May 23, 2016
Sara Brown

The remote northern end of Chappaquiddick has been bustling with activity this spring as cleanup of World War II-era practice bombs begins.

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World War II Practice Bombs Found on Chappy
Tuesday August 25, 2015
Sara Brown

The state police bomb squad was called to Chappaquiddick after the discovery of two World War II practice bombs, later determined to be inert, on a remote barrier beach at Cape Pogue.

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Looking Back on Avengers of World War II
Thursday April 9, 2015
Steve Ewing

In 1945 the late Harvey Ewing was a 21-year-old tail gunner in a torpedo bomber in the South Pacific.

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Ted Morgan on World War II: “You Just Don’t Know What to Expect”
Thursday May 27, 2010

The password for that drop was George Washington. If you heard a rustling and you didn’t know who was there you would say “George,” and if you received the password “Washington,” then you knew it was your own troopers.

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