Oroville Mercury Register October 5, 1942
List All Boats With Gambrel
Anyone having row boats or motor boats available for use in an emergency
is asked by Tom Gambrel
to list the boats with him. Gambrel may be contacted by phone
at 576R and his home address is 2450 Montgomery . The list
is being compiled in connection with the local defense program and
the defense committee would like to know where the boats are in
case they are needed. Gambrel said a similar set-up has been arranged
at Gridley.
Butte County News
Mrs. Lofgren Guest of Honor At Tea Given By Friends
Biggs- Mrs. Worth Bayles
was in San Francisco recently where she was the guest of Miss
Virginia Hastings
at a tea at the Palace Hotel in honor of
Mrs. Maurice Lofgren,
the former Miss Eleanor
Longanecker. Present were college friends of the honor
guest. Mrs. Lofgren is residing in San Francisco, her husband
having left for foreign service in the air corps in which he is
a lieutenant. The Lofgrens were married Aug. 10 at Manchester,
New Hampshire, where Lt.
Lofgren was then stationed. His wife has received a
cable of his safe arrival at his foreign post.
Stu’s Notes: Tom Gambrel on home defense there were still worries
of a Japanese invasion even 10 months after Pearl Harbor.
Tom lived in a house that was on the lot right next to the Boss.
It is one of the lots that will be the Oroville Veterans Memorial
Park Honoring all of Butte County. Tom’s granddaughter,
Lynn Theuriet came
to Oroville with Richard
Gambrel, Tom’s son. I ran into them quite by accident
at the Butte County Historical Society Museum on Spencer.
She was looking into the history of her family here when I told
her we were building a memorial on Tom’s old family home she was
very glad of that. Richard served in the Military right after
graduating from Oroville High School in 1943. Lynn’s Grandfather
was born in the house in 1898. Thomas McGee was the first
owner of the house and he was from Ireland. The house was
built in the 1890’s. Lynn’s great grandfather’s initials T. M. are
still in the sidewalk.
Maurice Arvid Lofgren
died August 30, 1943 in a bomber crash in England.
This is the 63rd anniversary of the Atomic Bomb.
Rudy Messerschmidt,
almost 50 years ago, the First United Methodist Church of Oroville
sponsored he and his family to come to Oroville from Holland, by
then Indonesia, was at odds with those who had Dutch connections.
So they came to Oroville and are still here as good solid citizens
of America. Now I will use Rudy’s words. “I fought for
the Dutch against the invading Japanese. I was taken prisoner.
One time they lined us all up to shoot. Some how they decided
to shoot every other one of us. For some reason a Japanese
officer told them not to shoot anybody. Our paths had crossed
previously and I guess that is why he spared us. Near the
end of the war unknown to us, but the Japanese knew the end was
near, they made us dig ditches by our camp. Then America dropped
the Atomic bomb and soon we were free, the Japanese said then that
we had dug our graves. But such a quick end to the war spared
us.” After the war Rudi Met
Ella Voll and married
in 1949. They had 3 children. They both worked for the
Dutch, Ella working for the Dutch Embassy. In 1958 they went
from Indonesia to Holland, two years later, America. Rudy
worked for P.G.& E. here and retired as an Electrician and Start
up Engineer. Ella passed a way a few years ago. Rudi
now travels all over the world and has one more Prisoner of War
Reunion to go to, he says it will be the last one. His family
with a half dozen grandkids also keep him busy.
The use of the Atomic bomb is still debated today. Was
it necessary? All I can say after years of hearing both sides,
is that I think the bomb saved many more lives then it took, especially
on our side. But also on the Japanese side. We were
going to invade Japan, island by island, probably November 1945.
On the invasion date one of the worst typhoons ever struck the invasion
area, we would have had thousands of ships there. The Japanese
were prepared to fight on the beaches with men, women and children,
they had up to 5,000 Kamakazi planes in caves ready to use.
Most of all the tens of thousands of Allied Prisoners of war would
probably have been shot or brutally killed. Was the atomic
bomb right or wrong? I guess that can only be answered by
those who would have died in the invasion. Many are still
alive today as are there offspring. I talked to Veterans Memorial
Committee members Bob Morehouse, he said the up coming invasion
would have been “A bloody Mess.” He was on a ship not far
from Japan. Their group was preparing for the Invasion.
Darby Miller said
about the same as Bob.