Gwendoline Rosa Wilkins Garner a "War Bride" departs England for the United States 2 February 1946

Telegram sent from Gwendoline's parents upon her departure to America on the Queen Mary.

Six months had passed since Gwen last saw Bill, when Gwen finally boarded the Queen Mary for the United States. 

 

Christmas passed and Bill missed his  Baby's First Christmas, but finally the day came when the US would transport thousands of British GI War Brides with their children to the United States. In Washington, D.C. the War Brides Act (Public law 271, 79th Congress) was passed and signed into law on December 28, 1945 by President Harry Truman. After passage, alien spouses of citizen members of the armed forces were officially "deemed to be non-quota immigrants" and would not need a visa. Application for admission to the country under this act had to be filed within three years of the date of it's passage. After being "medically examined," these war brides could enter the United States as soon as transportation was available. The application for transportation must have been filed by the husband.

Very soon after Christmas 1945 a conference was held in Washington, D.C. by representatives from the War Department, Public Health Service, Department of State, Justice Department, American Red Cross, Immigration and Naturalization Service, War shipping Administration and several domestic and foreign steamship lines, and a coordinated plan of operation was drawn up. Over time more than 70,000 women and children would be transported by the US Government to their new homes in the United States. The first official GI Bride ship departed on 26 January 1946 amid a blaze of publicity when the Argentina left England with 626 U.S. dependents aboard. It was soon followed by the Queen Mary carrying 2,340 passengers.

Gwen wrote about those days crossing the Atlantic in her memoirs ~ dated 1999

"The next big event in my life took place the day I walked up the gangplank of the liner R.M.S. "Queen Mary", carrying Carol in my arms, destination New York, U.S.A. By now it was February 1946. My dear mother and father journeyed to Southampton to see us depart and I have often wondered just what thoughts were going through their minds and what their feelings were as they watched their only child and grandchild on the deck of that ship and become but a memory as each successive wave from the wake of the "Queen" increased the distance between ship and shore. Thus ended a 22-year era of my life --happy, yet unhappy. happy because I was starting out on a new adventure, but unhappy in the knowledge that I was leaving behind two very dear people who had made my journey through life to that date the most pleasant experience.

And so we journeyed on across the stormy Atlantic, sharing our stateroom with three other British girls, each with one child of their own. And what a challenge that journey was!  Washing diapers and getting them dry in time for their next use; warming up bottles of milk and thin oatmeal; elbowing each other as we maneuvered in that tiny space to get our babies clean and presentable. The trip was rough-- but I have always loved the sea and I made the most of every minute of the time spent on board. 
After 5 1/2 days we docked in New York and I will never forget my first night and morning in America. It was close to midnight when I was told to get ready to  leave the ship to be taken to the 7th Regiment Armory in New York City where I was told my husband would be waiting for me. However, after waiting for several hours and watching the many joyful reunions that took place that night (but no Bill), an elderly couple who had befriended me gave me sufficient American money to enable me to place a phone call to Baltimore to find out what had gone wrong! Well, it turned out that the Red Cross organization had told Bill to stay in Baltimore and to meet me at Camden Station.......and the Red Cross in New York had told me he would be at the Armory in New York! Any rate, after eventually being taken to the American Hotel to try to get a little rest, we were put on board a train the following afternoon for Baltimore, arriving some 2 1/2 hours later --and there was Bill waiting at the station. It was sheer ecstasy to finally be with him to live what I hoped would be, and what has turned out to be to this moment in time, the rest of our lives together.  " 

Gwen and Carol on the right on board the Queen Mary.
Even the AP guys misspelled Bill's name, it's Wilbur!

The Queen Mary was the second transport ship to arrive New York, New York 8 February 1945. On board daily mimeographed newsletters were produced to keep the brides informed of daily goings on, meal times and cartoons. 

This is a reproduction of a drawing found in one of the on board newspapers.
Both the women and their babies were tagged when boarding to keep things straight.

This is another image reproduced from the daily newspapers on board the Queen Mary
while transporting it's precious cargo of War Brides and their babies to America.

Menu from the Queen Mary while transporting the War Brides and their babies.
Seems by the hand written comment, Gwen was very  happy with the menus!
After six years of war time food supplies in England.

Image from one of the daily new sheets produced on the Queen Mary February 1946

Gwendoline was interviewed as she arrived by train in Baltimore by reporters of The Sunpapers.

Arrival in Baltimore...seems the paper got Bill's name wrong again! February 1946

The British Newspapers ran headlines "The Petticoat Pilgrims."
This paper clipping was sent to Gwen in the US, in a letter by Kate Hudman Wilkins, Gwen's mother.
(Notice the TAGS on all the coats of the women and babies)

Many books have been written over the years about the War Bride phenomenon of WWII.

Letter #68 from Mrs. Gwendoline Rosa Wilkins Garner 22 February 1945

Mrs. Wilbur C.Garner
8 Try-y-sarn Road
Rumney, Cardiff, Eng.

Mary W. Garner, Sk2c
U.S.N.A.S.
Disbursing Office
Minneapolis, 6 Minnesota
U.S.A. 

City Maternity Hospital
Cardiff 22nd Feb. 1945

My Dear Mary,

And Carol Ann says good morning Auntie! Well, everything’s all over and done with now, thank goodness, but I had a marvelous time really. I expect you will have heard from Mother about the new arrival as I wrote her straight away the day after Carol was born. She looks very sweet and is so contented when she comes out from the nursery at feeding time. She weighed 8lbs. 8ozs. at birth so she was quite a bonnie lassie. She is the heaviest baby in third ward any rate; I can't bear the nurse to take her away after her feed. If everything is going on as well as it is now I should be home again by this time next week. The attention and care you get in this hospital is beyond praise and the nurses are so helpful and considerate. Of course I'm longing to know what Jane's little bundle of love is, I do hope she had an easy time. 

Bill was getting a little anxious about the 2nd of February and sent a cable through the American Red Cross. Mr. Dunning came to see me last Monday, just to see how I was getting along and told Mum to call and see him when everything was over and he would send a cable back off to Bill with the good news. So Mum went down to the American Red Cross on Sunday, I guess Bill has received that cable by now. I wish I could have seen his face when he read it was a girl. Bill wanted a little girl, so he has his wish any rate I'd give anything in the world if he could only see his daughter now, but maybe he will be able to get 7 days to come across in 2 or 3 months time.

Well, Mary I really do think it's about time I stopped scribbling about my infant and thanked you for the simply beautiful gift you sent me. They are really too lovely to wear- I shall feel like a million dollars when I put them on. Everett, that's the laddie to whom Bill readdresses any parcels for me, brought your package just as Mother was getting ready to come down and see me the night before last. Everyone in the ward admires them too and I really do thank you very much indeed Mary, it is a beautiful gift. I’ll have to keep them nice until I get my figure back to normal- but that won't be long once I start pushing the pedals of my cycle around. That's the one thing I have really been longing for, a nice long ride in the country on my iron steed. I love my old bike, I've done quite a few hundred miles on it. Do you like cycling Mary? 

So far this week I have not had any mail from Bill, but I am hoping there will be one or two for Mother to bring in with her tonight, that is if she comes in. Last night her back was aching rather badly so I told her not to visit me if it is hurting too much today. I would dearly love to see Bill walking in through the ward doorway like so many of the proud fathers with sons and daughters in this ward. But the joy of seeing Bill again and introducing his daughter to him will come when I am home again, I hope.

Do excuse this being written in pencil Mary, and the awful scribble, I'm being thoroughly lazy this afternoon and am writing while lying down. My extremity has become so sensitive sitting fully upright on this hard mattress it is really heaven to relax and stretch right out and I can't do that completely because this bed is not quite long enough for me!

I have had to interrupt this letter so many times Mary I honestly don't know where I am! So many things carry on one after the other with hospital routines that you hardly have two hours at a stretch without some interruption. In just half an hours time Carol will be brought in again so perhaps I had better bring this letter to a close before that or else I might not have the opportunity to finish these few lines until tomorrow and I do want Mum to mail this for me tonight. 

So, Dear Mary, many thanks once again for my gorgeous slips. It won't be long now before I will be coming over, in the fall perhaps.

My love and sincere best wishes,
Gwen
P.S. Love from Carol Ann too.

Letter #20 from Wren. Gwendoline R Wilkins June 9 1944

The following text in blue, is taken from the XIX Corps Publication " Normandy to the Elbe,"  a copy of which is in my archives and is reproduced here to provide the reader a sense of what was happening at the time the letter was written in this blog entry.

Finally the morning of the sixth of June, found the air full of news. The Invasion was on! It was going well; it was going badly; the Germans said it was being swept off the beaches, the official news was mixed, but without the extremes. On our beach, Omaha, they were having a rough time. But the plans for XIX Corps would go as scheduled, and everyone got ready to move. Two days later, on the 8th, the headquarters left Knook in two motor convoys for Camp D4, one of the assembly areas near Dorchester. There we spent two days lined up under trees in the rain along what had been country lanes, making final checks of waterproofing and equipment, prepared to move to our ships. The news was good, and then bad. We drew our conclusions when a part of the Second Armored Division was hurriedly pushed through ahead of us and to their ships. 
The Corps Commander, the Chief of Staff, and a few of the Chiefs of Staff Sections went ahead in a motor torpedo boat to size up the situation on the ground and be ready with their plans when the headquarters came ashore. Text: Captain Fredric E. Pamp Jr  (Public Relations Officer XIX Corps 1945)

Text below in black is excerpted from the XIX Corps Newspaper  (from my archives)

LE TOMAHAWK 

Volume 2         Western Front Germany, October 1944        Number 6

The distinction of being the first of XIX Corps to touch down in Normandy is shared by Majors John J. Mikell and George F. Graybill. They accompanied an assault division ---the 29th---when it landed, as advance guards for XIX Corps. They both arrived near Vierville-sur-Mer on D+1, 7 June 1944. They were followed by two other officers the next day; and by General Corlett and certain of his staff on D+4.

Bill was a part of this advance group of staff landing D-Day +1. He recounted to me his first horrible experience of the war. As he was disembarking the boat in rough seas, loaded with gear, climbing down the ropes, to a smaller landing craft, the soldier next to him miss-stepped and the rising waves between the two boats caught him crushing his skull, a sound Bill never forgot. When Bill landed on the beach he recounted to me, the sight he saw of a young soldier sitting on the beach, hands held out in front of him as if holding a turret gun, but burned to death in place. Bill was then charged by his Commanding Officer with finding an appropriate burial location "over the hill." As G-1 personnel he began recording the names of the fallen soldiers and in the days following sending letters back home to their loved ones. The XIX Corps staff moved quickly cleaning up the beach in anticipation of the next group to land on Omaha beach. Bill said they had to move quickly to collect the deceased as the sight of such a tragedy would have presented a moral issue for the next group of troops that landed.
Click here for a link to the gravesite information and the military process of burial in battle.

(Regarding Gwen's "Letter to Mary," my guess is that Bill and Gwen had planned that Gwen would send this "Letter to Mary" when Bill left England so that Mary would know her dear brother had gone into action.)

From: Wren. G.R. Wilkins
8 Tyr-sarn Rd.
Rumney, Cardiff

Mary W. Garner, SK2c
Disbursing Office
U.S. Naval Air Station
Minneapolis, Minnesota
U.S.A. Bath 6. 9. 44

My Dear Mary,
I'm afraid this will only be a hastily scribbled note to enclose with these pictures promised Bill I would send on. I wrote to your Mother and Father last night, also to Bernard but didn't have time to write to you or Souil so I am taking a few minutes off from the office to do so now.

Monday I should have been transferred to Milford Haven, but an outbreak of chicken-pox there canceled my draft at the last minute. I was on Bath Station waiting for the train, and only had five minutes to wait, when the R.T.O.'s office called me over to the phone when second officer informed me to return to Bath for duty. So now I'm stuck here for another 3 weeks until the quarantine period ends. 

I was glad in a way because it meant I could see Bill once more at the A.R.C. Club dance in Warminister on Tuesday night, and we had a wonderful evening although we didn't dance very much, we're just happy to be with one another. 

I do hope it will not take too long before I can be with him in the dear old U.S.A.
Now I must close, hoping you're keeping fine. 
Kindest Regards,
Sincerely,
Gwen.

June 1944 calendar

Request for permission to marry...April 27, 1944

The next chronologically significant documents among the "Letters to Mary" are two separate requests to marry: one from Gwen to the commanding officer of Hq Company, XIX Corps APO 270, U.S. Army and one from Bill to same.
Copies of the type written requests and Army approval documentation appear below.