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As one grinding war ended 60 years ago this weekend, another one raged half a world away for the young men of Maine’s famous Victory Platoon.
News spread around the globe on May 8, 1945, that Nazi Germany’s armed forces had unconditionally surrendered.
In Paris, “wide boulevards were crowded with people … parading, snake dancing and making whoopee,” reported John M. O’Connell Jr. of the Bangor Daily News, who was there.
For a young Galen Cole of Bangor, part of the Army’s 5th Armored Division near the Elbe River in Germany, “it was the first day that we realized that we were likely to go home.”
But V-E Day (Victory in Europe) did not mean an end to World War II.
Gunner’s Mate 1st Class Jim Adams of Otis, for one, celebrated but was busy fending off kamikaze attacks in the South Pacific.
“I know there was a hell of a celebration because we broke out the beer, and that didn’t happen very often,” Adams recalled this week.
Now 79, he was one of 57 young men from eastern and northern Maine who signed up for the U.S. Navy on the same optimistic day in 1943. They became known as the Bangor Victory Platoon.
All but one was 17. Alvah Pomroy, who still lives in Bangor, was 15. He had lied about his age.
James Savoy of Brewer, who would earn a Purple Heart while aboard the aircraft carrier USS Wasp, remembers sitting on a stoop in Maine with his best buddy, Gerald McKay, dreaming of the day they would join the fight.
“We would sit there every day and try to figure out how we could get our parents to agree to let us go,” he recalled a few years ago. “I think we just eventually wore them down.”
The teenagers gathered in Davenport Park off Main Street in Bangor for a joint enlistment on Aug. 22, 1943. Only one of the Victory Platoon, Gilbert Soucy of Portage, was killed in action. Only a dozen or so are alive today.
Most wound up in the Pacific, battling the Japanese, when news of the German surrender was announced.
Savoy recalled learning of the victory in Europe and having few illusions. “We were still fighting after that war was over,” he said.
Adams served on a landing ship tank, known as an LST, and participated in eight invasions of various islands in the Philippines.
“It was the most exciting time I ever had in my life,” Adams said. “We had a ball, but we were young, dumb and didn’t know any better.”
At one point, he was stationed on a hospital ship.
“There were a lot of casualties,” he said. “I remember a woman gave birth to a baby on the ship. We took up a collection and 100 guys donated $200 – a lot of money at the time, as we were only getting paid $14 a month. The woman was very upset. She thought we wanted to buy her baby.”
Although the war was a grueling ordeal, Adams said, the men he served with never faltered. He said they were dedicated to their cause and fought hard against a determined enemy.
They did find time for fun now and then.
Once, some shipmates liberated a few cases of beer they were supposed to deliver and held an impromptu party, Adams said.
Spotting some beer caps on the bow, the ship’s captain jokingly speculated that they must have been sailing close to another vessel in the convoy and that someone must have thrown the beer caps at them.
Adams recalled another shady deal when he and his buddies got their hands on a 5-gallon container of medicinal alcohol. He hid the container in an ammunition locker, but it didn’t take long for word to spread around the ship.
“One glass of that would give you a headache, so we mixed it with orange juice. Of course to get the juice we had to make a deal with the cooks so they got their share, too,” he said.
Adams said the men were surprised to learn that while some of the European veterans got to go home, others were rushed to the Pacific to continue the fight.
“I watched them come aboard and you could tell they were not happy. They were pretty ragged and in pretty bad shape,” he said.
After the war, Adams returned home to Bangor and worked at his father’s car dealership, Jim Adams Inc. The company sold Nash cars and took on the Volkswagen line in 1957.
James Savoy, 79, of Brewer, served on the USS Wasp.
He retired after 25 years as a letter carrier.
“We were quite happy the Germans surrendered, but we knew we still had a lot of fighting to do. We were going island to island and knew it would be a matter of time. But there was still a lot of fighting to do out there in the Pacific.”
Raymond Hanscomb, 79, of Machias, served on a destroyer escort.
He retired after 25 years in Massachusetts state government.
“I think I was kind of busy around Okinawa and didn’t even think of what was going on in Europe. I guess I was kind of pleased that it was over, but we wondered if it was going to have any impact on Japan. It was busy. We experienced the Japanese shooting at us from aircraft. We shot an airplane or two down and we cleared a lot of mines from around the islands. Somebody had to blow them up or they’d blow you up.”
Gerald McKay, 79, of Brewer, served on the USS Wasp.
He retired after a telephone company career.
“I really can’t remember what I was doing when we got the news. I know there wasn’t much of a celebration because there were a lot of islands out there and we still had a job to do. We were glad, but we knew we still had a fight going.
Aubrey Grant, 79, of Houlton, served on the USS Wasp.
He retired after a long career as a banker in the Houlton area.
“I thought it was great news, really wonderful. I thought they’d step up that war in the Pacific and get it over with once they got those Germans taken care of. A lot of my friends were over there in Germany so I was very happy for them. … It’s hard to believe it was 60 years ago. There’s a lot of good memories and a few that were not so good.”
Alvah Pomroy, 77, of Bangor, served on the USS Wasp.
He retired after a long career as an automobile salesman in the Bangor area.
“I was 15 when I went in, so I was a little homesick at first. But I settled in. I was with all my buddies, and we were happy when we heard the news. I was in the Pacific, and we thought it would help us. It wasn’t too long after the Germans went that Japan got theirs, too.”
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