Eldred

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When driving down to the Dog Roast every year from across the New York State line, the first town most of us pass through in Pennsylvania is Eldred. If you ever have looked and have seen a blue awning façade and an American Flag waving, then you have passed a building housing much memorabilia of a historical nature from World War II.

The building houses the Eldred World War II Museum. Prior to the the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941, Eldred was called into action along with other towns across America, and build and operated what was called an Munitions Factory, which made various types and sizes of ordinance, including bombs, and hand grenades for the Allied military forces.

After the war, the citizens, and former employees of the Eldred Munitions Factory decided to preserve their history, and with donations collected over time, purchased or obtained closed storefronts from the main street in the middle of town, many volunteers remodeled the buildings to include handicap access, and designed exhibits, that is worthy of any museum in any large major metropolitan area of the USA.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitchell_Paige#nks

Mitchell Paige was born outside of Pittsburgh, PA and served in the United States Marines.

During the battle for Guadalcanal in 1942, Sgt. Paige, while his fellow Marines were either wounded or dead, single-handedly fought off multiple Japanese attacks, until relief help arrived.

For his actions of on the battlefield, Mitchell Paige was awarded by Presidential Citation, the Congressional Medal of Honor, an exact replica of which is on display at the Eldred World War II Museum.

Major battles during World War II occurred at sea, in both the Atlantic and Pacific Theaters. One of the interesting exhibits is that of a periscope and engineering gauges used by submariners to know their depth and what the hull pressure was. The Eldred Museum has a great display showing these items in a full scale mock up of a submarine conning tower.

On the left, there is a Utility Box in the display case, that was retrived from a captured German U-Boat towards the end of the war. The actual German Submarine which the box came from, sits in Chicago at the Museum of Science and Industry.

The Museum also has displays of what major battles would look like from a birds eye view. On the left is a view of Omaha Beach in Normandy France, and how the scene was depicted how it would had been during the D-Day Invasion of June 6, 1944, with the landing invasion craft hitting the shore on that fateful morning.

Allied troops made made their field Headquarters anywhere they could, with phone lines to direct artillery, and to observe the movement of troops. Here is an example of what one HQ would had looked like, complete with the equipment to communicate to soldiers on the front lines.

The Eldred Museum also has a three dimensional model of what is called Tank Mountain. To show the difficulty of how a tank had to move up to gain the high ground in a battle like General George S. Patton and his Army did, the Museum has radio controlled toy tanks to simulate trying to work their way up from one layer of ground to another.

In the Pacific, the battle against the Japanese became even more furious as the American forces, under General Douglas Mac Arthur, leapfrogged their way from island to island towards victory in Tokyo.

The Japanese, in a last ditch effort, used suicide pilots, known as the kamikaze pilots to try and sink our ships. The folded flag in was from an American sailor who gave his life while serving on board the aircraft carrier USS Intrepid.


	The Eldred World War II Museum has a large Wall of Valor that tells of individuals who served their country, and are considered by all, as The Greatest Generation. Many names with their pictures taken line this wall, and a trip to the museum is not complete without reading what a real war effort is about from little people, both on the front lines in the military, and those who served back home, giving 110% to serve their country.

	After President Harry S. Truman decided to drop the Atomic Bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan surrendered to the Allies Unconditionally. Here are a couple of newspapers which reported on the surrender on V-J Day. One is from the Niagara Falls Gazette, and the other is from the Lincoln, Nebraska State Journal.


	The opinions expressed on this web page was that of the Web Geezer, and does not necessarily reflect that upon the opinions of the many volunteers who maintain and proudly operate the Eldred World War II Museum. For more information on the the Eldred World War II Museum, go to: www.eldredwwiimuseum.org

Page was last updated on: 11/10/2011 08:37 AM

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