Camp Cooke California

World war: Hardship, and then a sea change

The World War II years were doubly difficult for normally fun-loving Solvang.

There was one early bright spot — just 10 days after the dawning of the 1940s, the Solvang grammar school opened on Atterdag Road with four new classrooms, with a red roof and white walls reflecting nearby Bethania Lutheran Church.

But things quickly turned grim for Solvang’s Danes. Their European homeland was occupied by the Germans on April 9, 1940, though the king and parliament were permitted to continue governing for a time.

At home these were somber times. There was strict nationwide rationing — of items such as sugar, meat, butter, shoes and gasoline. Tires weren’t available. People bought war bonds and planted vegetables in what were called Victory Gardens. Students collected scrap iron and, with men gone to war, helped on area farms.

Danish Days was canceled as Solvang focused on the war effort.

Women rolled bandages or ran canteens at Camp Cooke, an Army base now the site of Vandenberg Air Force Base. They sent packages and food parcels to Denmark.

In 1943 a crowd showed up at the Veterans Memorial Hall for a concert by two hugely popular Danes, tenor Lauritz Melchior and pianist Victor Borge, to raise money for a Danish Relief Fund.

That year in Denmark, conditions worsened. With Danes rebelling against the Nazis, martial law was imposed. Parliament was disbanded. Men were imprisoned in concentration camps.

Learning that Jews in the nation were to be arrested, the resistance movement guided Jews to the coast for the perilous boat crossing to neutral Sweden. All but a handful of the country’s 8,000 Jews survived.

Denmark was liberated on May 5, 1945, days before the war in Europe ended for America.

Life in Solvang gradually returned to its normal pace. Immigration from Denmark resumed. But events were about to happen that would change Solvang forever.

First, a pair of forward-thinking men transformed the mere idea of a Danish “look” into bricks and mortar.

In 1945, Ferd Sorensen, a Nebraska-born Danish-American who came to Solvang in 1933, opened a plumbing, electrical and sheet metal business and built his Danish-themed house, which he called Mollebakken (mill on a hill). The next year he built the town’s first Danish provincial windmill.

At the same time, Ray Paaske, who had been a B-17 pilot and prisoner of war, returned home from the war.

His father, Termann Paaske, had come to Solvang in 1918 and opened a furniture store and mortuary. Though his father had died in 1942, Paaske continued the older man’s dream of redesigning Solvang in Danish architecture.

Prune Picker: Lunch at Barksdale AFB.

I was born in Pomona, California in 1925. I married Jackie Lois Ireton in 1944. Jackie and I have four children, nine grand, and nine great grandchildren. I am proud of my family and get much enjoyment from them all. I love them. I was an army combat engineer during WW II and was wounded on Peleliu Island helping the Marines. I received a BSME in 1950 from Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, California. I retired from oilfield work in 1985.Jackie and I moved into a fifth wheel trailer and enjoyed the RV lifestyle until Jackie's health failed. She passed away in 2007. I still live in our trailer which is parked in my daughter's backyard in Ruston, Louisiana. It is the best RV park that I have ever lived in! I have great interest in history,philosophy,politics, current affairs, and technical subjects. I am researching Monson/Munson genealogy. I spend time every day reading blogs and posting to my blog.You could call me a blogger. I was started on blogging by my late son, Chris. (snaggletoothie of the Loyal Opposition.

German prisoners of war at Camp Cooke, California, personal accounts of 14 soldiers, 1944-1946

Tank driver, with the 11th Armored from the Battle of the Bulge to VE Day

11th Armored Division "Thubderbolt,"

44th Division, Camp Cooke, California

Battle of the Bulge