Jamuary 23, 2015

Oroville Mercury Register
August 23, 1945
Flyers To Play Merchants Here For Sunday Game 3
By Harry Grafe
The Oroville Merchants play hosts Sunday at 2:30 p.m. to highly touted nine from Chico Army Air Field. Little is known about the Army outfit, known as the Flyers, except that its Negro manager, English, always fields good ball clubs. English, himself, is quite a show in the line of chatter he issues from his catcher’s position. The Merchants stand with four wins and four defeats, having won the last three games. The locals have scored victories over Yuba City (twice), Nicholaus and Grass Valley and have dropped contests to Colusa, Camp Beale (twice) and Chico Colts. Ace moundsman, Tony Luzovich, has four wins against two losses thus far in the season. Leading slugger for the Merchants is short-stop Bob Dudley who has been belting the apple at a .353 clip. After the game with the Flyers, the locals invade Redding on the 26th for a contest with the Tigers. Incidentally, the St. Louis Cardinals are holding a try-out camp in Redding on the 24th, 25th, and 26th. This means that Cardinal scouts Penner and Meusal will probably be around to watch the Oroville-Redding game, and will have a chance to see the local lads in action.

Oroville Mercury Register
August 17, 1945
Two Oroville Boys Visit Paris Together
Sgt. George Atkin (known to his friends as Lad) and Cpl. Bob McKillop, met recently near Paris and arranged to spend the following weekend in that city. They spent two busy days visiting many of the numerous points of interest there and wrote home that there is so much to see in Paris that they could not possibly take it all in at one time, so they are planning another meeting there in the near future. They also had a wonderful time recalling high school days and exchanging news from home. The occasion was especially important because it was the first time either of them had encountered any one from the old home town since landing on the Continent about a year ago. The boys spoke of the heat in France, reminding them of the good old days in Oroville. They noticed it even more as they must continue wearing woolen uniforms, the lighter sun-tan uniforms being needed for the men in the Pacific theater of war. Sgt. Atkins, located at Chantilly, about 25 miles north of Paris, has been working with headquarters of ETO re-deployment forces. His duties consist of inspection tours to various points where divisions to be processed later are located. It was on one of these trips to Rouen that he ran into McKillop who is stationed at St. Valery (Camp Lucky Strike) 40 miles north of Rouen. Both Atkin, whose mother is Mrs. L. A. Varden and McKillop, son of Mr. and Mrs. Jack McKillop, anticipate remaining on their present assignments for some months yet until the completion of the redeployment of our troops.

Oroville Mercury Register
August 17, 1945
Tucker Tells Of Battle of Britain
The days of the Battle of Britain were re-enacted for the Fellows Club today by Tom Tucker, who was a member of the American Eagle Squadron during the time when the invasion of the British Isles was expected momentarily. Tucker said that when he arrived on the scene he was asked whether he could fly a plane. On giving an affirmative answer, he was given one, told to circle the field once, and then went into battle. The situation was desperate and there was no time for training. It was two weeks before he knew how to salute an officer.

Stu’s Notes:
Things were a lot different on the West Coast and many other places back in the 40’s in the South it would have been unheard of, then to have a Negro Coach for an Army Ball Team.

Paris, the Nazi’s moved out the year before and the Americans moved in. I’m sure the French were a lot happier with the Americans. They didn’t have to worry about being shot if they made one wrong move. I wonder who Tom Tucker was.

Before America entered the War, the day after Pearl Harbor many Americans went over to Fly for the British. They were stretched so thin the Battle of Britain could have gone either way. Just the thought of that happening must have been pretty scary to the English. They knew what happened to all the others countries the Nazis captured, death and destruction. The British with Churchill were ready to fight to the bitter end. But if Hitler had won air superiority they no doubt might had lost the war. The Air Boys were honored with a statement by Prime Minister Churchill. “Never have so few done so much for so many.” And they did, taking untold casualties, flying to the limits of a man’s endurance.