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 Courtesy of the John T. Cunningham Collection, This was New Jersey
John T. Cunningham, a WWII Capt. in the Army Air Force, is hailed by the New Jersey Historical Commission as the state’s ‘most popular historian’. He has authored fifty books about New Jersey’s history, produced documentaries, holds nine honorary degrees and earned Awards of Merit from the American Association of State and Local History.
This Was New Jersey, authored by Cunningham is a collection of photographs taken by photographer Harry C. Dorer, a New Jersey News photographer who captured images of the state for almost forty years. Included are places and people in the state during WWII as shown in this selection of images from the John T. Cunningham collection.
John T. Cunningham -
In 1939, as World War II began, much of New Jersey was closer, in appearance and pace of life, to the year 1900 than to 1950. There were no superhighways; roads were very rarely more than two lanes wide. Dirt roads were common in rural counties such as Sussex, Salem or Cape May and only sandy, difficult-to-use, narrow roads reached into the Pine Barrens. Route 9, two lanes most of the way, was the only major road to the Shore; a trip to Atlantic City from Morristown might take as much as five hours. There were no motels, but every city had at least one excellent hotel. All cities were thriving, with major industries, upscale downtown stores and numerous cultural or educational facilities.
Nearly two million New Jersey acres were in operating farms in 1940. Every county, including populous Essex and Hudson, had farms. Four thousand dairy farms prospered, with a total of about 75,000 milk cows. Sussex County, with 17, 542 cows, had more cows than humans. About 5, 000 work horses made farms operable. New Jersey chickens, on 4, 800 poultry farms, laid about 35 million eggs a year. Sheep and pigs produced substantial incomes for farmers. Every county had substantial acreage in vegetables or fruit trees. “Garden State” was New Jersey’s proper nickname.
New Jersey’s production of armaments after 1940 was phenomenal. Camden’s New York Shipbuilding Company built thousands of the small boats used in Pacific island landings, as well as cruisers, battleships and aircraft carriers. Federal Shipyards in Kearny and Newark produced an auxiliary ship or destroyer every 4.5 days and led the nation in production of destroyers. Curtis-Wright in Paterson made airplane engines, more than any other engine maker in the nation. Paterson-made engines carried Jimmy Doolittle on his famed raid over Tokyo and flew the Enola May as it carried – and dropped -- the first atom bomb in history. New Jersey ranked fifth in receiving armament contracts, and a million war workers fulfilled $12 billion in war contracts that came to the state.
The state played another major role: sending troops to Europe. Fort Dix handled 1,3 million draftees. Camp Kilmer in Middlesex County, erected on what had been farmland in early 1942, became a facility capable of clearing 100,000 men a month for European service. In all, Camp Kilmer funneled two million soldiers to Europe. When peace came, about the same number returned home through Camp Kilmer.
Hudson County’s railroad and docks teemed with activity in handling both outward-bound soldiers and thousands of tons of armaments every week. Earle Naval Ammunition depot in Monmouth County sent 130,000 tons of arms eastward every week. At times, the Earle depot stored enough explosives to blow all of New Jersey and New York off the map.
Picatinny Arsenal at Dover trained more than 12,000 men and women from other facilities across the nation in the arts of making powder and shells of every dimension.
As the Dover area reporter for The Newark Evening Ns, I was in the Dover firehouse on the night of December 7, 1941, when a packed room heard plans for local precautions – blackouts, rationing and draft lists. Dover was an important outpost. On my first day of work in the town, an explosion at nearby Picatinny Arsenal killed three men and wounded several others. On September 12, 1940, a horrendous explosion at Hercules powder Company in Kenvil killed 52 workers, injured hundreds of others and wrecked the plant. However, the rebuilt line was back in production within a week.
Although my job and my marital status exempted me from service, I grew increasingly unhappy with being one of the very few young men left in town. I volunteered for service and entered the army in March 1943.
After basic training, I went to officer candidate school and became a captain in the Army Air Force. I eventually was shipped to Okinawa, where I became classification officer, a duty that kept me on the island until long after Japan surrendered. Ironically, my extended duty, through October 1946, was certifying enlisted men and officers for return home.
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