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Red Cross Knitters Supported Troops During WW II
Written by
Lesly Hallman
, Staff Writer, RedCross.org
Thursday, May 27, 2004 — If the Guinness Book of World Records had a category for the biggest knitting party of all time, the winner would be the American Red Cross and its millions of volunteers who “Knit Their Bit” during World War II to support American troops fighting around the world.
The Red Cross played a critical role in outfitting troops during World War II with warm socks and sweaters. Nearly 7.5 million Red Cross volunteers supported the war effort then, many of them knitters. The Red Cross provided the materials, and volunteers came back with thousands and thousands of socks, sweaters, “sea boots,” and gloves.
Each military pattern was designed to be compatible with soldier's and sailor's uniforms and were required to be knitted in olive drab or navy blue.
“If the garments did not pass inspection, they were ripped out and redone,” said Steve Shulman, executive director of the American Red Cross Museum. “Any leftover yarn or rejected pieces were returned to the Red Cross and recycled for use by another knitter, and not a bit of it went to waste.”
Upon passing inspection, each item had a label sewn into the garment reading, "Gift of the American People thru the American Red Cross."
Frances McCahill, of Fairfax, Virginia, was a faithful knitter and supporter the Allied troops during World War II. Before the U.S. joined the war, Frances knitted for Bundles for Britian, making socks and sweaters for British troops. Just before the war began, Frances attended finishing school in London after a year of college, but returned to the U.S. before the fighting started.
“I had British friends and their mothers had family fighting in the war in England. They were knitting, and they knew I was a knitter so they asked me to join them,” she said. “As a teenager I thought it was kind of exciting, to be helping the troops, so I joined them.”
Frances learned to knit at a young age from her mother and grandmothers, so it was a natural and easy way to support the war effort. Upon her return to the U.S., Frances lived in Montclair, N.J., and took a job in New York City. She used her hour-long morning and evening commutes to work on knitting projects. Once the U.S. was involved in the war, her knitting projects turned from pastime to patriotic duty as she knit socks and sweaters for the American Red Cross to send to the troops.
“The minute the train started I would knit, so it would take maybe a couple of weeks to do a sweater. And the socks took a while too. Socks are kind of hard—you have a heel, you have to turn them, and they were really big, with big needles and big wool. They sort of looked like a big boot when you were done. And the wool was horrible—so oily!”
Looking for other ways to pitch in, Frances also rolled bandages twice a week and, on occasion, even volunteered with other women at New Jersey’s Fort Dix to dance with soldiers who were about to go off to the war. Frances continued to support the Red Cross and the war effort until the very end.
“I knitted right up until D-Day, because I had a fiancé over there and I was trying to keep busy. I even made him special socks as a little love token. He could have gotten army issue socks that worked a bit better, but I made them anyway.”
Like Frances in New Jersey, an army of Red Cross volunteers in Texas were knitting for the troops at the Dallas County Chapter, now known as the Dallas Area Chapter. At the same time, half way around the world a U.S. soldier named Solomon Gold received one of the sweaters, while serving in the Army in Saipan (near Guam) in 1946.
The Red Cross is offering a chance to buy a commemorative knitting kit based on the WWII “Knit Your Bit” campaign. The kit contains everything needed to make a pair of servicemen’s socks: an original 1940’s knitting pattern, one skein of olive drab wool yarn, four knitting needles and one finishing needle. Additional knitting patterns are available in the American Red Cross museum.
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