Thomas Bell
ASN:12214566
War Bride Plane Creates Uproar in New York
Oakland Tribune, Sunday, August 28, 1949
By Claire Cox
New York, August 27 – The New York International Airport was thrown into international chaos today when 46 British war brides, 27 airsick children and three apprehensive males paused en route from Oakland, California, to Europe on vacation.
“Operation Bib and Diaper,” organized by an Oakland club for brides of World Wars I and II, has this destination Northolt Airdrome, London. The brides, all from the San Francisco Bay area, chartered a Trans-Ocean DC-4, and the plane was converted into a combination nursery and soup kitchen for the trip.
Twelve bassinettes were strung from the ceiling for those youngsters under 1 year old. Many of the other children were lap passengers. The brides paid $550 each for the round trip and $150 for each child over 2. The liner took off from New York this afternoon with all passengers intact.
The passengers were pale and shaken upon their arrival at 9 a.m., after a flight which began at Oakland Airport at 1:20 p.m. yesterday. The plane stopped at Omaha long enough for the passengers to eat, but no one was very hungry because the children and most of the adults had been sick for two hours over the Rocky Mountains.
The children recuperated in a hurry after they had been fed at the airport restaurant here. They swarmed all over the place, screaming in corridors and running up and down outdoors. Five other big planes arrived at the same time the bride special did, and a big crowd was on hand.
Two stewardesses made the transcontinental trip. They disappeared the moment the big plane landed, without passing along any advice to their pretty young replacements who will help feed and change the children over the ocean.
All but three of the brides are going home to see their parents in England. The others are French girls, who will go by train and boat from London to see their folks. Several are going home to stay, but for most, it is to be a vacation.
Among the men are Thomas C. Bell, 25, who is taking his war bride home to England for good and Martin Height, 19, a war-brother-in-law, who is going to Welling borough, Northampton shire, to marry his childhood sweetheart and bring her back to the U.S. The third man refused to identify himself. He said he is just going along for the ride.
The wives were clutching hams, and all manner of food which they are taking with them to England. Most of them sent supplies of food, milk, candy, and other items by mail in advance.
Fifty pints of fresh milk were loaded onto the plane for the transatlantic flight. There were also baby foods, puddings, 700 teas bags, chewing gum, ammonia, and 150 disposable paper diapers.
The oldest passenger is Mrs. Isobell C. Ludwick, 2629 Ninth Street, Oakland, who is 68.
Mrs. Betty Arrieta, wife of Veteran Mark Arrieta, of 239 South 27th Street, Richmond, was taking two of her three children on the trip. She will visit Mr. and Mrs. William Dampling in London.
Her parents were killed in the war. Arrieta was a tail gunner on the Eight Air Force B-17.
Among the permanent emigrants was Thomas C. Bell, whose English wife, Ruth Ivy, disliked California so much they will stay in England.
Bell, whose home was in Berkeley, was in the 82nd Airborne Division. He said his British brother-in-law got him a job as a fire protection engineer in an industrial plant. The Bells will live in Leicester.
The Frenchwomen aboard are Mrs. Nina Delay, Alameda, California, to visit parents at Dijon; Mrs. Monique Eschen, Oakland, to Paris, and Mrs. Jeannine Carson, Alameda, to Nancy.
Romance is also aboard.
Nineteen-year-old Martin Height, and English youth who has been living with his sister at 4719 Melrose Avenue, Oakland, is flying home to see if his childhood sweetheart still wants to marry him and come to America.
She is Hazel Burrell, 19, Welling borough, North Hamptonshire.