The War Years

The Christensen Farm in Spanish Fork

World War II

On Sunday December 7, 1941 the news on the radio was blaring with something terrible. The Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. Hitler and Germany was at war with Britain and France on their western front and was now battling Russia on the Eastern Front after Germany attacked Russia on June 22, 1941. America had been neutral up to this point at least in words but had been providing support to England in the past two years since the war began. [1]

The Christensen family was like any other family at this time shocked and horrified. Rebecca had six sons and her biggest worry was which sons will go to fight in this war. Floyd and Pete were exempt because of their jobs working for the Railroad. Rulon had heart problems and because of surgery he had for an ulcer he was consider  

4-F, this meant that Rulon was physically unable to be drafted in the Army. With the war, work began to open up and Geneva Steel a new steel plant in Orem, Utah was under construction. LaVoy and Marvin both helped in the construction of this plant.

The United States Government during World War II built Geneva Steel at the cost of 200 million dollars. It was built to keep the production of steel moving forward during the War. Over 10,000 workers were involved in the construction of Geneva Steel, which began on November of 1941 and was completed in December of 1944. The Government later sold this company to US Steel Corporation and Columbia Steel. Geneva as of the writing of this history is closed down and is being sold for scrap metal. Geneva was a major employer for Utah County and was an economic power when it was operating at full capacity.[2]

LaVoy was the first son in the family to be drafted. He was inducted into the Army and completed his basic training in Austin, Texas. Marvin was working at Geneva Steel when he received his call to the Army. He was only 19 years old and Rebecca thought he would not pass the health test, as she never considered him healthy enough to pass. Marvin passed with no problem and did his basic training in Louisiana. While in basic training the Mississippi River was flooding and Marvin assisted with sandbagging the river. He was soon sent oversees to England to prepare for the coming invasion of France.

Rulon was ineligible for military service. However, he was able to obtain work at different jobs and eventually was able to obtain work at Geneva Steel. After a while his parents encouraged him to come back and help on the farm, Rulon agreed. Rulon met Leona Moon who was from Payson, Utah. They were later married on March 29, 1943.

D-Day occurred on June 6^th 1944 and within a few months the Americans had a foothold in Europe. Marvin and LaVoy found themselves both in the European theatre battling their way to Germany.  LaVoy crossed the English Channel and was in Belgium, France and Germany. Marvin was in France and was in the Battle of the Bulge where Germany had a major offensive, which started on December 16^th and went to January 25, 1945. Marvin was lucky to survive this terrible battle where many men lost their lives.   Here is a little insight into how terrible this offensive was or the “Offensive in the Ardennes” as the Americans first called it. Casualties came in at over 81,000 for the Allies most of the injured or killed were Americans, 19,000 Americans lost their lives during this one battle. The German’s had over 100,000 killed, injured or captured. It started as the German offensive in the Ardenne forest where the Germans thought the allied forces were weakest. The Germans goal was to make it to the port City of Antwerp. Here they thought they could slow down the allied push and hopefully push the allies into a truce or treaty. However, the German push was short lived when the Americans and other allied forces were able to hold off the push most famously in the small Belgium town of Bastonge. When the Germans asked for the Americans surrender they were surprised when American Brigadier General McCailiff replied “Nuts”. The Germans were told this meant no surrender. Within a few days the skies cleared and air support came in and began to steadily drive the German forces back to where they were before the Offensive started. The Battle of the Bulge was over on January 25, 1945 when the German army collapsed back to their original lines. Marvin was an engineer and normally was not involved in much fighting. However, when the bulge began every man was handed a gun and told to fight.[3]

In Germany LaVoy got permission to see Marvin from his superiors. He found out that both of them had been very close to each other for some time. The next day Marvin was called to Berlin and neither saw each other until the end of the war.

Joan Christensen Jones, Thelma Christensen, Rebecca, Elva and Maxine Christensen.
Rebecca;s Daughter-in laws and oldest grandaughter Joan.

Rebecca worried about both of her sons and did not know where either of them were. Einer and Rebecca would often sit by the radio and listened to the news from the front. They especially enjoyed listing to Gabriel Heater on the radio. They would also read the newspapers carefully to keep up with what was happening. Our modern day coverage was very different from what they had in 1944. It took days for news to reach family. Rebecca did not know that Marvin was in the Battle of the Bulge but Christmas Day 1944 she could not eat dinner and she sensed that Marvin was in trouble.[4]

During this time families who had sons or daughters in Europe or the Pacific had flags that they hung in their window with stars representing each member of the family in the service. Einer and Rebecca had such a flag in their window with two stars on it. When the war finally came to an end Einer and Rebecca like the rest of the country was very happy and could not wait for their sons to come home.

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     [1] The

History Place

, World War II in Europe,  www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/timeline/ww2time.htm. Thelma Christensen, History of Rebecca Christensen, p. 15.

     [2] Roger Roper, History of Geneva Steel, Online history .Com www.onlineutah.com/steelhistory.shtml.

     [3] Les Nichols, Tenth Armored “Tiger” Divisions, Turner Publishing Company, 1988 pg. 23-26, The Battle of the Bulge, http://www.mm.com/user/jpk/battle.htm. Battle of the Bulge the Ardennes Offensive, http://members.aol.com/dadswar/bulge/.

     [4]History Place.com,  The History place, World War Two in Europe, www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/timeline/ww2time.htm. Thelma Christensen, History of Rebecca Christensen, p.15.