Just as other Jews across the globe, this belief was a significant element in Yemeni Jewish rituals, prayers, and practice. This belief helped Yemeni Jews believe that returning to Israel was dependent on the Messiah’s arrival. They believed that a new temple would also collapse, sending them into exile again. The Jews of Yemen believed that when the Prophet Ezra encouraged Jews to return from exile to rebuild the Temple in Israel (538 BCE), Yemen’s Jews refused. They even had ties with Jews abroad, including those in Spain and Israel. Even though they comprised majorly small communities that lived in isolation, the Jews of Yemen had maintained the connection with other Jewish centers in the Middle East. The community had grown from the Maccabees’ time after the Second Temple’s destruction in 70 BC. The West Virginia pulled into Los Angeles Harbor with 2100 army and navy veterans from the South Pacific.Jews had lived in Yemen for years, even before the destruction of the First Temple in 586 BC. This photo appeared in newspapers during November of 1945. This brought an end to the massive Operation Magic Carpet. The final 29 transports carrying 200,000 troops from the China-Burma-India theater returned in April of 1946. They required special medical attention and berthing spaces. The transports carrying troops also had to collect thousands of POWs from recently liberated Japanese camps, many of whom suffered horribly during years of forced slave labor. Troops aboard the Queen Mary crowd every inch of the forward bow during a lifeboat drill. The Navy and the War Shipping Administration were hard-pressed to bring home all the soldiers who now had to get home earlier than anticipated. The war in Asia had been expected to go well into 1946. Two British ocean liners under American control, the RMS Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth, had already served as troop transports before and continued to do so during the operation, each capable of carrying up to 15,000 people at a time, though their normal, peacetime capacity was less than 2,200. The Navy wasn’t picky, though: cruisers, battleships, hospital ships, LSTs (Landing Ship, Tank) and even LCIs were packed full of men yearning for home. On smaller ships like Destroyers, capable of carrying perhaps 300 men, soldiers were told to hang their hammocks in whatever nook and cranny they could find.Ĭarriers were particularly useful, as their large open hangar decks could house 3,000 or more troops in relative comfort, with bunks, sometimes in stacks of five welded or bolted in place. In October 1945, with the war in Asia also over, the Navy started chipping in, converting all available vessels to transport duty. Hammocks were hung in every available space aboard the USS Intrepid Three hundred Victory and Liberty cargo ships were converted to troop transports for the task.ĭuring the war, 148,000 troops crossed the Atlantic west to east each month the rush home ramped this up to 435,000 a month over 14 months after the war. The job of transporting 3 million men home fell to the Army and the Merchant Marine. Navy was still busy fighting in the Pacific and couldn’t assist. Marshall had already established committees to address the issue in 1943. The problem didn’t come as a surprise, as Army Chief of Staff, General George C. Shipping them out wasn’t a problem but getting them home was a massive logistical headache. In 1945, there were over 12 million.Īt the end of the war, over 8 million of these men and women were scattered overseas in Europe, the Pacific and Asia. In 1939, there were only 334,000 servicemen. military experienced an unimaginable increase of men and women in uniform during World War II. Returning the troops home after WWII was a daunting task. They were just thankful to be going home. They experienced unprecedented crowded travel during Operation Magic Carpet. Have you ever complained about the crowding on airplanes? Our veterans who were overseas at the end of WWII would scoff at your mild discomfort. Image above shows Troops arriving home on board the USS General Harry Taylor.
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