Pens In World War Two

[WanderingAuthor]

The question would be - which WWII MOS (if any) required the use of ink, but was mobile enough to preclude the guaranteed availability of an inkwell for a dip pen?

 

Well, we already know the RAF had special pens made - although I suspect from the remark about a compartment for hiding maps, they were more intended as a decoy to conceal the maps, rather than for use as a pen. (Presumably, they were used, though - I would imagine a downed pilot caught carrying a pen that had never been inked might draw suspicion quite quickly to why he was bothering to carry the pen.) It was also interesting to learn that the US Navy had special inkwells made - that is something I never thought of, although it seems obvious once the need for a spill-proof ink supply is pointed out.

 

Beyond that... I mentioned Market Garden earlier. I believe some sort of "mobile headquarters" was part of the drop. Might those who staffed such units have needed fountain pens? (Of course, it is likely different countries - and even different service "arms" within each country - had different standards for which officers or clerks should be issued a fountain pen. Probably, over time, experience and shifting supply needs also resulted in changed regulations. I very much doubt - and never imagined - that there was one single order in place throughout the entire war, providing that every soldier (or sailor, or airman) should be issued one particular type of pen. But who might have needed pens? Hmmm... I'd love to know if the OSS had any "special" pens made, with concealed compartments or abilities unconnected with writing...

 

But there are the special cases, the "sunglasses". Each one is interesting and informative. Now that this has been discussed a bit, I would imagine a collector with enough money to afford to hunt down rare examples could make a specialty out of collecting items with ties to World War Two. Onoto pens from the RAF, US Navy inkwells, and whatever other possibilities come to light.

Edited February 21, 2011 by WanderingAuthor

[nxn96]

Well, I do know that Kenneth Parker kept Eisenhower well supplied with pens, but I don't suppose that's what the OP meant....

 

Actually, as the OP, I am interested in any information or details relating to pens and World War Two. So, thanks for that tidbit!

Glad to have helped out. The Parker "51" book has photos of Eisenhower's pens, as well as the "51" that Admiral Nimitz used to sign the Japanese surrender in 1945. Nimitz was, I believe, was the "American" representative, as opposed to MacArthur, who signed as "Supreme Commander". To that end, I believe MacArthur was supposed to have used his personal Duofold for the surrender.

[Ernst Bitterman]

For UK makers, I've seen some oblique references to Platignum scaling back regular pen-making while providing some rather James Bond-ish items (poison dart pen!), while Osmiroid gave up on pens entirely. There was a protracted thread on this same topic previously, so one might have a look through it. I'll just briefly mention that the Sheaffer military clip was not a contract with the military, but a way to cash in on people buying their boys pens before they were shipped out-- Parker and Waterman already conformed to the pocket-flap requirements for carrying any sort of pen in a uniform, but Sheaffer's clips didn't, and Sheaffer didn't want to concede that market to the other makers. I think, also, that the USN ended up using Swivodex dip pens, where pens were needed for the working of the ships.

[Vintagepens]

From what I know, the US military did not buy and issue fountain pens during WW2. The olive drab pens made by Morrison were marketed to service personnel, but were not government issue -- no matter what some wishful eBay descriptions may claim.

 

As has already been noted, dip pen sets were bought and issued by the Navy. I have seen a number of them, all clearly marked as such. I have not seen any for other branches of the military, though they may exist.

 

I suspect the British and Canadian forces followed a similar pattern, though my experience there is more limited. I understand that the RAF did buy some early ballpoint pens for issue to flight personnel, but that would seem to be an exceptional case.

[teej47]

Think about what is important to spend military budgets on, particularly in wartime. Armament and ammunition. The fact that you can actually still buy a gross of wood pencils for what one Parker "51" cost during WWII explains why pens aren't something that would have been issued. A Field Grade Officer may have been able to get away with requisitioning a pen, but even that seems unlikely. If your job required handwriting you would have been given a pencil (and you darn well better keep track of it like it was made of gold). If you had access to an Exchange on a Base, Post or Ship, then you would have access to pens and inks... but you'd be spending your own money on 'em.

 

Yes, famous Generals carried some now well known pens. Generals can afford to (when I retired as a Master Sergeant, a Brigadier General made about three times as much as I did)... not because the pens were issued, but because they bought them. Most of the writing done 'down in the trenches' would have been in letters to home. That's done on your own paper with your own handy pencil that doesn't require you to carry ink around in your pack. An actual pen is a luxury, and luxuries don't tend to be issued very often.

 

Tim

(who spent a few years in the supply world not all that long ago...)

[shadowsforbars]

"Other things that were rationed included cigarettes, makeup, plastics and certain metals, such as steel. During the War, more fountain pens were made with gold nibs than steel, because steel was needed in the war-effort. Pen-companies even advertised that people should take better care of their pens, because pen-repair materials, such as metal (for nibs), plastic (for pen-barrels and caps), and rubber (for the ink-sacs), were all now valuable wartime resources."

 

Source:http://scheong.wordpress.com/2009/12/11/blackouts-raids-and-rationing-the-blitz-and-the-home-front-of-wwii-pt-i/

[Shangas]

Why thank you, ShadowforBars.

[Ernst Bitterman]

"....During the War, more fountain pens were made with gold nibs than steel, because steel was needed in the war-effort. Pen-companies even advertised that people should take better care of their pens, because pen-repair materials, such as metal (for nibs), plastic (for pen-barrels and caps), and rubber (for the ink-sacs), were all now valuable wartime resources."

 

You will also find that the backing material for clips and bands is silver rather than brass, because cartridge cases tend not to be made out of silver.

[Shangas]

The Parker Vacumatic had plastic pump-fillers in the 1940s instead of metal ones, because steel was required for the American war-effort.

[Fuddlestack]

The Parker Vacumatic had plastic pump-fillers in the 1940s instead of metal ones, because steel was required for the American war-effort.

 

- plastics being petroleum derivatives and the US, in contrast to the UK, having the stuff in their own back yard; so that while they were strategic materials in the UK, they remained available as substitutes in the US.

[Fuddlestack]

According to Wiki, the British made Biró ballpoints under licence for the RAF. I read somewhere else that this was chiefly for navigators, whose fountain pens leaked at high altitude

[Shangas]

My facts are a bit scarce on this (it's been years since I studied this subject), but the modern ballpoint pen was invented when a Hungarian named Biro was tired of his fountain pen smudging ink everywhere when he edited manuscripts during his job in a newspaper office. The first prototypes of the Ballpoint Pen came out in the mid 1930s, but the Second World War caused his creation to be shelved. As the war progressed, Biro managed to start manufacturing his pens and the first people to use them were British pilots during the War. Because navigators and radio-operators at high altitude needed to write but couldn't do it with fountain pens in unpressurised compartments, they came to rely on the ballpoint pen, which didn't leak.

 

After the war, the ballpoint pen took off in earnest during the 1950s but it wasn't until the 60s that it really began to bite in on the market that was, until then, held chiefly by fountain pens.

 

Of course. If those airmen had just stuck with pencils, we wouldn't be living with the regrettable consequences of their scriptorial choices today.

Edited February 24, 2011 by Shangas

[Fuddlestack]

...

Of course. If those airmen had just stuck with pencils, we wouldn't be living with the regrettable consequences of their scriptorial choices today.

 

Which is, I believe, what the Russian space programme did, while NASA went chasing off after Fischer Space Pens. Mind you, the Russians would have had to invent a zero-G pencil sharpener.

 

"Pencil jams, cosmonaut in spin" - Krokodil

[Conan the Grammarian]

I remember as a kid reading a history of the Flying Tigers which mentioned Claire Chennault writing on a plane with a leaky fountain pen on his way to Washington to propose the creatino of the AVG. No mention of whether the fountain pen was his own or a leftover from his military days.

 

...while NASA went chasing off after Fischer Space Pens....

 

Snopes debunks the legend of the millions spent by NASA on developing a space pen...and lets us know why the space pen was actually a good idea for astronauts.

 

http://www.snopes.com/business/genius/spacepen.asp

Edited February 24, 2011 by Conan the Grammarian

[WanderingAuthor]

As the war progressed, Biro managed to start manufacturing his pens and the first people to use them were British pilots during the War. Because navigators and radio-operators at high altitude needed to write but couldn't do it with fountain pens in unpressurised compartments, they came to rely on the ballpoint pen, which didn't leak.

 

This has turned into a really fascinating discussion. What I wonder, though, is why someone didn't invent a "high-altitude" fountain pen - surely it would be possible to design a pen that adjusted to ambient pressure without leaking.

 

Of course. If those airmen had just stuck with pencils, we wouldn't be living with the regrettable consequences of their scriptorial choices today.

 

:roflmho: I agree.

[Kaweco]

Hello Wanderingauthor

It might be a little bit OT because I only can tell about fountainpens from Germany. 2 years ago, during a fountainpen exhibition, a man asked me to repair an old Kaweco and told me an amazing story. Today he is an old Professor for theology and he grew up in Cologne in ww2.

During the bombings 1944 the young boy and his mother spent most of their time in the celler. After the end of the war the American soldiers went through the ruins and cellers to search for damn nazis, wheappons et al. A GI entered their room and looked around the complete household in the small room, saw a fountainpen and took it away as a spoil of war. Then something unexpected happened. The boy`s mother began to talk to the soldier in a foreign language which the boy never had heard before from her. She insulted the soldier and asked if there are no good fountainpens made in the USA, so they had to steal some from Germany.The soldier was a lille bit embarrassed because of the unexpected attac from the young lady defending her fountainpen, and he gave it back and left the celler with no words. This little personal win after a long cruel and damn lost war left a big impact in the young boy and the grown up kept his fountainpen until today.

So this story,but now some facts: During wartime the production of fountainpens increased tremendously. Most of them went to the troops and the market for private fountainpens nearly had a crash. Albert Speer forced a big part of the fp- producers to convert to wheappon manufacturing. Surprisingly an American war handbook described which fountainpens belonged to the German soldiers. Among very detailed descriptiones about clothes, shoes, wheappons, ammunition, maps, compass and writing articles they listed fountainpens from Osmia and Kaweco and the Pelikan 100. Since 1934 the production of fountainpens went down because of the shortage of raw materials, but was in 1945 even higher than in 1936.

Kind Regards

Thomas

[WanderingAuthor]

It might be a little bit OT because I only can tell about fountainpens from Germany. 2 years ago, during a fountainpen exhibition, a man asked me to repair an old Kaweco and told me an amazing story. Today he is an old Professor for theology and he grew up in Cologne in ww2.

During the bombings 1944 the young boy and his mother spent most of their time in the celler. After the end of the war the American soldiers went through the ruins and cellers to search for damn nazis, wheappons et al. A GI entered their room and looked around the complete household in the small room, saw a fountainpen and took it away as a spoil of war. Then something unexpected happened. The boy`s mother began to talk to the soldier in a foreign language which the boy never had heard before from her. She insulted the soldier and asked if there are no good fountainpens made in the USA, so they had to steal some from Germany.The soldier was a lille bit embarrassed because of the unexpected attac from the young lady defending her fountainpen, and he gave it back and left the celler with no words. This little personal win after a long cruel and damn lost war left a big impact in the young boy and the grown up kept his fountainpen until today.

So this story,but now some facts: During wartime the production of fountainpens increased tremendously. Most of them went to the troops and the market for private fountainpens nearly had a crash. Albert Speer forced a big part of the fp- producers to convert to wheappon manufacturing. Surprisingly an American war handbook described which fountainpens belonged to the German soldiers. Among very detailed descriptiones about clothes, shoes, wheappons, ammunition, maps, compass and writing articles they listed fountainpens from Osmia and Kaweco and the Pelikan 100. Since 1934 the production of fountainpens went down because of the shortage of raw materials, but was in 1945 even higher than in 1936.

 

Thomas,

 

Thank you, that is a very interesting story and the information you provide is intriguing, too. Although we cannot presume that every country acted the same way, at least in Germany it seems the government did issue fountain pens to a significant number of troops.

 

Just to clarify my remarks in my original question, I didn't think of stories such as the one you related, but I am very interested in such things. (And a bit embarrassed, as an American, to think that one of our soldiers even considered stealing from civilians.) So, thank you. It wasn't off topic at all, in my opinion.

[Shangas]

As the war progressed, Biro managed to start manufacturing his pens and the first people to use them were British pilots during the War. Because navigators and radio-operators at high altitude needed to write but couldn't do it with fountain pens in unpressurised compartments, they came to rely on the ballpoint pen, which didn't leak.

 

This has turned into a really fascinating discussion. What I wonder, though, is why someone didn't invent a "high-altitude" fountain pen - surely it would be possible to design a pen that adjusted to ambient pressure without leaking.

 

Of course. If those airmen had just stuck with pencils, we wouldn't be living with the regrettable consequences of their scriptorial choices today.

 

:roflmho: I agree.

 

I belive VISCONTI designed such a fountain pen. But as Visconti only showed up in 1985, they're a bit late.

[WanderingAuthor]

I belive VISCONTI designed such a fountain pen. But as Visconti only showed up in 1985, they're a bit late.

 

Did they? I've never heard of that pen. Hmmm...

 

Now, though, I'm wondering if they ever did try to develop such a pen. Who knows what may lie buried in the heaps of wartime projects that never led anywhere? Although I suppose with the horrid Biro to hand, they may have simply decided to make do. So probably that idea wasn't even seriously considered during the war.

 

I do understand why pilots and navigators might adopt such a device for use in the air, but I still can't figure why the rest of the world ever thought it was such a good idea. You always hear the "leaky ink" explanation - but, while a fountain pen at high altitude might be a real problem, at least fp ink dries. Which is more than I can say for ballpoint ink. Archaeologists who stumble upon a cache of papers written upon with a ballpoint several hundred years from now will probably get ghostly imprints of the words on their fingers when they pick up the sheets to look them over.

[Vintagepens]

Thank you, that is a very interesting story and the information you provide is intriguing, too. Although we cannot presume that every country acted the same way, at least in Germany it seems the government did issue fountain pens to a significant number of troops.

 

I'm not sure if that was indeed the case. Thomas may be able to clarify, but my impression is that the situation in Germany was not that different from that in the USA -- which is to say, while the bulk of fountain pen production might have been reserved for military personnel, that doesn't mean that the pens were directly purchased and issued by the government. In the USA, priority was given to sales through PXs and the like -- that is, military retail outlets which did not sell to civilians.