Hollywood at War: Stars Who Served

September 2, 2020 marks the 75th anniversary of VJ-Day, the day on which the Empire of Japan finally signed the surrender document, officially ending World War II in Asia. Future film star Tony Curtis, then a sailor in the United States Navy, actually witnessed much of the formal surrender activities in Tokyo Bay from his ship's signal bridge about a mile away. But Tony Curtis was not the only Hollywood celebrity who took up arms against the Axis Powers. Here is a list of 10 stars of the silver screen who served during World War II, either before or after they were famous. 

 

James Stewart (1908-1997) | U.S. Army Air Forces, 1941-1968

Stewart enlisted in the U. S. Army Air Forces in February 1941. He had tried to join up in November 1940, but had been rejected for low weight. Already an experienced pilot, he received basic training at Moffett Field, California, and later served as flight instructor at Kirtland Army Air Field in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and at Gowen Field in Boise, Idaho. In July 1943, he was assigned as commander of the 703rd Squadron of the 445th Bombardment Group, then stationed at Sioux City Army Air Base in Iowa. In November of that year, Stewart and his squadron of B-24H Liberators arrived in England and were based at RAF Tibenham as part of the 2nd Combat Bombardment Wing. Their first mission was to bomb U-boat facilities in Kiel, Germany, in December 1943. In March 1944, Stewart was transferred to the 453rd Bombardment Group, then part of the Eighth Air Force, based at RAF Old Buckenham, becoming its group operations officer. Overall, he completed 20 combat missions over Germany, for which he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Air Medal with three oak leaf clusters and the French Croix de Guerre with palm.

 

In June 1945, having attained the rank of colonel, Stewart presided over the court martial of a pilot and navigator who accidentally bombed Zurich, in neutral Switzerland. Weather conditions and equipment failure were found to be at fault, and the defendants were found not guilty of criminal culpability. He returned to the United States in the early fall of 1945, and continued to play an role in the reserve of the Army after the war. He transferred to the United States Air Force after the Army Air Forces split from the Army in 1947, and officially retired from the military in May 1968, having risen to the rank of brigadier general.

 

(from left to right) Major James Stewart with crew members of a B-24 Liberator nicknamed «Male Call» on their return from a raid (England, April 1944); Colonel James Stewart receiving the Croix de Guerre from Lieutenant General Henri Valin, Chief of Staff, French Air Forces (May 1945).

 

Douglas Fairbanks Jr. (1909-2000) | U.S. Navy, 1941-1954

Fairbanks joined the United States Navy in April 1941. Commissioned as a lieutenant, he was appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt as a special envoy to South America to gather information on Nazi influence in some of the countries. In October of the same year, he reported abroad the destroyer USS Ludlow to escort a convoy across the North Atlantic from Newfoundland, Canada to Iceland. In November, he was transferred to the USS Mississippi, where he served as acting communications officer until January 1942. In March, he was assigned to the USS Washington, one of the battleships that was sent to reinforce the British Home Fleet based in Scapa Flow, Scotland. Later, he was dispatched to the aircraft carrier USS Wasp, employed in delivering British fighter planes to embattled Malta, and then to the heavy cruiser USS Wichita, an escort to Convoy PQ17, whose mission it was to carry supplies to the Soviet Union. While crossing the Arctic Ocean in July 1942, the convoy was intercepted and attacked by German forces.

 

After the Wichita returned to the United States for repairs, Fairbanks was assigned to the staff of Lord Louis Mountbatten, a vice admiral in the Royal Navy and Chief of Combined Operations. He was sent to train with the Royal Navy at HMS Tormentor, a small naval shore establishment in Southampton, England, before entering the Commando Basic Training Centre at Achnacarry, Scotland. Upon his return to the United States in October 1942, he used his knowledge in military deception to organize a special warfare unit called the Beach Jumpers. Their first combat duty was Operation Husky, the Allied invasion of Sicily, between July and August 1943. They also took part in Operation Dragoon, an amphibious assault on Southern France, between August and September 1944. For his service during the war, Fairbanks was awarded the Navy's Legion of Merit with bronze V (for valor), the French Légion d'honneur and the Croix de Guerre with palm, the Italian War Cross for Military Valor and the British Distinguished Service Cross. He was released from active duty in February 1946, but continued to serve in the Naval Reserve until he retired as a captain in 1954.

 

(from left to right) Douglas Fairbanks Jr. in his U.S. Navy uniform (c. 1945); Lieutenant Commander Douglas Fairbanks Jr. with Captain Henry C. Johnson and Lieutenant Commander John D. Bulkeley during operations off the coast of France following D-Day (August 1944).

 

Eddie Albert (1906-2005) | U.S. Coast Guard/Navy, 1942-1945

Albert enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard in September 1942, but was later discharged to accept a commission as a lieutenant in the Naval Reserve. He served as a salvage officer aboard the attack transport USS Sheridan, where is job was to survey damaged equipment on the landing zones and determine what could be repaired and reused. In addition, he assisted the Sheridan's boat control officer in overseeing the boats that were to land.

 

In November 1943, Albert participated in the Battle of Tarawa, fought against Japan during the Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign of the Pacific Theatre of war. The offensive resulted in a costly American victory, with the U.S. forces securing control of Betio Island, a key objective in the central Pacific region, after three days of intense fighting. Albert took part in the first wave of combat and, as the coxswain of a landing craft, rescued 47 Marines who were stranded offshore and supervised the rescue of 30 others, while under heavy machine gun fire. Due the noise of the battle, he lost portion of his hearing. For his actions during the war, he was awarded the Bronze Star with Combat «V» (for valor). He was discharged from the Navy in 1945.

 

(from left to right) Eddie Albert in his U.S. Naval Reserve uniform; the scene on Betio Island in the Tarawa Atoll, Kiribati, three days after battle. The lagoon beyond is where Lieutenant Edward Heimberger (Albert's given name) saved all those Marines.

 

David Niven (1910-1983) | British Army, 1930-1933/1940-1945

Niven was already a lieutenant in the British Army when he rejoined the service after Britain declared war on Germany in 1939. He was the only British actor in Hollywood to return home at the onset of war, ignoring the British Embassy's advice to stay. In February 1940, he was assigned to the Rifle Brigade (Prince Consort's Own), where he worked with a motor training battalion. He later transferred to the Commandos, receiving training at Inverailort House in the Western Highlands of Scotland.

 

In June 1944, Niven participated in the Allied invasion of Normandy, although he was sent to France a week after D-Day. He served as the commander of A Squadron of the GHQ Liaison Regiment, a special reconnaissance unit known as «Phantom», which located and reported enemy positions and kept rear officers informed on changing battle lines. Just before D-Day, he had helped organize Operation Copperhead, a small deception operation in which an actor pretended to be General Bernard Montgomery to confuse German intelligence as to the location of the proposed Normandy landings. With «Phantom», he also took part in Operation Market Garden, a failed mission to liberate the Netherlands from German occupation in September 1944, and in the Battle of the Bulge, between December 1944 and January 1945. Niven was discharged in August 1945, having attained the rank of lieutenant colonel. Upon his return to the United States, he was presented with the Legion of Merit by General Dwight D. Eisenhower himself.

(from left to right) Major David Niven inspecting a vehicle at GHQ Liaison Regiment («Phantom») in Richmond Park (October 1942); Lieutenant Colonel David Niven with a Royal Engineers officer during his service with «Phantom» in France (c. 1944-1945).

 

Charles Bronson | U.S. Army Air Forces, 1943-1946

Bronson enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Forces in 1943. He was sent to the Kingman Army Airfield in Arizona as an aircraft gunner in the 760th Flexible Gunnery Training Squadron, although his initial assignment involved maintenance and operations of the base messes. In 1945, he was attached to the 61st Bombardment Squadron of the 39th Bombardment Group, based in Guam, and flew 25 combat missions against the Japanese home islands as a nose gunner abroad a Boeing B-29 Superfortress. He received a Purple Heart for wounds sustained in battle. He was honorably discharged from military service as a sergeant in 1946.

 

(from left to right) Charles Bronson in his U.S. Army Air Forces uniform; a squadron of Boeing B-29 Superfortress bombers at the Northwest Field in Guam, where Cpl. Charles D. Buchinsky (Bronson's given name) was stationed in the summer of 1945.

 

Tyrone Power (1914-1958) | U.S. Marine Corps, 1942-1958

Power enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps in August 1942. He went through boot camp at Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego, California, and later at Officer's Candidate School at the Marine Corps Base in Quantico, Virginia, where he was commissioned as second lieutenant in June 1943. Because he was already an experienced pilot, he was able to attend an accelerated flight training program at the Naval Air Station in Corpus Christi, Texas, where he trained as a multiengine transport pilot. Promoted to first lieutenant in April 1944, he was later assigned to the Marine Transport Squadron VMR-352 as a R5C co-pilot at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, in Havelock, North Carolina, and then at Marine Corps Air Station El Centro, near Seeley, California.

 

After being transferred to VMR-353, Power shipped out to combat in the Pacific Theatre of war in February 1945. His squadron was briefly based at Kwajalein Atoll, in the Marshall Islands, before moving on to Saipan, in the Northern Mariana Islands. From there, Power flew numerous missions carrying supplies in and wounded Marines out during the Battles of Iwo Jima, in February and March 1945, and Okinawa, in April and June of the same year. For his service during the war, he was awarded American Campaign Medal, the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with two bronze stars, and and the World War II Victory Medal. He was discharged from active duty in January 1946, but continued to serve in the Marine Corps Reserve until his untimely death in 1958, at which point he had reached the rank of major.

 

(from left to right) Lieutenant Tyrone Power and Major Marvin Schacher overseeing the building of the «Roosevelt Memorial Theatre» by squadron pilots and crewmen in the Mariana Islands (April 1945); Lieutenant Power in a chow line at the Omura Air Station in Japan (1945).

  

Richard Todd | British Army, 1939-1946

Todd joined the British Army soon after the outbreak of World War II and received training at the Royal Military College, in Sandhurst, Berkshire. In the spring of 1941, he was commissioned into the 2nd/4th Battalion of the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry and was sent to Iceland for arctic warfare training. After serving for a short while as a liaison officer to the 42nd Armored Division, he volunteered to join the Parachute Regiment, being assigned to the 7th (Light Infantry) Parachute Battalion, which was part of the 5th Parachute Brigade of the 6th Airborne Division.

 

On June 6, 1944, Todd participated in Operation Tonga, the overall British airborne landings in Normandy as part of Operation Overlord. He was one of the first British soldiers to land in Normandy on D-Day. His battalion parachuted in to reinforce Major John Howard's glider-borne forces in the capture of Pegasus Bridge over the Caen Canal. After fighting in Normandy for three months, the 6th Airborne Division reported back to England, but was later sent back to the continent as emergency reinforcements to halt the German counter-offensive in the Ardennes during the Battle of the Bulge in the winter of 1944-1945. As the motor transport officer, Todd was responsible for gathering the much-needed vehicles to advance the Allied troops into Germany. He was demobilized in 1946, having reached the rank of captain.

 

(from left to right) Richard Todd is his British Army uniform; Pegasus Bridge over the Caen Canal, which Richard Todd and his battalion helped to capture.

 

Jason Robards (1922-2000) | U.S. Navy,  1940-1946

Robards joined the U.S. Navy in 1940. After training, he was assigned to the heavy cruiser USS Northampton as a radioman third class. He took part in the Guadalcanal Campaign and initially saw action in the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands in October 1942. A month later, during the Battle of Tassafaronga, the Northampton was struck by two Japanese long-range torpedoes. The ship was destroyed, and Robards was in the water for hours before finally being rescued by an American destroyer.

 

In November 1944, he was sent aboard the light cruiser USS Nashville, which was the flagship for the invasion of Mindoro, in the Philippines, the following month. On the first day of battle, the Nashville was stuck by a kamikaze pilot, who hit one of the gun mounds and dropped two bombs that set the midsection of the ship on fire. Despite severe damage and 223 casualties, including 133 crewmen killed, Robards was not injured. The Nashville was then forced to return to Pearl Harbor and then to the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard of Bremerton, Washington, for repairs. Robards was discharged in 1946, with the rank of petty officer first class.

 

(from left to right) USS Northampton entering Pearl Harbor a day after the Japanese raid (December 8, 1941); crewmen cleaning the USS Nashville's port after the kamikaze hit during the Battle of Mindoro (December 1944).

 

Henry Fonda (1905-1982) | U.S. Navy, 1942-1948

Fonda joined the U.S. Navy in August 1942 and began his service as a quartermaster third class aboard the destroyer USS Satterlee. Later, he applied to become an officer and, thanks to his age (he was 37 at the time), he was commissioned as a lieutenant junior grade in Air Combat Intelligence. From October 1943 to March 1944, he trained at Naval Air Station Quonset Point, Rhode Island, after which he was assigned as assistant air operations officer aboard the seaplane tender USS Curtiss, stationed in the Pacific Theatre of war. Fonda's job was to assist in the planning and execution of air operations to neutralize enemy installations in nearby atolls and islands, by interpreting and evaluating scores of photographic and other intelligence material. His contributions effectively supported the Mariana and Palau Islands Campaign, between July and November 1944, and the American invasion of Iwo Jima, in February and March 1945. For his services during the war, he was awarded the Bronze Star Medal. He was discharged from active duty in November 1945, but remained in the Naval Reserve until his resignation in 1948, due to being «overage in rank.»

 

(from left to right) Henry Fonda in his U.S. Navy uniform; USS Satterlee and other destroyers in Belfast Lough, Northern Ireland, while preparing for the Allied invasion of Normandy (May 1944).

 

Mel Brooks (1926-) | U.S. Army, 1944-1946

Brooks enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1944. He attended the Army Specialized Training Program at the Virginia Military Institute and then was shipped off to Europe as a corporal in the 1104th Engineer Combat Battalion, 78th Infantry Division. He landed in Normandy after D-Day and advanced with the Allied troops through France, Belgium, the Netherlands and, finally, Germany. His unit was tasked with building bridges, clearing roads of debris and deactivating land mines, the last of which was Brooks' main responsibility. He also took part in the Battle of the Bulge during the winter of 1944-1945, although he was not near the worst of the action. He was discharged from military service in June 1946.

 

(from left to right) Students of the Army Specialized Training Program studying electrical engineering; Corporal Melvin Kaminsky (Brooks' given name) in Europe during World War II.

For more «Hollywood at War» articles, you can see «Hollywood at War: The Hollywood Canteen.»

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SOURCES:

«Actors in Uniform: From Lieutenant Henry Fonda to Mister Roberts» at The National WWII Museum (June 20, 2018) 

«Bronson, Charles Dennis, Sgt» at airforce.togetherweserved.com

«Cpl Charles Dennis Buchinsky (Bronson), U.S. Army Air Force (1943-1946)» at Together We Served official blog

«David Niven: Celebrity Soldier» at WW2 Dog Tags 

«Douglas Elton Fairbanks, Jr.» at Naval History and Heritage Command 

«Fairbanks, Douglas Elton, Jr., CAPT» at navy.togetherweserved.com 

«Famous Veteran: Jason Robards Jr.» at Military.com 

«Five Film Stars' Wartime Roles» at Imperial War Museum 

«From Tarawa to Hooterville» at U.S. Naval Institute 

«Heimberger, Edward Albert A., LT» at navy.togetherweserved.com

«Henry Fonda and the U.S. Navy» at U.S. Naval Institute 

«Lieutenant Richard Andrew Palethorpe Todd» at The Pegasus Archive 

«Lt. Henry Fonda, U.S. Navy (1942-1946)» at Together We Served official blog 

«Power, Tyrone, Maj» at marines.togetherweserved 

«Tyrone Power's military service - an overview» at tyrone-power.com