WW II Air Battles, Civil War Battles, & Good Eats

Left camp at 8:30 headed for our first stop the National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force.  The Eighth Air Force was activated in 1942 and mainly flew missions from England over Europe.  Pilot training began at Hunter AFB just outside of Savannah.

Only seven of these mini-jeeps were produced.  They were too small to be useful.

The museum highlighted other parts of an pilot and crews time of service.  One of those was this "Safe House."  It expolained how the people of France and Belgium hid downed crew members from the Germans until they could be transferred to members of the resistance.

One part of the museum was dedicated to those men who were captured and held in  German Gulags.   One man collected insignia of  men who died at the camp and made a quilt out of them.  There are 120 insignia in this quilt.

Another man embroidered a handkerchief that he received in a Red Cross package.  The needles he used were also in the Red Cross package.  He made threads from pulling them from clothing, shoe laces, etc.

When these prisoners were liberated, they wrote their names and messages on the Nazi flag that flew over the camp.  This guy was from Clinton, Illinois.  The flag is below

The red poppy symbolizes the sacrifices of soldiers from WW One time.  These poppies were made by school classes to honor the 26,000 air man that gave their lives in WW Two.

There was also a display about WASP, the female personnel in the Air Force.  During the war, WASP were not considered military so they had to pay all their own expenses.  They were treated like second-class citizens of the military.

Next stop was Fort Pulaski National Monument   The fort was named after Casimir Pulaski who was a Polish hero of the American Revolution who lost his life in the unsuccessful siege of Savannah in 1779.  The fort was built to guard river approaches to Savannah.  When Georgia succeeded from the Union, Confederate forces occupied the fort.  After a 30 hour battle, the Confederates surrendered and this was the sword of the Confederate commander.

The fort had a moat surrounding the entire fort plus this huge triangular piece of land protected the entrance to the fort.  The fort could only be entered by a drawbridge across the moat.  It was a beautifully constructed fort.

This is the entrance on the other side of the triangular piece of land.  There was a lot of maintenance work going on to maintain the integrity of the fort.  This guy was painting the front doors.

Robert E. Lee visited the commander of the fort shortly after the beginning of the war.  They both felt secure that this fort could not be taken by the Union soldiers.   It was located on a small island across from Tybee Island and surrounded by water itself.  The distance was too far for cannons to be accurate or cause damage.   However, what the Confederates did not count on was a new type of cannon that was beginning to be used by the North.  The cannon had a "riffled" bore which allowed the discharge to go farther and with more accuracy.

The new cannons hit their mark as this wall shows

There is an original cannonball inside this hole.

The bombardment from the North opened up holes that could allow more cannonball to hit the ammunition and powder rooms.  The commander felt that continued battle would lead to an explosion of the power killing everyone inside the fort so to spare the lives of those inside the fort,  he surrendered.  The North captured Fort Pulaski after only 30 hours.

We really enjoyed visiting Ft. Pulaski because the battlefield was compact and the battle plan very simple.  It was easy to follow the battle.  We were allowed to walk almost anywhere we wanted and we did walk completely around the fort inside and out.  Before we visited here we did not know about the battle and the fort.

This is the Tybee Island Lighthouse.  It was closed so all we could do was take a picture.

We ate a late lunch at "The Crab Shack" on Tybee Island.  They advertise themselves as "The Original Crabshack."
It sits on a bay and we were seated by the edge of the porch where we could look out over the water.

I loved their lighting and the huge live oaks that covered the porch.

Our view of the bay.

Carol had the low shrimp boil.

I had a BBQ chicken sandwich.  The sauce on the chicken was not the traditional red-based sauce, it was more yellow.  It was delicious.

We got back to camp around 4:45.  It has been a wonderful day.  It gave us a taste of Savannah.  We plan to go to downtown Savannah tomorrow.  It will be very interesting because of the parking situation.   We tried to park at the Savannah Visitor's Center but the Pay-to-Park ticket booths there outsmarted us.  All of the parking downtown is Pay-to-Park.   If we can't figure out the system, then we won't be able to park.  Even the street parking is Pay-to-Park.  Why can't they use parking meters like Decatur or better yet, free parking for us out-of-towners!  We are the ones the city should want to visit and spend money.  We aren't the only ones who had trouble  There was a man from Texas who couldn't figure it out either.

Maybe after a good night's rest and a clear head, we will be able to deal with he Pay-to-Park.