Today one of World War II’s iconic “Rosie The Riveters” punched out on the time clock for the last time. Geraldine Hoff Doyle passed away at 86. A news photo of her working in a metal pressing plant is said to have inspired the famous ”We Can Do It!” poster encouraging women to seek industrial work in the war effort. While Norman Rockwell painted a woman doing war work for a magazine cover, it is the poster that has has become a pop culture icon.
Sixty wood-hulled boats made in Brooklyn, each 83 feet long, were carried across the North Atlantic on the decks of Liberty Ships to England sixty-five years ago. The cutters, chiefly used for anti-submarine patrol and coastal search and escort, were modifed as rescue craft.
The group of small wooden gasoline-powered cutters, vulnerable to incendiary shells, was called the ”Matchbox Fleet.” On June 6, 1944, these boats crossed the Channel as U.S. Coast Guard Rescue Flotilla One, part of Operation Neptune/Overlord.
