I have continued to update, purely for my interest, the notes etc I have made about the experience of Panama during WW2. I just kept finding odds and ends worth looking at and noting – such as the traffic switching from one side of the road to the other, all at once, on the blast of a siren at 5 am one morning in 1943 (though, even today, there is one “English Street”, where traffic runs on the “wrong” side of the road).
UPDATE 1 NOVEMBER 2020 – I have uploaded a replacement, and hopefully finally version of this pdf “scrapbook” (though every time I thin I am done I stumble across something else)…
The file has grown like topsy, and I have made it into a pdf, in large part to make it look better and professional.
Of course, as soon as I thought I’d finished it I found a tale of how 40,000 US sailors were given shore leave, all in one go, as the fleet was traversing the Canal in 1939 (leading to what was described as a “white tide” of men), and a Cole Porter musical featuring a character (“Panama Hattie”) based on a night club entertainer from Panama City during the war. They will have to wait the next update!
The project is entirely for my own interest and wholly non-commercial. I have tried to credit all the sources for any information and photos.
Any comments, corrections, amendments and additions are welcomed. Maybe now that Covid-19 restrictions are eased I can finally get out to see any of the remains of the wartime structures that might still be seen.
