On the fateful day on August 31, 1945, four sailors departed the USS Antietam CV-36 on a launch headed for the shores of Okinawa. The war was officially over, and all of them wanted to transfer back to the States. In the launch were Chief Petty Officer of Machinists, Ken Mead, Seaman First Class Robert Brown, Seaman First Class Lincoln Overland, and Seaman First Class Charles Smitty. The seas were calm that day as the launch headed into the docks at Haku Bay. Atop a flagpole beyond the beach, Old Glory was rippling in the wind. The stumps of hundreds of burned out palm trees were visible beyond the white beach sands. As they approached the beach, they saw battle debris everywhere including American plane parts, and a Jap wing with the red circle on it half sunk in the sand. Huge craters pockmarked the sand where bombs had hit and exploded.
Unbeknown to them this would become their home for over a month despite all their radio efforts calling to nearby ships. It would be a month from hell as two major typhoons hit the island causing massive damage. It would be a month from hell dodging Jap snipers. It would be a month of survival with limited food and water available, since the Navy no longer had a post on the island. All that was left was the Army, and hundreds of Okinawan civilians, and of course Jap snipers, who did not believe the war was over. Insects and disease were as much the enemy as were the Jap soldiers hiding in the limestone caves fighting to the death in honor of the Emperor. This is a story of survival in an unknown incident on the Island of Okinawa at the end of WWII.
Early on the morning of Aug. 30, 1945, I could see the Kerama islands with binoculars from the bridge of the USS Antietam CV-36 aircraft carrier. Captain James Tague had called me up to the bridge to give me my temporary transfer papers that would eventually allow me to be processed for discharge. The Captain handed me the binoculars and said, ”Look out there, Chief, those are the Kerama islands that are to the west of Okinawa.”
(USS Antietam CV-36 circa 1945)
“Thank you Captain,” I said and then took the binoculars and scanned the horizon to see many little green islands on the horizon. It was for me, a thrilling sight because now I knew I would be able to get off at Okinawa, and return to Hawaii and then home to Stamford, Connecticut. My mind drifted off for a while reflecting on all that I had seen and done in this terrible war.
I had enlisted in the Navy as a Naval Reservist on full time status on July 8, 1941 before the US entered the war. At first I was responsible for “Search and Rescue” in Jamaica bay on Long Island in a small rescue boat. We would retrieve flyers when they crashed in the Jamaica Bay or surrounding areas off Long Island’s south shore that were in the approach path to Floyd Bennett Field. When I wasn’t doing Search and Rescue, I spent time training as an aviation machinist’s mate while at Floyd Bennett Field on Long Island. I was six months too old to become a Navy flyer so I became an aviation mechanic. I always regretted not becoming a flyer but I did get to put in a lot of training hours flying at Floyd Bennett Field for search and rescue operations. This allowed me to at least get a pilot’s license that was important in testing out how some of the planes flew after they were repaired. My wife and son (born in June 1942) lived at home with my mother-in-law in Baisley Park, Queens, New York, and a borough of New York City.
It wasn’t until four years into the war (August 1944) that I got a transfer as Chief Petty Officer (E7) aboard the newly commissioned aircraft carrier Antietam CVS-36 (commissioned Jan. 28, 1945). I had put in a request to be transferred to the front in the Pacific to see some action rather than spend the remainder of the war state side-fishing pilots out of the water.
USS Antietam CV -36 at sea 1945
The Antietam was designed after the Essex class (long hull) fleet aircraft carrier. With a displacement of 27,100 tons and a length of 888 ft. she could reach 33 knots top speed. I was transferred in the summer of 1944 to go aboard when the Antietam was launched on August 20,1944. It was built in Philadelphia, and I had to take a train to the Philadelphia Naval yards to get there in time for the launching. I would be in charge of airplane mechanics that would take care of around 100 planes. I remember how shocked I was when I first saw how really huge the ship was while sitting in the Philadelphia Naval yard.
It was a day I will always remember. I was nervous with sweat and excited at the same time that I was finally getting to see some action.
After many shakedown cruises and repairs and crew training, the ship was finally commissioned on Jan. 28, 1945. Eventually, the entire crew aboard the Antietam would total around 3448 men.
As of now my enlistment was up, and the war was over as of August 15, 1945 when the Japanese surrendered. It was a great moment for me when Captain Tague thanked me for my service as Chief Petty Officer. I finally started to feel like I had accomplished something in this war.
The islands that surround the western coast of Okinawa dotted the horizon that day. Tokashiki-shima Island, a rather large island, was off to the left on the horizon, and Rukan-sho, a much smaller island was to the right as we approached from the south of Okinawa. The islands looked like small patches of green ovals, much like lilypads on a large pond. There were many other small islands on the horizon that I could not identify as the USS Antietam CV-36 steamed toward the captured island of Okinawa.
General Douglas McArthur signing the treaty Sept. 2, 1945
The treaty would be signed on Sept. 2, 1945 in Tokyo Harbor on the battleship USS Missouri, but the Antietam would not be going there for the signing because a mechanical problem back to Guam had forced us to drop out of the fleet that was headed toward Tokyo for the signing ceremony.
Right after the U.S. planes dropped the Atom bomb on Japan on August 6 and 9, 1945, the Russians took advantage of that opportunity and invaded Manchuria.
The situation was tense in the Yellow Sea off China and Manchuria. We were redirected to stand off the coast of China in the Yellow Sea after joining the Seventh Fleet at Okinawa, instead of going into Tokyo Harbor for the surrender signing.
When I learned of this at an officer’s briefing, I decided I did not want to leave my wife and son at home for another two or three years while I remained off the coast of China. I talked it over with some of my friends, and since the war was officially over my enlistment was also over so I could return to the States, and my family. It all sounded like a good plan.
That was all behind me now for my only thought was “Thank God it is over…the war that is.” Smitty, a sailor and good friend, a Mechanic’s Mate 1st Class was supposed to meet me at 11:00 hours to let me know if he was going ashore on Okinawa. Being a Chief Petty Officer was a big responsibility with roughly 1:00 airplanes to repair on the ship. I learned to take it in stride even when we got the “ninety day wonder fly boys” onboard who crashed the planes into the deck trying to land. Ninety days was definitely not enough time to learn how to fly, let alone land on an aircraft carrier. They were either crashing into the sea or crashing into the deck. I kept up my flight hours just in case we needed experienced pilots, instead of these rookies.
“Smitty” Charles Johnson Smith, had put in for a transfer to Guam, and wanted to get off at Okinawa to fly back to Guam. Beauvard Browne, “Brownie” another Seaman 1st class, was the first to make up his mind to “cash in his chips,” since his enlistment was also up. He wanted to be discharged from the Navy right away before the ship headed into the Yellow Sea for another tour of duty. Like myself he was an older guy in his late twenties. I was 28 at the time, and a few years older than most have the 18 and 19-year-old sailors on board. None of us wanted to stay on the USS Antietam patrolling the Yellow Sea because that duty would mean not getting back to the States for two or three years or more. It was either get out now, or stay onboard and risk becoming involved in a battle station situation that could go on for a long time off the China coast.
I went below to look for Smitty to see if he had news from the Executive Officer Alderman or Captain Tague about going ashore and leaving the Antietam forever. Smitty was a humorous guy I had got to know well since he was assigned to my crew. He was short, 5’6” and had a sun bleached crew cut with a short mustache. He was always being teased about his nose that had a small bulb on the end of it and it was always red. His Irish heritage showed in his temper and redness in his face when he got worked up over something. He was always cursing about something whether it was good or bad.
We were still steaming toward the western side of Okinawa where we would anchor in Haguchi Bay near the 9-mile long beaches that were so heavily bombed before the invasion. I found Smitty putting in some zzzzs in his hammock. The Executive Officer J.D. Blitch, said that he would know sometime today whether the Captain had given permission for me to go ashore with Smitty, and Brownie and another guy named Lincoln.
Smitty had been sleeping all morning after doing the night watch. He was eager to get home and so was I. “Chief, do you think we will be in Okinawa before dark?” he asked.
I wasn’t sure how to respond. “Captain Tague had said he expected to drop anchor by 1430 hours. I’m not sure,” I told Smitty. “Maybe we have two hours left in port, somewhere around 1400 hours.”
“Did you pack up your duffel bag?” Smitty asked.
“Yeah but it was a son of a bitch getting all that junk in one bag. The Captain wouldn’t let us take our sea chests, you know,” I said.
“Yeah, all my tools are in my chest. I hope they can ship it back to the States someday.”
Just then, Brownie came down the ladder. “Chief, it looks like I am going to be joining you guys going ashore tomorrow.”
“That’s great,” I said.
We all began to slap one another on the back, for it seemed like a great moment. Little did we know what we were in for on Okinawa? Another sailor Lincoln Hallard was also going to be leaving with us. The Captain would be providing us with a launch to take us to the beach while the Antietam remained anchored in the bay.
The Antietam had survived the war, and fortunately arrived too late to do battle with the “divine wind,” the kamikaze Jap pilots who carried one big bomb, and flew their planes into our ships. We heard all about the battle of Okinawa from radio communications while we were in the Pacific.
Now we were approaching the end of August, and the typhoon season in Japan. So much had happened so fast over the past year on the Antietam that it seemed like years ago since I boarded. Who would have ever thought we had a bomb like the A-bomb? Who ever thought that we would actually use it against Japan? Strange, I thought, war was more than playing the chess pieces of life and death; it was a story of long waiting hours with little to do. It was a story of constant drills and training to turn a bunch of raw recruits into seasoned sailors. It was a story of accidents like a sailor walking into a plane propeller and having his body spewed all over the ship. It was a story of horror when some sailors misfired a round and blew themselves up. What did we need battles for? We could kill ourselves without the enemy’s help.
I often had nightmares of being attacked by a Jap kamikaze and having it dive right into the deck and sinking the Antietam. Sleep was a luxury that I learned never happened in a war, especially on an aircraft carrier where you had to constantly worry about being attacked by planes or submarines.
I had packed my sea bag packed already with all I could jam into it. My leather flight jacket and metal seaman’s chest would remain onboard to be transferred back to the States whenever possible after the Manchuria hostilities had ceased.
I said goodbye to some of my crew and some of the officers I got to know while I was stationed on the Antietam. The following day I would be leaving as their Chief and someone else would be taking over after a long year of sailing together. It would be a sad parting since we had grown very close during that time. We played poker all night the last night before I left. I won $355.
On August 30th at about 13:00 hours after a briefing by Captain Tague, Rear Admiral A.C. Davis took over and made the USS Antietam the flagship of the Task Force 72 including the Interpid and the Cabot. The USS Antietam was to support the allied occupation forces by a show of air power with planes over North Chin and Korea.
Later on I went back up to the command tower to see if Okinawa was in sight yet. I will never forget when I first saw Okinawa that dreaded afternoon. I was standing on the command tower searching the horizon for the island with my own personal pair of binoculars that I had bought in Hawaii. Yes indeed, it was lying there on the horizon a few miles off. It looked like a long green pea pond in a sea of blue and white water. Almost like a sparkling green paradise island. A fog was rolling in and a light misting rain had begun. The sun had ducked behind some clouds, making the day suddenly very dark. As the USS Antietam steamed closer I could see the beaches and palms trees. Well not really palm trees; rather burnt stumps that were once palm trees. A green ridge covered with heavy vegetation rose across the middle of the island like the backbone of a lizard. The island was only 60 miles long and two miles wide at some points and seven miles wide at its widest point.
As we approached anchorage in Hagushi Bay, which was north of the capital city of Nahu, we went to general quarters. The devastation of the 84-day battle of Okinawa back in the spring of 1945 was apparent with the beaches full of debris from Jap plane parts, boat parts, and bomb craters. I could see that the once pristine white beaches were now black like burnt toast. Bombed out buildings lay along the edge of the beach as a testament to the savage battle. An American flag waved in the wind and rain over an Army headquarters tent on the island back from the beach near a clump of burnt out palm trees stumps. A black cloud moved over the island as if to signal that this was a place of death. As the Antietam moved into the harbor area a stench of ammunition, burnt wood and an undefined acid smell pervaded the air. I couldn’t get over the complete look of devastation on the island from the sea. It was as if all the armies and navies of the war had dumped their garbage on the beach. What a mess!
It would not be until 11:00 the following morning on August 31st that Smitty, Brownie, Lincoln and I would be allowed to go ashore in a launch. I will never forget going down over the side 65 feet or more on a rope cargo net holding a 80-pound plus duffel bag. One of the ship’s boatswains sounded the boatswain’s pipe as an act of respect as we left the ship. It gave me a chill in my spine that I was leaving my floating home and preparing to return home. Dropping over the side of the ship from the elevator was like the drills they used to do in Navy training camp in 1941. The drop over the side was steep and my duffel bag strap was digging into my shoulder numbing my arm completely. Each step down the cargo net was painful, but I finally made it to the bottom into the waiting Launch with a small outboard engine. Smitty could not climb down with his bag, so he yelled, “Chief, catch my bag, it is too heavy.”
Like a fool I said “OK” and I reached out to receive a crushing force on my arms from a duffel bag, which must have weighed 200 pounds. “What do you have in this bag, stones,” I yelped. Just the four of us, Smitty, Brownie, Lincoln and myself went ashore that day. My crew was on the deck waving to me as we headed for the beach. I looked back and waved with a twinge of sadness to see my floating home fade behind us in the distance. We took an extra bag of mail for the Army and Navy guys on shore. Little did we know that the Navy had pulled out of Okinawa and was preparing for the surrender signing in Tokyo Harbor and rounding up any stray submarines who did not hear the war was over.
If you country was invaded by a foreigner what would you do? Fight back of course. Supposing the invader had superior weapons and you had only bows and arrows? Such was the plight of the American Native Indians. Who were the good guys and the bad guys? That depends on who you think had the right to wipe out entire nations of American Natives. The white eyes lied to the American Indians time after time. No wonder there was no trust.
Was the Native American Indian worse than the white eyes. Taking scalps was a tradition for Native Americans, but what about hanging a person from a rope in public until their neck broke or they choked to death.
Who killed hundreds of thousands of Buffalo? Not the Native American Indians, it was the white eyes with guns that could shoot rapidly. Buffalo skins had a great market value as well as horns.
Who held the white eyes accountable for their crimes against the Native American Nations? No one did. Killing Native American Indians was like a fox hunt where the fox had no chance in hell of surviving with hunting dogs chasing them down and men on horseback armed with rifles shooting at them.
So, a Few hundred years later the Native American Indian is treated as a minority with little or no rights. Look at Brazil how they do not let the Amazon Indians own land and have no more rights than a teenager.
When there is talk about reparations for the black slaves of America, think first about the white men who stole the land away from the Native Americans to begin with before the slaves were brought to America.
The Native American Nations had wonderful cultures and practices that are fading into the air over time. What can we do? Perhaps renew their status in the American culture and give them more support to get educated and become part of this great American society. Always remember the place in History the Great Chiefs and their Nations played in our history and the Wild West.
Why are there no national holidays that celebrate Native American Holidays?
Think about the Washington Redskins football team. Is Redskin really an insult?
Do we have any teams called the white eyes or the yellow skins? Think about it.
Are there any Polish poppers, or Irish hacks, or British cavaliers, or French Frogs?
Cartoon version of Dr. Pel Mead, author of Skyking119 blog
Background to the novel. I wanted to answer many questions about Jesus and his cousin John in their childhood and teen years. For Jesus the Holy Family flight into Egypt to avoid Herods soldiers was taken from the written tradition of the Egyptian Coptic Church. For hundreds of years the story of the Holy family fleeing for four years in Egypt from Herod’s soldiers was an oral tradition until the 13 century when a Bishop of the Coptic church sat down and wrote the entire story.
Another question about Jesus is how did he get all his knowledge about healing and medicine? The temple did not teach it. Who did? The answer is the Essenes had the best medicines and drugs they traded with India and all around the known world. They had a book of medicine and how to administer drugs that was the best in the world at that time. Jesus must have learned his healing skills and medicine knowledge from the Essenes on nearby Mount Carmel which was 30 minutes walking from Nazareth. Both Jesus’ father and John’s father died when they were teenagers. Jesus had to take over his father’s building business with his brothers. John on the other hand could have become a Priest like his father but chose instead to go and live with the Essenes that lived in a closed community on the Dead Sea. It was here he learned about Baptism and it’s healing spiritual effects, since the Essenes baptized several times a day.
Jesus and a Essenes mentor who was an expert Essene healer and he taught Jesus how to become a healer. The Essenes were the children of the light and they prayed for a messiah or a righteous teacher to come again to save them. Jesus became their righteous teacher and spread their message without acknowledging that he learned all he knew from the Essenes. The Essenes are not mentioned in the New Testament for a reason. The church in the first century erased their references from the New Testament. The Christian church did not want anyone to know that Jesus learned his healing skills from the strange Essenes sect of judaism . Were it not for the discovery of the Dead Sea scrolls from which I based my research, we might never have known that they invented the Lord’s Prayer or the blessings Jesus gave on the mount and their belief in Angels and the coming of the Messiah.
1:57 When the time arrived for Elizabeth to have her child she gave birth to a son.
1:58 Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown his great mercy toward her, and they rejoiced with her.
1:59 When they came on the eighth day to circumcise the child, they were going to call him Zechariah after his father,
1:60 but his mother said in reply, “No. He will be called John.”
1:61 But they answered her, “There is no one among your relatives who has this name.”
1:62 So they made signs, asking his father what he wished him to be called.
1:63 He asked for a tablet and wrote, “John is his name,” and all were amazed.
1:64 Immediately his mouth was opened, his tongue freed, and he spoke blessing God.
1:65 Then fear came upon all their neighbors, and all these matters were discussed throughout the hill country of Judea.
1:66 All who heard these things took them to heart, saying, “What, then, will this child be?” For surely the hand of the Lord was with him. The Canticle of Zechariah.
1:67 Then Zechariah his father, filled with the holy Spirit, prophesied, saying:
1:68 “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, for he has visited and brought redemption to his people.
1:69 He has raised up a horn for our salvation within the house of David his servant,
1:70 even as he promised through the mouth of his holy prophets from of old:
1:71 salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us,
1:72 to show mercy to our fathers and to be mindful of his holy covenant
1:73 and of the oath he swore to Abraham our father, and to grant us that,
1:74 rescued from the hand of enemies, without fear we might worship him
1:75 in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.
1:76 And you, child, will be called prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways,
1:77 to give his people knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins,
1:78 because of the tender mercy of our God by which the daybreak from on high will visit us
1:79 to shine on those who sit in darkness and death’s shadow, to guide our feet into the path of peace.”
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1:80 The child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the desert until the day of his manifestation to Israel.
“The child (John) grew and became strong in spirit living in Hebron, Judea. John’s father Zechariah saw to it that John was well trained in the bible and Hebrew tradition. Every year Zechariah would take his family, Elizabeth and John to Jerusalem for the Passover celebration Here they would meet Joseph of Nazareth and his family Mary, Jesus, and his brothers and sisters. John was 15 months older than Jesus, however they got along very well. John’s nickname for Jesus was “little Yeshua,” because even when they were young boys John was taller than Jesus. By the time John was 13 he grew to six feet four inches tall while Jesus was only five foot ten inches.
One year when John was eight and Jesus seven years of age, their families met in Jerusalem for the Passover festival. During the week they stayed in tents outside the walls of Jerusalem because they had no relatives living inside the walls of Jerusalem that had any room for their families. While Joseph of Nazareth and Zechariah the priest and father of John were sitting around a fire and talking, John and Jesus were running among the tents outside the walls of Jerusalem.
“Little Yeshua, can you catch me or are you as slow as a turtle,” John shouted. “I will catch you and bury your face in the sand,” Jesus replied as they ran around the tents. John tripped on a tent cord and Jesus finally caught up to him as he rolled on the ground. “Alright you win ‘little Yeshua,’ John shouted as he swallowed some sand. It wasn’t until an hour later that Joseph and Zechariah noticed that John and Jesus were missing. “Mary do you know where Jesus and John are,” Joseph asked? “No I have not seen them all morning,” Mary replied. “James go and look for your younger brother and swat him in the head and bring him back here for your mother and I,” Joseph shouted. “Must I find the little weasel father,” James replied. “You are the eldest and it is your duty to keep track of your brothers and sisters,” Joseph stated firmly. James left in a huff to look for his brother Jesus and their 2nd cousin John. James found them in no time running around the tents in the tent city outside the walls of Jerusalem. “Come here Jesus for your father and mother are concerned as to your whereabouts. You are to return to our tent immediately,” James commanded. Jesus gave James a strange look but turned to John and said,” let us return to our tents before our parents get mad.” So all three returned to their family tents.
John liked to quiz Jesus on his knowledge of the bible since John was always studying the bible with his father who was a priest in the temple in Jerusalem. “Little Jeshua, who freed the Jews from the Egyptian Pharaoh?” John asked. Jesus responded quickly, “Moses.” “Good, now where did our Jewish forefathers spend 500 years in captivity?” Jesus thought for a second and said, “Babylon.” This game would go on for hours until the boys tired of the game and sought other entertainment. They were the best of friends each year at Passover time and when the Passover Festival was over they both returned to their towns. John returned with his family to Hebron that was south of Jerusalem and Jesus and his family returned north to Nazareth in Galilee.
After returning from the Passover feast John’s father Zechariah took John aside and said “It is time for your formal religious education to begin my son.” “I have asked Rabbi Slocum to spend time with you each week learning the bible and the torah,” Zechariah said. “This will prepare you for your coming of age ceremony at age twelve in a few years,” Zechariah went on to say. “Thank you father, I welcome the learning Rabbi Slocum will provide me. And so from that day forward John received formal religious training several times a week. He was a bright student and always asking questions.
One day John said to Rabbi Slocum, “who are the Essenes, Rabbi?” Rabbi Slocum an older man with a long white beard and a large distinctive nose and beady little eyes thought about the question for a moment and then replied,” they are Jewish brethren that seek the truth in Judaism and live in communities away from Jerusalem.” “Are they Pharisees or scribes,” John asked? “No John, they are Jews that want to live a life of purity and follow the old traditions of Judaism,” Rabbi Slocum replied. “I have heard that they live in the desert by the Dead Sea,” John commented. “Yes they live in Qumram near the Dead Sea and they follow a person called the ‘enlightened one,’” Rabbi Slocum responded. “Now let us get back to our studies,” Rabbi Slocum asked.
From early on John had an interest in the Essene community and what they were doing out on the edge of the desert near the Dead Sea. He had seen the Essenes one Passover coming as a community to worship in the Temple during the Passover Holiday. They looked like any other person in Jerusalem but dressed a little differently with their robes that were bright in color.
At age twelve, John was ready for the ‘coming of age ceremony,’ to be held in the temple in Jerusalem because his father Zechariah was a Priest in the temple and this gave him special privilege. Joseph of Nazareth and all of their other cousins and family were invited to the ceremony. John was to do several readings that Rabbi Slocum had prepared him for. The ceremony went well, and one of Zechariah’s friends who was a priest, and Rabbi Slocum were the leaders of the ceremony. Now John was officially a member of the local synagogue, and Hebrew member of the state of Israel, and an adult Jew. It was a great moment for John because it showed his father that he was ready for greater things perhaps as a priest or maybe a prophet as the Angel of the Lord had decreed when he was born?
History records that when King Henry VIII met his wife to be Princess Anne of Cleve’s from Germany he said she was plain and ugly. From Anne of Cleaves viewpoint she had never seen a photo or painting of Henry before. She was told he was tall
,red headed, and handsome. That was twenty years before. The king planned on surprising Anne at Greenwich where she was staying on New Years Eve 1540.
The surprise backfired and Henry was taken aback that Anne did not recognize him nor did she submit to him kissing her and later forcing her to engage in oral sex. He had not been with a women in two years and he was as horny as a bull. What he may have never told his advisors was that he was to blame not Anne. Anne was a high Princess of Germany where things were done properly. Henry did not at first announce himself as the King, so Anne paid him no mind. Then he, a complete stranger, hugged her and forced a kiss. She was repulsed and afraid he was going to rape her. When he pulled his britches down and exposed himself she was afraid. Her mother never told her men like blow jobs. She never told Anne that men were filthy pigs and in bed they treated their women like whores. Anne was a 24 year old German Princess who was still no whore.
When he tied to force his penis into her mouth she gagged from the smell of his hairy penis. She had never been with a man or fooled around with any man. She was always protected from men by her mother all her life.
When Henry shouted in English “suck,suck,” she did not understand English. She cried as he tried to force himself on her. His penis was soft and would not get hard. He was impotent and he blamed it on her. She slapped his penis and he fell back in great pain holding his penis. He tried to lull his own penis to get it hard but he was embarrassed. She was shocked at did not realize that he was the King until she saw his purple robe.
She was disgusted and shocked that King Henry was an old man, obese, and impotent. Henry’s obesity interfered with his sexual functions and that was a secret he must have kept to himself? He may have had high blood pressure to go along with his obesity? Anne took the blame for Henry’s sexual shortcomings.
The language barrier was a major problem when Anne did not have her translator. In the privacy of her chambers there would be no translator. Anne was shocked when she realized the King of England wanted her to suck on his penis. She had never seen a man’s penis before.
Henry had to go through with wedding that January or risk war with her brother William the Duke of Cleve’s. After the wedding for several weeks Henry tried hard to climax. Eventually Anne learned to such his penis and hemp him gain an erection. He was 48 years old at the time with high blood pressure and severe obesity. He had a 54 inch waste and had to have his clothes resewed.
They never consumed the marriage because he was impotent. She kept his secret blowing him every night, letting him feel her breasts. She felt guilty that she was unsatisfactory in sex when really it was Henry’s sexual problem. Henry soon sent her away because he blamed Anne for his impotency. He even tried to have all sex with her which she was willing to submit too, but Henry could not penetrate her or get an erection. Henry kept this secret the rest of his life. It was a miracle that Katherine Parr his 6th wife bore him a son Prince Arthur when he was so often impotent?
In the 1500’s in England sex was seldom discussed in public or private. Shame was often attached to sex. Sex was to be to have children not just for enjoyment. Even Henry felt ashamed and guilty when he became old and obese and impotent.
Anne was the step mother of Mary oldest daughter of king Henry VIII.
she was a year older than Mary and a close friend who helped both Mary and Elizabeth educate themselves. she outlived Henry VIii and lived to see the Coronation of Mary as Queen of England.
she became a close friend to the King and he named her his beloved sister.
she was a German princess of age 24 when Henry arranged with her brother Duke William of Cleve’s to have then married.
many were not aware of her influence on Mary daughter of the King.
I intend to show how she educated Mary and how she showed her friendship which she never forgot when she became Queen of England.
