27 Mar The “Dealers” dine at Tattersall Restaurant
The Dinner Party – Guests are labeled.
In 2011 I posted a photograph that I found in Herman F. Allen’s (my Dad’s) wartime scrapbook. A group of mostly Americans were seated around a grand banquet table. I knew it was somewhere in Stockholm, and I knew it was in 1944.
With the help of Ted Borek, one of the American internees shown in the picture, I identified as many people in the group as I could.
Ted explained that it was a party hosted by the American Minister, Herschel V. Johnson, as a thank you to the many people who had worked so hard to provide for the more than 1,000 American airmen interned in Sweden as well as their airplanes. My Dad, Herman Allen, organized the event.
Then last year I was able to connect with Nick Kehoe whose father was also an internee, and he sent me the same photograph labeled by his Dad, Nicholas Kehoe, now deceased. On June 20, 1944, Nick’s Dad was forced to bail out over Sweden after his plane was shot down. Like my father, shortly after he arrived he was sent to Stockholm to work, most likely with the office of the Military Air Attache.
In the photograph Nick’s Dad had named almost everyone, and with what information I already have, I’m now able to relabel more correctly.
The Dealers
The same Dinner Party, from the wartime scrapbook of Nicholas Kehoe.
I love the name that he chose for the group … “The Dealers.” I can just imagine the deals they made. I thought of the James Garner role in the movie The Americanization of Emily. He’s a Navy “Dog Robber.” Except these “Dealers” weren’t scrounging together goodies for their Admiral but for the airmen in their internment camps all over Sweden. Sweet.
The Tattersall Restaurant was located at Grev Turegatan 12. It opened in 1898. This banquet was upstairs in a fabulous hall, same as in this picture from the Stockholm City Museum. And now I also know the exact date: 16 September 1944.
Ted Borek said that the gentleman sitting next to my Dad (#15) was the Arctic explorer, and I immediately assumed that he meant Bernt Balchen. Not so. According to Nick’s notes, he was Albin Ahrenberg, a famous Swedish aviator. In 1931, Ahrenberg became a national hero after Reuters reported that he had located a missing British explorer who had been stranded on a Greenland icecap for months. During World War II he was in charge of a Swedish military division in the Stockholm archipelago. I have no information about what his specific role at this banquet might have been. Perhaps he was the keynote speaker.
Here is a new list of the numbered guests:
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- Charles R. Huntoon, internee
- Charles W. “Smitty” Smith, Interned pilot of the Liberty Lady.
- Victor James Trost, , internee
- Thomas W. Fishburne, internee
- Wyndall La Casse, internee (“Tex” –per Ted Borek he hailed from Texas.)
- Charles E. Fankhauser, internee, Military Air Attaché Internee Section
- Guy L. Shafer, internee, Military Air Attaché’s Internee Section
- Nicholas B. Kehoe Jr., internee
- Robert M. Munson, internee
- Minister Herschel V. Johnson (identified by me from another photo I have)
- Not sure. Since he’s at the separate table with Minister Johnson I assume he is from the American Legation, or he could be a Swede.
- Arthur Conradi, Jr., Assistant Military Air Attaché. (I presume)
- William T. Carlson, Bill Carlson was with OSS Stockholm as head of X-2 (counterespionage.) His cover was as a diplomat with the American Legation. He would have been here at Herman’s invitation since they were close friends. And because Bill Carlson never missed a party.
- Albin Ahrenberg
- Herman F. Allen, internee, Military Air Attaché’s Internee Section
- Harold W. “Casey” Kasserman, Assistant Military Attaché
- Robert W. Wood (I presume) Assistant Military Attaché
- Richard Rollo, internee
- Robert L. Robb, Assistant Military Attaché
- Bernard Michael Davey, internee
- Byers (not an internee)
- Harley L. Robertson, Assistant to the Military Air Attaché.
- Patrick J. “Pat” Mahon Worked in the office of the Military Air Attaché.
- Thaddeus C. “Ted” Borek internee who worked with Herman Allen under Conradi.
- Joseph Earl Mestemaker internee
- Jerrold Morris Vivian internee
- Fred Lafayette Buckner, internee. He worked with Herman at Legation per Ted Borek
I would love to have more information and additions to my Guest List. Please comment or email me directly at pat@libertyladybook.com. If you’re on Facebook please join our group “American Internees in WWII Sweden.”
Peter Cardozo Jr
Posted at 23:39h, 14 MarchI am a retired pilot, who had the privilege and honor of flying with Charlie Smith from 1966-1973. We were both pilots for the Wayfarer Ketch Corporation, which was the private flight operation of Governor Nelson, Laurence and David Rockefeller. I was only 23 and Charlie was my parent’s age of 50. Despite our age difference, Charlie and I became fast friends. A friendship that lasted many years.
I was led to the Liberty Lady web site today, because my wife and I stopped in a small thrift shop and I found a book titled ‘Target Berlin’ by Jeffrey L. Ethell and Alfred Price. While looking through the book, I thought I might find Charlie Smith’s name. Low and behold I found his name beneath a photo of the Liberty Lady, after crash-landing on Gotland Island Sweden.
Returning home with the book, I immediately began a Google search and found your web site.
Although it’s been almost 40 years, I clearly remember my friend Charlie Smith telling me the story of his B-17 days and his crash landing on that Swedish Island on March 6, 1944. I remembering kidding Charlie, that I was two days shy of my first birthday.
I am not sure if the rest of the story is classified, or not? Therefore, I will wait to hear from you to know if it’s okay to discuss how Charlie Smith left Sweden and what he did thereafter.
Björn Ströman
Posted at 13:59h, 30 MayHi.
I saw your picture from a dinner 1944 which you have found.
On this picture we could see the Swedish aviator Albin Ahrenberg.
From 1925 to his death 1968 he was a big celebrity in Sweden. 1929 he tried to reach USA via Iceland and Greenland but did not succeed. As you wrote he was engaged by the Courthould family and the British goverment in order to find a British expedition on Greenlands polar cap. He found the expedition and became a national hero.
But he is most famous in Sweden for his yearly round trip tours during at least 20 years, were he was flying to every possible lake in Sweden close to cities and small villages were he took passengers to the air. For the most passengers it was the first time they were sitting in a flying aircraft.
Basically this was a demonstration for the Swedish population how effective and safe flying was. Albin Ahrenberg saw this as his life task to demonstrate flying for the Swedish population.
And now to the dinner. During the second world war Albin Ahrenberg was given the task by the Swedish goverment to lead and take care of all emergency landed military aircraft in Sweden. So he probably meet the interneed airmen and their embassy representatives.
As a little boy I have met Albin Ahrenberg at his 75 year birthday together with my father and mother.
Regards
Bjorn Stroman
Pat DiGeorge
Posted at 15:13h, 30 MayBjörn, thank you so much for this wonderful memory. It was only by chance that I identified Ahrenberg in the photograph. At first, I thought it could be Bernt Balchen. That is my father sitting next to him. I wish I knew what they were talking about!