News

Bottineau County residents once purchased a military bomber

By Scott Wagar

12/30/2013

Over 70 years ago in the midst of World War II, the folks of Bottineau County made a decision to purchase a distinctive item and in doing so embarked on a unique five week journey.

The item was a WWII bomber aircraft that was the idea of the U.S. government’s war savings bond program, which gave citizens of the nation the opportunity to raise enough money to purchase a plane and have the warship named most likely after their county.

Individuals in the county first heard about the idea on Dec. 30, 1942, when the Bottineau Courant published a story on the project.

“A new idea on the January bond drive is the slogan, Buy a Bomber. Bottineau County will set as its goal in bond sales between the dates of January 1 and February 6 $75,000 which will buy a pursuit ship,” the Bottineau Courant stated. “We will be given the privilege of naming this ship, and it will no doubt be named for Bottineau County. The plane cannot be named after any person. County chairman, O.S. Freeman is in charge of the drive.

“It is the first campaign of this kind in the nation, in which all counties of the state participate in a war bond campaign,” the Bottineau Courant continued to state in the article, “The objective is to send a fleet of bombers and pursuit ships to our fighting men.”

The newspaper added that the state’s goal in the project was to supply 43 ships, which included three heavy bombers, eight medium bombers and 32 pursuit ships.

Bottineau County residents made a goal of raising $150,000 to purchase a light bomber with a second goal to raise $75,000 to buy a pursuit plane, which was a fighter aircraft designed to conduct air-to-air combat against other planes.

As the nation went into 1943, Bottineau County residents were well on their way in the purchase of pursuit plane through war bonds.

Freeman stated in the Bottineau Courant that the county residents were doing  “good work in bond purchases up to now” and that he hoped to see buyers going over the $75,000 mark.

North Dakotans in WWII were well known for their war savings bond purchases. During the months of November and December of 1942 the state was ranked first in the nation in its purchases. In December alone the residents of the state raised $4,303,733 in Series E bonds, which was 215.1 percent of its quote of $2 million. In that time, Bottineau County only purchased $193,600.  
When compared to the nation as a whole, the country procured $735,777,000, or 111.7 percent of their quota of $650,000,000.

Within the county, Freeman was pushing hard in getting local folks to purchase war bonds. He went as far as sending out letters urging county’s residents to not only purchase bonds, but to go out and sell bonds to assist the county in making its quota in purchasing a pursuit plane.

The campaign Freeman conducted worked well and included a group of women from the county who went to a number of different townships and sold war bonds, which turned out to be a big success. The success of the women in the county was so huge Freeman even talked about the women’s campaigned in his letter and urge townships to send the women of their communities to sell for them.

As the drive for the “Buy a Bomber” project took place, the county met with some hardships, which threw a wedge in the venture. The weather was so harsh that winter that roads were almost impassable. To make matters worse, there were rations on tires and gasoline, making it difficult to get around the county.

However, even though the locals faced hardships, they were determined to achieve the $75,000 they needed to purchase the pursuit plane.

In one of the last weeks in purchasing war bonds for the project, the legion men of Bottineau went on a campaign that covered the entire city of Bottineau; and, with a little competition involved.

The legion men broke into two groups with one team taking the east side of Bottineau from Main Street, and the other team selling on the west side of Main Street.

“It was found that those east of Main Street were the heaviest bond buyers,” the Bottineau Courant stated. “O.B. Benson was the captain of the men working the west section, while Ben Nelson was captain of the east section workers.”  

Not only did the legion men sell bonds, but each man donated around an entire day of labor from the jobs they held to support the “Buy a Bomber” project.

As the project neared the end of the deadline, rumors passed through the county that the residents had failed to raise enough money for their primary goal of the purchase of a bomber, but the totaled raised by Bottineau’s legion had not yet been counted into the overall purchase of war bonds for the project, which gave the county’s people hope that they still could meet the $115,000 they needed to procure the light bomber.

On Feb. 24, the Bottineau Courant announced the outcome of the campaign drive. Its residents had failed to raise the $115,000 by simply $17,000.

Overall, the county’s citizens raised $133,000 with $42,993 collected in the last six days of the campaign.

Unfortunately, the winter weather had worsened at the end of the fund drive, which closed a good number of roads. The county committee for “Buy a Bomber” determined if the weather would have been better in the county they would have reached their goal and been able to purchase the light bomber for the nation.

However, the county did raise enough money to buy a pursuit plane. After a two week time period, the committee made the decision to call the plane the Bottineau County Dakota Chief.

Although the residents of Bottineau County weren’t able to acquire a bomber plane, the Dakota Chief did bring pride to the local people, knowing their aircraft would play a part in the war.