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Tornado damage in Montrose in a photo taken by Doris Bailey. (Click photo to view larger)
In the summer of 1944, as the Allied armies struggled to expand their toe-hold in Normandy, and the Red Army completed the virtual destruction of German Army Group Centre during Operation Bagration, the 10th Mountain Division was moved from its beloved Camp Hale in the mountains of Colorado to Camp Swift, Texas. There were a group of officers and soldiers who had been detached from the ski troops months earlier to run a rock-climbing school at Seneca Rocks in Elkins, West Virginia. Among them was Capt. Everett Bailey. Several of the officers’ wives, including Everett’s wife Doris and their infant son, came to live with them there. They were grateful to be able to be together during a time when so many other couples were parted by the war, many of them permanently. As the 10th Mountain moved to Texas, the faculty of the climbing school were to re-join the division there.
On June 23rd, the Baileys left Elkins in Everett’s car, which they nick-named ‘the Little Gem.’ They followed some other officers from the MTG and their wives, but did not get very far. There was a storm during the evening, and as they drove through the town of Montrose, West Virginia, Doris suddenly pointed and exclaimed that she had just seen the roof of a house fall back down onto the walls of the building. Soon, there were other signs of damage; houses without roofs, roofs without houses, and whole barns swept away. A large tornado, a very rare occurrence in this area, had moved through the town less than a minute earlier. A large swath of the town was completely destroyed.
The tornado that laid waste to Montrose became known as the Shinnston Tornado, and was part of the Appalachian Tornado Outbreak of 1944. The Montrose twister had touched down that evening, increasing in intensity as it travelled until the funnel reached one mile (1.6 km) in diameter. Today it would be categorized as an F4 tornado, with wind speeds between 207 and 260 miles per hour (333-418 km/hr). The twister travelled through four towns before hitting Montrose and then wasting away on the slope of Cheat Mountain, killing 7 and hospitalizing 12 from Montrose alone. Sources vary, but total casualties from this twister were between 100-103 killed, and 381-846 injured. It is still the deadliest tornado in West Virginia’s history, and is among the deadliest in US history.
More tornado damage in Montrose in a photo taken by Doris Bailey. (Click photo to view larger)
In 1958, Kyle McCormick recounted some of the oddities discovered in the 40-mile (63 km) track of the tornado.
Bonds, checks and papers…were found some 150 to 200 miles away. The steel radio tower of the State Police was broken in twain. A barn was blown away, leaving the horse in the stall uninjured, but a two-by-four beam blew straight through a cow in the field. A pig pen disappeared leaving the pigs. Some automobiles were blown 100 feet. Streetcar tracks were twisted as though made of macaroni, and a cook stove was found three miles away from its former home. A box containing $750 in bonds and valuables was carried miles away but returned to its owner. Numbers of bodies were recovered from the West Fork River, one of them 40 miles downstream. A truck was loaded with a thousand feet of green lumber. Only five pieces of the lumber remained after the storm. The home of Paul Cox…skidded 1,000 feet then was borne through the air for 175 feet. His wife and two children died. The “believe it or not” story about the tornado is that some persons will swear that they saw straw blown through a concrete wall.
The Baileys and the other officers stopped their cars to see if they could help, and so it was that within moments of the disaster the town of Montrose had a rescue crew made up of men of the 10th Mountain Division. They spoke to a man who had been sucked out of his house through his window. When the wind dropped him, he landed on his side and broke his arm. Doris came upon a young woman in a red dress lying dead on the ground, and retrieved a purple pillow from the back seat of the Little Gem and laid it under her head. Doris and the other wives went back to Elkins while Everett and the men spent much of the night searching a creek bed for the body of an old woman who had been carried away by the raging water when the creek flooded.
The following day, the Baileys finally worked their way southward, stopping at several places to see the sights. They drove through Kentucky, and went to see the famous racehorse Man-o’-War before making their way toward Memphis, Tennessee. Along the way, Everett went into bars to have milk warmed for David’s bottle. If the patrons gave him odd looks, he cared not at all. Their journey ended in Texas, where they rented an apartment in Austin, forty miles from Camp Swift.
This blog is part of a larger body of research culminating in the publication of the book ‘Heroes in Good Company: L Company, 86th Regiment, 10th Mountain Division 1943-1945’ which is available in select bookstores and on amazon.
