IThe Story of Ferdinand
You may recall reading, having read to you, or reading to your children or grandchildren the story of Ferdinand the bull who preferred smelling lovely flowers to fighting in the bull ring, but did you know that this children’s story helped the allied forces during World War II?
Captain Chapman James Clare, district naval officer of Western Australia, proposed a coast watching program in 1919. The Australian Commonwealth Naval Board first established the Coast Watch Organization, operated through the Naval Intelligence Division, in 1922.
Right now, you’re probably thinking to yourself, “This orgainzation was created many years before the book was ever published!” You’re correct. The Story of Ferdinand was published in 1936, and it is the best known work written by American author Munro Leaf and illustrated by Robert Lawson.
Originally confined to Australia, the Coast Watch Organization expanded after the outbreak of war in 1939 to New Guinea and to the Solomon Islands. About 400 coast watchers served in total—mostly Australian military officers, New Zealand servicemen, Pacific Islanders, or escaped Allied prisoners of war. In one case, three German missionaries assisted the coast watchers after escaping Japanese captivity, even though Nazi Germany had allied itself with the Empire of Japan during the war.
Lieutenant Commander Eric Feldt, based in Townsville, Queensland, led the Australian Coast Watch Organization during much of World War II. Coast watchers became particularly important in monitoring Japanese activity in the roughly one thousand islands that make up the Solomon Islands.
Feldt code-named his organization Ferdinand, taking the name from a popular children's book about a bull, The Story of Ferdinand.
He explained this by saying:
Ferdinand ... did not fight but sat under a tree and just smelled the flowers. It was meant as a reminder to coast watchers that it was not their duty to fight and so draw attention to themselves, but to sit circumspectly and unobtrusively, gathering information. Of course, like their titular prototype, they could fight if they were stung.
In June 1942 "Ferdinand" became part of the Allied Intelligence Bureau, which came under the Allies' South West Pacific Area (command) (SWPA). However Feldt reported both to GHQ, SWPA, in Brisbane and to the United States-Australian-British Fleet Radio Unit in Melbourne (FRUMEL), which came under the Pacific Ocean Areas command.
In November, 2020 Ferdinand became a Geocache in McAllen, Texas. It’s up to you to discover this unobtrusive watcher’s hiding place. The container has a pop open lid, you should leave the container in its host, sign the log, and then carefully place the container back in its original hiding place for the next cacher’s adventure. Bring your own pen, cache too small for trackables; however, look for the special FTF note in the lid. If you're the FTF please keep the note for your enjoyment. This cache has been placed here with permission from and assistance by Juan Trujillo.
CONGRATULATIONS TaxProRGV for FTF!!!
Quickest Geocache I've seen - submitted for review 10:15a.m.; Published by Verighost 11:05a.m. and FTF claimed 11:35a.m. (Times are the time stamp on the official emails I received.
It was TaxProRGV's 1919 (the year my mother was born) find and he found the cache at 11:19 a.m. on 11/19/2020.)