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D Day
D Day was the code name for the date of any military operation, but with the invation of Europe, D Day became June 6, 1944, when 153,000 Allied soldiers landed in France. GIs in the landing craft (left) carry M-1 fifles, a grenade-launching bazooka and a white pack of butts with the famed slogan "Lucky Strike Green has gone to war." We called him GI Joe: GI because he was government issue--just like every gizmo from his razor to his truck--and Joe because he was everyman, an average Joe. He fought the Jerries (Germans) and Japs (Japanese) and sometimes the snafus of his own superiors--often 90-day wonders (officers commissioned with only three months' training). He and the folks stateside developed a special vocabulary to describe the extraordinary experiences of wartime. These words recall it all. |
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Sad Sack
Cartoonist George Baker immortalized the soldier, also known as a dogface or yank, bewildered by his duties. The sack was bed, and a sack artist was one who had sack time down to a science. |
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Kilroy Was Here
U.S. servicemen chalked this American graffito everywhere they went during war years, from latrine walls to pillboxes to Notre-Dame. |
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Scrap Divers
On the home front Americans like this scrap queen went from house to house collecting wastepaper for recycling and hundreds of tons of metals to be melted down for military use. |
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The Axis
Nazi Germany's Adolf Hitler and Fascist Italy's Benito Mussolini formed the Rome-Berlin Axis in 1936. In 1940 the Japanese became a third Axis power. |
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V for Victory
The hand sign made famous by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was used by the Allies to symbolize their resolve to win the war. |
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Plane Spotting
Articles and pamphlets had Americans searching the skies to identify both foreign and domestic planes like the P-38. |
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Leg Makeup
Nylon was going to make parachutes, so women used American ingenuity to create the illusion of stockings: tan makeup with an eyebrow-penciled seam line. A black market in real hosiery thrived too. |
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Victory Gardens
To make up for food shortages caused by the enormous needs of men in the service, Americans were urged to raise vegetables in their backyards. They were also encouraged to preserve the produce in jars because canned goods were rationed. |
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V-Mail
Since cargo space was at a premium, American servicemen posted abroad and their correspondents at home very often wrote letters on a special form. The letters were microfilmed and then flown overseas to be enlarged again. Because of fear that military information might fall into enemy hands, references and place names mentioned in letters from servicemen were often blotted out by U.S. censors. |
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Tokyo Rose
Los Angeles-born Iva Toguri d'Aquino, later convicted of treason, broadcast anti-American propaganda ("How will you get home...all your ships are sunk") from Japan to U.S. troops in the Pacific, who dubbed her Tokyo Rose. |
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Remember Pearl Harbor
After the Japanese bombing on December 7, 1941, this became America's battle cry, emblazoned on buttons and banners. |
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Quisling
Vidkun Abraham Quisling, a Norwegian Army officer, asked Hitler to take over Norway in 1940. Hated by his own people, Quisling was executed by firing squad, and his name came to mean a homegwown traitor. |
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B-17, B-19, B-29
The B (for bomber) 17 (model number) introduced a series of four-engine planes. The prototype B-19 (left), the biggest that had yet been built, slept six and had 11 gunner positions. The B-29, the Superfortress, dropped the first atomic bomb. |
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Mae West
British Royal Air Force aviators gave the inflatable life vest worn by fliers and sailors the actress's name because of its buxom proportions. The moniker was also applied to a two-turret tank. |
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Eisenhower Jacket
America liked Ike--and showed it by using his favorite waist-length jacket as fashion inspiration. With Europe in turmoil, American couturiers were without continental guidance for the first time. U.S. designers adapted other wartime styles as well, but the challenge was to provide attractively cut clothes despite the fabric shortages. |
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Rationing
In January 1942 food rationing was instituted in the U.S. Each man, woman and child received a book of colored stamps to be given with payment for scarce foods like meat, oils, butter, cheese and sugar. The 3.5 billion stamps (plus tokens for small change) used each month caused headaches for consumers, grocers and wholesalers. Gasoline was also rationed. |
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Ruptured Duck
The Honorable Service lapel pin of gold-plated brass was awarded to all discharged U.S. servicemen, who jokingly reclassified the American eagle. |
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WACs
The "petticoat army" began as the Women's Army Auxillary Corps in 1942; by the next year "Auxillary" was dropped. Some 150,000 WACS (in seasonal uniforms) typed, drove trucks and cooked, releasing men for more active duty. Also formed were the Navy WAVES, (Women Accepted for Voluntary Emergency Service), WAFs (Women in the Air Force) and Marine WRs (Women's Reserves). |
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K Ration
The K is for Ancel Keys, an anticholesterol crusader who developed emergency field rations like the supper meant to contain all nutritional requirements in one delicious (ugh!) package for U.S. troops. |
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Jeep
The all-terrain, general purpose vehicle--GP-- first manufactured by Bantam Car Company and later by Ford and Willys-Overland is driven here by starlet Jinx Falkenburg. Synonyms: blitz buggy, peep, puddle jumper, leaping Lena, scout car. |
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Lightproofing homes at night was part of English life during the Blitz and two years of Nazi bombings, and, once the U.S. went to war, for Americans too. |
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Bundles for Britain
This American organization sent food and clothing to British civilians in the years before the U.S. entered the war. After the war, this kind of relief became known as a CARE package (Cooperative for American Relief Everywhere). |
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Rosie the Riveter
Manpower changed sex during the war, as millions of women took over men's jobs. The 1942 song Rosie the Riveter ran: "Rosie, br-r-r [sound of machinery], the riveter / Keeps a sharp outlook for sabotage / Sitting up there on the fuselage / That little frail can do more than a male can do...." |
