Tag: WWII

Paper Drive For Victory (A Bad Time To Be A Hoarder)

1945 Monticello
1945 Monticello

Save and Sacrifice

Save ScrapA large part of the war propaganda effort, demanded sacrifice in terms of daily activities – saving left over waste fats for use in explosives, saving tin cans for metal to be recycled into military material, eating leftovers, recycling paper, growing vegetables and canning them for later home use, saving gasoline by driving cars slower and less often. The national speed limit was lowered to 35 mph! … All Americans needed to share in the burdens of shortages equally. Not to share in sacrifices for Victory was an unpatriotic act, and often was reported. (http://www.intheirwords.org)

http://www.birchcliffnews.com/
http://www.birchcliffnews.com/

Families collected scrap metal.

http://www.reminisce.com/
http://www.reminisce.com/

Even stars like Rita Hayworth lended their support!

http://www.learnnc.org/
http://www.learnnc.org/

I Kissed Seven Girls And I Liked It

Life: Our Finest Hour
Life: Our Finest Hour

Here’s some morale for the troops! LIFE asked Ginger Rogers (not shown here) to give a dream party to a GI, and the lucky recipient was the lipstick-covered Private John Farnsworth. The 22-year-old Farnsworth had served three years in the Pacific during WWII and returned home in 1944 to recover from malaria. After lunch, dancing, and games, the women sent him on his way–with a story to tell his buddies.

Women shown above include: Barbara Hale, Lynne Baggett, Gloria DeHaven, Lynn Bari, Jinx Falkenburg, Dolores Moran, and Chili Williams.

Talk about your day in the sun!

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Communicating Your Needs Effectively

LIFE Jan 3, 1944
LIFE Jan 3, 1944 – lost airmen spell out their requests with parachutes until spotted by rescue planes, who returned with rations

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Early Sobriety Tests

LIFE Jan 3, 1944
LIFE Jan 3, 1944

Betty Beach is one of the country’s thousands of women who’ve recently gone into necessary civilian service to release a man to fight. And she loves it! It has meant telescoping her life…making the most of every minute. For her beauty care, she’s sticking to DuBarry Beauty Preparations…first introduced to her in the Famous Success School Course.

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I don’t get it. She uses make-up to keep her nose “pretty” so that the pilot will find her attractive? What on earth?

Italian Campaign, 1943

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A burst from an American 155mm gun illuminates a poplar grove during a night shelling of German positions at Mignano Dec 2. Much of the fighting on the front has taken place at night. Germans say the Americans never sleep. 

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Champion Ratkiller DeGlopper

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In 1944, rats were ravaging farms, gnawing into sill beams, eating poultry and eggs and consuming livestock feed. Rats were estimated to destroy $45 worth of food a year, at a time when chicken and livestock feed were hard to come by.

Little Robert De Glopper was made of sturdier stock than children these days, and consequently made himself quite a profit at 3 cents per dead rat. Ten rats an hour would match the minimum wage of 30 cents.

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Can you imagine if today’s town clerks had to count rat tails?

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War bond prizes were given to the boy or girl who 1) killed the most rats, 2)the heaviest rats, or 3) the ones with the longest tails. Such fun before TV and video games existed! Even dogs and cats were cited for meritorious work.

We All Party In A Newly-Commissioned Submarine

Commander Carl Johnson, officer of a newly-commissioned submarine at the Navy’s New London, Connecticut submarine base, cut into a sub-shaped cake (pre-Cake Boss era) with “Good Hunting” festooned on the side.

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LIFE 1-3-44

Gals from the Connecticut College for Women were on hand to help the crew celebrate, along with plenty of lobster and pastries. After the men completed a test for active duty, they were allowed to visit Neptune and his mermaids.

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Part of the equipment at New London school included a captured Japanese periscope. Torpedoman (that sounds like a superhero) Homer Christie was more than happy to show Beverly Chambers how it operated.

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Check out these two, getting cozy astride a torpedo.

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Sub love was certainly in the air.

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Hail, Caesar

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I know, guys. I see it, too. But that’s because we’re seeing with 2016 eyes that can’t escape the homoerotic undertones. But on January 3, 1944, when it appeared in LIFE magazine, I doubt the viewers saw it that way. The U.S. was two years into WWII, and the boys fighting overseas were always on the mind of the American public.

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It’s difficult to imagine asking the public to stop buying new towels so that the boys overseas could enjoy them. Society is so self-centered now, so absorbed with our own personal liberties, that I can’t imagine the country getting on board with sacrificing soft towels for the greater good.

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This is yet another of my Life magazines that has begun to crumble like an autumn leaf into little beige bits. It won’t last long enough to pass down to posterity, but hopefully, I can scan some more images before it takes its last breath.

Not What You Think

Corbis-LIFE
Corbis-LIFE

Why is Kerbey posting nipple-less breasts? That’s not like her. No, but WWII is totally like me! Did you know that over 60 million people were killed in WWII (about 3% of the 2.3 billion 1940 world population)? And 7 million of those casualties were in factories and defense plants in the U.S. Can you imagine?

In response to the casualties, a plant in Los Angeles mounted a safety campaign to protect its many female workers. On the left, you see the goggles. On the right is the protective bra. Cumbersome much? Did they make them in many sizes? I wonder how many chest injuries actually occurred. It makes you wonder how much training unskilled workers received before getting their feet wet, so to speak.