LIFE 1936-1948

When a country is “liberated” mob violence often follows as passions are unleashed. In the 21st Century we witnessed it in Iraq, and in September, 1944 we see LIFE’s pictures of violence in Rome three and one half months after its liberation by the Allies. Seven thousand people, many of them relatives of Italians jailed, tortured or killed by Fascists and their German partners, dragged an Italian collaborator out of court, beat him, threw him in the Tiber River and drowned him. Pietro Caruso, Fascist Chief of Police in Rome was sparred the mob and ordered to death by a court under the aegis of the Allied Control Commission. Caruso was tied to a chair with his back to the executioners in the classic Italian manner. His last words were “Aim well!” They did. Street fights broke out between the Italian Christian Democrats and Communists. France was experiencing similar disruptions and the Communists were the strongest political force. Many observers and experts feared in late 1944 that the victories the Allies brought to Europe might not mean a productive peace but a dark and bloody future ruled by Communists.

Buying habits of consumers were restricted by rationing in WWII. Automobiles, tires, gasoline, bicycles, oil, stoves, coffee, shoes and typewriters were among items rationed or affected by the conversion from consumer goods to war products. This was leading to a significant decease in advertising in 1942. Why would companies advertising something they couldn’t sell? The IRS stepped in and ruled that ads featuring a wartime theme or that promoted the war effort were a tax deduction for businesses. This ruling averted a crisis situation for advertising and print media like LIFE benefited greatly. As a result, advertising stopped declining and eventually increased significantly during the war. All of the above ads in LIFE were considered war-related, even the Westinghouse Laundromat, since its availability was restricted due to the war, and this met the IRS qualifications for deduction.

The Oldsmobile ad featuring “The Kruegers of Chicago” was typical of wartime advertising by a company that couldn’t make the product it was selling. It focuses on a model Home Front family headed by Mr. Krueger who just happens to drive an Oldsmobile. Here are some of  their “war work” activities: keeping in touch with neighborhood boys in the service; War Bond Drives; salvage campaigns; volunteer work on surgical dressings; home canning; carpooling; transporting war material to sub-contractors. The ad points out that all of this wouldn’t be possible without a reliable car for time saving transportation, which Mr. Krueger keeps in top shape with Oldsmobile care at his Oldsmobile dealer. While the Kruegers may have been exceptional in their contributions to the war effort, all Americans in one way or another on the Home Front experienced sacrifice and delayed gratification because of rationing. Unlike future American wars, the country was “all in” on the Home Front and in the various theaters of war. We believed we were not only preserving America but building for the day that would see a greater, happier nation filled once again with new cars and finer homes…a vital, growing America.

High school graduations in the spring of 1943 took on a serious tone although they may have looked outwardly the same as other years. In thousands of U.S. high schools, big and small, parties and picnics led up to the big day, and then the march from Aida called the graduates to order. Diplomas were issued and speeches made. But this graduation for the boys meant leaving home and surrendering whatever remained of their boyhood. They were off to war and immediately inducted into the armed services. In the case of Forest High School in Ohio, featured above, all twelve boys that graduated had orders to report within three days of graduation. Imagine the feelings this must have aroused. Boys like Robert Beltz, Donald Wright and Richard Cook would no longer be identified as Mr. Beltz’s boy, or the kid who cuts my lawn, or the boy who sweeps out the hardware store after school. Suddenly they would become submariners, navigators, tank drivers, aviators, machine gunners and a host of other titles that membership in the military bestows. They would soon be sent off to hellholes of war like France, Belgium, Okinawa, the Philippines and other Pacific islands.. And when they returned home/if they returned home, grateful Forest, Ohio citizens would shake their hands and look each of them in the eye as an adult. In three short days after graduation their identity would be forever changed. The banner above the graduates says, “When Duty Whispers Low, Thou Must, The Youth Replies, I Can.”

Readers in 1943 did not know if know if Robert, Donald and Richard would make it home safely. LIFE1936-1948, with the wonderful cooperation of the citizens of Forest, OH has verified that these three boys, as well as the nine other boys in the 1943 graduating class survived the war. We know that Richard Landon fought his way across Okinawa and the Philippines with the Army. Robert Thompson, another Army vet, survived the horrors of the Battle of the Bulge.  Ensign Wallis Turner served on an aircraft carrier. Donald Ritter was a  in the Army Airborne. So all the boys served in the Armed Forces during the war and we know that most returned to Ohio to live out their lives. They came home and continued to fulfill the vision outlined by 1943 class valedictorian Jean Thomas in her address: “we realize it is…the youth who must fight the war, win it, and play an essential part in reconstruction.” Approximately 16,000,000 served in the U.S. Armed Services in WWII. Thousands of schools and millions of families in American towns and cities patriotically sent their boys off to war, and Forest, OH serves as a microcosm of this spirit, sacrifice and courage.

The first “Arab Spring” was not in 2011 but in 1943. For three years the Allies and Germans/Italians were fighting across North Africa. Originally controlled by Vichy France, Tunisia was occupied in 1942 by the Germans. After much hard fighting, the Allies pushed the Axis forces into a pocket around Tunis. Strong and close air support by the Americans destroyed many German planes around El Aouina Airport on the outskirts of Tunis, and destroyed the Tunis waterfront. The Allies captured 266,000 Germans when they found themselves hopelessly engulfed in what was called the Tunisian pocket. LIFE reports that the Germans took a very practical approach to their predicament. “Without formalities Hitler’s troops attached white flags to their trucks and drove into the Allied lines. Others marched  into captivity, carrying their packs. Still others simply sat down and waited.” The citizens of Tunis exploded into the streets to welcome with tears, laughter and flowers the victorious Allies in this Arab spring of 1943.

It’s June, 1944 and homesick soldiers all over the world listen to the German love song Lili Marlene. If Hitler had been content to make love and not war he might have conquered the world after all, for this song melted soldiers hearts. The tune was written during WWI by a school teacher from Hamburg who had been conscripted into the Imperial German Army. In 1939 a Swedish singer, Lale Andersen, made a record of it but only sold about 700 copies. A German lieutenant working at Radio Belgrade in 1941 found a copy and played it for lack of other recordings. Its popularity grew quickly among Africa Korps and British Eighth Army troops. As Eighth Army members assumed posts in Asia and the Pacific they took the song with them. LIFE reports that the song was, “Shelved in the U.S. because a music war committee thought it would hurt soldier morale.” U.S. troops quickly adopted it in Italy and England. A cartoon by Bill Mauldin in Stars and Stripes shows two soldiers in a foxhole, one playing a harmonica, while the other comments, “The krauts ain’t following ya’ too good on Lili Marlene tonight, Joe. Think somethin’ happened to their tenor?” Even Frau Emmy Goring, wife of Nazi bigwig, sings it. We see her above belting it out at Berlin’s Kroll Opera House.

As men went off to war in WWII women took on male-dominated trades in the aircraft plants, shipyards and other factories making the tools of war. LIFE commissioned painter Edna Reindel to show on canvas these women in action. Note that the woman in each picture is identified along with a brief description of her previous occupation. Many women were truly patriotic and decided to work in the belief that the faster they made planes and guns and ships, the sooner their loved ones would hurry home. And many also came because they could suddenly make much more money. A popular song in 1942, Rosie the Riveter, became a cultural icon representing women who worked in factories during the war. The number of working American women increased from 12 million in 1940 to 20 million in 1944. The majority of these working women actually filled non-factory positions in all sectors of the economy. African American women made the greatest advance during the war years as social barriers began to break down. After the war returning veterans replaced many  women in war jobs and they assumed traditional roles of housewives and mothers. But the long range significance of the changes brought about by the war provided the foundation for the contemporary role of women in business and industry.

~John W. Poynton    @JWPoynton