America’s Army in 1939 ranked 19th in world, consisting of roughly 190,000 troops, smaller than tiny Portugal’s army. After Pearl Harbor that number exploded. From a population of 132 million in 1940, Americans quickly built a military of unprecedented scale. In the early years of the war G.I.s often trained with wooden artillery pieces, canvas-covered vehicles subbing for tanks, and with antiquated aircraft that lagged behind the modern planes then dueling it out over Europe. By 1945, however, the United States possessed the strongest and best equipped military in the world.
The G.I.s of World War II were citizen soldiers in the truest sense of the phrase. They were willing to shoulder their burden, but were also determined to resume their civilian lives as soon as the war was over. They identified with the hard luck and misery faced by Sad Sack and Willy and Joe. When not concentrating the harsh task at hand, their thoughts turned to home, impatiently waiting for the next mail call as they gazed at photos of their sweetheart or the latest pin-up girls. And wherever they went, inevitably it seemed, Kilroy got there first.
Tuskegee Airmen from the 33rd Fighter Group in Ramitelli, Italy
Courtesy of the U.S. Air Force
Medics Tending to a Wounded Soldier, France, 1944
Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration
Sergeant George Camblair on Kitchen Duty, 1942
Courtesy of the Library of Congress
Field Hospital Nurses, France, August 12, 1944
Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration
Crossing the Rhine River Under Enemy Fire, at Sankt Goar, Germany, March 1945
Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration
Sad Sack Comic Strip, 1943
Training at Camp Edwards, Massachusetts, 1942
Courtesy of the Library of Congress
Mail Call
Courtesy of the Naval History and Heritage Command
Kilroy was Here
WWII Memorial in Washington, D.C.
Actress Rita Hayworth Encouraging the Boys with Autographed Articles of Clothing
Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum
28th Infantry “Victory Parade” Down the Champs-Élysées, Paris, August 29, 1944
Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration
347th Regiment Infantrymen Eating Chow, Belgium, January 13, 1945
Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration
Sailors Celebrate the Surrender of Japan, August 14, 1945
Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration
Famous Pin-Up Girl, Starlet Betty Grable
Courtesy of 20th Century Fox
Marines on Peleliu Island, September 14, 1944
Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration