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Part III: The 1940s
There is so much going on in the (half) decade before Captain America did a Flight 93 into the Arctic ice sheet that I’ve broken this post down into segments for those who only need a quick reference. Here goes nothing:
Nazi Germany
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, by William L. Shirer. Yes, it’s obvious that Shirer despised the Nazis, root and branch. Yes, there are some mistakes. Yes, a lot has come to light since this book was published in the early 1960s. It’s still an excellent, affordable, accessible one-volume history of Hitler, his friends, Nazi Germany, and the horrors the Master Race inflicted on the conquered lands, European Jewry, gypsies, gay men, and pretty much everyone who wasn’t a good little Aryan.
Shirer also wrote an excellent book about the disastrous collapse of the Third Republic early in 1940, with plenty of background information on how the French basically engaged in a circular firing squad while Hitler came to power. Hard to find but worth it.
Explaining Hitler, by Ron Rosenbaum – psychological portrait of what is quite possibly the most evil man who ever lived, and yes, I do know about Stalin, Pol Pot, Leopold II, Saddam Hussein, and Nicolae Ceacescu. None of them except Stalin are even in the same ballpark as the man who single handedly took the swastika and turned it from a worldwide good luck sign into a universal symbol of evil.
The War Itself
Miracle at Dunkirk, by Walter Lord – fine, fast read about the rescue of the British and French armies by a ragtag flotilla of Royal Navy ships, British yachtsmen, and Dover fishing smacks after the fall of France in 1940. A huge amount of war materiel had to be left, but the 340,000 men who made it to Britain were the core of the British and Free French forces who returned four years later to take back the Continent.
Crusade in Europe, by Dwight D. Eisenhower – President Eisenhower was a career soldier who had never faced combat, but he was a brilliant organizer and tactician who managed to keep Patton, Montgomery, Clark, and all the others from spinning out of control. His memoir isn’t the greatest prose I’ve ever read, but he wrote it himself, which is more than can be said for a lot of wartime memoirs.
The Second World War, by Antony Beevor – histories of WWII usually start with Hitler’s invasion of Poland, but Beevor begins earlier, with the Japanese invasion of China. Excellent and comprehensive.
Pursuit: The Chase and Sinking of the "Bismarck", by Ludovic Kennedy – terrific look at one of the greatest naval pursuits in history, as the Royal Navy tracked down and sank Nazi Germany’s finest battleship. Kennedy served on one of the ships sent to sink the Bismarck, and it shows.
The Homefront
Fashionable Food, by Sylvia Lovegren – this fun little look at 20th century food fads has two relevant chapters: the 1930s explores what average Americans did to feed themselves during the Depression, while the 1940s has good basic information on rationing (including sample menus). Of particular note: sample menus and information on what the Army served to soldiers on post (basic Midwestern farm food) and in K-rations (NOT C-rations – the name was changed to be more audible over a field radio), including information about calorie counts (3,000 per day per man, which was probably about a third of what Captain America needed to keep from falling flat on his star-spangled face) and a block of chocolate, oatmeal, and glucose intended as emergency rations (which everyone hated and Steve probably carried at all times to give him a pre-combat boost). There’s also a horrifying little civilian recipe called “Sludge, or how to keep alive” that must be read to be believed.
The Good War, by Studs Terkel – magnificent oral history of World War II by the men and women who experienced it. Of particular note are the stories of African-American and Nisei soldiers, who were treated abominably by their own side (a common smear: black soldiers had tails. No, I am not making this up, and you have no idea how much I wish I were), as well as the stories of the women and the common soldiers.
Rationing booklets and pamphlets - these are surprisingly available on Ebay and in antique/ephemera shops. Well worth reading for the tips on menus, growing a Victory Garden, canning the fruits of the Victory Garden, and so on. Even fabric was rationed, which is why wartime clothes were so tailored, and why knitting (either for home use or to send a sweater/socks to a favorite soldier) was so popular.
Pulps and comics - some writers went marching off to war or did war work (Isaac Asimov, L. Ron Hubbard), while others were too old or had medical issues (Robert Heinlein, who had been retired from the Navy due to TB, tried to months to reactivate his commission). War comics were extremely popular, with Captain America leading the pack; the title was selling millions of copies per issue within a couple of months of its first appearance. I can’t imagine MCU Steve not being both proud and somewhat horrified that instead of drawing a comic book, he is a comic book.
Movies - newsreels were full of the exploits of Our Gallant Boys Overseas, and Hollywood wasn’t far behind. War movies ranged from the brilliant (Casablanca) to the terrible (a host of B-movies about evil Japs and evil Krauts), with some genuinely good films stuck in the middle (So Proudly We Hail!, Yankee Doodle Dandy, and Stage Door Canteen are standouts). A lot of movie stars joined the service (most notably Jimmy Stewart, who flew bombing raids over Berlin in 1944), while others made propaganda films (Ronald Reagan, who was too nearsighted for combat duty). There was even the First Motion Picture Unit, a group of professional Hollywood filmmakers that made over 400 propaganda, entertainment, and training films. This is almost certainly where Steve shot his movies and PSAs, and it’s very likely that he would have at least met FMPU actors like Clark Gable, Alan Ladd, Betty White (yes, really), and DeForrest Kelley (yes, really).
Music - if there was one song that every single soldier knew by heart, regardless of which side he was on, it was the lovely, haunting “Lili Marlene.” Other Allied favorites included “The White Cliffs of Dover,” anything by the Andrews Sisters, anything by Major Glenn Miller (who was credited as the greatest morale booster in the European Theater before his disappearance in December 1944), and the aching, melancholy ballad “I’ll Be Home for Christmas.”
The Army
”Why We Fight” - this series of propaganda films by Frank Capra was shown to every single recruit during Basic, so yes, Steve would have seen it regardless of how much they shortened his training. It’s a brilliant explanation/apologia for America going to war, particularly in its use of Leni Rienfenstal’s footage from Triumph of the Will to show just how very, very bad the Nazi regime was. Available on Youtube.
http://www.history.army.mil/index.html - this is the official Army military history website. Book lists, web sites, unit lineage and honors, campaign brochures...anyone who is serious about writing “Captain America goes to war” must bookmark this. Must.
Swear Like A Trooper, by William L. Priest. Useful little compendium of military terminology past and present, especially for anyone who wants to use actual period terminology and slang instead of modern military jargon (which happens way too often and is really, really annoying).
Stars and Stripes - the Arm’s own newspaper is editorially independent, which is why it was able to get away with Bill Mauldin’s cartoons, many of which directly criticized the brass. Mauldin, an infantryman himself, went on to a distinguished career as an editorial cartoonist, but they were always looking for copy...so if you want to have Steve sending in the occasional cartoon or drawing under a pseudonym (or as Captain Rogers, or even Captain America), go for it.
War correspondents - some of the best journalists in America served as war correspondents, including John Hersey and the legendary Ernie Pyle. Pyle was universally loved for his superb writing and sympathy for the troops, and his death on Ie Shima in April 18 1945 was mourned by soldier and civilian alike.
Joe Kennedy - President Kennedy’s older brother Joe was a bomber pilot stationed in England in 1943 and 1944. He had flown nearly two dozen missions and was eligible to go home when he volunteered to fly a bomb-laden Flying Fortress as part of Operation Aphrodite and blew up along with the plane. There have been rumors for decades that he did so at least in part because he was jealous of his brother Jack’s heroics in the South Pacific, but at this point there’s no way to know.
Cigarettes - K-rations contained food, chewing gum, toilet paper, and four cigarettes apiece. An entire generation of young men got hooked on cancer sticks thanks to Uncle Sam. Make of this what you will.
The Pacific Theater - a big reason why American went crazy after V-J Day was because it meant that the troops who’d just liberated Europe wouldn’t have to redeploy against the Japanese home islands. The A-bomb was a big, big secret (although Howard Stark just might have let something slip after a trip stateside to work with Oppenheimer in New Mexico), and the boys in olive-drab were dreading having to attack Japan.
There’s plenty more, but this should be enough for most needs. Have fun!
There is so much going on in the (half) decade before Captain America did a Flight 93 into the Arctic ice sheet that I’ve broken this post down into segments for those who only need a quick reference. Here goes nothing:
Nazi Germany
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, by William L. Shirer. Yes, it’s obvious that Shirer despised the Nazis, root and branch. Yes, there are some mistakes. Yes, a lot has come to light since this book was published in the early 1960s. It’s still an excellent, affordable, accessible one-volume history of Hitler, his friends, Nazi Germany, and the horrors the Master Race inflicted on the conquered lands, European Jewry, gypsies, gay men, and pretty much everyone who wasn’t a good little Aryan.
Shirer also wrote an excellent book about the disastrous collapse of the Third Republic early in 1940, with plenty of background information on how the French basically engaged in a circular firing squad while Hitler came to power. Hard to find but worth it.
Explaining Hitler, by Ron Rosenbaum – psychological portrait of what is quite possibly the most evil man who ever lived, and yes, I do know about Stalin, Pol Pot, Leopold II, Saddam Hussein, and Nicolae Ceacescu. None of them except Stalin are even in the same ballpark as the man who single handedly took the swastika and turned it from a worldwide good luck sign into a universal symbol of evil.
The War Itself
Miracle at Dunkirk, by Walter Lord – fine, fast read about the rescue of the British and French armies by a ragtag flotilla of Royal Navy ships, British yachtsmen, and Dover fishing smacks after the fall of France in 1940. A huge amount of war materiel had to be left, but the 340,000 men who made it to Britain were the core of the British and Free French forces who returned four years later to take back the Continent.
Crusade in Europe, by Dwight D. Eisenhower – President Eisenhower was a career soldier who had never faced combat, but he was a brilliant organizer and tactician who managed to keep Patton, Montgomery, Clark, and all the others from spinning out of control. His memoir isn’t the greatest prose I’ve ever read, but he wrote it himself, which is more than can be said for a lot of wartime memoirs.
The Second World War, by Antony Beevor – histories of WWII usually start with Hitler’s invasion of Poland, but Beevor begins earlier, with the Japanese invasion of China. Excellent and comprehensive.
Pursuit: The Chase and Sinking of the "Bismarck", by Ludovic Kennedy – terrific look at one of the greatest naval pursuits in history, as the Royal Navy tracked down and sank Nazi Germany’s finest battleship. Kennedy served on one of the ships sent to sink the Bismarck, and it shows.
The Homefront
Fashionable Food, by Sylvia Lovegren – this fun little look at 20th century food fads has two relevant chapters: the 1930s explores what average Americans did to feed themselves during the Depression, while the 1940s has good basic information on rationing (including sample menus). Of particular note: sample menus and information on what the Army served to soldiers on post (basic Midwestern farm food) and in K-rations (NOT C-rations – the name was changed to be more audible over a field radio), including information about calorie counts (3,000 per day per man, which was probably about a third of what Captain America needed to keep from falling flat on his star-spangled face) and a block of chocolate, oatmeal, and glucose intended as emergency rations (which everyone hated and Steve probably carried at all times to give him a pre-combat boost). There’s also a horrifying little civilian recipe called “Sludge, or how to keep alive” that must be read to be believed.
The Good War, by Studs Terkel – magnificent oral history of World War II by the men and women who experienced it. Of particular note are the stories of African-American and Nisei soldiers, who were treated abominably by their own side (a common smear: black soldiers had tails. No, I am not making this up, and you have no idea how much I wish I were), as well as the stories of the women and the common soldiers.
Rationing booklets and pamphlets - these are surprisingly available on Ebay and in antique/ephemera shops. Well worth reading for the tips on menus, growing a Victory Garden, canning the fruits of the Victory Garden, and so on. Even fabric was rationed, which is why wartime clothes were so tailored, and why knitting (either for home use or to send a sweater/socks to a favorite soldier) was so popular.
Pulps and comics - some writers went marching off to war or did war work (Isaac Asimov, L. Ron Hubbard), while others were too old or had medical issues (Robert Heinlein, who had been retired from the Navy due to TB, tried to months to reactivate his commission). War comics were extremely popular, with Captain America leading the pack; the title was selling millions of copies per issue within a couple of months of its first appearance. I can’t imagine MCU Steve not being both proud and somewhat horrified that instead of drawing a comic book, he is a comic book.
Movies - newsreels were full of the exploits of Our Gallant Boys Overseas, and Hollywood wasn’t far behind. War movies ranged from the brilliant (Casablanca) to the terrible (a host of B-movies about evil Japs and evil Krauts), with some genuinely good films stuck in the middle (So Proudly We Hail!, Yankee Doodle Dandy, and Stage Door Canteen are standouts). A lot of movie stars joined the service (most notably Jimmy Stewart, who flew bombing raids over Berlin in 1944), while others made propaganda films (Ronald Reagan, who was too nearsighted for combat duty). There was even the First Motion Picture Unit, a group of professional Hollywood filmmakers that made over 400 propaganda, entertainment, and training films. This is almost certainly where Steve shot his movies and PSAs, and it’s very likely that he would have at least met FMPU actors like Clark Gable, Alan Ladd, Betty White (yes, really), and DeForrest Kelley (yes, really).
Music - if there was one song that every single soldier knew by heart, regardless of which side he was on, it was the lovely, haunting “Lili Marlene.” Other Allied favorites included “The White Cliffs of Dover,” anything by the Andrews Sisters, anything by Major Glenn Miller (who was credited as the greatest morale booster in the European Theater before his disappearance in December 1944), and the aching, melancholy ballad “I’ll Be Home for Christmas.”
The Army
”Why We Fight” - this series of propaganda films by Frank Capra was shown to every single recruit during Basic, so yes, Steve would have seen it regardless of how much they shortened his training. It’s a brilliant explanation/apologia for America going to war, particularly in its use of Leni Rienfenstal’s footage from Triumph of the Will to show just how very, very bad the Nazi regime was. Available on Youtube.
http://www.history.army.mil/index.html - this is the official Army military history website. Book lists, web sites, unit lineage and honors, campaign brochures...anyone who is serious about writing “Captain America goes to war” must bookmark this. Must.
Swear Like A Trooper, by William L. Priest. Useful little compendium of military terminology past and present, especially for anyone who wants to use actual period terminology and slang instead of modern military jargon (which happens way too often and is really, really annoying).
Stars and Stripes - the Arm’s own newspaper is editorially independent, which is why it was able to get away with Bill Mauldin’s cartoons, many of which directly criticized the brass. Mauldin, an infantryman himself, went on to a distinguished career as an editorial cartoonist, but they were always looking for copy...so if you want to have Steve sending in the occasional cartoon or drawing under a pseudonym (or as Captain Rogers, or even Captain America), go for it.
War correspondents - some of the best journalists in America served as war correspondents, including John Hersey and the legendary Ernie Pyle. Pyle was universally loved for his superb writing and sympathy for the troops, and his death on Ie Shima in April 18 1945 was mourned by soldier and civilian alike.
Joe Kennedy - President Kennedy’s older brother Joe was a bomber pilot stationed in England in 1943 and 1944. He had flown nearly two dozen missions and was eligible to go home when he volunteered to fly a bomb-laden Flying Fortress as part of Operation Aphrodite and blew up along with the plane. There have been rumors for decades that he did so at least in part because he was jealous of his brother Jack’s heroics in the South Pacific, but at this point there’s no way to know.
Cigarettes - K-rations contained food, chewing gum, toilet paper, and four cigarettes apiece. An entire generation of young men got hooked on cancer sticks thanks to Uncle Sam. Make of this what you will.
The Pacific Theater - a big reason why American went crazy after V-J Day was because it meant that the troops who’d just liberated Europe wouldn’t have to redeploy against the Japanese home islands. The A-bomb was a big, big secret (although Howard Stark just might have let something slip after a trip stateside to work with Oppenheimer in New Mexico), and the boys in olive-drab were dreading having to attack Japan.
There’s plenty more, but this should be enough for most needs. Have fun!
