British attitudes towards the US in WWII

We fought alongside the Yanks near Vire. We got on very well. But there is one Yank that gets my pet hate, and that was Patton. A big mouthed blustering fellow.

He was more concerned with capturing huge areas of France, where there were no enemy, It just satisfied his massive EGO.

When requested to join the Falaise battle to close the bag.. He w2as reported to have refused, and went off on his own. He was very good at threatening wounded men on hospital if I recall? And at waving his pearl handled revolvers.....

Otherwise... the Yanks? Great lads

 

Ivory, Brian, ivory! "Only a New Orleans pimp would carry a pearl-handled gun."

on Patton's guns

 

Great Big Grin... It was always described in the media as a Pearl handled revolver..I always thought that it was mother of pearl handles.!

 

Ivory, Brian, ivory! "Only a New Orleans pimp would carry a pearl-handled gun."

on Patton's guns

And after this quote was first published, the pimps in New Orleans all bought themselves pearl-handled revolvers.

 

Dear Edna, thanks for your last post. Is it possible to give some colour to your statements by discussing some examples? I'd love to know what were in the parcels you received, and your point about the Americans being predominantly European and recent migrants is important - I wonder how many of these European migrants were sending the parcels? Thanks, Matt

Matt - During the 1930s we were made aware by newsreels that people from all European countries were migrating to America, and we knew from our own contacts that many Irish and Scots were off to make a new life, we were not aware of any others.

The parcels were extremely welcome, mostly canned meats, canned fruit, sweets (?candies), magazines - and my first ever pair of nylons! They were cobweb fine and I didn't dare wear them, they were kept to impress the neighbours! For some reason, no-one else locally received a parcel.

Some parcels had names and addresses, mine was from a Mrs. Tabor, a divorced woman who was private nurse to a banker's wife who actually provided the finance- perhaps she didn't want her husband to know?

We corresponded for some years, I met her daughter who came to Europe to 'do the tour', her father (divorced from her mother, worked in a travel agency) and arranged hertrip; I lost contact when Mrs. Tabor died.

Hope this adds some colour.

Edna

 

When my father was a POW my mother kept a diary. In it she notes

"Monday January 1st 1945
A letter from you dated October 15th & a parcel from America containing sleeping suits, bath satchets & soap."


"Saturday March 17th 1945
Did not go out. Received parcel from Effie. Rompers, building blocks, H/chiefs etc."



The parcels were from relatives of my father who had emigrated in the '20's.

 

I remember talking to my Nan about Americans in the war. She said her friend who she worked with use to go out with an US soldier and would get US cigarettes. My Nan said they were horrible and none of the other girls in the factory would smoked them. Interesting enough she did tell my that there was a Pub In i think Mill Hill that had band Canadians after one had got glassed in the face.

 

General Eisenhower gave a lot of consideration to the relationship between American personnel and the British people. He writes in ‘Crusade in Europe’ that he and his staff were well aware of the strain a ‘friendly invasion’ (his words) of 2,000,000 Americans would place on the people of Britain who had already endured the hardships and deprivations of war for two years. Food, power, fuel and housing resources were already under great pressure and the addition of all those men would make living conditions even more difficult and could lead to problems among the Allies

Here is what he wrote on page 57:

“Except during World War I, the United States public had habitually looked upon Europe’s quarrels as belonging to Europe alone. For this reason, every American soldier coming to Britain was almost certain to consider himself a privileged crusader, sent there to help Britain out of a hole. He would expect to be treated as such. On the other hand, the British public looked upon itself as one of the saviors of democracy, particularly because, for an entire year, it had stood alone as the unbreakable opponent of Nazism and the European Axis. Failure to understand this attitude would of course have unfortunate results.”

He then writes about Mr. Brendan Bracken, head of the Ministry of Information and how they developed numerous programs to inform the British people of what to expect when the Americans arrived. He said Bracken was a controversial figure in Britain but did not elaborate. He also said he was always helpful and energetic.

He wrote this on page 58:

"Whenever possible, newly arrived American personnel were taken on a short tour through Britain’s bombed areas. The American Red Cross and several relief and welfare organizations of Great Britain helped institute a system of home entertainment of American GIs by British families. I have never yet met an American soldier, who, after spending a weekend with a British family did not feel that America had a staunch and sturdy ally. We found however that a British family, inspired by a determination to show real hospitality, was likely to spend an entire week’s rations to entertain an American over Sunday. At once we encouraged visiting soldiers to carry rations with them on home visits, while a publicity campaign explained the matter to the British hosts so as to save their pride and preclude embarrassment. In every direction where we expected trouble we instituted preventive measures-generally with success. The keynote of the campaign was the avoidance of mawkish sentimentality and the basing of all of our programs on facts-with emphasis on opportunity of personal discovery of facts. Everyone who occupied a responsible position in Britain during this time will always have a feeling of gratitude and admiration for the almost universal spirit co-operation, tolerance and friendship displayed by both sides.”


Dave

 

One of the most successful UK-USA collaborations was between codebreakers on either of the Atlantic. Those damned septics were deeply suspicious that the brits were not giving them all the information needed at first. however they eventually hit if off ( the BRUSA agreement may help).
Here is what Albert Small, US Signal Corps cryptanalyst commented:

"Daily solutions of Fish messages at G. C. & C. S. reflect a
background of British mathematical genius, superb engineering ability, and solid common sense."

A large number of US staff came to work at Bletchley and they were very successful collaborations.

This is a bit higher than 'street level' but may be of interest.

 

Great post Dave55

 

I can only pass on my late Father's thoughts on the "Yanks" during ww2. On the battle field there was a affinity with the average "GI Joe", as they were in the same hell. My Father always said that the American officers did not seem to have the same regard for the men under them that British officers had, it appeared that life was cheap. He was not always impressed with American operations in the field of battle. British units always moved in extended line, where as he said that the yanks tended to move out like a gaggle of Geese, all grouped together, one burst of machine gun fire and more dead and wounded. There was of course envy too, finding a large wooden crate full of coffee in the front line on the Island in Holland. I think it was more a case of not being able to keep it when the Germans flooded them off the Island.
Some Americans being, shall we say "Loud" and getting them all tarred with same brush did not help. On their return to England and the prelude to D-Day, they met their first yanks in Hertford. The Jocks had just sewn their Africa Star on their tunics, Italy Star had not been issued to them yet, and met some yanks in one of the local pubs, covered in medal ribbons, which led to this;http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/veteran-accounts/17033-how-start-fight.html

 

My grandma gave one American serviceman breakfast once (may be more) - can't think why now and can't ask her now. BUT I do remember that she was aghast when one (or more) of them didn't finish the only egg she had and scraped the white into the bin.

But then she always used to wash out the old plastic bin liners - waste not want not. The great depression was always around the corner for her!

 

The US Army General Staff College has a number of interesting articles from the era, including a British-English/American-English dictionary.

Have a search through
http://cdm16040.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/

 

Hi Ron. Your story brought back some memories for me as well. I also had a lift from a US truck on way back to camp. However the back of the truck was filled with Black
G I's. I started up a conversation but no one would talk to me so we just sat and stared at each other until I was dropped off at my unit. I thanked the driver who also did not say a word to me. I thought what an unfriendly bunch. Naturally I did not know or realise at the time that this was because of segregation.
Concerning our attitudes toward the Yanks I think it varied , we were always envious of them regarding the way they were cared for in relation to the Sqaddie in the British Army, and were very pleased to be able to augment our rations when the Div was transfered to the 5th US Army because we able to scrounge lots of "Goodies" from them
As fighting men when it came to the crunch I don't think you could fault the indvidual man who put up with everything that we had to during the first battle of Cassino
We were not so enamoured with some of their officers who to us appeared to be too easy going, but that was the differnece betweet our two armies. I know we did not like General Mark Clark especially after he banned the entry of BRitish Tropps into Rome so he could claim the glory for himself.
Re the Instruction booklet for American Servicemenb strangely enough I have a copy of itsitting my desk now, it make for some very interesting reading, especialy the chapter headings "No time to fight old wars" "Don't be a show off" "British reserved but not unfriendly" I Hope you and other found this interesting reading.