When Books Went to War Read Online Free PDF Page B

was impossible to get away. The only place an enlistee could spend his off-duty hours in an unfinished training camp was his squad tent. There was no opportunity for the men to enjoy a little distance from their military service. They found themselves surrounded by it even in their free time. It was especially difficult for those who were drafted. Former civilians did not anticipate how disoriented they would feel as they lost access to their hobbies and interests while being drilled into patterns of uniformity and sameness. It felt foreign to them to be told when to wake up, how to dress, what to eat (and when to eat it), the beat at which to march, and when to go to sleep. Privacy and individuality were the luxuries of civilians—not soldiers. It was the same in the U.S. Navy. “You learned that your days of privacy were over while you were in the navy and they would not return until you were back in civilian life again,” James J. Fahey recounted in his memoir of Navy life. “When you ate, slept, took a shower, etc., you were always part of the crowd, you were never alone.”
    Despite the limited resources available, music (primarily singing) and athletics provided some diversion. But these communal activities were among the least popular at more established camps. According to one study, when given a choice, most men preferred to spend their leisure time engaged in relatively independent activities—writing letters, reading magazines and books, watching a movie, or listening to the radio. Only 16 percent preferred to spend their off-duty hours playing sports, and 5 percent chose to spend their time singing.For the most part, men craved an escape—from the camps they trained in, the strangers they lived with, and the possibility that they might be shipped off to war.
    Army leaders knew that effective training would be impossible if morale and the quality of camp life were not improved. Comparisons between established and new training camps revealed a staggering difference in attitude and zeal for training. This disparity was attributed, at least in part, to the availability of entertainment. At Georgia’s Fort Benning, satisfaction with military life was generally high. When off duty, men had access to pool tables, cards and games, musical instruments, a library of books and magazines, and a movie theater that could seat two thousand.While the training regimen was the same, the men at Fort Benning adjusted to military life with greater ease; they could genuinely relax after each day’s training session and experience a temporary escape from their service. The War Department concluded that amusements and entertainment were crucial.
    Yet the Army was struggling to secure the most basic supplies. It could not immediately build and furnish movie theaters and sporting venues when men did not even have buildings to live in or guns to shoot. What the Army needed was some form of recreation that was small, popular, and affordable. It needed books.
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    World War II would not be the first time the Army and Navy welcomed books into their ranks. Yet no other war—before or since—has approached the rate at which books were distributed to American forces in World War II.
    The first American war where books made an appearance on the frontlines was the Civil War. Volunteer organizations collected used books, and some religious institutions even printed their own, such as
The Soldier’s Pocket-Book
, a miniature tome of psalms, hymns, and prayers that the Presbyterian Church hoped would be more satisfying than “light and sinful reading.” Although distribution was hit or miss, and the selection of titles was limited, the books that reached the battlefields were cherished. As one veteran of the Civil War, Homer Sprague, insisted over fifty years after the war had ended, “soldiers in the field hunger and thirst for reading matter.”Yet with no meaningful support from the War