1943–44
HEYDAY
T he years 1942 and 1943 had been years of preparation for the U.S. armed forces, not to mention the North Platte Canteen that served so many of them. The year 1944 would test everything they had learned, in boot camps or on their respective front lines. It had taken Pearl Harbor to bring America into the war, but President Roosevelt had resolved on a “Germany First” strategy. By the dawn of 1944, U.S. troops were struggling up the Italian peninsula against determined Nazi resistance. But Soviet armies, driven back to the gates of Moscow in Hitler’s initial 1941 invasion, had defeated the Germans at Stalingrad in early 1943 and taken the offensive for good the following summer. As troops stopping in North Platte enjoyed a brief but memorable Christmas 1943 at the Canteen, the British Isles had become one massive staging ground. With many thou- sands of American troops, planes, tanks and weapons across the Atlantic — despite Hitler’s U-boat “wolf packs” — the Western Allies were putting the finishing touches on “Operation Overlord,” their intended return to France after four years of
Nazi occupation there. The time of reckoning was almost at hand in Europe. It also was drawing nearer in the Pacific. With every vital island chain recaptured, U.S.-led soldiers, sailors, Marines and pilots gained air bases and jumping-off points for their next campaign. Isolating Japanese defenders on less vital outposts, they steadily approached Japan’s home islands from the east and south. Gen. Douglas MacArthur, or- dered by Roosevelt to quit the Philippines in 1942, had vowed: “I shall return.” This would be the year he redeemed his promise. Americans, both at home and abroad, had replaced impro- visation with systematic efficiency by 1944. Even the Canteen reflected this change. Its coast-to-coast media exposure seemed to energize its supporters, from William Jeffers on down, to complete a series of upgrades and facelifts in preparation for their most strenuous service yet. Thirty months separated D-Day, 75 years in the past as these words are written, from Pearl Harbor. On June 6, 1944, North Platte and the free world would hold its breath.
OPPOSITE: Canteen officers serving food, circa 1944. From left: Helen Christ, Mayme Wyman, Jessie Hutchens, Edna Neid and Opal Smith.
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