Pocket Guides for U.S. Soldiers Overseas in World War II

Design, Purposes, and Projections

Abstract

This article analyzes the development, objectives, and content of instruction manuals produced for American soldiers during World War II, to prepare them for interaction and coexistence with Allied military personnel and civilian populations in territories occupied by the United States. The study focuses on three American manuals: Instructions for American Servicemen in Britain (1942), Instructions for American Servicemen in France (1944), and 112 Gripes about the French (1945). The first manual, published in 1942, was intended to instruct soldiers sent to Great Britain; the second, from 1944, targeted those sent to France; and the third, published in 1945, compiled complaints made by American soldiers about the French, together with responses from the U.S. government in defense of the French population. The analysis uses a comparative history approach, which allows us to identify similarities, differences, and mutual influences between the manuals. The research reveals that these pocket guides were part of a broader strategy by the US government to promote an idealized model of the "citizen soldier". In addition, the manuals served as tools to project American political, social, and cultural power during the war and in the immediate aftermath.